Seems she was right, looks like GAME are heading into trouble.
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2012/02/01/nowgamer-claim-game-wont-have-stock-of-any-new-games/comment-page-2/
GAME might be struggling to stock new videogame releases.
The site has quoted an unnamed source who said that the retailer has “lost credit assurance with most of its publishers.”
If the company has lost this assurance then publishers will not allow GAME to stock their games due to the financial risk involved. “If true, it could have a huge impact on the upcoming PS Vita launch,” says the story, although doesn’t state that one of the publishers is Sony.
NowGamer’s source also states that staff wages will be withheld in an attempt to make GAME Groups finances appear better than they are, which seems baffling.
We’ve reached out to our contacts at the retailer for comment.
In the meantime, trade magazine MCV has refuted these claims, “we can absolutely confirm that GAME has NOT ‘lost credit assurance with most of its publishers’” it tweeted.
Update: NowGamer seems to have misunderstood or misrepresented the story.
MCV has already been in touch with Game and has been assured that, although there are concerns over the retailers credit insurance (markedly not “assurance”), their relationship with publishers is still good and new releases will, of course, still be available this Friday.
We’re still waiting to hear back from our contacts at Game.
Update 2: We’ve just heard from an anonymous employee at the retailer who told us their pay was late, confirming at least one of the allegations above.
Update 3: It appears it’s the ‘sale or return’ that GAME has lost with the publishers in question, something backed up by Eurogamer. This basically means that any games not sold can’t just be sent back to the publisher, and GAME is being asked to pay upfront for these games now.
I just quoted the whole news story, cos I think this is potentially a disaster. Firstly, this is only a rumor right now so we should be careful and not believe it, but there is normally always an element of truth in most rumors. I am worried for what this means for Gamestation, Blockbuster and Gameplay.com, who I think are all linked together?
