The end is nigh for the struggling UK games retailer as shares are suspended and it announces plan to appoint an administrator.
After requesting its stock be removed from the London Stock Exchange this morning, the Game Group has announced it is calling in the administrators. While the firm will continue trading for the time being, job losses, store closures, and a financial hit for the firm's creditors are now all very likely.
The group's board said this morning that it was "of the opinion that there is no equity value left" and that delisting from the exchange was the only option. Game's share price had fallen drastically in the two years prior to the delisting. In March 2009 shares in the group were valued at 199.8p; at close of trading yesterday the group's shares were valued at 2.4p, a drop of almost 99 percent.
Following the delisting, the firm issued another statement. "Further to this morning's announcement of the suspension of trading in shares of Game Group plc," the statement read, "the board has concluded that its discussions with all stakeholders and other parties have not made sufficient progress in the time available to offer a realistic prospect for a solvent solution for the business.
"In the short term the Board's intention is that the business will continue to trade and discussions with lenders and third parties will continue under the protection of the interim moratorium," the statement concluded.
Alex Sassoon Coby has been involved in tech and video games journalism for the better part of a decade. He likes his games hard, his meat raw, and his women on wheels.
Found out they lost Licences from Capcom and Temco and 60000million jobs at rist pp who said game over. That you dont care and if you said that and got job i hope yours go down as well and it will backfire. And i hope gamespot will save it .Where go to my games know? well i wont go to asda or tescos because they dont have any choices to buy, Maybe HMV be my Number 2 choice . This weekend useing my points up and buying what i need to get from there before closes :[.
On a day where Gaming officially surpassed movies and music as the number 1 choice of entertainment, you'd think high street gaming stores would be in the clear and springing up all over. I hate to say this, but I can really see Gamestop making a push to acquire former Game premises.
Just been to game to use some old vouchers which I had only to be told I couldn't use them as the perforations had broken. I have both sides which have the same barcode!! One of them wasn't even separated completely but was still invalid!! Tried phoning but call center isn't taking calls. I'm guessing they'll do anything to keep hold of the money they have left.
@SirNormanislost Yeah HMV, very true but the guys in Game atleast seemed to know about games and hardware! In my local town there is an independant game store, I may check it out.
I'm sorry for everyone affected by this. This is something GAME brought upon themselves and now their employees will have to pay for it.
sad day people who think this is a good thing couldn't be more wrong ye there is still hmv but trust me there prices will go up remember competition is a good thing.
I am glad this company is going under to be quite honest i have worked for them for over 2 1/2 years and let me tell you that place is a s*** hole, poor working conditions underpaid staff for dealing with those conditions overpriced, every 6 months or so they reduce the discount used to be 30% when i started and it went down just now to 19% or so. Regional managers and managers completely unreasonable with targets and statistics and merciless with work i was sick so often as the work was over demanding, plus extra hours staying behind to do stock moves and changes UNPAID and we were threatened to be fired if we did not do it.F** YOU GAME I AM GLAD YOUR GOING UNDER PEICE OF S*** COMPANY
@kkee i dont think game were that overpriced (see psn store digital download prices for new releases, 50.00 for new titles which is actually the rrp of new titles) i do however think that compared to specialist online game retailers such as gamestop uk and place like play and zavvi the price difference is noticable but this doesnt just apply to game retailers, it also applies to any high street retailer be it selling washing machines, books or clothes. due to things like shop space, staffing costs etc. shops cant go up against online retailers whos outgoing costs in these departments are considerably less. unfortunatley the revolution you talk about isnt one where the pricing of games isnt rethought but more likely the closure of store like HMV and CEX who are now some of the only retailers besides supermarket chains who are stocking games. i know in lincoln where i live the only place to purchase new games are HMV who are close to closure, and Tesco who only stock whats popular at the moment (no chance of them getting games like azuras wrath and catherine any time soon im not sure if im the only one but i am a fan of high street shopping. i like to be able to take away a physical copy of what ever i buy be it a game, blu ray or even a sweater vest (......... dont know why id purchase one but if i did id like to have in my hand instead of waiting for 5 days for the post to deliver)
@pillychickle fair enough the idiot comment wasnt needed and i apologise for that. you have to understand how your comment comes across. in terms of how they treat there employees my partener worked there a few years ago before we moved and they seemed to treat her extremely fairly. i also know most the staff at my local store and they dont seem to have any complaints. i know of worse employers on the high street that treat there employees less fairly who knows though maybe my local store is the exception in the group or vice versa
This is long overdue. GAME have abused their position for years, bullying publishers and overcharging customers. Hopefully, this will see a revolution in the way games are sold on the high street in the UK, maybe with games sold earlier in the week, instead of Fridays, and better pricing.
It's sad to see another high-street name bite the dust, and I can only hope the people who will be losing their jobs can find alternative employment. Unfortunately retail isn't exactly in the best shape - how many well known names have hit the wall in the past year? Too many. Anyway, unfortunately I'm part of the problem, as I haven't bought a game in a brick-and-mortar store for many years now (largely due to my limited mobility because of health issues). The games I mainly buy from online stores are console games, and when it comes to PC games, GOG and Steam have most of my needs covered. Digital distribution is growing year on year, so I think even the supermarkets are going to find it difficult to stock games in the future.
And to think this time last night the rumour were "just" that Gamestation would be axed to save GAME. Here we are barely 24 hours later and it seems the whole group has collapsed. Sad news for the UK high street as it pretty much only leaves HMV as the sole nationwide store with games outside of supermarkets, and HMV are not in good shape either.
Such a shame they'll take Gamestation down with them. Gamestation >>> Game (even with a slight bias on my part)
@yeebsey Take that back, I feel just as bad for those who'll lose their jobs as you do. But hey, with the way GAME treated their employees and customers, they deserved to die. I have little remorse for the top brass...
game is to expensive! @griffinball we have an independent games shop in portsmouth called ross records they have been going since the nes and masterdrive days and are still going strong!
Amazon, Grainger Games and CeX, here I come! Sayounara, GAME. You were awesome back then, but now your time in the sun must come to a close.
Sad that a lot of people will lose their jobs apart from one jumped up p$!%k who works in the main Brighton store who lied to me on more than one occasion to scare into buying stuff from there.
This could have all been prevented if it wern't for 'questionable' pricing and incompetant executives.
Its not just you V2lent1ne, Game were the main player through the UK, a lot of people didn't know Game and Gamestation were the same company and so that leaves nobody, electronics boutique died out years ago. Theres a couple of independents left, but they won't last, we have Gamescene in Bristol, but they can't last, they never have anyone in them. Its sad to see, lots of people losing jobs, strangely enough, I very very nearly applied for a management role in Game back in December, very glad I didn't now, and funny enough my reason at the time for not applying was, I was convinced the company had no future. I hate when I'm right in situations like this. But lets face it, it was a long time coming. These days, a lot of people buy their games online, steam, amazon, play. The online thing is becoming more and more out there on consoles too so soon, it'll be all anyone uses. Even used games, you've got Ebay and CEX these days, and Game were being propped up by used sales, plus the industry hate them. Its been a long time coming, but it had to happen one day.
@Berkut666 Well...there's always HMV but that's last highstreet store left that sells games....
Damn, the only shop that focuses on gaming close to me is a GAME store and it seems to do very well, shame this has happened :S
This is really sad: 6,600 people will probably lose their jobs - and, what's more, there's now hardly any competition in the UK games retail sector: I really, REALLY don't want to have to buy my games from Tescos. Sheesh.
That will be the end of specalist game retailers in the UK then. Will have to buy from Supermarkets from now on!
@RogRodge Oh dear, four whole hours :roll: so f***ing what? Of course the BBC is going to get the news first...its the friggin BBC.
unfortunate for the people who work there but that store chain has been dying for ages and i don't know how it's gone for this long
man we ll have no high street shops left to look round in while the wife is trying on her new shoes (again!!). Will we be an internet dependent society ? Where am i gonna go to buy games i want now not in 2 days waiting for delivery ??
@yeebsey Got that right. I've worked in the entertainment / gaming side of retail a good chunk of my life, and trying to find new jobs in that sector, or any kind of retail, at the moment is a total nightmare.
@chillypickle "GAME OVER YEAHHHHHHH!" YEAHHHHH 1000'S OF PEOPLE LOOSING THERE JOBS! you're an idiot
its a sad when any retailer goes in to administration as more and more retailers are going in to administration leaving employees high and dry with not many places to go to. whether you liked or dislike game i dont think anyone can celebrate the potential loss of so many jobs. knowing the managers and staff of my local brand all i can do is hope some miracle happens where they are not left without any form of income. being unemployed isnt fun for anyone (trust me when i say theres only so many times you can be rejected for jobs before wanting to top yourself) and with more and more retailers going under the likely hood of people picking up jobs in this sector is slim this news just highlights how horrible a condition the uk retail industry is in.
Not only is it bad news for the staff, but shoppers too. Even if you hated the stores, less presence on the high street means less competition and less reason for the remaining players to sell under RRP. People keep saying just buy the games on the net or supermarkets; which is fine if you have the cash, but as budgets tighten having less places you can trade your older games will mean less new ones bought. Still, they're not dead yet; we'll have to see if the likes of Comet group and Gamestop make a move now.
@raduz123: Got to agree with you, peoples livelihoods are about to be lost. I wasn't a fan of GAME, but I did like its sister store Gamestation. The staff were always friendly, knew their stuff and the trade ins were worth it.
I love the fact that morons have been posting celebrating the closure of GAME, what they forget is that companies like EA do not like the public buying second hand games at an often considerable discount and that the games sold as new are the vast majority of the time sold at a discount to the RRP. Mostly what this means though is job losses for people who work hard and have family to support. Sales of games and digital content will doubtless be geared toward digital downloads and purchases but this may come at the expense of diversity of sales, from pre-owned to to trading in to simple advice from a face not located the other end of a telephone line.
Well this bad news even pp dont care because game store had every game what comes out as well gamespot usa. So Who should buy them out and change the services well GameSpot should buy them out and name as GameSpot UK and Euope Why? Because they reasle every game out to buy and i dont mind haveing gamespot shop means that Select channal change to gamespot uk show. Look like going to use my points up since no way know:[. Big Shock in the gameing market in uk and euope Big time. Plz Gamespot buy us out
We talked to Excalibur Publishing's managing director, Robert Stallibrass, the man whose audience wants him to make Hairdressing Simulator and even Ice Cream Van Man Simulator.
Users who looked at this article also looked at these content items.
United States Vice President Joe Biden believes there is no legal restriction on ability to tax violent media. Full Story
Avalanche Studios co-founder says developer's ambition is for action, not moments that make players cry; steampunk-style game on hold. Full Story
Developer confirms image suggesting version of upcoming shared-world shooter in development for Sony's latest portable is a fake. Full Story
Assassin's Creed and Far Cry publisher says its network of 26 studios and over 7,000 developers will allow company to ship major franchises more regularly. Full Story
4A Games creative director Andrew Prokhorov thanks Jason Rubin for telling the studio's story, but says, "We deserve the ratings we get." Full Story
DICE head would also like to poach top talent from rivals Infinity Ward and Treyarch. Full Story
Future EA games won't require Online Passes; the service is being scrapped after tepid player response. Full Story
Call of Duty: Ghosts teaser video revealed
Official Twitter channel for upcoming first-person shooter hyping May 21 reveal with new teaser video.
