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GAME to enter administration, stays open however

by Alistair Lowe on 22 March 2012, 10:24

Tags: GAME

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It appears as though the game's up, so to speak, as UK retailer GAME files for administration after admitting that the business had "no equity value", placing at risk 6,000 jobs in the UK and 10,000 jobs world-wide.

The firm needs to raise £180 million to hold off annihilation long enough to attempt to rebuild itself. GAME owes £21 million in rent fees for payment this Sunday and must pay out £12 million in wages at the end of the month. Other debts include £10 million of VAT, £40 million to suppliers and £100 million to the various banks and lenders that have kept the company afloat this long.

As such, GAME has launched a "spring clean" fire sale on its website in an attempt to raise cash, with some games being offered from as little as £1.98, though, with the firm unable to obtain titles such as Mass Effect 3, Mario Party 9 and Street Fight X Tekken, the line-up is missing some key new AAA games.

GAME's situation is somewhat humoured by a recent report from the Electronic Retailers Association (ERA) that stated sales in the gaming industry had passed £1.93 billion in 2011, making gaming the UK's largest entertainment sector, surpassing DVDs and other video formats, along with music, which each pulled in £1.8 billion and £1.07 billion respectively.

The report does help to highlight GAME's inability to adapt to a market that whilst changing, is in fact flourishing, with the firm operating with high in-store overheads whilst remaining uncompetitive on the web. Let's hope that, should the firm survive, lessons will be learnt and the retailer will be back with a solid business plan.



HEXUS Forums :: 27 Comments

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We all knew it was going to happen, still a shame though to have it confirmed.
As such, GAME has launched a “spring clean” fire sale on its website in an attempt to raise cash….

The ‘spring clean’ sale has been on for one if not two weeks already and, tbh, is very lacking in good titles, at least on the PC. In fact, in the store nearest me, the majority of the PC game shelves are taken up by hidden object adventure games! :s Maybe there'll be more deals to come now that this announcement has been made.

Sad times. GAME has always been iconic for me. As a child, I was always thrilled when my parents took me out shopping with them as it inevitably included me being taken to Game where I would search through the 3 for £10 shelves with glee! :)

In recent years though, unless there's been a sale on, I rarely go into Game to buy; usually just to browse for titles that I'll then look up online, where they'll inevitably be cheaper! And, at least in the PC game section, whats available to browse has gotten poorer and poorer everytime.

imho, GAME got too greedy. They kept open too many stores after aquiring Gamestation. They also alientated a fair chunk of their customer base I feel, by reducing the allocation in store for PC games and replacing it with used console games, usually priced just a few pounds cheaper than buying them new!

Still, it's a shame to see them go under and all those people potentially lose those jobs. Now isn't a good time to be out of work! Though as unlikely as it may be, I hope GAME some how pulls through…
badly run by muppet managers and gone belly up! Doesn't alter the fact that it looks like they give the muppets another try after shedding loads of jobs of innocent people…
The report does help to highlight GAME's inability to adapt to a market that whilst changing, is in fact flourishing, with the firm operating with high in-store overheads whilst remaining uncompetitive on the web.
As said before - they were really stupid in store placement. Having Gamestation's near GAME's is bad enough, but from the comments on Hexus it's obvious that they then compounded that mistake by opening GAME's near existing ones. Mind bogglingly stupid! :wallbash:

If it was me, I'd try and find a way to spin off GAME stores into a separate company and then kill ‘em - as far as my recent experiences go, Gamestation is better anyway.

Well, I’ve apparently got £7 in points, so I'm thinking that perhaps getting the last Assassin's Creed (Revelations) on the PC might be a good use of those points. Big AC fan, but I've never played it on the PC - perhaps it'd look better. Unless someone @ Hexus has got a better recommendation of course … (please don't say Mass Effect)