Newport’s GAME store is to close in the New Year as it moves to larger, more modern premises across the road.
The store, currently opposite McDonald’s, will relocate into 1 of the units in the South Street Retail Building, to sit alongside Sports Direct.
Mike Ashley, owner of Sports Direct, also owns the House of Fraser group which is in control of GAME.
GAME have a dedicated section within the new flagship Sports Direct store.
Whilst the newly-refurbished clothing store is to open soon, it is believed that the move for GAME won’t happen until the New Year at earliest.
The move will see yet another empty shop in Newport Town Centre once GAME vacate the existing store on the corner of South Street and St James Street.
Streaming killed the video game store……
yep – soon to completely go the way of vinyl, cd’s, video cassettes and dvd
How did streaming kill it?
because you can now buy electronic copies of games online. Online shopping is killing the high street.
Buying electronic copies is not the same as streaming, also the reason most buy electronic copies is because it is cheaper.
Also more convenient. No need to rummage around for a disc if you fancy playing a different game.
There may have been some benefit to disc based games if you are on a slow broadband connection, but this is largely negated as most games need 100% online updates to the disc version in order to play.
It hasn’t yet, as it’s still relatively new. The idea is that you can play AAA rated games in UHD resolution on cheap hardware (but with a comparatively costly monthly subscription). The actual game is run on a remote server with the content being streamed to your cheap set-top box. The biggest barrier is the requirement for a fast and rock solid broadband connection with very low latency.
The biggest threat to video game stores is the fact that most games are purchased online and downloaded rather than bought on disc. Microsoft, Sony have their own online stores built right into their consoles and PC gamers mostly buy via Steam, GOG, etc.
Google Stadia worked well.
But it’s not closing? It’s moving into another premises?
Don’t agree with that. Yes, some people like to stream games but, the ones who played for years still like “hard copies” of games. There’s something about opening a new game & putting on tray/slot etc. Also nice if you play series of games to see what collection you have. I for one couldn’t be arsed to keep having to turn on to check which games I have, just look at them all in order to see which I need. And I bet I’m not the only one out here like that too.
You are confusing streaming with downloading. They are not the same thing.
Downloading is where download the entire game to your local console or PC and play it on that device.
Streaming is where you play the game on a remote server and “stream” the video as you are playing.
Neither requires that you have a hard copy.
Personally I find “hard copies” a pain. 90% of the time you have to download the entire game anyway (due to updates and patches) but still have to rummage for the disc to play it as it still needs to be inserted for licence verification.
Both Sony and Microsoft now offer consoles with no disc drive (download only).
The article states Mike Ashley ,who owns Sports Direct , also owns House of Fraser ,who are in charge of Game , ….
So it makes perfect sense to move it into S direct , no rent …..
Alas yes there will be another empty shop in Newport!!!!!!
Still Newport has been dire for many yrs now …..
Moving a business from one premises to another results in a net increase of empty shops of zero.