Tragic, as the end of being able to go into a shop and buy a new game in the U.K., although honestly I’m surprised it took this long. GAME being absorbed into Sports Direct was one of the most...
Exemplary
Tragic, as the end of being able to go into a shop and buy a new game in the U.K., although honestly I’m surprised it took this long.
GAME being absorbed into Sports Direct was one of the most baffling changes to the high street those years back… I’ll never forget, being based in Leeds at the time, initially having to walk into the pungent realm of Sports Direct, climb upstairs, and spelunk through the men’s underwear section to reach GAME; and then, a year or two later following a further surely malicious relocation and having got directions from staff after an age of confused wandering, to enter a small door on one floor, ascend what seemed to be a staff back staircase for several floors, and weave through a series of intoxicating series of passages and spaces of varying sizes worthy of mention in the Navidson Report, to finally stumble bleakly on the lines of man-sized cages of Charmander and Foxy plushes, great biblical walls of TCG boosters, and a single small shelf with a few Switch games thereon.
Unless things have changed, you can still buy physical games from Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda. Tesco discontinued game sales about two years ago, and I'm surprised they even announced it. The...
Unless things have changed, you can still buy physical games from Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda. Tesco discontinued game sales about two years ago, and I'm surprised they even announced it. The last time I saw the games section in a Tesco supermarket, it was just a few shelves of empty Xbox and PlayStation branded Call of Duty and FIFA boxes. And there were a few cards you could redeem at the counter for a physical console.
I do agree that Mike Ashley is one of the worst things to have happened to the brand.
End of an era I suppose. Now there are zero physical game specialists (national anyway) left in the UK. Most indies have gone too. CeX is hanging on as the best (what a time to be alive) place to...
End of an era I suppose. Now there are zero physical game specialists (national anyway) left in the UK. Most indies have gone too. CeX is hanging on as the best (what a time to be alive) place to get video games and consoles and other electronics on the high street.
I know we're a geographically diverse bunch in here. What's physical game retail like where you are?
Gamestop absorbed everything in the early 2010s and then bailed out of Ireland during Covid, which means the best retailer of new games and new games hardware is Smyths, a national toy store...
Gamestop absorbed everything in the early 2010s and then bailed out of Ireland during Covid, which means the best retailer of new games and new games hardware is Smyths, a national toy store chain. Tesco also often has stuff in their bigger stores. CeX is also here, but only as a seller of used electronics and games, and that is obviously a problem for them now that the new retailers are out, because where else do used products come from? You can see it a bit in that their PS5 shelves have been cut back and so by stock it goes: PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, 3DS, PS5, and then the combined Xbox One/Xbox Series shelf.
There were reports a while ago about the absolute mess Fraser Group were making of running GAME after they took it over, things like poor distribution of stock so a random outlet store had more...
There were reports a while ago about the absolute mess Fraser Group were making of running GAME after they took it over, things like poor distribution of stock so a random outlet store had more stock of an upcoming game compared to larger stores.
Gamestop is the only big national chain I've seen here in California that only deals with video games. As u/MimicSquid mentioned, general electronics stores and department stores also stock them....
Gamestop is the only big national chain I've seen here in California that only deals with video games. As u/MimicSquid mentioned, general electronics stores and department stores also stock them. I also have come across a fair number of local video game stores that also sell games and consoles. Some specialize in only retro stuff (80s-00s) while others stock all used video games.
Smyths is a huge toy-store chain that has a console games section in its stores. You can confirm whether they stock things by going to their Video Games page and selecting your local store to see...
Smyths is a huge toy-store chain that has a console games section in its stores. You can confirm whether they stock things by going to their Video Games page and selecting your local store to see stock. For everything that I checked my local store has stock.
They've been a much more credible physical game store for a long time.
There is not one near me sadly, so we're back to mail order again. A quick look on the map and they all seem to be out of town. I'll keep using CeX until they run out of stock because no-one has...
There is not one near me sadly, so we're back to mail order again. A quick look on the map and they all seem to be out of town. I'll keep using CeX until they run out of stock because no-one has anything physical to sell to them any more.
The Super Monkey Ball thread got me reminiscing about old consoles (the wrong one, as it turns out, but I stand by my nostalgia!), and now the place I went to get that console on its midnight...
The Super Monkey Ball thread got me reminiscing about old consoles (the wrong one, as it turns out, but I stand by my nostalgia!), and now the place I went to get that console on its midnight release is gone too. Like @alp said, it was already pretty much gone years before, but still, it's sad to see that era close in a very final way...
Tragic, as the end of being able to go into a shop and buy a new game in the U.K., although honestly I’m surprised it took this long.
GAME being absorbed into Sports Direct was one of the most baffling changes to the high street those years back… I’ll never forget, being based in Leeds at the time, initially having to walk into the pungent realm of Sports Direct, climb upstairs, and spelunk through the men’s underwear section to reach GAME; and then, a year or two later following a further surely malicious relocation and having got directions from staff after an age of confused wandering, to enter a small door on one floor, ascend what seemed to be a staff back staircase for several floors, and weave through a series of intoxicating series of passages and spaces of varying sizes worthy of mention in the Navidson Report, to finally stumble bleakly on the lines of man-sized cages of Charmander and Foxy plushes, great biblical walls of TCG boosters, and a single small shelf with a few Switch games thereon.
I’ll miss you, GAME!
Unless things have changed, you can still buy physical games from Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda. Tesco discontinued game sales about two years ago, and I'm surprised they even announced it. The last time I saw the games section in a Tesco supermarket, it was just a few shelves of empty Xbox and PlayStation branded Call of Duty and FIFA boxes. And there were a few cards you could redeem at the counter for a physical console.
I do agree that Mike Ashley is one of the worst things to have happened to the brand.
End of an era I suppose. Now there are zero physical game specialists (national anyway) left in the UK. Most indies have gone too. CeX is hanging on as the best (what a time to be alive) place to get video games and consoles and other electronics on the high street.
I know we're a geographically diverse bunch in here. What's physical game retail like where you are?
GameStop still exists in California as the last retailer standing. There's also games and consoles in larger electronics and department stores.
Gamestop absorbed everything in the early 2010s and then bailed out of Ireland during Covid, which means the best retailer of new games and new games hardware is Smyths, a national toy store chain. Tesco also often has stuff in their bigger stores. CeX is also here, but only as a seller of used electronics and games, and that is obviously a problem for them now that the new retailers are out, because where else do used products come from? You can see it a bit in that their PS5 shelves have been cut back and so by stock it goes: PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, 3DS, PS5, and then the combined Xbox One/Xbox Series shelf.
There were reports a while ago about the absolute mess Fraser Group were making of running GAME after they took it over, things like poor distribution of stock so a random outlet store had more stock of an upcoming game compared to larger stores.
Gamestop is the only big national chain I've seen here in California that only deals with video games. As u/MimicSquid mentioned, general electronics stores and department stores also stock them. I also have come across a fair number of local video game stores that also sell games and consoles. Some specialize in only retro stuff (80s-00s) while others stock all used video games.
Smyths is a huge toy-store chain that has a console games section in its stores. You can confirm whether they stock things by going to their Video Games page and selecting your local store to see stock. For everything that I checked my local store has stock.
They've been a much more credible physical game store for a long time.
There is not one near me sadly, so we're back to mail order again. A quick look on the map and they all seem to be out of town. I'll keep using CeX until they run out of stock because no-one has anything physical to sell to them any more.
The Super Monkey Ball thread got me reminiscing about old consoles (the wrong one, as it turns out, but I stand by my nostalgia!), and now the place I went to get that console on its midnight release is gone too. Like @alp said, it was already pretty much gone years before, but still, it's sad to see that era close in a very final way...