UK retailer GAME shutters last remaining standalone stores as it enters administration
UK high street retailer GAME is closing its three remaining standalone stores as managing director, Nick Arran, exits the company after nine years.
As reported by The Game Business, via VGC, the Frasers Group-owned business will continue to operate its 200+ concession sites across Sports Direct and House of Fraser stores, as well as its retail website.
GAME filed a notice of its intention to bring in insolvency administrators last week, following weak sales over the Christmas period last year.
GAME was acquired in 2019 by Mike Ashley’s Fraser Group – then Sport Direct – for £51.9 million. That followed the retail billionaire snapping up a 25.75% stake in the chain two years prior, then slowly increasing his ownership of the company over time.
At the start of 2024, however, the company decided to exit the pre-owned business, while later that year, the retailer dropped its Xbox All Access and reward scheme. In July 2024, GAME stopped offering in-store pre-orders, too. In April, the company made redundancies as the majority of workers were moved to zero-hour contracts, and in August, the majority of staff at GAME’s head office were let go.
Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz in 2023, then-MD Arran denied claims the chain was turning its back on its games business to focus on other items, such as toys, insisting: “Gaming is our core business and we will be last man standing selling physical video games.
“We see our place in the market as proving that there is a place for physical, whether that be the collector’s editions, which we see as the vinyl of video games, or the gifter who doesn’t want to wrap up a download code for Christmas. But we need to be realistic. We have a business to run and the expectation is this will decline. So we need to fill that gap.”
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