[Rumor] Say Goodbye to GameCrazy

[DoctorFinger]

It looks like the last few Game Crazy stores - the roughly 280 outlets which survived a major culling in February (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=15394) - will be closing soon.

According to multiple sources reached by Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/01/rumor-gamecrazy-closing-all-remaining-stores/) managers at the stores are being told to stop taking pre-orders on games after May 18, indicating that the stores will likely continue operating through at least the end of the month. But if you have a deposit on a game at Game Crazy, you may want to go cash in that credit before it's too late.

According to an unnamed store manager:
it looks like this week and the week after they're going to go through finding a liquidation company to buy [the remaining products]. It's going to be business as usual for the next two weeks, we'll see our releases for the next two weeks, but we'll likely be closed by the end of June

The retailer's parent company, Movie Gallery, has reportedly filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy (this is the bankruptcy where the business closes, as opposed to Chapter 11, which results in reorganization).

Prior to the mass closings in February, Game Crazy had been the #2 specialist game retailer in North America. At one point they were the #6 game retailer in the US, behind Wal-Mart, Gamestop, Amazon, Target and Best Buy.

Source - Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/01/rumor-gamecrazy-closing-all-remaining-stores/).

[Mike Kelehan]

Good riddance. They stole money from me, and then had the balls to say I was trying to steal from THEM. Then they sold me a "new" DSi, which was actually the demo model, with a bunch of pictures of employees inside, a big "Property of Gamecrazy" sticker over the battery, and a tilted top screen. Oh, and when I didn't want the extended warranty, the guy got angry at me.

[CappinCanuck]

Can't say they'll be missed. I read a lot of comments on the Game Crazy story back in February and very few were positive.

[Spigot]

We have a Movie Gallery here in town... I wonder if all of this has an effect on the Canadian stores.

It used to be a smaller, independent rental store years ago before it was bought by MG. I have been less than impressed with the selection and pricing on movies and games though they had a brief flirtation with wanting to be a proper game retailer back in late 2008 when they started to stock new releases. That seems to have petered out over the last few months too.

[J Arcane]

If you want to see the original post from the GC manager who broke the story, it is here: http://bend.craigslist.org/vgm/1718939976.html

Kotaku also confirmed it with the guy by phone.

[Lance Uppercut]

I actually liked my local Game Crazy. They gave me more money for trades than Gamestop, and whenever I've bought my consoles there I got 12 free game/movie rentals for the Hollywood Video right next to it. The HV/GC is now in process of shutting down, and I've been able to pick up a handful of games and DVDs for cheap, but I'm a little disappointed to see them go.

[Kelegacy]

My local Movie Gallery and HWV are closing for good this coming weekend, I think. They are already at 70% off. I cleaned them out of games already, but I'm going back tomorrow one last time to see if there is anything left. I dropped $300 on a bunch of newer games like Heavy Rain for $25 a few weeks back. Get ready to see some great deals at your local stores. I don't have a Game Crazy near me. I feel sad because now there will be no more brick and mortar places to rent games or movies near me, in a 50-100 mile radius at least I think. Oh well.

I scored the original Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead for Blu-Ray at $5 each, brand new and sealed, on Friday. Dawn is one of my favorite films. Tomorrow's visit is mostly to see if there are any other great BR flicks. I did manage to get a Jungle Emperor Leo DVD for cheap and also a copy of Ponyo on DVD.

[CappinCanuck]

My local Movie Gallery and HWV are closing for good this coming weekend, I think. They are already at 70% off. I cleaned them out of games already, but I'm going back tomorrow one last time to see if there is anything left. I dropped $300 on a bunch of newer games like Heavy Rain for $25 a few weeks back. Get ready to see some great deals at your local stores. I don't have a Game Crazy near me. I feel sad because now there will be no more brick and mortar places to rent games or movies near me, in a 50-100 mile radius at least I think. Oh well.

I scored the original Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead for Blu-Ray at $5 each, brand new and sealed, on Friday. Dawn is one of my favorite films. Tomorrow's visit is mostly to see if there are any other great BR flicks. I did manage to get a Jungle Emperor Leo DVD for cheap and also a copy of Ponyo on DVD.

Those are some amazingly hot deals! Lucky you!

[Paradox Symphony]

I never liked them, they were a second-rate blockbuster/gamestop. There is a slash there because I dont know if all GCs are tied to Hollywood Video buildings, but in Seattle Game Crazy is a sub-store of HW, and you could rent games as well as movies.

But seriously Gamestop has much better trade deals, and Blockbuster has all the best releases, and also runs with some of the best games for months.

Oh, and like Mike said, their Customer support, quality, all of that was shit. I bought a PSP there and it scratched every UMD I put in it, even though I bought it new and NOT used. I took it back and the bitchy clerk got angry with me.

[The Continental]

I've only ever been in one Game Crazy to pickup a release day title, and I found it a considerably worse than your average GameStop. In addition to attempting to sell me on a strategy guide, the pair of sales clerks brought the heat when it came to pushing their replacement plan... for a single game. I figured I'd dodge it and just say the game was a gift for my brother across the country, which they took as an opportunity to detail all the benefits of their replacement plan, such as the fact that it even works on gifts and the recipient can replace their copy at any Game Crazy nationwide.

After flat out declining the replacement plan, then came the hard sell for whatever their reward/membership program, to which I flat out told them that I had to get back to work and I only came in because I didn't want to spend my lunch driving to Best Buy. All told, the mere act of purchasing one copy of one game at their check out counter was a 10 minute process of me trying to politely deflect their slew of upsells before finally getting tired of it and rudely dismissing them.

To add insult to injury, the game was Prototype...

[Superman's Dead]

Well, I liked my Game Crazy. So this makes me sad.

[Kelegacy]

To add insult to injury, the game was Prototype...

What a waste of a lunch break, bro. :(

[Spigot]

Our Movie Gallery isn't that bad when it comes to games. They are more interested in pushing their Power Play membership scheme than anything fancy for games. I do shudder to think about what a game store operated by the same company would be like. I've been spoiled by my quasi-independent store where I can pay for a pc gamepad with a cheeseburger :)

[Purple Santa]

Our Movie Gallery isn't that bad when it comes to games. They are more interested in pushing their Power Play membership scheme than anything fancy for games. I do shudder to think about what a game store operated by the same company would be like. I've been spoiled by my quasi-independent store where I can pay for a pc gamepad with a cheeseburger :)

There needs to be more stores like that. I wonder if you can pay for PC games with cheeseburgers, fries and a drink. Maybe throw in a piece of pie to make it a deal.

[Spigot]

There needs to be more stores like that. I wonder if you can pay for PC games with cheeseburgers, fries and a drink. Maybe throw in a piece of pie to make it a deal.He told one of the guys from work to bring him a coffee next time he comes to cover some work he's doing on the guy's PS3. He's also the guy who sold me DJ Hero for $35 :)

[KSmitty]

All of the Gamecrazys near me were attached to Hollywood Video, and those have been gone since the original restructuring of Hollywood.

[crazyD]

I always really liked my GameCrazy. It was like a nicer Gamestop with a bigger stock, and they sold everything back to NES games. I beefed up my Dreamcast collection pretty nicely there, after no one else sold them. I've since moved away from that store, and haven't been to one in a while, but I was a big fan. When I first moved to San Diego, that's where I got all my games.

[OldJadedGamer]

I passed by one this weekend randomly in a strip mall and it had been shut down months ago.

[Kelegacy]

My HWV was cleaned out today. They are closed in a week for good. They had Yakuza 2 for $7ish and they were selling PS2 "grab-bags" for $10 each, each holding 10 games. You could only see the first game but the rest could have been sports games or some crap. I didn't want to take the chance.

They only had a couple Blu-Rays left. I'm going to a different one near work tomorrow that had a ton of Blu-Rays last week. Maybe in that town there aren't as many people that own BR players or something.

[Spigot]

Heh. The staff at the local Movie Gallery were talking about the fallout from this for the Canadian stores when I was in there. They figure that they will be ok to operate as-is for the time being, though they were also talking about how they're going to have to really just work really hard at doing a great job until after the summer (which seems to be how long they figure they'll last if things totally tank up here).

They did have a big sign saying that the Powerplay membership thing is done and gone. I'm just glad I never bought into that.

[Kelegacy]

Heh. The staff at the local Movie Gallery were talking about the fallout from this for the Canadian stores when I was in there. They figure that they will be ok to operate as-is for the time being, though they were also talking about how they're going to have to really just work really hard at doing a great job until after the summer (which seems to be how long they figure they'll last if things totally tank up here).

They did have a big sign saying that the Powerplay membership thing is done and gone. I'm just glad I never bought into that.

The Powerplay thing was the first thing to go and is the best indication of them about to close.

Seriously though, you need to keep stopping in or find out when they will start the clearancing. I bit the bullet at 20% off (Opoona), 40% off (a few games), and finally that huge haul at 50% off (when they started letting the new games be purchased instead of just rented).

You will be able to find some good stuff if they close.

All HWV, Movie Gallery and Game Crazy stores have been announced to liquidate as of today (a former employee of HWV--Super Dawn--posted info or a press release at CAG). The court did not approve their restructuring plan.

I don't know if this affects Canadian stores, but I bet it does. The liquidations for all stores will start within the next 10 weeks I believe.

[Spigot]

Like I said, they were talking as though it will be business as usual for the time being... and this was before I sauntered over and asked them what was going to happen to the Canadian stores.

Don't worry though. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for some good deals on games I'm mildly to moderately interested in.

[Kelegacy]

Like I said, they were talking as though it will be business as usual for the time being... and this was before I sauntered over and asked them what was going to happen to the Canadian stores.

Don't worry though. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for some good deals on games I'm mildly to moderately interested in.

I think I scored more Wii games than anything, and I barely play my Wii. Definitely keep your eyes peeled. And slightly older games like Ninja Blade (I know you liked it) were still around and those are the types of games I'll probably pick up if they're still there for 70% off or more their used price--which will have to be around $5-7 in the end. I saw two copies of Rogue Galaxy for peanuts as well, and I'll wind up grabbing a copy just to have it in my collection. I sold my copy ages ago I think.

I'm sure Canada will be included in the mass liquidation soon enough. Just be on the lookout. :)

Once these stores are gone, the only place for me to rent movies will be RedBox or Netflix. I do have Vudu and Amazon access on my television, so those are always options, but they are more money than I want to spend on rentals. ($5-6 for an HD rental per night on average, and I've been babied by $1 rentals from Redbox and cheap monthly fees like Netflix).

[J Arcane]

The one here is the same one that broke the story, and their prices are still the same. They even still had ads up for some preorders.

I did notice the demo units were gone though, and all the used machines were stacked on the counter.

[Orca]

Movie Gallery is in the process of being shopped around to potential buyers as part of the proceedings.

[Uatu]

Heh, I used to be a manager at both HW and GC. They always had a much better set up than Blockbuster and Gamestop as far as deals and selection. The whole idea was utilizing the existing HW store would allow the building of the GC store to be very cheap and profitable. With Netflix kicking ass though, they really didn't have a chance as the HW portion tanked, taking the GC sections with it. This is old news for my area though, most of the HW and Blockbusters around DC were shut down last year.

[Kelegacy]

My two stores are now devoid of most everything, literally. New and used Blu-Ray movies are still there, like The Watchmen Director's Cut, but they're still $30 before 70% off. I'm being cheap and waiting, as most of them I don't really want. But for a few bucks, I'll snag some.

I picked up Ninja Blade for 7.xx today, in perfect condition and Culdcept Saga for 5.xx, which was missing a manual--both were for 360. Also grabbed a dvd copy of .Rec, and almost In Bruges, but I put it back. All DVD movies were $1.99 but they had a shitty selection.

The Dark Knight DVD was $4 brand new after discount, the special edition was $6. Tons of copies left so I'll wait until they drop even more. I'd rather have the BR version but they have none.

[Generation ABXY]

I don't know that I've ever actually seen a GameCrazy... mind you, we didn't even get a GameStop until a few years ago or so.

We do have Movie Gallery, though I think all of 'em are scheduled to close now.