back to article Comet and Walmart battle for Game

Walmart and Comet have emerged as bidders for troubled high street games retailer Game. The US retail giant is rumoured to have offered 12p per share for the company, while Comet owner OpCapita is also believed to have expressed an interest in acquiring Game, MCV reports. Paying 12p a share would value Game at £40m. But no …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pump and Dump

    wait and see

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Reap what they sew

    12p a share?

    That'll learn them for offering me a £5 credit on a brand new sealed and unopened Skyrim that was a Christmas gift that I already had. (no receipt)

    "Yes but your shares are now pre-owned and we can only sell them for 20p".

    AC because of the pro-retail anti-nord trolls.

    1. FunkyEric
      Happy

      Re: Reap what they sew

      I'll give you a tenner for an unopened Skyrim.

  3. Richard Wharram

    Comet?

    Erm. Aren't they a bit skint themselves?

    1. Shady
      Joke

      Re: Comet?

      Perhaps Harry and Lloyd will pay for the shares with IOU's

    2. Kane

      Re: Comet?

      Technically it's the private equity firm OpCapita that bought out the Comet brand that will be making moves on Game. They seem to have the readies to be able to buy them out and their debt I assume.

    3. Code Monkey

      Re: Comet?

      That was my first thought. Surely they've enough lossmaking retail space as it is...

    4. K
      Pint

      Re: Comet?

      lol ... I ready this as skanky, so you get my vote :D

    5. Giles Jones Gold badge

      Re: Comet?

      Well, they were taken over for a token payment and I imagine they would either shut the Game stores and bring the brand into Comet or they would keep them open and maybe sell a few TVs in there?

      But to be honest, downloading games just like downloading movies and music is the way it is going. If second hand goes too it's a loss of quite a bit of sales.

      In my town the independent game shop closed, Woolies is no longer with us, Game and Gamestation look like going which leaves pretty much HMV and Argos.

  4. sabroni Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    there selling off a load of stuff cheap

    I was in my local Game yesterday, they've cut a lot of prices to the bone. There's a lot of crap in there but some good finds in the second hand games (DOA Paradise PSP for 48p, Advance Wars DS 98p). The boy just picked up Blops (presumably for 360) for a tenner...

  5. g e
    Unhappy

    High street Gameshops stuffed

    When the diskless nextgen consoles come out what are these companies going to sell? My understanding of Game and Gamestation is that a lot of their revenue is from pre-owned stuff which may well be non-existent on the new breed of boxes.

    You can only eke out a living on pre-owned last-gen for so long... :o(

  6. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

    Comot and WalBart

    All I can see them being interested in is probably the domain names and some store locations, everything else they could do themselves anyway (Would you like an extra 3 year guarantee on this game?)

  7. M7S

    Poor stock levels

    I went in a couple of days ago to use up some loyalty points before they are voided by any administrator and found the company's helpful member of staff. Unfortunately they had little for the Wii on the shelves and even when I selected some used games, after searching in the back, could not find the disks for them, which was frustrating, and embarrasing for the chap who had tried really hard.

    I'd urge anyone thinking of getting stuff, particularly with credit, to hurry on down. Now I just need to find somewhere with a used Black Ops that doesn't require buying over the internet. I like shops.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Poor stock levels

      Had the same issue the other day - £10 on the loyalty card, picked up some psp games all pre-owned, and the guy couldn't find the UMD for one of them. However, he then just pulled out a brand new sealed copy of the game and scanned it through, then said "there you go, happy gaming!"

      Anon, because I wouldn't want to get the guy in trouble...

      1. commonsense

        Re: Poor stock levels

        How would us knowing who you are get the guy in trouble?

  8. The Jase

    They need to stay alive. I want Mass Effect 3 from the bargin 2nd hand bin in a few weeks.

    1. Richard Wharram

      CeX

      Will be the place to do that in future.

      1. Lamont Cranston
        Joke

        Re: CeX

        There's something very off-putting about visiting the Sex Change shop. Not that going on the Game is much of an improvement.

  9. Thomas 18
    Thumb Down

    "Goldman Sachs swooped to buy Game..."

    Your bailout $ hard at work.

  10. Bassey

    Question

    What risk would the publisher's be taking in supplying stock to Game? This isn't a furniture store where the value is in the stock. The value is not in the 0.5p plastic disc or the 1p box it sits in. The value is in the IP of the game and the key/license to play it, surely? If game goes under the publisher can just rescind the license keys supplied and they have lost virtually nothing.

    1. Chad H.

      Re: Question

      Bassey, GAME doesn't pay for its stock until long after it gets it, it buys it all on credit. This is normal in retail, but most expect insurance to ensure they don't get stiffed.

      Insurance companies are currently thinking twice about insuring this credit, meaning if there is no insurance, and the comoany goes down, the supplier gets stiffed.

  11. Chris Harrison
    Thumb Up

    Game Devs must be laughing

    Game deserve this completely.

    Are the supply issues really to do with cashflow? Or is this down to EA being pissed at Games determination to sell each copy of a game multiple times and rip off the devs?

    Good riddance to their nasty business practices.

    1. Rob Beard
      WTF?

      Re: Game Devs must be laughing

      Yep the practice of re-selling things second hand must be stopped... it's a nasty business buying a second hand car (or even 3rd, 4th, or 5th hand car even) when we can all go and buy new cars.

      We're all evil for buying pre-owned.

      Yeah right... I don't buy that many games, I very rarely buy new games, but if I do it'll usually be a sequel to a game I've bought pre-owned that I really want (for instance I bought Uncharted pre-owned when I got my new PS3, then bought Uncharted 2 new on Plantinum and then pre-ordered Uncharted 3). However with EA being such arseholes about it, I doubt I'll buy another EA game new (not that I really like that many EA games, the only one I do like is Burnout Paradise and I got that free with my XBOX 360 in a bundle, the only other game I've bought from EA was Mirrors Edge and that was crap (well okay, I liked the idea of the game but the controls were crap).

      Rob

      1. Chris Harrison
        Thumb Down

        Re: Game Devs must be laughing

        Not really a fair comparison comparing the second hand car market to pre-owned games.

        When I go into Game and try to buy a new copy of a game for £40 and get offered a pre-owned instead for £37 what do you think is happening? Do you think this practice is helping the development of bigger and better games?

        It's fair enough buying preowned games for a fiver or so when they're a couple of years old or whatever, but when game allow you to pre-order pre-owned games don't you think they're taking the piss?

        Or perhaps you'd rather all the devs went bust - then you wouldn't have to buy any EA games, or any one elses either - but as long as the guys who own GAME have filled their boots - who cares.

  12. FunkyEric
    FAIL

    pre-owned stuff is not ripping off devs

    Or is buying a second-hand record from the 60's ripping off the Beatles too?

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