GAME Group saved by a £1 buyout
GAME Group has been saved by a buyout bid from OpCapita valued at a single pound.
The deal sees OpCapita, which already owns high-street electronics chain Comet, picking up GAME Group's assets for a nominal £1. As a result, 333 stores owned by GAME Group and not yet closed as part of the company's cull of 277 properties will be remaining open - for now.
OpCapita's investment saves an estimated 3,200 jobs in GAME Group's high-street facilities, which will come as a great relief the company's remaining employees and cold comfort to the 2,104 people laid off last week as the company entered administration.
'We strongly believe there is a place on the high street for a video gaming specialist, and GAME is the leading brand in a £2.8 billion market in the UK,' claimed OpCapita's managing partner Henry Jackson of the deal. For its investment, OpCapita's David Hamid - late of Halfords - becomes GAME Group's new executive chair.
While OpCapita's deal with GAME Group's administrators saves its UK facilities, things look darker overseas. The deal only covers the company's UK properties; elsewhere, the administration continues with around 4,000 staff across 663 shops at risk.
OpCapita now has a major undertaking on its hands, clearing GAME Group's staggering debts and turning the company's fortunes around. Whether that will entail further store closures and job losses is not yet known.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyI know alot of the stores that are closed have stock in them, get this stuff sold and restructure, I'd rather see just 1 store instead of a Game and Gamestation right near each other competing.
I would be sad to see these stores disappear completely, was in my town centre other day and was gutted my Gamestaion was closed, it's part of my reasoning for shopping with the Mrs
It's sad for those that lost their jobs, but equally others have kept theirs and stand a good chance of doing so in the future.
No, just one hundred pennies. Bear in mind that GAME is around £100 million in debt, so OpCapita is really on the hook for £100,000,001. It did something similar with Comet - except it paid £2 instead of £1 for that acquisition.
These smaller independent gaming stores got bullied out of the market by these over the top bloodsucking-money-grabbing, Cancer Companys like Games and GameStop.
Back then there was a smaller second hand market for people that enjoyed gaming for what it was. Going main-stream, changed all that and now these huge multi-billion corporations are going bust, and to be brutally honest! I couldnt be happier about it!
Less capitalism in this world makes the world a better place.
It basically just advertised everything Game did, including trade-ins and second hand sales. It'll be interesting to see how that one pans out.
Tesco would have to be selling a non-food item I actually wanted for me to give them a try if they give you store credit to spend on whatever. Their loyalty scheme is already generous enough without giving them my games as well.
I'll sell you £100million of my debt if you're in the market for some. Just sign on the dotted line (and give me a week to amass the debts).
Never been into a shop since the Amiga died !
dunx
And do something good for a PC section or don't bother with a pc section.
THIS!
No its no joke, I was in PoundWorld the other day and saw it in there......onset.
onest even.
Capitalism generated those stores in the first place dude.
Didn't really use the store but like another fella already said, it makes shopping with ladies a lot more appealing. Prices were too high and shop frequency was too high over short distances, no matter whatever the difference between game and gamestation was supposed to be. Glad for job saves though. Thoughts with the peeps who are now on the look.
ok less corporate capitalism in this world makes the world a better place.
but then all capitalism leads to corporate capitalism in the end.
Capitalism is like cancer, it has many forms.
I so agree :) thats why we have Games & Gameshop!
Greed goes a long way in todays society, hell ! You can almost call it a blessing, by some. I guess those are the same people that lack any sort of morality and seeing value in owning a physical item.
Heck! The dollar was valued once in gold, now days printing money out of the federal reserve-ass makes it more real to people.
Illusion is a great word for describing digital distribution, you dont own it, and they do.
Once those cloud-streaming-servers shutdown and the company you so dearly trust, files for bankruptcy. You suddenly realize that youre left with nothing, but nothing
As for me at least I own a physical item and it has value, unlike code made out of thin air.
Plus with digital copies there's no risk of you losing or breaking it.
It's not perfect obviously, but I don't see how it's any more risky than a physical copy in most cases.
I will make this short so not to drag out into different topic. The difference is, mighty pirate that your Wing Commander CD witch you owned for 20 years was a physical object.
During those 20 years you could have swapped it, sold it to second hand or barrowed it to a friend and in that sense it has value.
If you paid for it, you have the God given right to burn it if you wanted to. The point Im trying to make try burning your steam version of Wing Commander if there ever was one, or sell it, or change it in for a different game on steam!
And in that sense the digital copy is no more real as a property you own then an invisible elephant, it has no value.
I dont use Games or Gamestop, because I choose not to support it. But that doesnt stop me from trading in my physical copy of Wing Commander at a different retail and get a better deal.
The difference between a physical object and a digital item I have the option and freedom to do what I want with it and that brings value
So no, I dont believe nor do I agree with you mighty pirate that Im left with nothing in the same way as a digital customer is these customers are not offered same rights, and in my eyes thats wrong.
The question you should be asking!
What happened to American Values, the freedom of choice?
Why is it that YOU CANT or more likely you are not allowed to take your digital game copy witch you purchased on steam and go to a different digital distribution company, lets say Origin and make an equal valued digital trade in or get a discount on your digital steam game!
Think for a moment of the possibilities and what would happen to Games or GameStop if something like that would have been allowed within the digital gaming world, I would be the first individual standing at the front of the line doing my purchases thru steam as I would see value in doing so.
Look at TF2, Team Fortress 2 for the people that dont know. Some digital hats in TF2 are more valued as in game currency then a game you just paid 60, 70, 80 dollars for, REAL LIFE MONEY!
WHY! Are you not allowed to do trade, sell your digital game but you can do so with a meaningless hat in TF2!
The answer is, because digital distribution marginalizes your freedom of choice and there for IT HAS NO VALUE after you finished with you game.
Don't you mean £99,999,999; since they have put the £1 into the business therefore paying off £1 of the £100million debt?
I bet it's doable though to turn things around brilliantly but not without awesome changes, definitely get rid of bad decision makers like the ones who got them in this crap.
So by the measurement you've outlined, something you couldn't trade or sell due to account tie in or activation limits would no longer have value? That's DRM, that has removed said value. Not to be confused with digital distribution. While grantedly they often go hand in hand, they're not the same thing.
A lot of digital distributed games could be copied, lent to friends, or sold on ebay (though the legality of this I'm not sure of). Anything from GOG.com for example. I could download any one of my installers, pop it on a usb & share it with you. A number of games on Steam are the same, the files could be copied from the Steam directory & just distributed & run from another machine. Although most recent games have Steamworks or some other DRM in place to prevent this. But again, that's DRM, not specifically the digital distribution that's preventing that kind of lending or resale.
Your original statement was that digital distribution has no value. I'm just illustrating that it does. It's value is just different. It's value might not be important to you personally, but there are still benefits that must be recognised as potential value. Also digital distribution & DRM aren't the same thing. And most of the flaws of digital distribution you've mentioned are actually the flaws of DRM.
But for the record I hate DRM too. Stupid inhibiting concept.
"So by the measurement you've outlined, something you couldn't trade or sell due to account tie in or activation limits would no longer have value? That's DRM, that has removed said value. Not to be confused with digital distribution
But again, that's DRM, not specifically the digital distribution that's preventing that kind of lending or resale."
Digital Rights Management DRM, the reason you are able to find Digital in DRM and digital distribution is because these two go hand in hand together.
They are not separated entities!
DRM is a tool of Digital distribution, DRM prevents you from making a digital copy and as such you have nothing to share, trade, lend or resell.
However, you are allowed to make a copy for your personal use.
As such the way Digital distribution works is that it controls the flow of delivery as such it limits, hinders and prevents.
Here is an example; Lets take one of the world biggest digital distributers steam and give me one digital game on steam that you can trade, resell, lend to a friend!
You cant, because there is none.
By law you are not allowed to make a copy of your purchased digital game and digitally distribute by lending, trade or reselling.
There are far more negatives to digital distribution to call it draw any benefit for gamers.
If there are any benefits, it must be said the cheap-ass deals steam has now and then. But that is beside the point as we are talking about a second hand market and not deals on steam.
Ah, good old classics Im not talking about 20 year old games that sell for about 9.99 dollar at GOG that are free of DRM.
Retailers like Games and GameStop make their money in the most sinister way, selling a brand new game for top market price and making a poor kid trade his 5 older games for 1 new game. But, ladies and gentlemen it doesnt stop there, no sir. The kid is still short so he has to reach out and add 30 dollars to the pot.
How do they make a profit? Well GameStop or Games takes these 5 games and sells them for premium price. And how is it exactly that they are allowed to get away with these astronomical premium second hand market prices?
The answer is easy, control the second hand market and you can put whatever price tag you see fit. The same mentality goes for new games in digital distribution!
If you want to make something fair for the gamer, open up a second hand market in the digital distribution and we can start talking about benefits.
You see, it all comes goes back to capitalism and monopoly, control it, limit it and prevent access to trade those are the tools of digital distributions.
At the end of the day it about making money but hey! Dont take my word for it ask the ppl at unity of command and see what they say about steam and digital distribution.
:)
Just because they often go hand in hand, does not mean they have to. They are not reliant on each other to exist. They are seperate things.
But digital distribution as a concept HAS to work that way. And not all of it does.
If you buy games directly from small time developers online, or through humble bundle's etc. you will find many that contain no DRM, no account tie ins. Nothing.
By law you can create a copy of a game you bought (digitally or by retail) so long as you retain the original. You can distribute the original by lending or resale, but not the copy. If you part with the original, you may not retain the copy.
There is no law preventing you from lending or reselling the file(s) of a game you acquired digitally. You should still have the right of first sale. As long as you do not keep any copies & as long as there is no DRM in place that prevents you from doing so. Again, that is the DRM inhibiting your abilities, not the fact that the product might have been digitally distributed.
Yes there are obviously negatives to digital distribution & I'm not arguing that it's better or even equal to retail purchases. That's for everyone to decide themselves. But there are benefits & while the drawbacks might outweigh those to many people, it doesn't change the fact that those benefits exist.
Obviously reselling digitally distributed games is also much harder to justify, because there's no way to prove that you didn't keep a copy without opening yourself up to investigation. Which publishers wouldn't have time for, so they're predictably unkeen on the idea.
Maybe something like the Steam inventory could be expanded to paying Valve a small fee for the exchange of games you've played. But I wouldn't bank on that.
You will have to excuse my blurry illustration of the DRM law. I wrote the post at 04:00 in the morning.
By law you can create a copy of a game you bought (digitally or by retail) so long as you retain the original.
For self-usage, I agree.
You can distribute the original by lending or resale, but not the copy. If you part with the original, you may not retain the copy.
I agree, this is exactly what the second hand market is. The original game is passed on and no copy is being made. Here comes my issue with the digital side of it.
There is a huge but, you cant do what you said in your above statement with any of the major digital distribution companys steam, origin or whatever.
Why? Well we have an answer in this statement that you made
Because as well as being a digital distribution platform, Steam is also a form of DRM.
So you see, I dont believe for one second the notion that Digital Distribution and DRM are 2 separate entities, two different bodys or anything of that sort.
In this case they are linked. But that does not mean they have to be.
I agree with you that they both dont need to be linked, but they are!
Just as a government has links and is entwined to the police. They are both different but have the same agenda and they both work for the system. That is the way I view digital distribution and DRM, they both are the same however much we want them not to be.
Because of this, digital distribution suffers from reaching its fullest potential creating unconscious overpriced second hand market at Gamestop or Games retails.
If there is a sinister agenda by the digital distributors to keep the two markets separated, theyre currently not providing any alternatives.
Now dont jump the gun, Im not saying that digital distribution created the second hand market at Games and GameStop, that market was already there before digital distribution. However what I am saying is that it wouldnt hurt the owners of the digital distribution companies to open up a new market place.
Opening up something like that closes the gap where I see Digital distribution and DRM as one and the same. And start treating gamers as customers, with respect and not as junkies looking for the next fix in entertainment.
A reasonable digital second hand market, is that so much to ask for? And heck you keep your DRM on steam. Once you traded your digital game, you no longer have that original in your library of games so youre not making any copies. Look at the Gift functionality on steam, damn thats as close to a digital second hand trade market you can get.
Cheers for the lively debate : )