Beleaguered UK Retailer GAME Blames Lack Of Switch Stock For Profit Warning

They just never sorted their pricing out. Not a single lesson learned from their disaster two years ago.

Yeah. Remember when they charged £200 for Super Mario Maker 3DS a few months back ?
I bet those who had to call their bank remember.
And do you also remember when they cancelled some pre-orders for the Switch too ?
IF they're telling the truth and people are still lining up to preorder Nintendo hardware, they should not complain.

GAME have been poor getting hold of Nintendo Switch. Smyths have been much better and consequently got my money (three times)

Lets hope they survive to the end of September at least - for all the folks who ordered their SNES minis with them.

Game hides Nintendo products in a corner of a shop like they are bargain bin items then blames them for profit issues.

I think they will find the issues are of there own making, pricing for example is higher than most retailers in sector.

Heres a hint GAME. If its Nintendo's fault for not having stock in, maybe you should display it too. Like, not half of one side of a meter long stand for Switch and 3DS stuff display it. Like...not by the clothes and merch at the back display it.

It would have nothing to do with their rip-off prices? There's a reason they're banished from Ireland along with the snakes. They are snakes!

Not nintendos fault at all🤦‍♂️

We used to have this retailer in Portugal xD and it was total poop when it came to Nintendo stuff

Just hang in there, Game until you deliver my SNES mini!

@thepeterwright yes this is so true. This has nothing to do with Nintendo. Game probably aren't getting Switch stock as others are selling more.

I have 4 little Nintendo fans in the family - and the bad state of Nintendo products at Game means that we simply don't go into their stores.

Should blame their shoddy pricing really. GAME is only for people who can't use the internet.

Although, they are advertising Xenoblade Chronicles X Special Edition for 99p on their website. Shame it's not in stock.

Well you know how it is, Nintendo loves scalpers!

@S4ndm4n Exactly what I was thinking reading the article. No wonder they were first getting their pre-orders up!

Couldn't give a crap about them otherwise - they never promote Nintendo stuff with any enthusiasm.

The survival of high-street shops is pretty much solely based on giving the customer a pleasurable experience while shopping there.

Game has never ever done that.

GAME have been piss poor at supporting Nintendo in the past.

Tough luck!

They mention that sales are "below expectation" but I can't imagine this is true for the Switch.

Of course, they could have sold more but they must have sold more than expected compared to their projections from last year. Remember, the Switch was supposed to be 'dead on arrival'.

Well, since Nintendo made GAME stores in the UK become the only place Street Pass works, they have become so up there own. Now they are blaming Nintendo for their poor performance? Come on!

GAME have consistently failed to give themselves any reason to exist. They are the last video games chain, they should be using that to their advantage but instead they simply have shops which have no reason to exist.

They don't have demos, they don't have local tournaments, they don't have knowledgeable staff, they don't have anything you can't buy online more cheaply (and usually more easily).

I stopped buying games in stores since 2011. Much easier to order everything online and get it delivered right to your mailbox.

Maybe if they charged £10.99 for amiibo instead of £15 I would shop there.

Why visit GAME for poor treatment and bad prices when Nintendo have their own UK store website at RRP?

I'm not surprised, I would love for this company to do better, they are the only ones to keep gaming on the high street. However there looking more like a second hand shop nowadays and although you do find the odd good member, overall there service is terrible in nearly everything.
You reap what you sow.

They told me that the Westfield store is moving to a bigger location (in the mall) and will start doing tournaments. Their prices are often poor, but it's worth digging around as there are bargains to be had. For instance, last month I got Paper Mario Colour Splash and Monster Hunter Generations for £9.99 each. They also do Pokémon codes and little things like that. Not a lost cause, but must try harder.

Mixed emotions. Will be sad to see our last major video game retailer leave the high street, but GAME does need to buck its ideas up. Maybe the business model just isn't relevant anymore. My local GAME has switch stock. However, more space is given to second hand 360 games....

They are taking preorder deposits on snes mini to the tune of £50, if they go under this year you will lose your deposit and not get an item. Be warned the retailer Peacocks did the same thing with gift vouchers before calling in the administrators and consequently gave a big up yours to thousands at christmas by not honouring voucher purchases.

Buy from game, lose your deposit when they go under. This stuff DOES happen. It could be a planned cash grab, be warned.

I don't get it. When I read the beginning of the article, I was confused. Terms like "full year profits" sound like a good thing to me. No idea what "fresh profit warning" means, but at a glance it doesn't sound inherently bad. Obviously, it was quickly apparent that this is not a good thing, but I'm not sure what those terms mean. Are these British phrases or just Wallstreet things I'm not familiar with...?

They need to hang in their a little longer. I have £50 on a gift card destined for splatoon 2.

@BigBadJohn cash it in now, they go under they have no responsibility to honour gift cards, read up what happened to peacocks customers a few years ago.

@neufel Dont forget them actually charging some people that £999.99 pre order for NX/Switch (think it was still NX? Unsure), and the 10+ charges on the wii u super mario maker preorders.

These guys go out of their way to screw nintendo. Oh yeah they are also known for releasing Nintendos pokemon games before their usual Saturday launches in hopes to get sales.

Yeah. Great company.

@davetheshrew That exact thing happened when GAME went into administration. 1000s got burned with useless gift cards and reward points.

@Flanktwo
Smyths ??
I have never heard before.
Where is the shop location ?
What Region they sell video games ?
Can I order video games from there to Indonesia ?

@eltomo
Should blame their shoddy pricing really. GAME is only for people who can't use the internet.
So true

You do sometimes get lucky tho

I boycotted game years ago. I have for the longest time made to feel awkward by staff for buying Nintendo games. Their staff don't tend to have a passion above gta and consider Tetris high brow lol. So good riddance I would say.

@Anti-Matter I don't think you can order from overseas but for the record, Smyths is a wonderful place to pre-order from and I have never had an issue with them

@davetheshrew I remember when Comet went down in the UK. I worked for a rival company at the time. Hundreds of customers lost thousands of pounds of gift cards. They had like maybe a two week period to use them before they wiped the lot.

@davetheshrew GAME did that before and then died in Australia very quickly. Decided to not honour any lay buys or preorders and kept the cash and then nobody went in again.

@Dakt yeah can get lucky sometime

They need to look at prices and be more competitive and stop trying to sell things you don't want when you get to the till. Smyths is much better my local shop is a few hundred yards from game and you can save an average of £10 on each game you buy . There are quite a few grainger games close to me so wouldn't be bothered if game closed.

I have significantly reduced my spending at GAME over recent years, since they hiked the prices of all their digital downloads on Xmas eve a few years ago. It was an underhanded tactic that left a bad taste in my mouth as I'd planned on adding the games to my kids 3DS consoles for quite some time and didn't expect the price to increase suddenly.

Then there's the merchandise. My kids went through the whole Skylanders and Amiibo phases (still in the Amiibo one!) and we would go into our nearest GAME almost every week. My kids would pick up a figure they wanted and ask me to purchase it, but at £5 more than the MSRP, I always said "no" and took them somewhere else to buy it. I did get my Switch from them, but that was a gift from my fiancee.

GAME are out of touch with the average consumer. They have a good range of merchandise but price themselves out of the market all the time. Why would anyone buy a game from them when they can pick it up at their next supermarket shop at a lower price? I hope they go bust, then we might see an increased presence of Grainger Games and other smaller retailers.

@GrailUK my eight year old son and I popped into our local GAME as he was looking for a copy of Tetris for the 3DS. He asked one of the staff if they had a copy and was laughed at.

We went to CeX and picked up a copy.

When I went into Game the other week to preorder Splatoon 2 the guy behind the counter spent 10 minutes flicking through a laminated folder before asking me what console it was on. You can't beat excellent product knowledge in a retail establishment.

Come on people say it with me: F#*+ GAME!
Sorry for the implied profanity Nintendo life but it had to be said!

Xbox and Playstation market 'softness' - basically saying those consoles are crap and no-one wants their boring games

@SLIGEACH_EIRE The way their Irish staff were treated was beyond contempt.

Good riddance. The last thing I bought from game was my Day 1 GameCube. Since then I've been able to buy games much cheaper elsewhere. See ya!

@SLIGEACH_EIRE can we send them back. Moving to Switzerland in October one thing I wont miss is Game. Just as long as they surrvive till I get my snes mini.

It comes down to price and selling method. Their prices are not great and their Pre-owned section, which should be a money maker, is over priced with competitors.

Not only that but the in-store selection is poor with very little focus on any one item. Half the stuff on shelf isn't actually in-stock.

From a web presence, their website is confusing and they are not great at delivery. I think a gaming store can survive on the high street but it needs to encourage gamers in with competetive pricing and events/service that matches that. It needs to have a parallel web experience as well.

Got 2 Games in my town and the switch section non existent,I'll use them as a last resort i.e snes mini.

I distinctly remember paying £5-£10 per preorder item with GAME in the past, only to have to pay full price for the item on the day of release. So all in all, I was often paying a little more for items from them. Whereas with Amazon and Nintendo UK Store, I pay the exact price I'd expect, preorders are free, and not only do I not have to leave my house to ensure my items are in my hands, but I can have them delivered to my work as well so its with me at some point during the working day - which is much better for my schedule!

Why on earth would I bother with GAME now???

@Rudy_Manchego If I recall, their website is supposedly treated like a completely separate entity to the high street stores. Trying to reason with either back when Splatoon's launch stock was compromised was beyond stressful.

@S4ndm4n your dreaming

@Stryker89 That put a smile on my face.

Don't like it now the shoe is on the other foot. GAME don't support Nintendo.

@Sanicranfast Ever since Color Splash back in October, the Nintendo UK Store's never been of good service from my experience. Receiving purchases days/weeks after launch if you preorder the day it becomes available to preorder, sometimes not even getting preorder bonuses. Their clothing is generally sized 2 sizes smaller than what you order too. The whole experience is just a massive mess.

GAME sounds like the retailer equivalent to Konami, LOL!

Gamestop is pretty much the same as GAME but without the rampant price gouging (except for Xenoblade Chronicles). Non-Gamer centric or mainstream-only staff. Half the store turned into ThinkGeek merch and used tablets and mobile phones. Can't walk in on new release day morning and get the game because it's for preorders only, but in some cases you can come back later in the day and get it? Aren't they supposed to hold those? What if I have a preorder but I came too late, am I SoL?

These days in the States, Best Buy and their Gamer's Club Unlocked is the best deal around for new games, 20% off for two years for $30, with no time limit on new games (Amazon Prime only in the first two weeks after release, for $100). The downside is they don't get all the releases in-store. Many of the smaller anime and limited edition indie games are online-only, some of which you can't arrange for pickup at the store. Used games seem to be leaving most locations entirely (you can get them online, and 10% off with GCU). And sometimes the physical preorder bonuses aren't handled correctly by the store or their distribution chain. Overall, the plusses outweigh the minuses in this case.

@Stryker89 Oh, I should clarify what I meant. I was referring to how the staff didn't seem to know the correct date and how you were able to help the customer out.

I... didn't smile at the redundant part... Sorry.

I enjoy having a browse round in Game but unless I was desperate for something I'd never buy from them because they're simply too expensive.

I tend to find that pretty much any game that they sell for £50 can probably be bought in Smyths or Asda for about £42.

Until Game stop being so greedy and start to price match their competition their struggles will only continue.

I'm no expert but its not rocket Science........ If you're charging more for the exact same product then people are going to buy elsewhere.

Hopefully things improve for them. It's good to still have a major video game store on the high street. However, GAME has a lot of issues, especially with pricing.

I feel bad that people in the UK and many other countries have to deal with unfair business practices from these guys and other companies. My US midwestern town of 40,000 has 3 gamestops, a gorilla games, a rock30 games, a target, a walmart, a kmart, and a best buy. All of them charge MSRP or cheaper for all games, consoles, and accessories. Many of them offer discounts or free items during launch week to try to draw in more customers. They know if they charge more than MSRP, they will lose customers quickly. Wonder why it doesn't work that way in the rest of the world. -ignorant American.
edit and of course there's amazon. The prime discount and credit card lets me rationalize so many game purchases like USFII for $30.50

Finland seem to be reasonably well stocked. Although they cost 350€ in here, tax included. That's equal to £308 or $400.

Hey, I'll cut you a deal! I'll sell you guys one for £350 or $450 a pop, plus postage and possible toll fees.

With the shoddy reputation that company has, both the title and the article could've ended at "Beleaguered UK Retailer GAME Blames".

My local game is quite a decent little shop and they have a respectable Switch display. The staff are friendly and helpful, but my problem with them is pricing. They're expensive - even when compared to other bricks and mortar retailers, and they offer you a pittance for trade ins. When they stopped price matching CEX on trade-ins, I literally stopped shopping there.

@ThatNyteDaez That explains, well, everything about how much trouble they are in...

Some have mentioned gift cards, I never understand why people would pay for them. When I give somebody a birthday or christmas present and they've ask for cash, I actually give them cash. Why limit them on spending that money in one shop, especially when that shop could go bust.
GAME are their own worst enemy too, if they're having problems shifting XBOX and Playstation stock, cut down on the space they're using on thos consoles and start pushing Nintendo for once, especially with reports of the Switch selling well.
I just wish that GAME never bought out Gamestation. Gamestation were a much nicer place to buy games from.

@JamesR Exactly. I can relate. A member of staff asked my nephew 'what do you actually play on switch?" When he bought Bomberman he was thanked with "hope you like zelda!" Disgusting service

double-u double-u double-u dot come-on-now dot see oh dot you kay

Ahhh Game, always everybody else's fault except your own.

I do see your point about supply and demand for Switch, valid but its not only in this country, but 99% of your problems are your own. Vastly overpriced and arrogant staff. You nearly went bankrupt a few years ago because of all of this but have learned? Of course not. This time I don't think you'll be as lucky.

And also, why don't you push Nintendo anymore? Having masses of space allocated to PS and XB with a tiny section for Nintendo when both 3DS and Switch are still in their prime and selling like hot cakes respectively is like commiting retail suicide.

You really have no idea.

My local Game often tweet saying that they've got limited Switch stock, I got one day a tweet. I thought actually Game were very good with the Switch launch, well my local store was I thought.

@dizzy_boy I used to love Gamestation and I agree with you.

I can see their logic to be honest, Nintendo's the only company who releases several games outside the September to December period nowadays. Sure the PS4's Q1 2017 game lineup was very strong but that's only because they were all holiday 2016 games that were delayed to Q1 2017 for game polish.

Meanwhile Switch has a very consistent release schedule of which Nintendo hasn't even revealed their holiday lineup yet outside of Xenoblade 2 but their summer and fall lineups are very strong.

@JamesR Same, I shop online in shops which haven't lost there minds

I can't think of any company that deserves to be in a mire more than GAME. They are a blight on the UK game retail industry, and they deserve to get shot down in flames again.

@masterLEON it's so bad at GameStop that I was talking to a manager at GameStop about the GCU, he had never heard about it, and he said he'd have to shop that way from now on.

Hogwash - So how bad would their profit margins be if Switch hadn't released in March, which is a lot earlier than Nintendo would've planned! They would be a lot worse. Blaming this on Nintendo shows pure desperation.

Did a search on Xenoblade on the game website and found the 3DS console with Xenoblade for £499. That's the reason why they are in trouble...by ripping people off.

I JUST got another Switch at Wal-Mart. I had to wait 45 damn minutes for a friggin manager to go back and check"the case" in the back to see if there were any. They had one and I bought it. My son shall be happy for his birthday! #July4thBaby

UK is a terrible market for Nintendo, so of course it would get the least amount of stock...

Well done Game, blame others for your failures..

@Link41x You could argue that Nintendo largely treated the UK very poorly in the past, hence why it might not be a very good market for them. You reap what you sow etc...

to be honest, I'm sick of having to deal with some try-hard teenage girl with green hair and a nose ring pretending she knows about games by the fact she's played her boyfriends' Call of Duty for 5 minutes.

Hm, gonna spend my credit on the phone app, sooner rather than later.

I feel a bit sorry for the staff in my local GAME. They've always been really helpful and it's not their fault the company is in trouble. Prices are a turn-off and policies can be bad. I avoid the website because they can't get their payment system straight.

My local Game is always a good experience but I seldom buy New as they are too expensive ... and say the switch want released - who would they blame then?!?

I know Gamestop is likely watching this.

Last time I visited a Game store they had less than a shelf of Wii U games, most of which were the same three games over and over. Directly beneath were three whole shelves of pre-owned Wii games.

Haven't bought anything from their high street stores in years and rarely buy anything online. I have zero trust in them.

Q) Could Switch shortages really contribute to the demise of this once-great UK high street brand?

A) It could, but I certainly hope not. It'd make purchasing games a lot more difficult if I can't visit a store for them, an my GAME store is fantastic. Staff are always friendly, an my younger brother happens to work there as well; as such I'm aware of some great banter that goes on there. My family goes in and we can strike up a good conversation with any of them and they tend to be knowledgeable on most games (apparently my games I ask about are usually the obscure ones though)... the donuts my oldest brother brings in for them also helps.

The store used to be pretty poor at displaying Nintendo items, though this has improved somewhat with the recent relocation to a bigger area as well as the release of the Switch. For many reasons, I hope they start to do better an earn more profit. That is quite difficult though, as despite what some accuse as their high prices, they make more profit from their £1 disc care for a game than selling the game sale itself.

Try pointing your rage towards selling games at inflated prices, having a crap online business and generally being regarded as rubbish.

Going back about a decade or so my local(ish) GAME stores seemed to employ people who actually cared about games.

Now they have no standards in terms of basic customer service. Every time I go in (admittedly VERY rare these days) they act like you're putting them out and never have a straight answer to ANYTHING. Rude, abrupt and condescending - I accept they won't all be this way but I'm taking about the vast majority of staff over a number of years between 2 different stores.

If you're not buying Fifa, that is.

@Souldin wow, your local store sounds the polar opposite of mine!

Anyone who buys a game- used or new- from Game is as big a two I as anyone who buys vinyl from HMV. They deserved to be ripped off.

My local Game store closed last week , which means if i want to buy at retail I now have to go a couple towns along.

They are ultimately on the way out, no doubt about it, and they can only blame themselves.
The unfortunate thing is not only does that remove choice for gamers in the UK which is always a bad thing, but people are gonna be left jobless.

@darthstuey I find it odd that you slag people off for wanting to purchase where they like.

Why does it seem like businesses these days are so eager to blame everyone but themselves when they start to struggle?

It's almost like running a successful and profiting business is supposed to be difficult. Who knew?

@Powerballad fair enough

Eek - fingers crossed the £50 SNES mini deposit I just paid was not a cynical cash grab before they go under. Worried now.

In my city, GAME are really the only option if you want to buy games.

Their prices are usually higher, but sometimes I do buy new games from them when I don't want to rely on a postman or I like the pre order gift.

I would be disappointed if it were to vanish because I enjoy browsing. Picking up some old 360 or Wii games for a laugh with my girlfriend, sorta like you'd do in a video shop.

Also, I buy my eShop credit from them rather than directly from the Switch, as eventually the points add up for a free £10 card.

@brumspurant they would have to pay you that back if they went into admin or closure, liquidation pays its debts first!

@electrolite77 I've been in that position a few times myself, having birthday money pay for day to day living. Thing is, I know that at some point during the year I'll have some spare cash, and I'll use it on buying something nice for myself.
My family know things happen, bills need paying, life gets in the way. So, they're ok knowing I'll get something eventually.

I'm not a huge fan of Game, but nor do I want to see them go under. If they go under then that puts hundreds out of a job and that's not cool. It's management's fault they're in this mess, but it's the people on the shop floor that will suffer. Shame really.

It's kind of hard to sell systems/software when GAME places the Nintendo section in a tiny corner, under the floor boards, of a completley unrelated store chain.

Perhaps make the 3DS and Switch sections more prominent rather than stack two whole independent shelves with the same boxes of the same game to show customers that one new multi-platform game has came out on PS4 and X1, while sequestering the entire Nintendo section out of sight.

They'd might actually get more gaming customers if they actually diversified the gaming section instead of doubling down on doubling down on two devices(PS4 and X1) that serve the exact same market and hiding everything else away.

@dew12333 they really do look to be focusing on preowned stuff these days. The amount of tablets, phones and other unrelated gaming hardware they may aswell be CEX/Cash Converters.

Ironic- I've always thought that GAME neglected Nintendo fans to their peril. Nintendo fans have far more brand loyalty, and anywhere that makes them feel at home is bound to receive that same affection. Because of the niche nature of Nintendo fans, we could have influenced the success of GAME as maybe a hub for fans, tournaments, events etc. You know- a place for people who actually love video games? But of course, no.

Instead we were worse than sidelined in favour of mountains of Xbox crap which nobody bought from GAME, (XBOX fans buy all their stuff as cheap as possible online quite rightly) T shirts, second hand DVDs and other irrelevant tat.

Demo boxes of nothing but FIFA, if they were even switched on. The list is endless. GAME can go rot tbh. They don't deserve to exist.

@davetheshrew If you have a Credit Card then pay the deposit using that and if it does go under you can ask your credit card company to do a chargeback for non-receipt of goods.

I believe that could possibly be a viable option.

Some banks offer the same service for their debit card but it's worth checking with them beforehand.

They should blame themselves. I'm buying new releases at launch anywhere between 10-20 pounds cheaper elsewhere than game AND YES THAT INCLUDES SWITCH TITLES.

Game simply do not offer any value for money and it's their constant lack of remorse that bites them on the butt each and every single effin time. Their latest money grabbing scheme is the Elite Reward card lol.. Game.. honestly.. kiss my ass..

If you ask me, GAME have always had one major problem that keeps getting in their way... greed.
They try to get as much profit per item as they can, but that puts their prices too high compared to their competition, who are far more successful with lower profit per item, but higher sales overall.
I go into my local GAME stores on a fairly regular basis, but hardly ever buy anything... I mainly just go to check their prices so that I know how much I can save buy buying things elsewhere.