Monday 14 May 2012

GAME OVER.

So by now everyone has heard the news, Game Australia (who employs over 500 people) has gone into voluntary administration after 2 months of trying (and failing) to find a buyer for the chain of stores.

Earlier this year Game UK (the parent company) went belly up like a fish left in the sun, at that time Game AUS continued "business as usual" and had hoped to get itself separated and on top of it's mounting debt issues, to no avail.

The administering company of Game AUS have stated it is now in control and is business as usual, but is it really "business as usual"?
No, not at all. It seems that some online orders for Diablo 3 will be fulfilled depending on stock, however if you had gone in store you probably won't get Diablo 3 at all.

Not only that, but also if you pre-ordered D3, you can list as an unsecured creditor, however you will not get any money until AFTER all the lenders/banks have had a chomp at the funds and then what is left over gets split among the remaining interested parties.
A company under administration is not LEGALLY required to provide funds.

Let us flash back to March when it all began, Game AUS had made a statement that it's business as usual, they acknowledged the parent company had gone belly up and people still put in pre-orders of D3 and Max Payne (Game state that they are going to try and fulfil this but are as yet unsure).

The question now becomes this "should you have purchased anything via pre-order with Game?"
I don't have the answer, I would like to say NO, however I guess it depends on WHEN you pre-ordered the games. It's a difficult situation, however I personally don't give Game my business as the few times I have been in to one of the stores I have received average customer service, higher prices than several other retailers and a poor selection of games, something that was echoed yesterday on Kotaku's website by many other consumers.

On the other side of the coin, it will interesting to read the reason for the implosion of the company, also the administrator is still trying to find a buyer so that debts can be settled and Game may yet have a 1UP, although reputation is a huge factor and I feel that Game have gone and ruined any reputation they may have had.

What are your thoughts?

UPDATE: our friends over at stevivor.com reported this article over HERE. Blizzard TO THE RESCUE!

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