250°

UK retailer GAME to cease video game trade-ins, staff say

"As part of the integration of GAME, we will be phasing out the trade-in, pre-owned and Game Elite offerings in the UK over the coming months," a spokesperson for the chain's owner Frasers Group told BBC News"

Read Full Story >>
eurogamer.net
ocelot07102d ago

Seems like a blizzar move here. It's the second hand market they thrived upon.

If I'm not mistaken game are owned by the same company who own GameStop in the US?

BeHunted102d ago (Edited 102d ago )

"Seems like a blizzar move here"

How? Game charges £5 delivery fee. Overpriced.

GameStop doesn’t own Game. Mike Ashley does, who owns Sports Direct, House of Fraser, etc...

ocelot07101d ago

Yup I was wrong about ownership.

Yes they charge £5 delivery that is terrible. GAME is a awful company. But it is a blizzar move as just a few years ago they where crying over that the pre owned market was their bread and butter. Trade in prices have always been crap at game. But realistically got most cities in the UK. If you wanted a new game on release. Game was the only store that you could go to to trade games in towards brand new games.

-Foxtrot102d ago

Whaaaa

Gamestation is gone

Grainger Games is gone

CEX is shit

Jesus. The only reason we use GAME is because there’s nobody else and they get away with this shit.

ocelot07102d ago

I I'm fine with cex. It's the best place to trade and buy second hand games. Game has been rubbish for years imo.

Surprised they will be getting rid of Game Elite as well. I have £32 game points. Think it's time I got and spend that and get something I have been meaning to buy.

BeHunted102d ago (Edited 102d ago )

Game owned GameStation. I didn't 'see a point owning 2 Game Stores with different names that sell the same stuff.

-Foxtrot102d ago

They owned them but they didn't originally.

It was only when they were bought and after GAME went into administration they started to close GameStation shops down or replace them with GAME ones

Basically getting rid of their competitor

Agent75100d ago

But GAMESTATION was a lot better.

ModsDoBetter101d ago

Games Centre was a great wee independent retailer in the UK too, sadly gone years ago.

I pay £3/month for Elite as I usually buy 2-3 PS5 games a month so getting 10% back as credit on a £6-£70 game adds up. Strange move they're stopping Elite now...

-Foxtrot101d ago

Their trade in offers are f****** atrocious even when games are in good condition and still almost new releases

Agent75100d ago

CEX is a joke for prices now. They list games as mint condition, which is against the Trades Description Act. Mint condition mean that an item has never been handled/used. They'd be hard pushed to advertise games as being in good condition. Handled by so many people, scratched disc and food on the manuals. That's CEX is a nutshell.

-Foxtrot100d ago

I remember taking some film steelbooks to CEX when I needed money once, they had never been opened but when I took them they made me take the plastic off them, open them up and only gave me shitty trade offers that matched "Used" conditions. Why? Because they had been opened...

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 100d ago
purple101102d ago

eBay does well on second hand games, always works for me, always get more than I would have done trade in .

which if effectively a double con, as with a trade in you are normally offered a fair market price, on the reasoning, you are in-affect promising to buy the future product form the same retailer.

Number1TailzFan101d ago

Yeah eBay will give you a better return especially if you get those fee promotions every 2 weeks, some just like the no hassle risk with CEX. No chance I'd trade in a rare/expensive game to CEX like my copies of Shantae & the pirate's curse for switch there tho, they'd probably give you like 1/4th of it's value.

ModsDoBetter101d ago

CEX is the one for me.
eBay have terrible seller protection and after being burned twice over games that I've sold, I just stopped using it. If I want to sell a game, I just take it to CEX who offer a decent price compared to GAME.

andy85101d ago

olMyerslo can I ask how you were burned? Because I use ebay frequently but I make sure to have the item tracked and signed for. Only issue I had was a guy trying to claim PayPal saying he didn't receive a controller, but I had the tracking number so they ruled in my favour

ocelot07101d ago

You should give Vinted ago. Zero fees for the seller.

andy85101d ago

Were people even doing this these days? They offer awful amounts. The best way is to ebay or gumtree. Day ones games are generally getting 90% of my money back after I'm done with them

ocelot07101d ago

Probably kids/teens still doing it. I have not personally traded anything into game since I traded in a psp and games on the release day for the vita. Even then I got them to price match cex on trade in credit. They even stopped doing that a few years ago.

Kosic101d ago

A high street store can not compete with online. Game prices are £59.99 for a new release. Go with many of the online stores and those games are £44.99-49.99 for day one.

The fact game charge you £5 more to collect in-store compared to their own online shop is a joke. The excuse was on the lines "it's our stocking fee."

I stopped using game around 5 or more years back. I'd pop in looking for a real bargain, but rarely find anything.

I'm not surprised they're going out of business, they could not get with the times and they definitely could not compete with online when greed was the forefront.

Show all comments (29)
290°

Microsoft’s Surface and Xbox hardware revenues take a big hit in Q3

Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.

Read Full Story >>
theverge.com
darthv721d 23h ago

Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.

solideagle1d 10h ago

you should apply in MS PR team buddy, I think you will do a great job in my humble opinion :)

Sonic18811d 7h ago

I thought darthv72 and Obscure_Observer already work for Microsoft 🤔

dveio1d 7h ago

MS: "Xbox services and content without AB up 1%, with AB up 62%. Hardware down 31%. In total a loss of 350 mill."

darthv72: "Seems about right."

MS: "Excuse m ..."

darthv72: "I don't hardly play on my consoles directly."

MS:

Lightning771d 2h ago

What he said was facts. How he plays games is no concern of you. Don't get too mad about it.

Cacabunga1d 9h ago

I can tell people like you are an absolute minority..

If service is up means their fans and fanboys accepted this model and subscribed to it. The near future you will see a big decline because the service is saturated.

darthv7219h ago

to you it may seem like the minority... but your bubble is shrinking because more and more are following suit. convenience is a hell of a drug and its also why physical sales only amount to 30% of overall game sales. times are changing, you either get with them or you get left behind.

neutralgamer199214h ago

Darth

30% physical sales: yet Phil and xbox division are in a rush go give up on that 30%. they don't have any right to give up any piece of the pie since the control such a little of the pie to begin with

also, the market is clearly speaking that the model Xbox is pushing isn't working right now the keyword being right now. you are right about freedom to play anywhere so i hope they put their games on steam

shinoff21831d 8h ago

But that's been ms for years. When things aren't going their way they try to change the way things are said. For instance console sales are down, they stop telling how many sold instead telling us how many hours spent in halo or headshots. So it makes sense console sales down just say people are playing on more devices then previous. What they won't say is how many xbox players jumped ship to ps5.

Cacabunga1d 7h ago

Hardware sales are so bad that Sony and Nintendo are blowing the sales off the water with their hardware.

If Xbox are losers, others aren’t..
Xbox already tried everything with Xbox live then subscriptions went down so much that they had to find something else. Their fans subscribed then reached saturation rather quickly.

Hardware and exclusive games is where it’s at! Keep gamers excited, announce decent software and people will support you

itsmebryan1d 3h ago

@shin
Well keep it simple Sony 's operating income is down 26% and Microsoft's is up 32%. No MS spin there, just facts. 😉
Cheers

S2Killinit20h ago

MS is after diminishing consoles as a medium. They want to destroy this market because they couldnt win. MS’s vision is to dissolve console gaming.

romulus231d 2h ago

Odd that a company that touts you dont need the hardware to play is already touting another console in the works.

darthv721d 2h ago

They are not reliant on the HW but still want to maintain a presence (no matter how small) is a good thing. It shows commitment to the craft. It reminds me of SNK and how they made games for their own hardware (Neo Geo) while also making them for others because they knew there was a market to do so. They knew they would sell more to others but also sell to their own niche fan base.

TheEroica19h ago(Edited 19h ago)

Perfectly reasonable post down voted by insecure corporation friendly folk.... But not gamers. Real gamer want accessibility and ease of acquisition for all.... Company shills are the only ones still telling us that hardware locking people from games is good for us.

Chevalier14h ago

@Darth

You should stop parroting metrics like an idiot without context.

"Xbox content and services revenue grew 62% in Q3 from a year earlier, “driven by 61 points of net impact” from the purchase of the third-party video game giant, Microsoft said."

61 of the 62% was from their merger so net increase is ONLY 1%

https://www.mesaonline.org/...

itsmebryan6h ago

@chevalier

It looks like made a great purchase. Much better then Sony buying Bungie. 😉
Cheers

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 6h ago
purple1011d 12h ago

Xbox hardware revenue tanks to lowest point of Xbox Series generation

Profchaos1d 11h ago

I'm not surprised surface is struggling they aren't relevant anymore

DOMination-1d 1h ago

In the last two years they've started exiting the consumer market altogether. All of the newest Surface products are business models only. They can't seem to work out what they want to do with it.

XBManiac1d 11h ago

Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.

SimpleDad1d 10h ago (Edited 1d 10h ago )

"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."

That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.

purple1011d 10h ago

Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"

Microsoft: "why's that"

Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'

Profchaos1d 10h ago (Edited 1d 10h ago )

Top brass have also wanted to start seeing returns on the 100 billion they have put into various Xbox related moves so seeing more multiplatform games is highly likely especially from abk

It's basically saying that PlayStation is the reason Xbox is afloat right now thinks to Ps5 versions of COD

Kornholic1d 8h ago

So basically PS and PC gamers' money is keeping Xbox on life support.

MrDead1d 1h ago

The only growth MS will get out of the console industry is if it supports it's rivals platforms. Xbox is a pointless machine now. I can see them on a big push for live next, and they won't give up on trying to buy Steam.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 1d 1h ago
Show all comments (46)
80°

Razer Kishi Ultra Review - Remote Play and Mobile Gaming Goes XL

PSLS writes: I have traveled across the country using the Razer Kishi Ultra in airports and hotels for both PlayStation Remote Play and mobile gaming in general, and I am thoroughly impressed.

Read Full Story >>
playstationlifestyle.net
150°

Sony Patents To Prevent You From In-Game Harassment By Reading Your Emotions

A new patent recently published by Sony wants to gather biometric data of gamers to track whether one is being harassed using AI tools.

Profchaos2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

I hope this is one of those patents that never comes to fruition.

I already dislike the fact you can pay a significant amount for a online service buy associated games and content on said service and get banned from that service over potentially a misunderstanding the bans are already handed out for flimsy reasons

I'd rather see money invested in a ban that simply removes the offensive players ability to communicate with unknown players allow them to continue party chats with friends but not with Joe blow on cod.

exputers2d ago

Agreed. Blizzard recently banned a college Overwatch 2 player who's dependent for saying "shit." Pretty harsh.

Profchaos1d 17h ago (Edited 1d 17h ago )

How rediculas really. You can't say a word that's allowed in most PG films and prime time TV but the game is based around killing the enemy team using guns, explosives etc.

It's just backwards.

just_looken1d 19h ago

What your talking about is called block list

In 2006 a spaceship dropped of the playstation 3/xbox 360 i say that that generation was the last great gen with game functions/tech that has yet to comeback

Anyhow the playstation 3 if you block listed a id they could not talk to you in chatroom with either text or voice. But that was pre mind fucked 2018 when people were more human than sheep.

But hey gta 6 is coming out billion dollar budget without a single player custom character creator and without singeplayer coop off/online something saints row 1-3 had on the xbox 360.

z2g2d ago

Take my social security and bank account numbers too! Here’s a picture of my wife and our address.

phoenixwing2d ago

Cmon where's the pictures of your children. Don't hold out on them.

H92d ago

At this rate I feel Sony will eventually sell a room to play games in it where they can monitor your every breath

jambola2d ago

I genuinely get a bit worried sometimes when a friend says something that could be offensive In a party
Because I have no trouble believing some bans would happen when in a private party for saying something wrong

SegaSaturn6692d ago

I want them to censor erotic content by measuring my groin temperature so i dont get too distracted while playing black ops 2.

Popsicle2d ago

Terrible idea. Not only do I not consent to providing my biometric data, the potential for mishandling biometric data is almost a certainty. Positive stress and negative stress can produce similar changes in biometrics. Interpreting the precise emotion a person is feeling is not only invasive but could be easily misconstrued. I hope this never comes to fruition.

Show all comments (14)