Gamestop and why they might win

flogen

Ì must say that in the 3 months (or so) that gamestop have been in control of Gamesworld, they have turned the place around. New stores have sprung up (including the Henry St branch, which should have happened a long time ago if they [gamesworld] wanted to be taken seriously), prices have fallen (somewhat, anyway), and publicity has gone through the roof, but can they take on and out-do the well established might of Game? i think the can do it easily.

Why? well lets look a the facts. Game is UK owned, and UK run. There are no Irish offices. Gamestop is US owned, but it seems to me to be running its Irish operations FROM IRELAND. I assume they use the old gamesworld offices. already they have set up Irish based incentives (such as taking on the eircom bb and xbox deal). Game never do this. all of their deals are England based, and are only rolled out here if they dont need to alter it (Im even surprised GAME are trading in Euro).
within only weeks of becoming Gamestop, the prices have dropped, even if it is only by 3 or 4 euro. Their pre-owned section has improved alot as has their DVD sections. Also their bundles seem very strong (although i always felt gamesworld had better bundles anyway). Im not sure how the trade in prices are, perhaps someone could help here. i know Game were never great, and they seemed to get worse just before i left (in order to drop their sale prices).

I have heard a rumour that Game are willing to sell up to gamestop in Ireland but only under the agreement that gamestop stay away from the UK. I find this hard to believe, as i dont see game just giving up on the profit they make here, and given that gamestop are supposed to have bought into Ireland to get a foot into Europe, i cant see them agreeing to steer clear of probably the best part of the european market.

Flogen

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

Creature

If Game do bow out and sell out to Gamestop in Ireland then they wont have much competition left other than Smyths. I'd hardly call HMV and Virgin competition for a chain like Gamestop. In the unlikely event this does happen Gamestop will probably jack up prices as soon as any major competition has been quashed. I sincerely hope Game dont bow out of the Irish market. If anything we need more Games and Gamestops.




Smiaras you're just bitter because you might lose your job :P

flogen

totally true, only strong competition can lower prices. Smiaris, yes it is true that it will only be afew euro, and that we shouldnt expect much, but its something.

and hmv, smyths etc are not competition, shops such as hmv only sell games on the side of music and video, their prices are generally terrible (hmv, anyway).

and as far as i know Game have strong competition in the uk as it is, even if the rumoured deal was made theyd still be under alot of pressure in the UK from other companies. Ive heard of one that opens up next to game stores and charges around £5 less for everything, and they are currently destroying the game branches.

Flogen

seanos

Game will have to cop onto the fact, and go back to how they [+EB] used to be ... they used to be pretty decent stores, with lowish prices, has risen since EB renamed to Game also however.

Gamestop's advantage is that it's appearing in more places [Carlow for instance - no other "game shops" - not counting Compustore + local rip-off merchant's as "game shops"]

Gummy Panda

The trade-in rates in gamestop are turning out to be alot better then GAME. I brought back MotoGP2 to trade-in to GAME and they offered me a tenner. I went to Gamestop and they offered me 23 euro.

Now i understand that it depends on how many copies they have in stock but that GAME store had no MotoGp2 pre-owned in stock and only one or two cases new @ 60.

Plus i have noticed that game uses the same trade-in rate for britain here without the conversion. I know english lads who brought back KOTOR (after completing it) and got £20 while over here we're offered €20.

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

Gummy Panda

Originally posted by smiaras
Ha they offered you 23 and it sells new for 30? Who cares about the high st shops except for trade ins cause games are cheaper online most of the time. Whats funnier is with everyone complaining about the price of games these days, I looked through my old n64 collection and found wm2000 for 64.99 pounds(!!!) from HMV.

MotoGP2 is still €60 new. its €65 in HMV. Don't know where you're getting 30 from unless you are quoting an english site.

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

BlitzKrieg

Originally posted by flogen
and as far as i know Game have strong competition in the uk as it is, even if the rumoured deal was made theyd still be under alot of pressure in the UK from other companies. Ive heard of one that opens up next to game stores and charges around £5 less for everything, and they are currently destroying the game branches.

Flogen

Totally true I'm studying in cambridge and theres a brand called Gamestation which opens beside game at 2 different places around Game and it sells much cheaper then game and offers much better for 2nd hand games.


speaking of games stores brand ones are not always the best, i've found a game store here which does massive amounts of retro (from nes to Saturn to dreamcast) and tons of import (US and Jap) and the prices are determined by availability For example i got H+D2 for 28 sterling while in game it was £35 sterling. Its trade in is pretty poor (£6 off new games is average unless game is rare) and its great lookin at some oldie goldies such as gauridian heroes (uber rare!!) which was being sold for 60 sterling expensive but this game is hard to find they had panzer dragoon saga at one point which is like one of the rarest games availible on any format. Sadly it was promptly sold for near 100 sterling (no not to me which is a shame).



I've never liked game i dont know why but i never get good deals in there and those who work there (no offence smiaras) were generally talking out of their arses when it came to games. I use to go to EB but i just got told they were both owned by the same company?>???

Gonzo

yea things now aint nearly as bad as they were, i remember when the n64 came out shelling out £70 for Turok:) I also remember the awfull 3DO console selling for £400 without any games! As far as GAME are concerned their prices recently seem to be lower than the crazy prices they were charging about 6 months ago. I cant see them selling out of Ireland, their stores do very well here. Ive never heard of Gamestop so cant comment on them.

po0k

www.play.com

Gummy Panda

Originally posted by smiaras
Thought that was moto gp3, my bad. Still didn't think 2 was that expensive seeing as MGP3 is out.

Oops, sorry i forget to mention this is the xbox version by THQ not Namco like ps2 version. So its the latest version and correct price. Sorry about that.

Syxpak,

play.com are great but sometimes they don't update their prices to match price changes else where. It took them ages to lower their metroid prime prices to the budget range price.

They're still great and i'd recommend cdwow.ie aswell. Roughly the same price as game for new releases plus they update their prices and i was able to get the aussie PAL version of animal crossing of them with a memory card for only €52.

I love animal crossing, me!!!:)

Squall

The only problem i have with Gamestop is their sever lack of PC titles (In cork anyway). Its mostly console stuff so im usually forced to shop elsewhere

Stephen

All of their stores that I have been in seem to be mostly PS2-oriented with a small amount of PC/Gamecube/GBA titles and a slightly larger range of XBox titles.

The Carlow store had practically no PC games that weren't part of the "Xplosiv" or EA ranges.

Gummy Panda

In the one on Henry st, all the new release titles for the xbox and gamecube are down stairs and the rest of the cube catalogue is up stairs.

monument

Originally posted by clownboy
play.com are great but sometimes they don't update their prices to match price changes else where. It took them ages to lower their metroid prime prices to the budget range price.

Woo Who!

So what? If you compare any of the Irish shops to Play.com, in general they turn out to be jokes.

I had a look at Game, Gamestop, Smiths, and HMV on Wednesday, in general I think Smiths just about had the cheapest prices, and Gamesworld/Gamestop are far too interested in DVDs for what is called a games specialist shop.

Next time I’m in Dublin and Galway, I might go to the bother and time of doing a proper price check in all of the main games stockiest, and then also compare them to the online retailers.

Gummy Panda

The point of my post was not to show loyality to just play.com. High street stores have there advantages too and sometimes have better promotions then play.com.

Plus it would be hard for any high street store to compete with an online one for prices. High street stores would most likely have a higher uptake then an online store with a warehouse.

monument

Originally posted by clownboy
The point of my post was not to show loyality to just play.com. High street stores have there advantages too and sometimes have better promotions then play.com.

I’m not loyal to any retailer. In overall general games shopping high street stores have few advantages.

The few advantages would include second hand games, hardware bundles, and the odd good game which isn’t selling cut in price.

Originally posted by clownboy
Plus it would be hard for any high street store to compete with an online one for prices. High street stores would most likely have a higher uptake then an online store with a warehouse.

Boo who! The poor high street stores with higher profits.

segadreamcast

"and sometimes have better promotions then play.com."

Indeed, in terms of consoles. I'm about to buy an xbox for my brothers for christmas - GameStop has, and by a decent margin it seems, the best choice of bundles available.

Play.com meanwhile have one bundle - which clearly hasn't been updated in a while...

Xbox+Halo+MGS2...169.99 sterling. Mmmm hmmmmmm...