The mournful collapse of the UK's main UK gaming retailer, GAME, is almost complete. This morning GAME's board declared that there was "no equity value left in the Group," and removed the company from the stock exchange. Now MCV report that they've filed for administration.
The stores will keep selling games for now as Game's bosses decide what to do with the hundreds of stores they have across the UK and Europe. MCV claims that the group is planning to cut off a number of international stores, close down most of their Gamestation stores, and relaunch as a rebranded, streamlined operation.
If the Game Group was to disappear entirely, games would mostly disappear from Britain's high streets. The US giant, Gamestop, have a minimal presence in the UK, so it'd be down to supermarkets, music and film shops like HMV and small retailers like CEX to shift copies. A bad situation for the industry as a whole.
Trade online is thriving, though. Digital shops like Amazon and Play continue to do well, and digital distribution platforms like Steam and Origin are doing plenty of business. We won't be especially affected by GAME's decline given the pretty miserable PC presence in their stores, but it's a worrying time for those who work for the company.
