GAME will now not settle for in-store pre-orders for upcoming video games, Eurogamer can affirm. The most recent change to hit the model will see GAME finish in-store pre-orders in a matter of weeks.
As of 1st August, no new in-store pre-orders shall be accepted and all present pre-orders shall be refunded for merchandise set to be launched after thirty first January 2025.
Any present pre-order or deposit for a product set to be launched earlier than the top of January 2025 will nonetheless be honoured. There is not any change to on-line pre-orders.
The information, first reported at present by TechRadar Gaming, was handed to retailer workers in a memo earlier this week. Eurogamer has been contacted by GAME workers concerning the adjustments, and has contacted the model’s proprietor Frasers Group for remark.
The change is yet one more casualty of GAME’s ongoing homogenisation with the broader Frasers Group – one thing that has been a well-known story this 12 months.
Eurogamer beforehand reported on how GAME was ending the flexibility to trade-in merchandise and purchase pre-owned video games, shuttering its long-running membership scheme and ending its assist for Xbox All Entry. These strikes are all designed to simplify its providing for the numerous GAME concessions that now exist inside different Frasers Group shops, akin to Sports activities Direct.
A persistent concern right here has been the bespoke tills that GAME used, Eurogamer understands, which needed to accomodate an enormous library of pre-owned merchandise and deal with GAME-specific buyer rewards. Somewhat than updating these, Frasers Group has as a substitute opted to take away GAME-specific choices.
“Going ahead the tills will solely be capable to promote and return merchandise,” a GAME workers member with information of the adjustments informed Eurogamer at present. “No trade-ins, no rewards, no pre-orders, no Xbox All Entry, no ‘limitless aisle’ (the flexibility to order to retailer).”
Final month, GAME denied it might cease promoting bodily video games outright.