Things may be about to turn ugly now for all concerned, as imagine the thousands of consumers who still have credit to use on their cards, who are no longer able to redeem them for games. That’s exactly the reality right now, as customers cannot exchange or refund products either.

There is obviously the argument that consumers have had plenty of time to redeem the points since the problems first started for GAME, but then again – is this the best way for GAME, since they are essentially still trading, to alienate their loyal customers in this way?

On a side note, we’ve seen that rival retailer ShopTo initially had a promotion in place, in which they were actually offering all customers £3 of free credit when they sent their GAME reward card into them. After a wave of criticism, the promotion has now been removed, but at the end of the day – free credit is better than no credit at all isn’t it? We don’t really see the problem here anyway.

The status remains at ‘suspended’ for both reward cards and gift cards, so hopefully GAME will be offering some clarity on this matter in the future. Did you manage to get to a store and spend all your virtual points in a frantic shopping spree before the administration period started?

Give us your story below. For those that are interested, my colleague Daniel had £17 on his GAME reward card – guess he can kiss goodbye to using that in the future.

UPDATE: We’re pleased to say that GAME has now reactivated their reward card scheme, which includes the redemption of gift cards. However, you’ll only be able to use your points on pre-owned items.

The company stated that they will “continue to trade” while working with an administrator, which gives them time to work things out with third parties and see if they can make ground with lenders. The GAME Group has been expected to reach administration for a number of weeks, and losing support from Activision, Microsoft, Capcom, Sega, EA, and others hasn’t helped matters.

The traditional high street has changed forever – people buy online more every year with a trend being high street stores seeing declines each year, and online retailers seeing increases year-on-year. Things have been harder all round with the recent global financial problems, but high street stores are still taking the biggest hit in a world that has changed a lot over the last few years.

OpCapita owns Comet and over the past week we’ve heard reports of stores closing, and rumors point to 61 electrical stores being marked for termination while they talk to landlords. If these rumors are true then this is more evidence of the retail giants finding it hard to complete with Internet offerings, which in most cases undercut prices. With money tighter than ever for the consumer it’s likely we’re all shopping around more, which in many cases means a better deal online or picking up games cheaper in supermarkets.

Will you miss GAME in the high street, and did you see the thousands of job losses coming to retail stores considering the change in shopping patterns over the last few years? For the consumer to buy more than clothing, food, and drink from high streets means a more unique selling point. Electrical stores would need to offer real helpful advice rather than employing people that don’t understand their product enough, which is seen in many electrical outlets and in a world where gamers know their video games – price is everything, which GAME has been out-priced for years.

Where do you buy most of your electrical products and video games – the high street, superstores or online? The feedback we’ve had so far from PR readers points to a lack of game stores on their high streets, and if GAME goes then it will be only online for them. There are also a lot of people that found this “inevitable” but also hope a buyer is found.

Over in the UK retailer GAME will be holding the official midnight launch at their flagship Oxford Street store in London. According to an article over at CVG.com Karl Jones and Ami Ledger developers of WipEout 2048 will be present to sign copies of the game.

The first person in the queue will be lucky enough to get a free supply of PS Vita games for a whole year. There will also be the Vita Mobile Team on hand allowing people in the queue to have a go of the PS Vita, as well as giving out goody bags that will contain a GAME PSN voucher and other merchandise.

Free invitations will also be handed out to a special party at the PlayStation Vita Rooms at 80 Oxford Street. Gamers will be treated to sets by DJs such as Chris Moyels among others, and refreshments. GAME have been offering consumers the chance the experience the PS Vita in recent weeks after providing its 600 stores with a demo unit.

The retailer didn’t give out any details if its regional stores were opening at midnight for the PS Vita launch though. There have been rumors that stores that receive 50 or more preorders will open but this hasn’t been confirmed.

Many supermarkets are open 24 hours so you may be able to pick a unit up from there, otherwise unless you can get to London you will either have to wait until Wednesday or a parcel to be delivered. Meanwhile in the US many GameStop stores are set to open at midnight.

Is your local GAME or Gamestation store opening at midnight?

According to GAME the introduction of such passes from the various game publishers hasn’t affect the demand for pre-owned games. A report on Gamerzines is saying that the company’s Communications Director Simon Soffe, feels the move to online passes runs the risk “of confusing consumers”.

Soffe also thinks that Online Passes has failed to succeed and added that they haven’t had an any affect on GAMES pre-owned revenues. Back in June 2010 the introduction of the idea caused a lot of controversy from consumers and the gaming press alike.

Consumers who picked up a secondhand copy of a game were unable to access the online multiplayer part of it, and have also recently locked out some parts of the single player content. One such pass that caused a lot of controversy was Warner Bros decision to lockout consumers of the Catwoman’s side to Batman: Arkham City.

Passes have been held up by the publishers as a way to protect revenues from server costs, as well as make up for lost revenues at retail. Soffe feels that the secondhand market is still a benefit to everyone in the industry, and helps with the sale of new titles. Trouble is some retailers can sometimes offer secondhand games that can be cheaper elsewhere brand new, especially with older titles.

How do you feel about Online Passes?

GAME was quick to deny these claims saying they are untrue after the video game vendor was forced to investigate them. The claims suggested passwords and user names allegedly belonging to the online website members had been found on Pastebin, a web application that allows for the uploading of text, usually source code samples.

One spokesperson for the retailer, Anne-Marie Mason said ‘At GAME we guard our customers’ details very carefully.’ She went on to explain that ‘The published email addresses are not registered users of Game.co.uk, and there has been no breach of our database security.’ This statement was made after the company claimed they had thoroughly investigated the claims.

‘Hunterbeckham’ is a hacker that has explained how the credentials were acquired. They say a shell injection method was used. GAME meanwhile are assuring customers that their details are safe and advising anyone that has any questions regarding the situation to get into contact with their customer services team via Twitter, Facebook or their website.

Yet more assurance comes via the Inquirer, who say they attempted to use a few of the login details that were listed on Pastebin to access the website but were unable to have any success, getting an error message every time that read ‘We could not find a GAME Account for the email address you provided. Please enter the information again.’

Are you a member of the GAME website? Do you believe the claims that they were hacked or are you remaining assured that your details are safe?

We have just had the busy holiday season that saw online shopping hitting record levels, but one concern with this type of shopping can be fraud. Now according to a report on PCMag retailer Zappos has been breached by hackers. CEO Tony Hsieh took to Twitter last night to reveal the hacking, and said the company had parts of their “internal network and systems” breeched at servers in Kentucky.

Hsieh added that the database that contained customer’s online payment and credit information was not accessed. But there may have been some important information accessed and the company will be sending out emails to its 24 million customers.

This will warn customers about the breech and stresses that some unauthorized access may have happened to their account. This could include the name, email address, billing and shipping information, phone number, and even the last four numbers of their credit card number. This does usually appear on receipts for goods purchased in stores though.

Zappos is going to automatically expire user’s passwords and advises customers to create new ones. Maybe not so big but just as worrying is the news that UK retailer GAME has seen its user database hacked. Criminals have managed to get hold of more than 200 customers email addresses and passwords in clear text according to CVG.

Also another website Catalyst-Gaming is having similar problems with hackers as usernames, passwords, and email addresses leaked. Anyone with accounts with either site is advised to change their passwords ASAP.

Update: According to MCV GAME has denied ever being hacked and after investigating found no evidence of any hacking, and added that “the published email addresses are not registered users of GAME.co.uk, and there has been no breach of our database security”.

Do you have an account with Zappos?

Currently these bonuses aren’t showing up on the Game’s website, but Xbox360Achievements.org states that EA has announced this news according to this brief article.

If you pre-order Mass Effect 3 from Game you will get the M55 Argus Assault Rifle (a good all-round gun), the N7 Valkyrie Assault Rifle (a gun which pumps out two high calliber rounds per shot) and N7 Defender Armor – this armour not only protects you from your enemy but it also boosts your ammo capacity and weapon damage. You can see videos showing you all of the pre-order bonus content at the bottom of this page, what’s unclear is whether you have to pre-order the N7 Collector’s Edition to get all these goodies or whether the standard edition will do – hopefully we can confirm this soon.

Any hardcore Mass Effect fan should seriously consider the N7 Collector’s Edition of Mass Effect 3, at Game this will set you back £69.99 compared to the standard edition which will cost £39.99 (PS3 and Xbox 360), the N7 Collector’s Edition for PC also costs £69.99, which is surprising considering the standard edition of ME3 for PC costs just £32.99. Ignoring the Game’s pre-order bonuses the N7 Collector’s Edition gets you everything shown in the image below (click on it for a larger image).

Mass Effect 3 is scheduled for release on March 6 in North America, March 8 in Australia and March 9 in Europe, we recently listed it as one of the most anticipated titles of 2012 following the success of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 – let’s just hope BioWare does a good job with the game’s development.

Have you now pre-ordered Mass Effect 3 yet?

The game retailer will be giving the free copy to the first 100 customers who turn up to their Oxford Street launch in the UK on Friday 18th November dressed as the hero from Hyrule. The store opens at 9am but if you’re hoping to be one of the 100 it is recommended that you get down there quite a bit earlier as it is likely to be rammed full of other Link impersonators.

As ONM explains, GAME will also be hosting a trial for fans of the game who wish to try it out before they buy it, which will be set in a mediaeval forest glen themed section of the store. GameStation will also be hosting the trial at their stores as of Saturday 19th November in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow and at the Prospect Centre in Hull.

Earlier today we brought you news of a live stream event for the game that will be taking place on Sunday. It is mainly aimed at the fans in the US as they will not be able to get the game until that day and this will give those involved a preview of what to expect from the game. Those in the UK who are still unsure whether they will buy it or not by then can take advantage of the live stream preview to help them decide.

Will you be heading to GAME dressed as Link tomorrow?

For those of you that are interested in snapping up the game before most people in the UK get to, it will be available to buy at GAME stores in both London’s Oxford Street and Birmingham’s New Street at midnight this coming Friday morning, November 11th. Still not excited? Well that’s not all as, according to CVG, the first 100 people who manage to lead the queues at each store will receive a copy of the Skyrim soundtrack and of the strategy guide absolutely free.

If you’re not lucky enough to be one of the leading 100 in the queue, fear not as the first 250 people in the queue will also receive a Skyrim goody bag. If you’re finally starting to get a little enthused then prepare yourself as the store is also holding a competition, offering the chance to win special prizes for those of you that turn up in Skyrim themed attire.

The best dressed will be the winner and will be leaving the store with a free upgrade to the Skyrim collector’s edition worth £130, Skyrim t-shirts and an Xbox 360, as well as all the other goodies listed above. Runners up will receive the free upgrade and the t-shirts as well as all the other goodies too, but unfortunately not the Xbox 360.

Will you be queuing to be among the first to own The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? What do you think of the prizes up for grabs?

One place that has unveiled a good deal to help with that decision is GAME, who is offering double XP with MW3 pre-orders. The feature comes part of an inclusive deal that the retailer is currently offering where those who pre-order from their store receive exclusive content known as the Classified Intel Pack. This pack features an exclusive PS3 theme, an SAS avatar, a Brady strategy guide and of course double XP for the first four hours of multiplayer game time, a deal which is also being offered by Gamestation, according to CVG.

GAME’s Neil Ashurst expressed how well they know their consumers and what the game release means for them by saying ‘The build-up to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is huge… We know how important multiplayer is to our customers so it’s great to be able to give them double XP.’ He also stated their belief that MW3 ‘is set to be the biggest multiplayer gaming experience of the year.’

In a recent article we revealed just what the release of the MW3 means to GAME as a company too. A large percentage of their profit making relies heavily on the release and success of big name games such as these. Another game they will also be relying heavily upon to do well is FIFA 12, which is available in the UK as of midnight tonight.

What do you think of this offer from GAME? Will you be getting MW3 from there?