Report: UK retailer GAME is going into administration again
The company has allegedly filed a notice to appoint administrators, which gives it ten days of protection from its creditors
UK high street retailer GAME is reportedly on the verge of collapse once again.
Bloomberg reports that the company filed a notice of its intention to bring in insolvency administrators on Wednesday (January 29). The Business Desk has spotted that this was done via law firm RPC.
This, apparently, follows weak sales, something faced by many high street retailers across the UK across 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.
This isn’t the first time that GAME has faced financial uncertainty; back in March 2012, publishers including Nintendo and Electronic Arts declined to sell new releases via the company due to concerns about its financial situation. Later that month, the retailer filed for administration, before being bought by OpCapita.
Over the last few years, GAME has started to wind back its offerings. At the start of 2024, 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, while in August, the majority of staff at GAME’s head office were let go.
When GamesIndustry.biz spoke with GAME managing director Nick Arran in 2023, the executive refuted the notion that the chain was turning its back on its games business to instead focus on other items, such as toys.
“Gaming is our core business and we will be last man standing selling physical video games,” he said.
“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.”
And looking to the future, Arran was equally positive.
“Expect more locations from us,” he said.
“We are constantly in talks with Frasers Group about where we could open up more concessions.”
