There's not that much support out there without a solid as strawberry float business plan and even though a good percentage of GAME/GS staff are really good and know their stuff, going S/E is still very much a risk these days (if it wasn't I'd have given up my FT job in Santander to write guides full-time, although - ironically - that may end up being the evntual outcome come July anways).

There's hardly any grants and buisness link advice can only get you so far these days. It's certainly an avenue, but hoping for a Phoenix from the Ashes with another style of brick-and-mortar games specialist (even via highly competant ex-GAME/GS staff) would be near impossible to get funding for at the moment. And how many people do you think on their wages would have enough surplus capital to buy stock/negotiate agreeable rental terms, pay staff wages, marketing etc etc?

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GamerGuides.com

Has anyone seen PSP's reduced? My local GAME has the games down to practically free, but haven't reduced the actual consoles.

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Everyone should just block No:1 Final Fantasy Fan, then I won't have to read his utter shite in quote chains.

Whenever he posts he actually makes me physically angry. If I ever meet you in the street son I won't be held responsible.

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1 > 3 > 2 >> 4

For the benefit of No:1 Final Fantasy Fan -

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In regards to reduced consoles. I went into game station yesterday, DS Phat is down to £20 and PSP Phat is down to £30.

I wish that was the case in mine no phat DS's in stock and they haven't bothered with reducing PSPs.

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Nothing was really reduced in Cambridge.....as usual we never get anything cheap

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I wish I wasn't broke. My game/station has everything reduced and there is loads of things in stock.

Been a while since I posted, but all this talk of GAME/Station has brought me out of the darkness!!

I used to be the assistant manager of a Gamestation store circa 2000 until 2003.
This was when working in a Game shop was awesome, I loved my job.
Couldn't wait to get in each day and generally chat about games with customers.
To me the social aspect was fantastic, sure you'd get the odd beligrant customer but most were up for a chat.

I loved recommending games for people of all types and nothing was ever forced onto them.
I left just after the Blockbuster buyout not because I hated it but because I changed my career.

Having been a customer of theirs since (albeit not loyally) service has dropped considrably over the years espically since the GAME buyout. No-one likes the hard sell.

I'm really sad that Gamestation potentially will be gone soon as it's not what it once was. I feel bad for some of the people I know who still work there as the staff are always the last to know anything.

Having said all this picking up the Batman Arkham City Collectors Edition Brand New for £20 yesterday is the first time I've anything in there in ages. Perhaps that's part of the problem.....

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While GAME's inevitable administration and probable liquidation is the last thing the economy needs, and I wish the front line staff good luck in searching through the scraps they call "the job market", I do think all of the upper management since the GameStation buyout should suffer reprecussions. Alas, they'll inevitably slip into plushy management jobs in Unilever or something and wind up getting away from this car crash without punishment.

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[STEAM] [PSN] [TWITTER] [LAST.FM] [RAPTR]

I am loving the spring sale. I got £28 worth of PSP games for £4.50!

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i'm selling you the "wee-shrew(dead edition)" for only 300 including packaging! I think you're getting a real bargain in Cambridge right there!

I hope other retailers learn the lesson here. Namely that aggressive up-selling and mystery shoppers etc is a load of gooseberry fool and the utter banana splits in management who call for measures like these need to die in a fire.

Cheaper alive on Amazon.

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not the same at all, poor quality brand that.

"The only good shrew is a dead shew, a wee-dead shrew". That's our motto.

Today's latest edition even comes bleeding from the mouth after getting, ermm, released by our cat in the house and then deciding to get stuck to the flee catcher and seemingly poisoning itself (wife was sad for it, silly duffer). But Suzz gets it for just 300, it's a special edition.

That's only because publishers don't send you live ones any more. Sort yourselves out.

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Apparently our attach(ed to the flea catcher) rate is too high for them.

People happy about GAME going under

The only people who should be suffering because of this, the Senior Management at Head Office, are the only ones going to be walking away with huge over-inflated redundancy packages and then likely just walk into the boardroom of some other company they can mis-manage into the ground.

Everyone else will be left with the absolute minimum in terms of redundancy money (those that get anything at all) and will struggle to find alternative employment. Retail isn't the easy job market it may once have been where staff were coming and going on a weekly basis. Competition for work is just too high now for that kind of staff turnover. Also remember, many of the people working in GAME/Gamestation branches probably started out as Christmas temps and then stayed on. Right now we're pretty much right in the middle of the dry season for retail hiring, it wont be really gearing up again until September.

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I'm wondering if I should hit up the Game and GS nearest to me for PSP games tomorrow. Or will I turn up and find something akin to 28 Days Later?