Game.co.uk > Reviews > GAME.co.uk

Author's product rating:   

Layout & Design	Excellent graphics, design, language, etc
Range of services/products	Excellent
Prices	Good value
Purchase tracking function	Excellent
Customer service support	Excellent

Advantages:	+ Easy to use  + Preorders  + Great Customer Service  + Generally Good Prices  + Reward System
Disadvantages:	- CAN be more expenive than other websites

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Basics and Product Range

Game.co.uk is the online store for the GAME shops (the ones with the purple signs). It has all the games from the store on and also has other features. It sells DS, GBA, GAMECUBE, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox and Xbox 360 games. It also sells the consoles and stocks preowned games for many of the games in the range. The site also sells accessories and console bundles.

Layout and Design

The layout of the site is fairly simple. At the main page a banner greets you with GAME in the top left and "admin" options such as:

Store finder
Reward card
Wish list
Your basket
Your account
Help
LOGIN

In the top right corner of the banner. The main part of the webpage has a navigation bar on the left, which allows you to access pages for all the consoles and their games listed earlier. These are also listed:

Click & Collect
New Releases
Coming Soon
Deals & Offers
GAME Exclusives
Competitions
GAME Content
Become An Affiliate

Underneath is a "news" box and underneath that is an "email update" box. On the right there is another bar with special offers in.

The main part of the webpage is four "banners". The first shows a selected game; usually a new one or a long awaited one. It will detail special offers or any big news on it. Below is a "Top sellers" which shows the top 4 sellers at the time, you can scroll along this to show up to 10. Underneath is a similar style but for "Preorder Chart". Underneath this is a "Recommended by GAME" banner; this displays two products that are recommended (there are a few more if you scroll along.)

This layout makes game really easy to use, you can see the top games and this means its really easy to select the games you are more likely to want (top sellers are more likely to be wanted by you, obviously.) The preorder chart also makes the site easier to use. The console pages all have a similar layout to the main page, but with specific content. You can also use a search bar at the top of the site if you can’t find the product you want this way.

Content & Information

The content of the site is really really good. Its updated regularly and theres a huge range of products to buy. Preorders are often available months before release.

In terms of non-product content the news is updated fairly often and brings gaming news and relevant news, to be honest I find it of no use as I often use gaming forums and read a few PS3 magazines so know most of the stuff already, but some people would find it of use.

GAMEcontent also offers reviews, previews, "hubs" (pages with information on a specific game on), jargon buster and an archive of all this. I don't use this as magazines I read contain more than enough reviews and previews, but it could be of use if you aren’t sure what game to get.

Prices/ Rewards/ Preorders

I find the prices on the site to be really good; I mainly use it for buying PS3 games so I'll judge it on that (I'd imagine the other products to be of a similar % price difference to in store). The games seem to have £5-£10 off of the in store price, which is a substantial saving when you buy lots of games. The site also offers free delivery if you're in the UK. The prices may be a bit more expensive than PLAY.com or gamestation's website occasionally, but often the prices are cheaper, and usually its just within a few pounds. Generally I find the site fairly reasonably priced, its not "expensive" and offers a saving on high street prices.

GAME offer a reward card service, basically for every £100 you spend you get £2.50 back (it goes onto a card which you can subtract money from in increments of £2.50). You can also apply for a card and use the card online. You can register (fairly simple) and also can just input your reward card number (I think...) on orders to have the points added to your card. You can also spend points on the site.

The site also allows you to preorder many products. Not only does this guarantee that you will receive the product on the day of release (as long as you don’t preorder like the day before release) but also it gives you double reward points (for most products) so this is an added benefit. Another great thing is that after you preorder if the price of the product rises then you will not pay any more than the preorder, but if the price drops then you will pay less, so you win both ways!

Another great thing with preorders is that as GAME try and get the game to you on the day of release it often actually arrives a day earlier than release!

Security

The website assures the customer that they use encryption technology and secure servers to make sure that any transmitted information is secure. "GAME.CO.UK has been certified as an Authentic SiteSeal Site". Personally I've never had any security problems with the site either.

Tracking of Orders

Order tracking is very good; you get email updates at certain stages (you receive a confirmation that the order has been received, confirmation that its being picked and packaged, confirmation that you've paid them)

You can also look at a tracking log on the website, hers an example:

06/12/2007 09:06:55 Your order has been dispatched.
05/12/2007 14:18:12 Your order is currently being picked and packed.
05/12/2007 12:59:28 Your credit/ debit card has been authorised and your order is now being released for packing.
Funds will not be debited until your order is shipped.
05/12/2007 09:05:00 Your order is waiting for authorisation and release for packing.
04/12/2007 18:43:29 Your order is currently held as a Preorder

Transaction Speed

The transaction goes through really quickly, you select the product, add it to basket, input address, credit card details etc, confirm and then receive a confirmation email. You can also save the address and credit card details to save time in future.

Delivery Speed

The standard delivery takes 2 days, and is free.
Express takes one business day and costs £4.95
Delivery to the rest of the world costs between £2.95 and £4.95, and takes between 3 and 7 days.

Customer Service

I've only ever had one problem with GAME before, they sent me a PC version of a game instead of the PS3 version, I emailed then and I quickly received a reply saying that they were very sorry and would immediately dispatch the correct version (which they sent express delivery) and asked for me to return the incorrect game (which was free of charge to return). The problem was resolved quickly and easily, and mistakes do happen, but they rectified it very well!

Overall

Overall a very good website with great customer service and fairly good prices. Deliveries are also always quick and the whole process of ordering a product is easy.