Farenheit 451: Dark Days At Gamestation...


Ah! Gamestation. Once a hallowed Mecca for three of the five members of the DCJY team. For myself, Tomleecee and the Gagaman(n), Gamestation represented a high street store that until as recently as eight months ago, you could walk into and gaze upon a neat display of Dreamcast or Saturn games or secure yourself a classic Sega console and assorted peripherals . A high street store which seemed to recognise the value of Retro gaming and applaud those who still celebrated the might of systems past. It's where I purchased the vast majority of my Saturn and Dreamcast collections. Standout moments would be the purchase of Shenmue 2 for £25 when I knew nothing about it... All of the other games were £2.50... It's high price alone hinted that it might be something special. I was entranced by it for months after. It's where I also bought my rare copy of House Of The Dead for the Saturn, again for the high price of £25. Yet it proved to be an essential purchase...

Then came the takeover by the giant corporation that is 'Game' and all of a sudden, the Saturn and Dreamcast (plus all the other Retro consoles) games were swept aside. Cast randomly into bargain bins, the once proud products of times past now looked like a load of charity shop (thrift store) crap. Covers gone, cases cracked, discs and cartridges without their boxes, the whole thing was a sorry mess. But as Games TM magazine reports, the company has now gone a step further. I'll repeat the article for you, copied out and hand typed and see what you make of it...


(From Games TM magazine) "Gamestation Burns Retro Stock"

"Internet rumours this month suggest a shocking trend within the UK's second biggest retail chain. reports from consumers claimthat the over 200 strong chain has pulled most of it's retro games from the shelves and has destroyed all but a few select desirable titles.

Gamestation itself has not released an official statement at the time of writing, but an anonymous source within the company has confirmed the rumour to Games TM.

Several retro cartridges and CDs have apparently been removed from sale and destroyed. The bulk of these games are highly unlikely to sell - such as very old sports games- but there are also many under-the -radar classics that have been inadvertently been destroyed.

Our source tells isthat an official list exists that outlines exactly which games to preserve. These are mostly from recognisable franchises like Sonic The Hedgehog and Final Fantasy and will continue to be sold in Gamestation stores. There are, however, a number of less obvious, but nevertheless desirable games that are not accountable on the list. We've personally heard of two highly collectable Saturn games that are not intended such preservation, which would boil the blood of any retro enthusiastif they knew exactly which games they were.

The notion that a high street retailer as well respected as Gamestation might even think about destroying potentially games, especially those that have not been re-released or emulated, is as bad as burning books in our view. The company's supposed preservation list is a good idea, but it really needs to be as thorough as possible to avoid mistakenly eliminating lesser known titles from history. And we'd also like to know if the destroyed cartridges are being recycled or simply thrown away. Gamestation will hopefully make an official comment in the future and shed more light on these distressing allegations."

So there you have it. I think its a fucking outrage... Could Burning Rangers, now with a degree of bitter irony, be literally burning? There are some classic "older football" titles that I still play to this day. Why not give them to charity, or offer them as freebies to their loyal customers? The cunts...

What do you think?

17 comments:

Unknown said...

Worse than book burning I would say.
Those feckers don't deserve to be a game company.

CantStrafeRight said...

My local gamestation recently had 2 shelfs of mega cd games, and then they were all gone the next time I was in. I really hope they dint burn them.

fatherkrishna said...

It's a fucking travesty aint it boys!? Bah!!!

Caleb said...

WTF???!?!?!?!?!?

I thought gamestop was bad!!! All they did was lower the price of the leftover games to nothing!

This is horrible!!!!

Did they at least *Try* to mark down the games to 90% off first!!?!?!?!??!?

What a loss!

You know these dumbasses who sort through the games are gonna miss all the rare Sega console stuff...

...Crap.

Anonymous said...

Burn Gamestation

Anonymous said...

I agree with anonymous. Seriously, at least put a bin outside saying "free games".

Badbrains said...

Man that is a conspiracy of horrendous proportions. I blame Globalisation, corporate muthafuckers who think they know what everyone wants. Not everyone wants to play Gears of War. Grr

Badbrains said...

Not that i have anything against GOW by the way. But personally i'd rather play retro stuff.

Tom Charnock said...

FK - Frankly awesome post. If all this game-burning stuff is true, itd explain a lot. Ive done a lot of travelling up and down the UK in recent months and have always made the effort to pop into branches of Gamestation whenever I can. ANY form of retro gear is now a rare sight. It might as well just become GAME or HMV. Last hope? eBay and car boot sales. Gamestation/nazi Germany. Whats the difference?

Animated AF said...

Last Christmas my local Gamestation's retro stock suddenly vanished. I asked a staff member what had happened to them and he said they were just storing it away until around Feb, so the new stuff could sell better. Come Feb the retro stock was still not there so I asked again. They told me they weren't going to stock retro anymore, but nothing about BURNING any of it! That's just disgusting.

Animated AF said...

Just went up to my local GS and asked them about this rumour. From what they know the retro stock is being sent over to a warehouse where they will be sold on their website. This doesn't necessarily debunk the rumor completely but it's a little bit of reassurance at least.

Caleb said...

Sheesh I still can't believe this.

I mean I thought K-B toys was bad when they just let their Dreamcast stuff sit around at full price until 2004.

At least K-B and Gamestop let their customers have a small chance to buy the games at a greatly discounted price!!!!

I don't see how selling the games on the website will help them after considering how much shipping all those games is gonna cost.

fatherkrishna said...

I'd like to believe what the people at GS told you Gagaman(n) and I sure they are not going to be throwing copies of Shenmue, Soul Calibur or Crazy Taxi. Indeed a quick visit to their website (www.gamestation.co.uk) shows that there is a tremendous range of Dreamcast and Saturn titles for sale... only there isn't! Very few of the titles advertised are in stock... Much like the stores it seems they're running down the stock in preparation for discontinuing sales. I get regular emails from them with a store page attached and the pages they send out make no mention of retro systems. It seems the plot thickens...

Unknown said...

Looks like we should be taking a truck over to that warehouse real soon... along with a lock cutter!

NebachadnezzaR said...

If this is true, it's fucking bullshit! I can't find words to express my disgust at the mere thought of a game retailer burning retro games!

Tom Charnock said...

Furthermore, Gamestation appear to employ people who don't even know what a Dreamcast is...should we be surprised by this genocide?

Barry the Nomad said...

"Oi Mikey! Whats a 'Pantser Dragon Sega'?"
"Eh, who knows. Burn it, Charlie!"

Makes me shudder at the thought. :(