Gamestop to close Irish operations

dublinman1990

So long Gamestop. It was good to have known you for a very long time. The games that I bought in there were some of the greatest ones that I have played in my younger years. It is a real pity that I won't be able to have that great experience in your stores again.

Slan leat.

Sgt Hartman

It'll be sad to see my local GameStop in Balbriggan go. I only got my PS5 in there a few weeks ago, and it always nice to pick up a physical copy of a game as opposed to a digital copy online. I'm not surprised though as a lot of these types of shops have gone to the wall in recent years thanks mainly to online shopping.

Dr Bob

GameStopped.

Dr Bob

Feel bad for the staff , hopefully they get treated better than the US ones and get a proper redundancy payment

B.A._Baracus

I miss GAME. That was a good shop.

Never really liked GameStop. Prices were always high and as others said they sell more pop figures now.

Grayson

Part of the problem is that gamestop were crap. They had a terrible inventory system.

I bought a PS4 pro through them on a black friday sale. Coworker did the same. We both ordered them the second the sale went online and chose pickup instead of delivery. Next morning I had an email saying it had been cancelled. At lunch my coworker went to pick it up. I went and queued in Smyths. 10 minutes later he joined me in smyths because when he was waiting in Gamestop he got a mail saying that the order was cancelled. Smyths had a wall of them available and it took no time to buy.

That's happened a few times to me when I ordered headsets or consoles from them. And I know of one woman who ordered an xbox series X, in July/August, for xmas and had the order cancelled just before xmas. I managed to find one online for her.

I'd actively tell people not to preorder from gamestop or use their online ordering. Walk in and if it's there, great. But never trust their online ordering.

Jaffa3000

Still buy games physically myself, so it is a shame. With Argos gone the only place to buy games in my town is Tesco, which is a bit sad. Thing is is consoles do digital games for the same price as physical copies (if not more), so just better off buying physical in general (although from Argos or Amazon because GameStop was way more expensive usually).

Physical music has made a massive comeback in recent years though, could Golden Discs start stocking some games?

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120389166#Comment_120389166

When you remove one retailer, there is by definition, less competition.

in other news, will be interesting to see the impact on pricing of games, consoles and accessories.

apache

My local CEX closed down about a year ago. I usually buy digital but it was nice to go in there and pick up something that caught my eye.

Haven't been in Gamestop in yonks.

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120394064#Comment_120394064

So that means that GameStop was uncompetitive as that’s why they’re going. That’s how it works.

Also,regarding pricing, GameStop was not cheap and also they do not control the prices, the manufacturers and publishers do. Prices won’t change because of this

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120394113#Comment_120394113

GameStop have closed over 800 stores since 2019. They are aiming for a more reliable business model.

prices are dictated by the market… supply vs demand

“ We have closed almost 800 stores worldwide since the beginning of 2019, representing both underperforming locations and de-densification in certain trade areas. We expect these closures to create a more profitable footprint. “

quinnd6

It's the only proper video game shop in Ireland and has no competition. All the others just sell video games on the side. This is bad news. Also Currys, Smyth's and Harvey Norman are nowhere near me. How can the only frigging video game store in Ireland screw up so badly? They need to drop the crappy merchandise, no one's interested in it. People want decent offers on games. Whoever is in charge of running the GameStop international business needs to be fired because they have not got a frigging clue and are running it into the ground. It's such a shame. There won't be an actual physical shop I can go into to look at games anymore. It is sad and terrible.

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120394136#Comment_120394136

I don't think the gaming industry is competing on price.

Xbox X and PS 5 was launched at pracically identical prices. Sony increased Playstation by €50 last year and Gamestop put up their prices.

Games now rising to €70 and there's no supply issue.

People are buying their games and consoles in other places.

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120394336#Comment_120394336

They didn't screw up. They're simply in a business that is being replaced by technology and going the way of video rental shops.

Do you not ask yourself why they have closed 800 shops since 2019 as mentioned above and why they're the only game shop in the country?

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120394709#Comment_120394709

And they started to diversify into models and stuff because there's no money in just games anymore. The problem is that the kind of people who buy models will look online and they never had a great selection. Somewhere like forbidden planet is far better.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120394701#Comment_120394701

Honestly, the price of games hasn't changed much in over a decade. I remember a PS3 being close to €600 at launch in March 2007, and I bought it for near 500 in December 2007. I picked up the Orange Box for €60 in HMV too around the same time.

RobbingBandit

Loads of items nearly doubled in price overnight New Tales from Borderlands has been €24.99 for moths now it's €49.99. NBA 2k23 gone up to €59.99 on switch and as high as €79.99 on PS5 too.

Getting ready for the false sale prices I'd guess.

Homelander

Gamestop have always had horrible pricing even when they had retail competitors.

It must be five years since I bought a game in there, always €10-15 more expensive than Smyths or Argos for new releases and prices very slow to drop compared to those outlets as well.

Terrible prices on pre-owned games as well compared to CEX, and always had the worst trade-in prices, going as far back as when Game was around.

Even when things were fine for Gamestop, I disliked the store for all those reasons.

Kintarō Hattori

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120390408#Comment_120390408

I've been shopping in CEX Balbriggan for ages now. I'd occasionally pop over to the Gamestop and try to browse through their catalogue of used games. The prices were crazy, €20+ more expensive than a shop that was 10 seconds away from them. In CEX you can clearly see the stock they have, it's well laid out. With GameStop it's all jammed into a basket as tight as possible and trying to flick through the selection was just a pita.

Deebles McBeebles

Regardless of past issues anyone may have with them or other physical console/game sellers, we should remember that this is forcing us into digital only purchases. That means there will be no more grabbing a 2nd hand copy of a relatively new game for 20/30 quid. I buy the vast majority of my games 2nd hand and basically all of them in physical format. We will be completely at the mercy of PS and Xbox online stores. Once the competition is gone, they can charge what they want and there's f*ck all anyone can do about it.

...Ghost...

Sad to see another retailer go. Not a big gamer....i'm past it. I did order a PS5 for the Christmas deliveries which were very limited. I had to be at the store on a certain day to put my name on the list. It was just coincidence I was going to be there the following day anyway and stopped in to put my name on the list and pay a €50 deposit. Their card machine was offline and they couldn't take cash payments for some reason. I checked back in after doing my shopping with the mindset of leaving it be if they couldn't take my deposit. System was back online and from there it all went well, but they were stupidly rigid which i'm sure messed them up in other ways. I bought games in Smyths because the prices were better. Gamestop had a bundle deal for controllers which matched Smyths prices (lol). I went with it because they had 4 different colours available, but would have gone with Smyths otherwise.

Greyfox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120396022#Comment_120396022

Most people prefer digital purchases as sales happen regularly. Also Amazon are great for physical games and they aren't going anywhere. At least Smyths and Cex are sometimes worth a browse but Gamestop are never worth a browse as they never offer a genuine bargin. The prices of their used games were sometimes ridiculous and gamers notice these things

Deebles McBeebles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120396697#Comment_120396697

Oh I'm very much the outlier with my preference for physical copies, I realise that, absolutely. It's been engineered that way and people are happy to go along with it. Amazon are fine and all but the lack of competition may start to show there too, in time, if all our brick and mortar options are gone. Gamestop may be the worst of them for prices but in a bigger picture sort of way it's good to have them all competing.

Kintarō Hattori

I agree it's a blow for physical media and competition. For many years I was an avid steam buyer and have amassed a big collection of games. However with the release of the XBox One and then doubt around Sony (I forgot what the issue was with them and used games- I believe there was something), it woke me up so to speak that perhaps having a digital only collection wasn't the way to go. For some time now I try and buy a physical copy where possible.

Gamestop haven't really figured in my plans for some time, but it is a blow to retail. Having too few players in the market is never healthy.

RobbingBandit

There won't be a retail based price hike of consoles that would be suicide by the stores plus the console prices are MSRP what will happen is a famine on availability with the likes of Smyths having stock on the same basis they have now can't see them upping to fill any gap left by Argos and GameStop being gone.

CeX probably won't start selling new items as the cost effectiveness of it is what's killing GameStop in the first place.

Hopefully someone or something will plug the hole left from these two going otherwise buying games really will be a thing of the past for many myself include.

quinnd6

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120394709#Comment_120394709

No you're wrong they did screw up majorly because they weren't competitive. They weren't competitive with prices on new releases and were always the most expensive and matched the price of new releases on the download stores which are also overpriced and overinflated. Look at the price of Resident Evil 4 remake right now for example. It's 59.99 in Smyth's. On the Playstation store it is 69.99 and in GameStop it is 69.99. That's one example and it's basically everything. The Playstation and Xbox stores are rip offs and so are GameStop. If Smyth's can sell the same new releases for 59.99 GameStop should be doing the same. The Playstation and Xbox online stores have always been a rip off for new releases and I tell you if we're stuck with that crap we will be massively ripped off. Downloads are not the future unless you want to be massively ripped off.

Instead of being competitive on new releases they tried to pawn off crap on people like warranties and sell merchandise that nobody wanted. If they had decent leadership and some kind of brain at the top they could have been competitive. Instead they had a-holes pushing garbage. It's the people at the top, that is why GameStop failed. They don't know how to run a business. You need to have some regard for your customer base instead of making your best efforts to screw your customer. Used games were often priced higher than new releases also. Physical media is very much needed for prices of games to remain reasonable. If Sony and Microsoft digital stores take over the customer will be majorly fleeced paying top dollar for everything.

Aokay

I have around €800 tied up in pre orders and GameStop credit I now have to figure out how to spend. This is a huge hassle. I guess I'll just have to buy a console and try and sell it or something

quinnd6

Looking back to last year I did get a few good deals on some games when they had sales and bought a game off them on Black Friday. While it may seem like I'm contradicting myself, they're not always bad and had a few very cheap games last year that I bought that had been out a good while. New releases though as I said expensive.

I will be sorry to see them go though. Yep it doesn't look great.

quinnd6

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120399374#Comment_120399374

Also very sorry to hear that, that's a bad predicament to be in. Maybe they'd let you cancel some of those preorders, not your fault, you didn't know that was going to happen.

Strumms

They probably see that the writing is on the wall.

Ps6 is rumoured to be a 2028 release, that is based on a leaked Sony document and my guess is that console / box will probably not have any physical games, just download only.