GAME Loses £10 Million Over A Year Due To 'Volatile' Retail Market

Published: November 15, 2017 9:00 PM /

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GAME Store Black & White

GAME, a British-based video game retailer, has lost £10 million (approximately USD$13,168,000) over the last year as reported by GamesIndustry.biz.

For those on the American side of the pond, GAME is essentially the British equivalent of GameStop. It has hundreds of locations across Europe with 268 retail locations in Spain alone. The company has faced financial difficulties in the past - it went into administration (the UK equivalent of bankruptcy) in 2012 and emerged on the other side more or less intact. The losses are the continuation of a trend where the retailer saw profits decline over 25% earlier this calendar year.

The loss is attributed to a number of different factors. The increase in downloading games (rather than purchasing physical copies) is one reason, and some titles (such as Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare) just didn't perform as well as could be expected. Fewer games overall were released as compared to the period last year, resulting in less product for the company to move.

An investment into esports tournaments was also cited as a factor that caused the British-based retailer to run into the red this year. GAME has been rolling out Belong stores where players are able to play against one another on high-end gaming PCs and enter into tournaments for prizes. 18 of the locations have opened as attachments to existing retail locations thus far and the company hopes to have 35 rolled out by the end of next year, including some standalone Belong stores.

Although the numbers are a bit down this year, GAME believes that it's in line with its strategic plans which included the rollout of Belong stores. 221 store leases will be up for renewal before 2018 is finished and the company hopes that they'll be able to negotiate a more favorable deal in future. Despite the losses, the company remains optimistic about its future considering the upcoming releases for consoles in the coming weeks and months.

What do you think of GAME as a retailer? Do you think the company's financial dip is due to a poor market or some other issue in their planning? Let us know in the comments below!

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One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I… More about Robert N