It’s been a year of change for British chain stalwart game, and the impact is being felt by both the chain’s loyal customers and long-standing staff.
In January, Eurogamer broke the news that the brand would be ending its long-running trade-in scheme and the sale of used games, while some staff were moved to new zero-hours contracts. This summer, we reported on a number of additional changes, including the closure of game‘s membership program and the end of in-store pre-orders for new releases, as game‘s technical systems were “upgraded” to those of their parent company, Frasers Group. .
This fall, more effects of that change became apparent, as game customers struggled with online pre-orders and faced confusion over deliveries, most notably the Silent Hill 2 Steelbook. And over the course of this year, dozens more game stores have closed on the high street, replaced by concessions at other stores such as Sports Direct.
As 2024 comes to a close, we’ve spoken to game‘s plant staff, managers and people close to headquarters to get more details on where the company is currently and an explanation of why the issues facing them clients have faced in recent months have been so persistent. They all wished to remain anonymous for the sake of their careers.
Eurogamer contacted Frasers Group for comment on this report, as it did with its previous reports, but once again received no response.
“We have lost 78 percent of game headquarters staff”
“When Frasers Group took over game, they had their own departments dealing with marketing and logistics, making sure everything was on time,” someone with knowledge of game head office told me. “But then Frasers Group sat down and said ‘why do we need two of everything?'”
This year there have been redundancies and redundancies across the chain, from store staff being moved onto zero-hours contracts or offered work elsewhere, such as at Sports Direct stores. Others have simply been told they are no longer needed, including a widespread loss of area managers in recent months, as well as most of the staff at game‘s former head office.
“They fired area managers, eliminating some very loyal staff members, in some cases up to 20 years with the company,” said one current employee. “This means that store managers now speak to and are directed by someone in head office, the same head office that has also had layoffs and downsized significantly.”
“Since fully integrating with the Fraser group on August 1, we have lost 78 percent of game headquarters staff,” said another employee. “It was triple digits and now in the 20s,” another person confirmed. “Of course, we are now suffering the effects of that.”
At plant level, staff say Frasers Group sees the redundancies as a way to reduce game‘s wage bill while investing in more staff for Sports Direct – “the brand they really care about, the most profitable business”, a staff member told me. Eurogamer is aware of staff who have resigned because they did not want to move from a specialist video game store to selling sportswear and sneakers, and others who were only offered nominal shifts, such as just three hours on a Saturday, under the new zero schedule. contracts.
“There have been stock problems with each new release”
The loss of head office staff and those with experience in the video game business has affected the delivery of games to stores, several employees say. “Frasers Group’s order and logistics managers are not doing enough to meet release dates,” one person said. “They’re just asking for things whenever.” While the release of Silent Hill 2 made headlines, game staff say that, with few exceptions, most game releases don’t arrive on time. “There have been stock issues with every new release,” said one staff member. “Everything that hasn’t been EA Sports FC or Call of Duty has arrived late, or not at all. And if we get it, maybe we’ll get a handful of copies. I’ve actually been laying off more people than we get some consoles.” PS5 Pro, but only half of what they told us we would receive.”
“On the surface it seems to all of us that yes, whoever is now at game headquarters doesn’t understand what a game specialist is,” another staff member said. “In the last delivery we had in 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 the copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 they had pre-ordered, after game previously claimed customers would be available to “pick up and play” the game with a Steelbook added on the day of the launch. The game‘s launch actually brought an update from the chain that it knew some orders were still being “processed,” with no idea how long the delay would last.
“My store received five copies of COD, one of the biggest releases of the year,” said a source. “How can you make money on five copies? New copies cost a lot and you don’t make much, between £6 and £12 depending on the margin. If you have someone working eight or ten hours a day, you have to sell a lot to make money. the salary.
“I recently saw six or seven people walk in in 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? Did you order it?’ they would say. Just We have to tell them that we don’t have it, and I’m very sorry. Everyone was left without the things they had already paid for, on launch day. How are the people who play video games. We are compulsive buyers who then say: ” Well, I canceled my pre-order, I “I’ll shop at Smyths” and then they won’t come back in. “
“Honestly, at this point it wouldn’t surprise us”
The Call of Duty issue came just weeks after game shipped copies of Silent Hill 2 late and then left customers without the Steelbook that accompanied the game, which the chain simply said was delayed, without apologizing or giving more. reasons. Eurogamer asked game staff what had happened there and heard a persistent rumor that the person now ordering the chain’s actions didn’t know how to properly process them.
“When you have Steelbook editions, you order 50 copies of the game. You also order 50 Steelbooks,” said a person close to game‘s headquarters. “I was told that the person at Frasers Group who is now in charge of ordering stock for game just didn’t click that they also wanted the Steelbook. They only ordered 40,000 copies of the game but didn’t select the Steelbook. It was only when the area managers – some who were still there – said ‘you just haven’t asked for it’ [that Frasers Group realised]. And at first they said, “What do you mean I asked for it?” And they told me ‘no, for special editions you have to order it under special offers.'”
“We’ve heard several different excuses for the Silent Hill 2 Steelbook,” another game staffer told me. “The one that comes up most is that since the switch to Fraser Group systems, all pre-order information was lost into the ether on pre-orders placed before August 1. Therefore, information on which stores needed allocations disappeared. Then I randomly sent more than required to certain stores and some stores like ours that had pre-orders did not receive any. Another store in my area only had 10 pre-orders but received 37 Steelbooks, so all Steelbooks. available ended up in a few select stores.
“There are internal rumors,” said a third staff member, “honestly, at this point we wouldn’t be surprised if it were true.”
“Frasers Group doesn’t know what to send or where to send it”
Eurogamer has repeatedly heard of behind-the-scenes problems since game moved to Frasers Group systems this summer and, in fact, this is the reason behind many of the chain’s various schemes, such as game Rewards and game Wallet , are no longer compatible.
“They don’t even have the sales data,” said one person close to head office, “because all the stock management and point-of-sale systems have been gutted and converted to Frasers Group, or the people who knew this.” Things are becoming redundant. Frasers Group has no experience in gaming, they have no affinity or passion for it. They can’t look back at 10 or 15 years of sales history because it’s been eliminated.
“My local store hasn’t had Switch Pro controllers for months,” they continued. “Personally I bought mine from CEX, I saved £20. But some people want them from game and they don’t send them. There are warehouses all over the country filled to the brim with stock because the Frasers Group don’t know what to send, where to send it.”
Staff say they do not believe anything will change until Frasers Group acknowledges game‘s current problems, and this does not seem likely as the company continues to focus on cutting costs and staff. Some even believe the only explanation for the changes is a form of self-sabotage, they told me.
“The general feeling among staff has been that poor decisions, the dismissal of almost all trained staff and now low stock levels with absolutely no communication of problems from head office can only be a deliberate and calculated attempt to bring the company down to earth,” said one employee. “If it’s not deliberate, it’s either outright incompetence or desperate cost-saving measures that will only be detrimental to long-term profits.”
“I don’t think they know they’re doing a bad job,” said another. “They think they’re saving a lot of money, that they’re still doing well, and that customers are still coming back. Well, they don’t listen to anyone.”
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