As previously noted on the blog, things have not been going brilliantly at UK video games retailer Game.
And now they’ve gotten worse. Eek!
A ‘Spring Cleaning’ promotion slashing prices across the board is widely being interpreted as a ‘fire sale’ tactic to drive up much-needed profits before the chain heads into administration – a fate which could befall the retailer by the end of the week.
As to what would happen then, a buy-out by US giant GameStop has been mooted, but gossip has it that they are looking at Game’s locations in Spain and Portugal. And they’ve recently reduced their tentative presence in the UK anyway – perhaps as a precursor to swooping down on the troubled nationwide chain and getting a larger foothold in the £2.52 billion games market in the United Kingdom?
My own take on this is that it will be sad to see the back of Game were it to go the way of other retailers like Virgin, Music Zone and Fopp – it’s fun to just go into a high street store which is dedicated to the stuff that you love, to go to midnight launches for blockbuster titles and to score somehow overlooked bargains in the pre-owned section.
To do my bit for their takings, I had a wander into town to Sheffield’s city centre branch and picked up a game I’ve been meaning to buy for ages…

A mysterious bag, possibly filled with delight and wonder...
But what could it be? A barely played copy of that Black Eyed Peas Kinect tie-in (hell to the no)? A “Call of Duty” game that I’m going to try to persevere with (I’m through with that series, I think)? Nope, none of those…

Huzzah! It's "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow"!
I’ve been waiting to check out this game for ages but could never find a copy, so this opportunity wasn’t to be passed up. Why, if you’re familiar with the series, this is almost fodder for another post in my “A Season of Vamps” series. And, if memory serves, I ended up paying less for the game than the reduced sticker price shown above, so even at this point my transaction isn’t helping out as much as it could have done. Sorry, Game.
I’m not sure that I want to keep gaming in a future where all titles end up being downloadable to console – but it appears that this is the direction that the industry wants to go in, if only to end the scourge of cheapskates like me buying second-hand games. Why, I’m clearly worse than Hitler.