I gotta say, I don't know how my gamer brethren in Europe haven't become the angry village mob ready to burn down the evil GAME group. Was reading news today and saw that GAME has hosed their customer base hard. Those that did the pre-order deposit, GAME still has your money. Refunds are being doled out as in store credit and a stupid £5 store rewards voucher. I don't know how this makes up for a screw up of such epic magnitude. Here we have a link to an interesting if not infuriating article on the matter:
[link]

GAME of course has been doing damage control trying to make it not so bad. That like trying to down play an atom bomb going off in the middle of a age city as a minor thing. Mass Effect 3 is one the going to be one of if not the biggest game of the year and some may not get to play because of this swerve. Alot of customers have been canceling orders left and right and taking business elsewhere. This is the kind of screw up that can end you company over night. GAME however wants you to think everything is going to be alright when it's not.

GAME I realize is a big player across the pond and it going out of business could have some big ramifications for gamers there. The thing is you have to look at it as karma catching up to them. As crappy as that is, it's how this situation is playing out. Those of you familiar with wrestling history will know the phrase "finger poke of doom", which is what we have here in terms of gaming. This is where people can say when they look back on GAME's downfall where it began. If this was just The Last Story not being stocked, people would be pissed, but it would soon fade. I don't want to diminish a good game like Last Story in that way but outside of the now niche jrpg market, it wouldn't have the sort of impact that ME brings.

Mass Effect is a game series that comes only once every gaming cycle, even less sometimes. ME proved how far games have come as a story telling medium. It's gives a platform to tell a story in a way you couldn't do on paper or on screen. Here your being drawn into the world of the game and making decisions that can affect that universe in both a mundane and grand scale, all in one narrative. Here you control the direction and eventual end of the narrative and you don't see that in any other medium. This is the impact this series has had.

A game with that kind of impact not being stocked on your store shelves is something that can damage your profit enough to put up the for sale sign soon after. I hope you guys out across the pond get to enjoy what looks to be a fitting end to one of the greatest Sci Fi stories to come out in a long time.

Stay Frosty people.

Journal design by *Simmemann