Revolutionizing Workforce Dynamics: The Ultimate Guide to Alternate-In-Game Employees of 2024
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During the festive season, we’re resharing some of the finest articles from Nintendo Lifestyles authors and contributors as part of our Best of 2024 series. Enjoy!
Soapbox sections allow our individual writers and contributors to express their thoughts on trending topics and various matters they have been pondering. Today, Ollie reflects on some memorable moments from his time in online game retail…
When news broke that GAME, the UK’s last major online game retailer (excluding the many small independent shops still operating), would be ceasing trade-ins and pre-owned items from February 16, 2024, I experienced a strong blend of thoughts and emotions.
On one side, I couldn’t quite grasp why the company would reach such a decision; I worked there for nearly a decade, and three primary initiatives were consistently promoted to both employees and customers: gift cards, pre-orders, and trade-ins. For the last, 100% of the revenue generated from pre-owned sales went directly into GAME’s account, while new games would yield a significantly smaller profit. You can understand why the business wanted to emphasize trade-ins.
However, on the flip side, considering the escalating popularity of digital games along with GAME’s decision to transform most of its standalone retail locations into Sports Direct concession stores, it does make sense for the company to end trade-ins. According to GAME’s filings for the twelve months ending April 29, 2023, the gross transactional value (GTV – total retail value excluding VAT, promotional schemes, and author deductions) for pre-owned items was 16,478. This is a decrease from 25,894 during the same time frame the previous year, so it’s clear that the demand for trade-ins and pre-owned items is swiftly declining.
That being said, I will miss trade-ins when this situation eventually fades away in the coming months. As a customer, it’s a fantastic way to shave off a bit of cash on new releases by getting rid of some older titles, and to discover secondhand gems for older games.
As a former employee, however, managing trade-ins for around ten years has led to a plethora of memories—both pleasant and unpleasant—and I’d like to share some of those with you, dear reader.
So make yourselves comfortable as we take a stroll down memory lane and explore some notable experiences that GAME employees have had to endure…
That One Time We Had *All* The Skylanders
Do you remember Skylanders? Oh boy, I certainly do. I’ve had nightmares about them. As someone who was never particularly into the whole toys-to-life phenomenon (I rarely buy amiibo unless it’s for a series that I genuinely love), I wasn’t particularly acquainted with the characters beyond the rather lackluster representation of Spyro.
Disney Infinity wasn’t as bad because I immediately recognized several characters. However, when it came to Skylanders, I’m genuinely sorry, but I couldn’t tell you the differences between Boomer, Chill, Countdown, Cynder, or any of them, and I frankly wasn’t compensated enough to study up on it. This wasn’t an isolated issue: customers would pick what they wanted from the shelves, complete the transaction, and move along. The problems occurred when customers wanted to trade them in.
Whatever it was—be it a collection of handheld consoles, accessories, games, or figures—when a customer strolled into the store carrying a large cardboard box with an eager smile, my heart sank. 99% of the time, it indicated they had a mountain of items to trade, and I would have to abandon whatever I was doing to spend the next hour sorting through it all.
Our stock procedure for this was to seek the advice…
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of a binder that held a comprehensive record of every Skylander, including their names, their unique codes, and a faint, somewhat unclear image of the character. I spent the majority of three hours meticulously examining one character at a time, carefully consulting the binder to match the character with its unclear image, entering the code, and then moving on to the next one. And the worst part? The unhappy woman and her sons lingered in the store the entire time, and when it came time to tally up, I don’t believe we even surpassed £50. I felt somewhat uneasy knowing we were offering a fraction of what she’d likely receive on eBay, but she didn’t seem to mind. Quite ironic, really.
By the end of the day, I was ready to release the figures into the ocean. There aren’t many occasions when I’m excited to witness a game series live, but if Skylanders ever returns, I’m heading to Mars.
That One Instance I Was Assaulted
Over the years, I encountered numerous, many fascinating individuals while working at GAME. Fortunately, the vast majority of them were friendly, enjoyable people that I was proud to assist. However, there were a few who were either rude, dismissive, angry, deceitful, or aggressive. In fact… there was only one truly aggressive customer.
During my tenure at GAME, we not only dealt with video games, hardware, and accessories but also pre-owned mobile devices. We aimed to encroach on CEX’s market share, and to be honest, we didn’t do a terrible job at it. We offered a decent range of phones, and we were diligent in ensuring they were of acceptable, saleable quality.
One day, I was enjoying my lunch in the upstairs office when a co-worker approached me to inform me that a customer had come in wanting to sell his phone and was not handling the rejection very well due to its poor condition. As a Senior Sales Assistant, I was often left in charge of the store. Therefore, the decision to accept this phone rested on my shoulders.
I followed my colleague downstairs and took a look at the customer and the phone in question. It was a Blackberry (remember those?) and it was in terrible shape. The SIM card tray was damaged beyond repair, the screen was heavily scratched, and there was no charger or box included. Naturally, I said, ‘No.’
After a bit of back and forth with the customer, I firmly stated, “I’m sorry, but there’s no way we’re accepting this phone.” Right at that moment, he exploded with rage, trying to lean over the counter, lunging, and continuing to reach for anything he could throw at me, all while yelling obscenities. Somehow, he grabbed a rather heavy charity box and hurled it towards my head. I raised my arm to shield my face, and the box struck my elbow, resulting in a painful cut. The customer stormed out of the store, sweeping his hands across the shelves to knock off as much as he could in his wake.
We called the police, reviewed the CCTV footage, and that was that. I didn’t require any medical attention, but I was quite shaken. Remarkably, the man had the audacity to return days later to check on our mobile phone stock! He was swiftly arrested and taken to jail.
That One Instance Those Numerous Times I Declined Scratched 360 Discs
Ah, the beloved Xbox 360. It was such an excellent console, but my goodness, did it have its issues. The one everyone seems to be aware of is the ‘Red Ring of Death’; a fault where three of the red lights surrounding the power button would illuminate, indicating General Hardware Failure.
Less notorious, however, was the 360’s various predicament, which had to do with the console being moved while it was turned on (and sometimes even when it was stationary); the internal equipment could create a perfect circular scratch on the spinning disc, often rendering it completely unrepairable.
That didn’t stop people from trying to trade them in, though. All of the time. It was always parents who would bring in Little Timmy’s game collection, seemingly unaware that they were mostly pointless. So, remember that, they…