GAME's administration: A gamer's view

I'd be lying if I said I was an expert in economics, but there are one or two things about the coverage of GAME's potential collapse which I - as a gamer and consumer - find it hard to accept. There's lots of talk about credit terms and competition with supermarkets - which is the downfall of so many high street retailers - but for me this doesn't cover GAME's failings.

Years ago there were two specialist high street retail chains: GAME and Electronics Boutique (since I'm digging out brain cells that have been dormant for a while, I think EB was Futurezone before that - that's going back a bit). GAME successfully bought out all of EB's stores, but never consolidated them, resulting in the current situation in which most major retail-oriented city centres have two branches of GAME. This must have meant a lot of staff and property overhead for little extra profit. Buying games isn't like wanting an overpriced coffee, you don't need to just turn your head and see a branch.

Some time later, a new chain emerged which specialised in the then-fledgling trade-in market, Gamestation. GAME decided to buy out the competition again, acquiring all of Gamestation's branches, many of which were - again - in cities which already had two branches of GAME. Additionally, by this time GAME had also adopted a major pre-owned strategy of their own and for most gamers, to be honest, GAME and Gamestation had become interchangeable.

It never made sense to me why GAME continued to maintain so much duplication on the high street. In many cities they effectively had three stores, often within a couple of streets of each other. I always though it was the perfect opportunity to compare which branch enjoyed the most footfall and conversion and to close the lesser locations.

The talk of supermarket's undercutting GAME is also confusing. As a gamer, I have to say that I find neither supermarkets or GAME to be a particularly competitive option. Play.com and Amazon pretty much set the standard best price for new game releases. GAME's best feature, for me, was the regular weekly deals and occasional discounts they would offer. There was always a good reason to visit GAME regularly and for me it simply wasn't the new releases.

Obviously the high street struggles to compete with online. What is particularly irritating about GAME's practices over the last few years is that they don't even compete with their own website. The same titles would regularly be £5-£10 cheaper on their website than in-store and local staff were powerless to price match. Perhaps the branches were having to pay for their multiple presence in the high street?

I think it would be a sad day for gamers in the UK if GAME and Gamestation disappear, leaving HMV left as the only struggling retail chain to specialise in entertainment products. For those towns with a decent independent game shop it will be a good season, but I fear many gamers will be left with only online options and for the casual gamer it will be a very confusing time.