Game will not stock everything

GAME's marketing director Anna-Marie Mason has spoken out about the big purple retailer's recent troubles, playing down some of the recent stock issues, and unsecured loans suggesting that "there's no one specific reason" regarding the lack of stock for certain niche titles. "

There isn't one specific catch-all reason," she continued. "We do endeavour to give our customers the widest possible range, whether it's GAME, Gamestation, online or in-store." bad credit loans

This all comes after GAME announced yesterday that it wouldn't be stocking Ubisoft's launch line-up for the Playstation Vita, having also cancelled pre-orders for the Special Edition of The Last Story just days before release.

"Part of our success as a business and part of our success with customers is we have the widest possible range we can bring to market. With Tekken, that was a very difficult decision that our business didn't have that title. But with regards to the Ubisoft titles, that is one moment in time," said Mason. "It doesn't mean to say we won't have that title or that part of our proposition on an on-going basis.

"We can't stock absolutely everything. That's just not possible."

Gamers might well ask the question why, after all if one of the most prominent specialist retailers in the country can't offer stock of mid-range and niche titles, who will?

"You can see, there's a finite amount of space in a store," Mason explained. "The same applies in a rational way to our online business. There isn't a definitive reason why we haven't been able to stock those two things most recently. But that may well change."

She was adamant that this was simply a blip, though, and stated unequivocally that "the instances we've had in the last couple of weeks are absolutely the exception, not the rule", going on to ask gamers not to lose faith in the company and pledging that pre-order fulfilment would "absolutely" be guaranteed for the games they are currently selling.

When asked by Eurogamer if GAME felt under threat from online retailers able to lower their prices without fear of huge physical overheads, Mason suggested that GAME offered something those retailers couldn't.

"It's well documented. In a marketplace like video games, there will always be somebody that's selling the game cheaper. That's not what we're about. We've never tried to be, or never wanted to operate like that.

"What our customers get from us, whether they shop with GAME or Gamestation, is more than a sterile transaction. They get the opportunity to transact with us in the way they want and they get added value. Our customers will vote with their feet.

"We still have two-and-a-half million people coming into our stores every week. Hopefully we've got something right."

Our thoughts on the matter have been rather clear, and we rather think that GAME could be doing more to provide value to physical customers.