It’s been a year of change for UK high street stalwart GAME, with impacts felt by the chain’s loyal customers and long-term staff alike.
In January, Eurogamer broke the news that the brand would end its long-running trade-in scheme and the sale of pre-owned games, while some staff were moved onto new zero-hour contracts. This summer, we reported on a flurry of further changes, including the closure of GAME’s membership programme and the ending of in-store pre-orders for new releases, as GAME’s technical systems were “upgraded” to those of its parent company, Frasers Group.
This autumn, further effects of that change became apparent, as GAME customers struggled with online pre-orders and faced confusion over deliveries – most notably including the Silent Hill 2 Steelbook. And throughout this year, dozens more GAME shops have closed on the high street, replaced by concessions in other stores such as Sports Direct.
As 2024 comes to a close, we’ve spoken with shop floor staff, managers and those close to GAME’s head office for more detail on where the company is currently, and an explanation for why the issues customers have faced over the past few months have been so persistent. All wished to remain anonymous for the sake of their careers.
Eurogamer contacted Frasers Group for comment on this report, as it has done with its reporting previously, but once again did not receive a response.
“We have lost 78 percent of GAME head office staff”
“When Frasers Group took over GAME, they had their own departments that deal with marketing and logistics making sure stuff goes out on time,” someone with knowledge of GAME’s head office told me. “But then Frasers Group sat down and said ‘why do we need two of everything?'”
This year has seen layoffs and redundancies across the chain, from shop staff who have been moved to zero hours contracts or offered work elsewhere – such as in Sports Direct stores. Others have simply been told they are no longer required, including a widespread loss of area managers over the past couple of months, as well as the bulk of GAME’s previous head office staff.
“They made area managers redundant, eliminating some very loyal staff members – up to 20 years with the company in some cases,” a current employee said. “This means store managers now talk to and are managed by someone in head office – the same head office which has also had redundancies and been reduced significantly.”
“Since the full integration with Fraser group on 1st August we have lost 78 percent of GAME head office staff,” another employee said. “It was triple digits and now in the 20s,” another person confirmed. “Of course, we are now suffering the effects of that.”
On a shopfloor level, staff say Frasers Group sees redundancies as a way to cut GAME’s wage bill while simultaneously investing in more staff for Sports Direct – “the brand they really care about, the more profitable business”, one staff member told me. Eurogamer is aware of staff who have quit because they did not wish to be moved from a video games specialist store to selling sportswear and trainers, and others who were only offered nominal shifts, such as just three hours on a Saturday, under new zero hours contracts.
“There’s just been stock issues with every new release”
The loss of head office staff and those experienced in the video games business has affected the delivery of games to stores, multiple staff say. “The Frasers Group ordering and logistics managers are not doing enough to meet release dates,” one person said. “They’re just ordering stuff whenever.” While the launch of Silent Hill 2 made headlines, GAME staff say that, with few exceptions, the majority of game releases are not arriving on time. “There’s just been stock issues with every new release,” a staff member said. “Anything that hasn’t been EA Sports FC or Call of Duty has been late arriving, or not arrived at all. And if we do get it, maybe we get a handful of copies. I’ve genuinely been sending more people away than serving. We did get a few PS5 Pro consoles in, but only half what we were told we would receive.”
“It appears on the surface to all of us that yes, whoever is in the GAME head office now does not understand what a game specialist is,” another staff member said. “The last delivery we had at our store, there were no new releases, no games, no accessories – instead we received 136 Zendaya action figures.”
Eurogamer recently reported on customers waiting days to receive Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 copies they had pre-ordered, after GAME previously claimed customers would be available to “pick up and play” the game with an added Steelbook on the day of release. In reality, the game’s launch brought an update from the chain that it was aware some orders were still “processing”, with no word on how long the delay would last.
“My store got five copies of COD, one of the biggest launches of the year,” one source said. “How can you make money on five copies? New copies cost a lot and you don’t make much, £6-£12 depending on how much they’re marked up. If you have someone working eight, 10 hours a day, you have to sell a lot to make their wages.
“I recently saw six or seven people come in within about half an hour to buy a game that came out that day, only to be told GAME didn’t have it. ‘What do you mean, it came out today, I pre-ordered it?’ they’d say. We just have to tell them we don’t have it in, and I’m really sorry. All of them left without the stuff they’d already paid for, on the day of the release. And you know how people who play video games are. We’re compulsive buyers. The number of people who are then like ‘well cancel my pre-order, I’ll buy it from Smyths’. And then they don’t come in ever again.”
“Honestly at this point we would not be surprised”
The Call of Duty snafu came just weeks after GAME shipped Silent Hill 2 copies late and then left customers without the game’s accompanying Steelbook, which the chain simply said had been delayed, with no apology or further reason given. Eurogamer asked GAME staff what had happened there, and heard a persistent rumour that the person now ordering the chain’s stock had been unaware of how to process it properly.
“When you have Steelbook editions, you order 50 copies of the game. You also order 50 Steelbooks,” a person close to GAME’s head office said. “I was told the person at Frasers Group who is now in charge for ordering stock for GAME simply didn’t click that they wanted the Steelbook too. They just ordered 40k copies of the game but didn’t select the Steelbook. It was only when area managers – some that were still there – said ‘you just haven’t ordered it’ [that Frasers Group realised]. And at first they were like ‘what do you mean, I have ordered it’. And they said ‘no, for special editions you have to order it under special offers’.”
“The Silent Hill 2 Steelbook we have heard several different excuses for,” another GAME staff member told me. “The one that comes up the most is since the switch over to Fraser Group systems, all pre-order information was lost into the ether on pre-orders made before 1st August. So information on which stores needed allocations was gone. Then they randomly sent more than required to certain stores and some stores like ours who had pre-orders received none. Another store in my area only had 10 pre-orders but received 37 Steelbooks. So all available Steelbooks ended up at a select few stores.”
“There are internal rumours,” said a third staff member, “honestly at this point we would not be surprised if it were the truth.”
“Frasers Group doesn’t know what to send out, where to send it to”
Eurogamer has repeatedly heard of issues behind the scenes since GAME moved over to Frasers Group systems this summer, and indeed this is the reason behind many of the chain’s various schemes, such as GAME Rewards and GAME Wallet, no longer being supported.
“They don’t even have the sales data,” one person close to head office said, “because all of the point of sale and stock managing systems have been ripped apart and converted over to the Frasers Group, or the people who knew this stuff are being made redundant. Frasers Group has no background in games, they have no affinity, no passion for it. They can’t look back at 10-15 years of sales history because it’s been deleted.
“My local store, they haven’t had Switch Pro controllers in for months,” they continued. “Personally I got mine from CEX, saved £20. But some people want them from GAME and they’re not being sent. There are warehouses up and down the country filled to the brim with stock because the Frasers Group doesn’t know what to send out, where to send it to.”
Staff say they don’t believe anything will change until Frasers Group acknowledges GAME’s current issues – and that this doesn’t seem likely, as the company’s focus on cutting costs and staff continues. Some even believe the only explanation for the changes is a form of self-sabotage, they told me.
“The general feeling amongst staff has been that the poor decisions, the firing of almost all the knowledgeable staff and now the low stock with absolutely zero communication of the issues from head office can only be a deliberate, calculated attempt to run the company into the ground,” one employee said. “If it’s not deliberate, it’s total incompetence or desperate cost-saving measures that will only be detrimental to profits in the long run.”
“I don’t think they know they’re doing a bad job,” another said. “They think they’re saving loads of money, still doing well, customers are still coming back. Well, they’re not listening to anyone.”