Grainger Games Make Twats of Themselves at The GMAs
Grainger Games, a retailer hailing from a small market stall at Grainger Market in my home town of Newcastle, has upset a lot of industry professionals.
Yesterday, during the Games Media Awards, representatives of Grainger Games (who were the headline sponsor of the event) managed to get rather drunk and -allegedly- invite some bikini girls and midgets into the relatively classy event for shennanigans, preceding then to -allegedly- shower tables with condoms and drunkenly heckle nominees, award winners, and hosts on stage. Twitter remains atwitter with gossip about the night.
In an official statement, managing director of Intent Media (the organiser) Stuart Dinsey apologies for the behavior displayed and says that Grainger Games are no longer welcome at future GMA or Intent Media functions adding “Grainger Games’ behaviour and attitude was the antithesis of what the GMAs are about”
Otherwise it was quite a good ceremony it seems.
Sponsoring the event was apparently effort on the part of Grainger Games to integrate with the industry. As a relative newcomer and mostly unheard of company this was a good opportunity to form solid relationships with useful professionals. After this debacle they will need to be extremely suave to prevent any bridges from burning.
This morning the company posted this frankly weak apology on their website:
We wholeheartedly apologise if we offended anyone at last night’s GMAs. It was never our intention to upset anybody. We sponsored the awards to show our support for everyone involved in games media and we continue to value and appreciate all their hard work and commitment.
The GMAs are a UK-based event that celebrates talent within the videogames media industry.
I love the “if” they put in their apology. You know, because it’s totally unclear and up in the air if they were arseholes or not.
Grainger have appeared in the new, very expensive to rent Eagle’s Meadow shopping centre in Wrexham – I popped in there and immediately scoffed at their “lowest price in Wrexham” claims.
I actually assumed they were a single store, I had no idea they were a chain.
Also, everything is bright fucking orange.
I went into a Grainger Games store once. It felt wrong. I left very quickly.
I like that in their ‘apology’ they failed to actually apologise for their behaviour, just that they’re sorry if anybody was offended.
these backslapping events need shaking up & it’s created some nice publicity for the awards so fair play to GG.
Gavin write an article! GAVIN WROTE AN ARTICLE!
Pity the poor Sponsors who mistook it for the MTV awards. Although I bet the Gamewank guys are probably laughing their heads off.
But what’s wrong with bikini midgets on stage?…or did I read that wrong? And is it midget or little person?
@Ace Flibble:
Actually, slightly mischaracterising the apology here. The weasel-worded apology you often get is: We’re sorry if anyone was offended. The key term here is ‘if anyone was offended’, which makes it a sort of passive act out of their control.
But they didn’t say that, they said a slightly less weasly version: ‘if we offended’, which at least acknowledges that if people were offended, they were responsible for the offense.
Still not ideal when they could just own up and say ‘we’re sorry THAT we offended’, etc. But I’m just saying there’s a subtle but not meaningless different between ‘if we offended’ and ‘if anyone was offended’
Their too big for their boots their company is running on on lots of borrowed money and if I was a lender I’d be calling in the dept and telling them to f**k off, I’ve been to a few of their stores from Newcastle to Yorkshire and have found all the staff that I’ve dealt with completly indifferent and unprofessional. I for one won’t be sad if they fold. I hope the gaming press kick their arse over the coming days, as that pseudo appology is a joke. Belsh
Apes said it’s given some publicity to the GMAs. Unfortunately this isn’t the kind of publicity an awards show would like.
But if Grainger Games are a small company with an edgy approach, then this has given them some amazing PR!
But I hope this isn’t a trend.
re:belsh
totally agree with you,hopefully the lenders will pull the plug,and the suppliers will cancel there credit limits
then these arrogrant wide boys,will get what they deserve,go into adminstration,they are druggies and criminals
a mate of mine was taken to st james park in there directors box,they kept going to the toilet for more cocaine,
not very good for families to shop in there stores
I presume their flagship shop is the one in Grainger Market in Newcastle. It’s a small property I’ll give them that but it’s an absolute dive inside and always full of proper chavos and staff who just don’t care, compare that with GAME where the shops are nice and tidy and you can have a good craic on with the staff! The other shops of theirs I’ve been in are all pretty trashy as well! I’ve also just seen their new advert on the TV which is frankly appalling.