EndGame: Game Stores May Not See It Through To Next Year

Posted by Oli on March 7th, 2012, 9:01 am GMT

Game recently revealed that they would not be stocking any EA titles this March, including the much anticipated Mass Effect 3, which has led to senior Game bosses considering the closure of several stores following fears that the company may not be able to continue trading throughout next year.

Sources described as “close to the situation” revealed to The Express that senior figures at Game felt that there was a “real risk” of Game becoming insolvent, and that they were currently consulting with legal advisors in an attempt to decide on the most suitable plan of action.

“There is a real risk that GAME’s directors will pull the plug because they can’t be sure that the company can survive through the next trading season, and then insolvency becomes inevitable.”

The main financial supporter of Game, The Royal Bank of Scotland is also, according to sources close to RBS, said to be looking for a get out clause as RBS is also concerned about the former retail gaming giant’s financial situation.

“The immediate response from RBS will be to push for more store closures, but the tipping point for the directors and the lending banks will come when the stores don’t have products to sell,”

This comes following the company’s recent announcement that no EA titles will be stocked by the company during March.

This was due to the company’s inability to secure the support of EA when they failed to provide the credit needed in order to stock the games.

In the interest of the bigger picture pertaining retail game sales in general, The Steam platform could be said to have a great deal to do with game stores having a hard time, as Steam’s ability to undercut the competition due to deals with the distributors over serial key allocation has presented a new paradigm in terms of the way we buy and play games (Direct2Drive gaming), one that retail gaming stores can never hope to compete with, this also avoids complications over online registration, which with retail bought games usually requires a separate online account, whereas everything through Steam is tied to a single set of login details. All games, multiplayer profiles, achievements etc. Making it very hard for companies such as Game to compete.

Sources: Eurogamer, T3