Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

For UK readers, anyone see that Grainger Games is closing a third of its stores in the North of England? Literally closed them via an email.

@RogerRoger
Yeah I think so but they also have an online store. I recently got my xbox one from them as the price was pretty good. Also picked a few games up in sales online.

Wow, every time I go in to my local branch they always seem busy. Must be another falling victim to the internet.

@crippyd My local branch is in a fairly good location and seems to have good stock and customers but I guess it is all down to mark up and where they make their margins.

@Rudy_Manchego Mine is in a good location too and the prices always seem good, but tbh, my home town of Hartlepool is hardly a North East London so I doubt that shop alone is keeping the company afloat.

@crippyd THey seem to have closed a lot of smaller stores in smaller locations so I guess maybe they are just suffering stores. I tend to shop there more then anywhere else on the high street. It was the only place I could find a PSVR Aim controller last year!

Update to the above, seems that all Grainger Games stores have now been closed with all 67 going. Staff only getting paid till Saturday.

Serious carnage on the hgh street at the moment.

Hmm. That leaves supermarkets (PS4/Xbox) and GAME (PS4/Xbox and a little sprinkling of Nintendo and PC) as the last notable bastions of high street gaming presence, without going preowned.

Gross.

Either way I finally picked up a new PS4 game for the first time since...er...Megaman Legacy Collection 2 in August maybe? Oh, no. The terrible Jak ports in December.

Either way I nabbed Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition for a whopping £3 on sale on the PSN, and Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Final Mix Betamax whatever the rest of it is.

A friend recommended it on gameplay only so...yay? Says a lot about the story.

That last one was via Amazon along with a copy of Ultra Sun and a Zygarde plush.
Theres no game places near me within 20 miles that arent supermarkets that only stock the annual stuff like CoD and FIFA, so I guess i am part of the problem.

@YummyHappyPills Can't wait to hear your thoughts on Kingdom Hearts!
Just give it a chance. The story will fall in place .

@Fight_Teza_Fight Ive already fully analysed the story.

Yeah. No. KH3 is a game that the story cant wrap up in any meaningful way now there is two Organisation 13s, one of which is made of Xehanort clones and several time travelling Xehanorts, there are god knows how many versions of Sora, there is still Aqua that the plot forgot about, they brought bacl the original Organisation 13 who are DEAD but whatever time travel, as well as Vanitas...who is dead and half of a clone of Sora who is evil...the other half being Ventus...not including Sora's Nobody Roxas...

And the series involves bloody TIME TRAVEL!

Look. Tetsuya Nomura. Great FF monster designer. Terrible at everything else. Why do someones socks have zippers on them? Why is this outfit entirely made of belts? Why did Square let this man not only right a plot for a game (bad idea) and lead development on several when that isnt his skill set?

Like seriously FFXV is getting DLC through 2019 because it STILL hasnt made enough money yet and I bet the years Nomura spent faffing about doing nothing until he got booted off in 2012 didnt help.

Keep him to drawing monsters. Keep him away from everything else.

I hear the game part is good though as an action/rpg. I need something good after XC2 disappointed me and before Ys VIII comes out.

I buy all my games online - Amazon, Game, GameCollection, GameSeek etc. Partly because of being disabled and lacking the opportunity and means to get to a retailer and partly because of the prices. That coupled with the fact that digital sales are increasing can't help the smaller store - especially those with no online presence either.

I never buy pre-owned but there are options for those that are happy to buy 2nd hand. Not only high-street stores like Game, CEX but also online - inc ebay, musicmagpie etc. They also allow you to send in games/consoles etc to trade if you want to (again something I don't do) so I see little point in worrying about the smaller stores. I know its not great for the staff employed there but I don't see the death of the high-street for things like 'games' in particular being a 'disaster'.

There are some things that are better to buy in person - clothes/shoes as you may need to try them on to see if they fit, fresh fruit/veg as you get to pick the best yourself rather than rely on a picker etc but 'games' and hardware is not important. You can find enough forums, reviews, video's etc now to know what games are around, what they offer and even have 'chats' with other gamers to get recommendations or advice (if you need it) without having to go to store, pay for travel/parking etc. As for getting the 'game' on the day of release, with pre-ordering online I have often got great prices and received the game on the day - occasionally a day early too. Its arrived before I would consider going out to the shops, petrol and parking costs added and the travel time to and from the retailer etc. When I was more physically able, I could get a game in my lunch break but still couldn't play it until the evening.

I am finding with this gen I am buying alot more digital wise on my PS4. Mostly due to what @BAMozzy said about pricing. I am finding alot more deals digital wise then in brick and mortar stores. Except for the Buy Two Get one sales or the occasional game I "keep" from Gamefly. Also.I tend to find it more convenient as well too since I don't have to go anywhere.

Physical is a lot cheaper for me. €50-52 at launch vs €60 or €70 in the digital stores.

@Tasuki I find Physical a LOT cheaper. I was referring to the prices of Physical games online compared to the prices in a 'bricks and mortar' store. Maybe in the US its much more competitive to buy Digital but the UK PS/XB stores are not accurately reflecting the $ -> £ price. Its closer to $1 to £1, than the $1 = £0.71 that the current exchange rate is. This means a Game that is £40 in a retailer is often £55 in store. Sales are rarely as cheap as I can buy them from Amazon, GameSeek etc. Where you may get a game on offer for say £20 with a saving of £35 (based on digital pricing), I could have bought the game Physically for £40 and its now going for £12-15 in an online retailer (Saving £25-28 but its still cheaper).

Its not often that Digital sales can beat the price of the current Physical disc. Although I did buy The Division Gold edition digitally for £22 because the Physical Gold edition is no longer available 'new', I could probably of bought the disc and the Season pass (basically the gold edition) for less.

It seems to me though that in the US, the digital and physical prices are much closer. Physical is cheaper but only because of retailer competition that means the games are not sold at RRP as they would lose out to the store down the road selling the game at a few $'s less. Online stores can offer bigger discounts - not only because there is bigger competition but because they don't have the overheads that retail stores have. They have big warehouses so can buy in bulk, often not in 'Prime' locations with high rates and so undercut retailers. PS/XB Store has basically no competition and so can charge RRP so they end up costing more despite much lower overheads - manufacturing of discs, cases, printed material, distribution etc. If you had an open market place with opportunities to buy from various retailers - not just Playstation or Microsoft, then you may see much cheaper digital prices too...

@Tasuki Yeah and @Octane can attest to this, I was looking for copies of DOOM for cheap and the best option was the eShop at £33. Thing is that is so rarely the case.

Even on PSN, it is still cheaper to go physical, which bothers me as I find myself going digital not because its cheaper, its the opposite here, but because its all going to install anyway so whats the point?

But back to my first point, you guys in the US get a good deal on digital stuff. We dont.

For instance, and I worked this out, a copy of say, Super Mario Odyssey for you guys is $60, plus tax after. One I spoke to who lives in Chicago says it came to around $68 for him.

For us, a copy of Mario Odysdey is £50 with tax included. What does that translate to? $70.

Lets take...I dunno. Bloodborne Game of the Year Edition. I recently saw that on the PSN for...£39.99. That's $56.05. Damn near full price for you guys across the pond.

Or I can go on Amazon and get a physical copy, new and sealed. £24.77. That's $34.72.

That is a huge saving. Over here it is far, FAR more efficient on your wallet to go physical.

I'm in the US and I still consistently find better prices in physical. Price drops don't happen or take much longer from what I've seen. Flash sales aside. Especially buying used at Gamestop, with a 20% discount. That's something that scares me about digital games being the future. Everything will be so dang expensive. I also jsut like physical better. $30 is the hard limit for a digital game for me. IF it's more than that, it better be physical.

Agree with @YummyHappyPills, digital is only cheaper with sales or discounts here in the UK and even then, that is rare. Most of my digital games are digital only or heavily discounted. Physical games are almost guaranteed to be cheaper after a few months.

Maybe it because I don't have to many places near me that sell physical games. I mean I have Walmart and Target but except for the occasional buy two get one sale very rarely do games go on sale. Now price drops are another thing but by the time a game drops in price at those places I already usually have it cause of a sale on PSN.

@Tasuki be glad you don't live in my town there is NOWHERE that sells games anymore, we had a GAME but when the chain went bust the store was closed and wasn't reopened when the chain was saved, i have to order all mine online

@Tasuki You're quite lucky then.

This is very much not only a country dependant thing but even regional.