GAME in deep **** over taking over every major game chain in the uk

[Danny]

Merger with Gamestation faces further scrutiny Back in May this year European software retailer GAME announced that it was acquiring its nearest High Street competitor Gamestation for GBP 74 million (EUR 108m). Shortly afterwards the UK's Office of Fair Trading announced that it was investigating the deal to ensure there was no negative impact on the consumer from any loss of competition in the sector. At the time GAME commented that "As expected we have notified the acquisition of Gamestation to the OFT for normal regulatory review. This review will take about two months and we will be co-operating fully with the OFT process." However, the OFT today announced its decision to refer the acquisition to the Competitions Commission. John Fingleton, OFT chief executive, said of the referral, "This merger involves the loss of competition between two parties who, in some segments at least, appear to be each other's closest competitors and in circumstances where we can not confidently rely on new companies entering the market to resolve any issues quickly." "Without better evidence that competition from other suppliers will be sufficient to prevent the merged firm from raising prices or cutting back services in a way that would harm consumers - in a market where retail sales amount to around GBP 1.5 billion - we must refer to the CC for fuller inquiry." The results of the CC's investigation are expected by January 23, 2008. There used to be tons, game, gamestation, gamejam, electronics boutique, and loads more and over the last ten years game has bought out, adn in my area at least, closed down every competitor just so they can do there overpriced ****ty buisness that resells games even if they know it doesnt work. I bought 3 copys of code veronica from game, and kept getting my money back as it didnt work, then drew a black circle on the cover in the corner with a fine line pen and got my money back, i go in the next week adn in games preowned scetion what do we have?, a copy of code veronica with a small circle on the cover even though it didnt work. and this happens all the time. In Gamestation you get a bigass store with real cheap games of every format ever, the store music system plays songs youll hear on guitar hero adn the clerks are long haired dudes who will close the store on sundays to hold gameing tournaments, not anymore since game bought em though. The you got GAME, a stoere full of spotty work experience drones who sell overpriced games, only for the latest formats and will gladly put faulty returns back on the shelf adn there preffered music in my local one is the song "dry your eye mate" on a loop () GAME sucks balls compared to gamestation and there is officially no competition for them now as theyve bought it adn all the gamestations in the same areas as a GAME a coming under closure.

[Tricky]

The same applies to microsoft,i think there should be measures put in place to curb their domination of the entire computer software & games industry.Not to ruin the company of course as they do make some pretty good stuff,but just to give the little guys a chance at developing themselves without being absorbed into the microsoft monster in that "moneys no object" way that they seem to operate under. Game is a decent store,i always have a gander in my local one when im in town,but you cant get hold of many older games that you might want to play in there (mainly PC) because most of the stuff they sell in there is whatevers in the games charts or came out within the last few months,which is a pain in the arse if either your rig wont run the brand spanking new games or if you put off buying a game for a while cos you were skint & they'd taken it off the shelves before you got chance to buy it!there is always amazon though....

[Danny]

*sits looking darkly at thes creen thinking of the 50 quid/100 bucks he needs to fix his 360*

[CornishCorpse]

Gah..Another good man down..To the Wii! Come on, its cheap its easy and its fun and a brand new game is 30! Luckily down here although we have alot of corporations we still have a random electronic store which is full of long haired gamers who have their little tournaments. Games are cheap as hell and the whole place saves me alot of money. When I finally decided to buy a wii because my 360 fizzled itself out I went to game to find the average console with wii mote,nuchuck,wii sports AND Pirates of the Carribean or another crap platform game for only 225! I wandered over to the small electronics store and bought a preowned wii ( mint condition ) with the wii mote,nunchuck and wii sports with a copy of Mortal Kombat Armageddon for 190. To think I could have ended up playing as jack sparrow, screw that. Sektor all the way!

[Danny]

the only thing keeping me a 360 player right now is the games, the console aint reliable in the least. in fact i reckon rather than repair it, theyll take mine adn send me a new one, which in there eyes would solve it but in mine a gift form my mom would just be nicked.

[CornishCorpse]

Fair play. The 360 games are far superior and thats why Im going to send my 360 off to get repaired so I can tear it up on crackdown and be hunted by a bezeker on GOW but a wii is cheap and besides everyone wants one so you could sell it off easy enough. Ive had a few people ask to buy mine off me already. Unlike the 360 where you need to be a more serious ish gamer to buy the console with the wii the kids can play it, mates play it, adults can play it, you can battle at it alone. DBZ Budokai 2 has me hooked currently...Plus the whole find out the weather and world news and so on without any worries is nice. Hope youre 360 heals up soon, dude.

[Cody]

anyone remember electronics boutique?

[Danny]

The last one in my area metomorphosised into a GAME over night some time in the late 90's.

[Craig]

anyone remember electronics boutique? Yep, I can't remember whether it was changed it to a GAME store for a while or whether it just closed down but now it's a phone shop. There was also this really awesome shop with shelves stacked with vintage games, it's a Toni & Guy now... But yes, I really liked Gamestation, had a great atmosphere and prices. But now with only GAME locally there is nowhere else to shop for games at really... With Gamestation you could tell the guys running the store had a passion for games. The only thing I liked about the staff at GAME is that there was this one guy who worked there who was MASSIVE, like 7ft maybe? I dunno.

[_liam_]

anyone remember electronics boutique? yeah mate, i had a loyalty card and everything, i miss getting the catalogue through the door. i refuse outright to shop in GAME, i stick to smaller independant games exchanges, i find the standard is usually higher.

[Danny]

i hear that, gamestation even polishes game disks for you if you bring em in and does it for free instead of 20p each if your buying something, plus ive never heard sing by travis played in any other game store but GAME and thats purgatory in musical form so th warnings signs to stay away are there man.