Video game retailers

[Vespa Alex]

I popped into the Merry Hill shopping centre earlier on, and it was quite civilised there. No busier than a normal Sunday morning and no signs of desperation.

[Majora]

I feel like the retail sector probably regret letting Black Friday ever become a thing here. The timing of it is just terrible; if it were in the middle of summer you could understand it but coming just a month before Christmas it seems silly. Everyone needs to buy lots of stuff before Christmas whether it's on sale or not, all Black Friday does is instill a mentality that it's not worth buying anything in the few weeks beforehand, and that you should expect to be able to do most of your Christmas shopping on the cheap. Really daft to cannibalise an existing reliable annual shopping season. 

[SozzlyJoe]

25 minutes ago, Majora said:

I feel like the retail sector probably regret letting Black Friday ever become a thing here. The timing of it is just terrible; if it were in the middle of summer you could understand it but coming just a month before Christmas it seems silly. Everyone needs to buy lots of stuff before Christmas whether it's on sale or not, all Black Friday does is instill a mentality that it's not worth buying anything in the few weeks beforehand, and that you should expect to be able to do most of your Christmas shopping on the cheap. Really daft to cannibalise an existing reliable annual shopping season. 

 

I know, talk about cutting their own throats. Christmas is traditionally the time where you, with a heavy heart, head off into town and buy a load of stuff that no-one really wants for full price. Totally subverted now by the fact you can order all the expensive stuff at a discount a month early.

And they do it every year! I think Amazon forces their hands by making such a big deal of it. And Amazon are just a gigantic retail troll of a company who don't seem to care how much money they lose.

[deerokus]

Black Friday seemed slightly less of a thing this year than last, I imagine they will try to phase it out over the next couple of years. I was in River Island that weekend and their Black Friday deal was nothing really, just a small discount if you spent over £75 quid AND signed up for some sort of membership magazine. 

 

It was indeed a stupid thing to try to adopt. 

[HarryBizzle]

I don't know any electronics retailer who wasn't doing an "if it's cheaper on Black Friday we'll refund the difference" offer so it's clearly an issue for them. 

[Majora]

If you were in the market for a new console you would have been a fool not to buy during Black Friday week. Some of the bundles, particularly at Curry's, were crazy. Argos were selling games just a few weeks old at anywhere from 12-20 quid. I don't really shop in bricks and mortar anymore so I don't know what it was like there but online, and especially in the tech/electronics sector, it still seemed a very big deal. 

[fat flatulent git]

Is Battleborn completely shit?  Game had it in the summer, new, for a fiver, and for some reason I didn't bother, but yesterday it was just three quid for a sealed one, so it seemed rude not to at that price.

[Captain Kelsten]

Not shit,  but not very good and died an agonising death online. 

[fat flatulent git]

There is a single-player campaign, right?

[Captain Kelsten]

Yeah,  that bit is shit. 

[sprite]

44 minutes ago, smelly bastard said:

Is Battleborn completely shit?  Game had it in the summer, new, for a fiver, and for some reason I didn't bother, but yesterday it was just three quid for a sealed one, so it seemed rude not to at that price.

 

It unfortunately launched just before Overwatch.  People played it whilst eagerly anticipating Overwatch and then not much afterward.

[fat flatulent git]

1 minute ago, Orko said:

Yeah,  that bit is shit. 

 

Oh well.  For three quid, minus a few pence trade-in, I can live with that.

[Dudley]

It went Free to Play some time ago, you'd literally be paying for a box.

[fat flatulent git]

That seems to be making the multi-player free to play, at least at first, and I have no interest in that at all.

[Captain Kelsten]

The single player game is dull, repetitive, overly difficult when played on your own and there is a lot of being overwhelmed in the final wave of enemies and having to repeat 30 minutes of progress, as I recall . If you can find three mates to coop it with, it's better. It's really a crap story bolted on to an overlong tutorial for the multiplayer. 

 

It's also worth pointing out that Battleborn has more in common with DotA 2 and league of legends than overwatch. The similarities with overwatch end at being fps and having lots of colourful characters. 

[Radish]

4 hours ago, sprite said:

 

It unfortunately launched just before Overwatch.  People played it whilst eagerly anticipating Overwatch and then not much afterward.

 

I don't really have any sympathy for them given they chose to attack Overwatch. They courted the comparisons, something in they no doubt hugely regret. To be fair Blizzard are often brutal with their marketing; they like to time betas, f2p events etc to coincide with their competition. 

 

While Battleborn is "free to try", I imagine owning the boxed copy removes a lot of the f2p restrictions and grants immediate access to things you'd otherwise have to pay for. 

[Dudley]

I bought a boxed copy for a few quid just before it went FTP but didn't play it until afterwards and as far as I can tell, all it saved me was a download.

 

Also Orko is right.

[MrPogo]

Popped in earlier (for the 3DS Streetpass hotspot)and the queues were actually bigger than before Christmas, so it appears they're doing great with what to me looked like a pretty shitty selection of sale items. Unless it's all people returning unwanted gifts.

[teddymeow]

51 minutes ago, MrPogo said:

Popped in earlier (for the 3DS Streetpass hotspot)and the queues were actually bigger than before Christmas, so it appears they're doing great with what to me looked like a pretty shitty selection of sale items. Unless it's all people returning unwanted gifts.

Or budget hours have been cut and there's only one or two Christmas temps on the till trying to stem the tide. 

[gossi the dog]

1 hour ago, MrPogo said:

Popped in earlier (for the 3DS Streetpass hotspot)and the queues were actually bigger than before Christmas, so it appears they're doing great with what to me looked like a pretty shitty selection of sale items. Unless it's all people returning unwanted gifts.

 

They put a pile of games on sale a week before Christmas, and then simply increased the sale prices a few days before Christmas. Nothing's changed since then. It's a crap sale. 

 

Anyhow if you're Mike Ashley you're up 150%+ since the Summer.

[mushashi]

On 12/24/2017 at 15:13, deerokus said:

Black Friday seemed slightly less of a thing this year than last, I imagine they will try to phase it out over the next couple of years. I was in River Island that weekend and their Black Friday deal was nothing really, just a small discount if you spent over £75 quid AND signed up for some sort of membership magazine. 

 

It was indeed a stupid thing to try to adopt. 

 

They may try to phase it out, but I think they may have unfortunately opened Pandora's box on that one. I don't think they can roll it back now it has become so huge (it is close to Christmas itself in size now), and even if the physical shops boycott the idea, Amazon and the rest of the online-centric retailers will just accelerate their takeover of retailing by continuing it.

[gossi the dog]

1 hour ago, mushashi said:

 

They may try to phase it out, but I think they may have unfortunately opened Pandora's box on that one. I don't think they can roll it back now it has become so huge (it is close to Christmas itself in size now), and even if the physical shops boycott the idea, Amazon and the rest of the online-centric retailers will just accelerate their takeover of retailing by continuing it.

 

It's big in electronics, but most of it is driven by the manufacturers. A retailer such as GAME in such a situation is essentially an agent which skims a few pounds off the cost of the sale. 

[mushashi]

It would seem odd that the manufacturers would want to cut their own throats, much like the game publishers. Retailers use both as a means to attract customers to their outlet these days by taking a hit on the margins, as I do question in the case of games if the publishers really welcome the heavy discounting of their wares during Black Friday as it would seem a net negative if they are the ones funding the price cutting, rather than the retailers taking the hit.

 

IIRC GAME specifically cited heavy discounting as a reason for poor financial performance in one of their recent reports. And it would seem Grainger Games might not be in the best shape due to similar reasons.

[gossi the dog]

8 minutes ago, mushashi said:

It would seem odd that the manufacturers would want to cut their own throats, much like the game publishers. Retailers use both as a means to attract customers to their outlet these days by taking a hit on the margins, as I do question in the case of games if the publishers really welcome the heavy discounting of their wares during Black Friday as it would seem a net negative if they are the ones funding the price cutting, rather than the retailers taking the hit.

 

IIRC GAME specifically cited heavy discounting as a reason for poor financial performance in one of their recent reports. And it would seem Grainger Games might not be in the best shape due to similar reasons.

 

All the console deals were driven by the manufacturer. It's not as if Game turn around and think, we've got a load of PSVR units, let's sell them for a £100 discount over RRP.

[MrPogo]

It kind of makes sense for the manufacturers to discount consoles, in the hope of making more money back from future game sales, although there's probably an element of "we can't let our rivals be the only one with a deal" driving all of them!

[mushashi]

I'd agree some of the discounting is supplier led, I just don't think it all is though, otherwise retailers would have no problems with events like Black Friday as they aren't the ones footing the bill for it, they benefit from the extra sales if they make the same profits from each sale. I know the supermarkets are happy to throw their suppliers under the bus when it comes to price wars.

[probotector]

On 24/12/2017 at 13:58, Majora said:

I feel like the retail sector probably regret letting Black Friday ever become a thing here. The timing of it is just terrible; if it were in the middle of summer you could understand it but coming just a month before Christmas it seems silly. Everyone needs to buy lots of stuff before Christmas whether it's on sale or not, all Black Friday does is instill a mentality that it's not worth buying anything in the few weeks beforehand, and that you should expect to be able to do most of your Christmas shopping on the cheap. Really daft to cannibalise an existing reliable annual shopping season. 

 

In the US, black Friday is around Thanksgiving? So it works for them as people need to spend for that, and then christmas is the following week.

 

UK...might as well do your christmas shopping during black friday!

[Not Thread Owner]

Cunts in Game selling Pokemon Gold and Silver eShop download codes for £1 more than the game costs directly on the eShop itself.

[deerokus]

2 hours ago, probotector said:

 

In the US, black Friday is around Thanksgiving? So it works for them as people need to spend for that, and then christmas is the following week.

 

UK...might as well do your christmas shopping during black friday!

Yes, I read some analysis the other day that said this is exactly what has happened. The market has been restructured and Christmas (and especially the post Christmas sales) aren't the big deal they used to be because of black Friday. They killed the golden goose while chasing a silver quail. 

[probotector]

Boxing day sales have been very poor this year.

 

2014/15 were pretty good, probably the best I can remember!