To put a pre-order with blockbuster was a risk after they had come out of adminsitration, should have gone with Game or one of the Supermarkets.

You will proably see Game go eventually and the only places that will sale games will be Supermarkets and Online stores- Digital distribution will eventually be the market.

In reply to a post by time2die:

Well all Blockbuster Pre/orders require deposits,with a console its £20 and games £2.

Hopefully, most if not all affected customers only put down £20. Whilst nobody likes to lose anything, paying a small deposit rather than the entire cost in advance minimises potential losses if the supplier fails.

Game in my opinion are another risk having been in Administration themselves ,besides in my experience it's also hit and miss if you get your product on day of release...

Used to use them all the time but they got greedy and complacent and moved on to far better retailers online that walk rings around Game.

In reply to a post by SPOOKish:

All those who've preordered their PS4s and XBOs from Blockbuster's are gonna be disappointed.

questions to be asked of the owner?

they tookover in march and expected a profit within 6 months?

its also probable they were planning this whilst they were accepting those pre orders.

In reply to a post by time2die:

To be honest online game sites without all the overheads are killing the shops and stores along the high street.....and because they are so good and efficient at getting the games to you before you can actually officially get them why go anywhere else.

Besides even before the Administration for the second time this year ,there stick levels quite honestly are appalling and they really don't intice anyone who has a big interest in games to even consider using them..

I use them purely as a trade in function and never in my wildest dreams would I have placed a pre/ order for a console from them.....would rarther use that other useless place AMAZON...

I think as a brand its dead, would you buy anything 'new' from a place thats been in admin twice in a year? its clearly too easy to put a business into administration as owners see it as an easy way out.

the low stocks levels would have been related to the fact stocking costs money, and its a gamble to stock up as its not a cert to sell.

most uk retailers seem to stock not very high outside of pre orders, if I go to a website to look at games, they are typically focused on preorders and games that are already released are often out of stock. Amazon is about the only retailer that consistently has things in stock.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

I think as a brand its dead

In reference to www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-04/a-harvard-professor-knows-...:

"Enter the PhD-wielding Elberse: �You can�t put too much weight on a few observations,� she says. �You need to look across the whole population for a number of years. When you do that, you see that the blockbuster strategy is still the way to go.�

Or maybe not? Definitely feel the same way as yourself Chrysalis but this rather zany looking character at Harvard might have a point somewhere along the line. The article itself is scatty but reminds us just how profitable the entertainment industry truly is (there's a lot of money there). This is where the article's argument to instead examine long term trends (whatever they may be as they are unspecified and unsubstantiated) is weakest as it's not at all clear what her supporting arguments are but it's at least pointing out there may be more to it all under the surface.

Though it's hard to see how when BB has already gone into administration twice in the UK and the fact they're hardly alone in struggling on the High Street: HMV, Game, Virgin, Comet, Woolworths, Jessops etc have all had their fair share of woes. I wonder why Dr Elberse sees things differently? She seems to have a finger on a good pulse or two so maybe she's not so mad afterall?

there is a market for a physical rental store, blockbuster probably just made bad decisions. eg. what is a rental store doing selling consoles?

finger in too many pies springs to mind. A typical capitalism scenario where they not satisfied with what they have so taking risks. Plus the new owners only giving it 6 months to turn around is ridicolous.

In reply to a post by David_W:

In reply to a post by time2die:

Well all Blockbuster Pre/orders require deposits,with a console its £20 and games £2.

Hopefully, most if not all affected customers only put down £20. Whilst nobody likes to lose anything, paying a small deposit rather than the entire cost in advance minimises potential losses if the supplier fails.

Good news (touch wood).

If I interpret this move correctly, the stock that was reserved for Blockbuster to fulfil pre-orders is now being made available directly to the Blockbuster customers involved by companies acting on behalf of Sony and Microsoft. This is a sensible way out: the consoles and bundles reserved for Blockbuster pre-order customers did not disappear, but Blockbuster were unable to supply them because Adminstration meant they lacked the credit needed to take delivery of the goods before their customers paid for them in full.

The online form gives Blockbuster permission to pass your pre-order on to the relevant fulfilment company, who I would expect will require payment in full for the items. The deadline for Blockbuster customers to act if they wish to pursue their pre-order is tight - 2359 on 7 November. I would presume any stock initially allocated to Blockbuster will be released to the supply chain if it is not taken up through this scheme.


I would expect the matter of refunds from Blockbuster to remain separate to this scheme. It does not appear that already having accepted a refund precludes a Blockbuster pre-order customer from entering this scheme.

Yes, that is how I read it too David.

As much as I would like to believe this was a pre Christmas human interest story, I expect the administrators have agreed some form of commission payment for the sales completing.

Still. All's well that ends well and if they do survive their current financial turmoil, it won't have hurt their reputation any.