By ALISTAIR CHARLTONÂ http://www.ibtimes.co.uk (//http)
Game Group has announced that it has been unable to get deliveries of new stock from suppliers, amid speculation that the company is just two weeks from administration.
The group - which owns video games shops Game and Gamestation - said in a press release on Monday that it remains in discussion with stock suppliers, but admits that it has been unsuccessful in sourcing new products from "a number of suppliers."
The UK's two remaining high street video game specialists have been in trouble for some time, but it was brought to a head in early March when the shops were unable to stock copies of blockbuster game Mass Effect 3 as a deal could not be made with its developer.
As a result, customers who pre-ordered with Game were offered in-store credit as a refund, forcing them to buy the game elsewhere. It is the same story for all other future releases from Electronic Arts (EA).
The company said on Monday: "Further to GAME's announcement of 29th February 2012 and recent press speculation, the Group confirms that it remains in discussions with its suppliers and lenders in relation to terms of trade that allow the business to operate within the facility provided by its banking syndicate, as announced on 3 February 2012, and to meet its revised strategic plan. While these discussions are ongoing, it has not been possible to source new products from a number of suppliers."
Essentially, Game has been unable to meet the demands of the product suppliers, who provide the stock and are paid back by Game once it has been sold. This statement would suggest that suppliers are not confident that Game can sell enough stock to pay them back.
The statement continued: "The Board of GAME is working actively to resolve these issues as quickly as possible. This includes ongoing discussions with suppliers, seeking access to the original facility or alternative sources of funding, and reviewing the position of all of its assets in the UK and international territories."
"It is uncertain whether any of the solutions currently being explored by the Board will be successful or will result in any value being attributed to the shares of the Company."
On Friday it was revealed by game industry trade magazine MCV that Game Group's CEO had warned his management team of the company's future and that they have roughly two weeks to save the company before it is forced into administration.
As suggested by Pocket-Lint, a partial or full takeover by US retailer GameStop looks to be Game Group's only solution.
In the meantime, Game has started its Spring Sale, where it is selling products at heavily reduced prices in an attempt to raise money and keep the company afloat long enough for an investor or buyer to be found.
Read more: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/312658/20120312/game-group-close-administration.htm#ixzz1otolDkuR (//http)
I will add that I went in to mine this morning, and it is looking quite sparse, I mean more spacious than normal!
The Second video games crash is looming.
been on the cards for weeks. Never liked Game much,
but used to like Gamestation before Game bought it. Sad,
but Game doesn't seem well run, so not surprising
I actually used to work for Game many years ago and even back then the management were complete idiots.
Its a shame to see another big retailer go under, I worked for Thresher Group for 6 years who at the time were the biggest high street retailer in the UK with over 2000 shops before they went bust.
Fact is that these companies need to wake the hell up and realise the high street has changed. Unless they are willing to take advice from the people on the frontline (shop staff) and listen to the customer more are going to go under.
I agree about Gamestation, they were fantastic when they sold retro gear.
game do seemed to have been asleep for years.
my friend in Croydon told me they had 3 game group
shops within 60seconds walk of each other until recently!
Well there s only a hand ful of game stores over here, there mainly gamestop now, but of the game stores I was in, they where way over excessive with the pricin of games and even the second hand stuff was way out there too.., this is a case of greed, that has far out weighted the ability to sustain itself into today economy and down turn, why is it with all these business that they expect to continue to charge top prices when it clearly has be shown and proved that people just don't have the money to spend on this stuff they once did?
Agreed sadly these guys were in a position to blow everyone away. They should have controlled the distributors better to get better value for the money.
Then passed this on to us. If they had more deals like online I would by from them all the time. Including secondhand.
i was never clear what Games selling point was.
they weren't that cheap, trade in & new copies in the
same store was dumb & there selection was often odd (some stores
had as much ps2 and pc games as they did ps3 or 360).
Gamestation was great for used stuff, but when they stopped doing that, it became the same as its competitor, then to make things surreal, its competitor is the same company, go figure.
(http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/30.gif)
i went into a Game yesterday to pick up a few more bargains and they were still buying used games - which I thought was very very odd, as the fire sale was designed to raise cash - so why pay out cash you don't have for more used games? Wonder if they're considering becoming a CEX trade in only style chain?
May well be mate.. I hope they manage to pull it out of the bag.
gamestation i was in today was bustling - picked up a few ds
games for the kids. Almost bought Binary Domain, but will wait
for a price drop.
think they're running low on firesale stock now.
I was in Newbury the other day and they have a small Gamestation that is almost opposite a slightly larger Game but the most retro thing either had was a Gamecube, no thanks.
i was in the Crawley one - Ps2 was as retro as they got!
sad. I bought half my megadrive retro from
gamestation back in 2005 or so. apparently they
burnt loads of retro stock once!!!
Burnt it? :'(
That's just wrong. Why do people do stuff like that. Just ain't right.
i must dig out the games TM issue it was reported in, but it was about 18 months back. I imagine a lot of it was tat like fifa, but I'll bet some OK stuff went too. Why not just have flogged it off for a quid a go? It would have sold like hotcakes
It will be a real shame if they fall under. One of my fave shops to browse and shop in. Picked up some real bargains from them over the last year.
If they did more bargains on new games even at £35, i would buy many more games of them and also an impulse 2nd hand purchase here and there.
Some 2,119 Game Group employees will be made redundant at the end of the week after the struggling retailer collapsed, according to Sky sources.
The appointed administrators PwC said 277 of the company's 609 UK stores will be shut with immediate effect.
They added the job losses would include 2,104 store staff and 15 head office employees.
Meanwhile, a consortium led by state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is considering a takeover of Game Group, which has gone into administration.
The seven banks are owed £85m by the video games retailer, with an additional £95m due to suppliers.
HMV got out of a muddle because the suppliers did not want them to die, I think this tells you that the suppliers to Game Group got revenge for the preowned schemes that cut orders of new games from them in the past.