Game & Gamestation - The Beginning Of The End?

For those that haven't seen the latest news

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/29/game-not-stocking-mass-effect-3/

The memo

http://media.ign.com/games/image/article/121/1219655/game-will-not-be-stocking-mass-effect-3-20120229031449252.jpg

And the back story of their situation is here

http://www.vg247.com/2012/02/02/death-watch-game-unlikely-to-survive-current-problems/

Quote :

GAME is now apparently unable to offer publishers credit insurance. By way of explanation: when a store like GAME stocks a product, the publisher of that product is normally insured. Soul Calibur V is out tomorrow, for instance. If GAME cannot offer Namco credit incurance on the stock it intends to sell, that means Namco has no guarantee it will be paid for its games. If GAME goes bust next week, and the credit on Soul Calibur V’s GAME stock isn’t insured, Namco will lose a great deal of money.

The issue of credit insurance in games retail is of particular importance for two main reasons. Firstly, there are the license fees publishers have to pay platform holders, such as Sony and Microsoft. Secondly, developing a triple-A video game is extremely expensive. If, for example, HMV can’t supply credit insurance on stock of a music CD, the risk to the publisher is nowhere near as acute as it would be on a video game. As such, any sign that a retailer has failed to secure credit insurance will stop supply of games stock very quickly. Especially in the current climate, risk on a stock large enough to supply 600 UK stores could easily kill a mid-range publisher, and even the very biggest – EA, Activision, etc – will take a very dim view.

That back story was back before the Mass Effect news hit.

Its not looking great for the high street games stores.

I'm absolutely gutted, I've lost my N7 Limited Edition preorder, and by the time I got home everywhere had sold out of the 360 version

Game will also not be stocking Mario Party 9!

Leroy wrote:

Game will also not be stocking Mario Party 9!

Yeah apparently Nintendo won't supply to GAME anymore either...

Blockbuster Online have some ME3 N7 edition stock http://tinyurl.com/7depl6c

Leroy wrote:

Blockbuster Online have some ME3 N7 edition stock http://tinyurl.com/7depl6c

I don't want Mass Effect or Mario Party so I'm cool

You don't want Mario Party? You've changed....

Leroy wrote:

You don't want Mario Party? You've changed....

I stopped wanting Mario Party when they invented online gaming... also they're all the same!

Big_Jim wrote:

Leroy wrote:

You don't want Mario Party? You've changed....

I stopped wanting Mario Party when they invented online gaming... also they're all the same!

YOU TAKE THAT BACK!

LeeTSanders wrote:

Big_Jim wrote:

Leroy wrote:

You don't want Mario Party? You've changed....

I stopped wanting Mario Party when they invented online gaming... also they're all the same!

YOU TAKE THAT BACK!

Wish I could take it back... *ba-dum-tish*

Anyone got a spare £15 million?

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/11/report-uk-retailer-game-is-for-sale/

Quote :

More trouble for GAME, as Microsoft and Activision join the long list of publishers not to have their titles stocked by the retailer.

That means that the R2D2-flavoured, limited edition Kinect Star Wars Xbox 360 will not appear on shelves at GAME. Neither will Activision’s Cabela Big Game Hunter 2012 and Zhu Zhu Babies, nor Microsoft's Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure.

Microsoft and Activision join Nintendo, EA, Sega, Capcom and Tecmo Koei on GAME’s growing list of absentee suppliers.

Yesterday it was revealed that a number of companies are interested in buying GAME, with Comet owner OpCapita at the forefront. Unless a deal can be reached before next weekend, GAME will slip into administration.

(via MCV)

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news/news-11139-GAME--Microsoft-and-Activision-Latest-Suppliers-to-Drop.html

Its getting really bad now!