Game Group shares slide under a penny
End nigh for High Street retailer?
High street retailer Game has put itself up for sale after shares plunged to a penny this morning amid concern over the company's future.
Game Group PLC's gloomy Monday morning saw its stock open at 1.75 pence, down from 3.51 pence when the market closed on Friday. A few minutes later and it plummeted further, continuing the decline to a record low of 0.50 pence, valuing the retail firm at £1.7m.
"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," the company warned.
At its peak four years ago, a single Game Group share would have set you back almost 300p. But digital distribution has grown massively since then while overall game sales have fallen, so the company's value has plummeted 94 per cent over the last year alone.
Game runs around 1270 shops in nine European countrues and Australia.
The retailer recently fell out of favour with several games publishers and cancelled plans to stock major releases such as EA's Mass Effect 3.
Game is now seeking alternative sources of funding and reviewing its assets, calling out for a rescue deal ahead of a quarterly rent bill due in two weeks. If it fails to make the payment, the company may be forced into administration, Reuters reports.
While the biggest hope for a buyout appears to be US rival GameStop, a deal is thought to be unlikely before Game enters into administration, if it does.
Failing that, it really could be the end for Game and Gamestation altogether. So long and thanks for all the discs? ®
COMMENTS
Of course there is
a gaming store would be an excellent place to try games, get recommendations, maybe even form some type of social hub for people with shared interests.
Sadly Game is none of these things. They cover huge areas of expensive retail space, with identical empty game boxes and maybe have a demo unit in the corner. Can't think of any way they've ever attempted to use their physical location to offer the consumer something unique.
I'm pretty bewildered as to how they've made it this far.
Hopefully this might allow some of the independents to re-emerge, although to be honest I think it's too late and solely digital distribution is inevitable.
"where else can you get good value second hand video games on the high street?"
CeX. Waaay cheaper than Game, in almost every instance, plus the staff tend to know their stuff. CeX have been storming through a recession and opening new stores, because they price stuff a bit cheaper and get the stock shifted out. They're not too proud to slice a price if it moves stock, and Game are.
Price is Game's biggest problem. I can't count the number of times I've been in their PC section wondering how many litres of piss they're taking. The staff are alright, the store's not bad, it's just the pricing that's generally insane.
And I can't forgive them for what they did to Gamestation. That place was fantastic before Game got their teeth into it. A proper retro section stretching back to the Master System, rare or classic games kept in a cabinet, great staff, great prices, and then Game bought it. Retro was killed off immediately, the place started selling DVDs and later Blu Ray, and it just became another Game store. What a loss.
The fire sale's already started, though. Is anyone fooled by their "Spring Clean" sale? I bought 4 games at the weekend for the price of just one two weeks prior.
And as for the supermarkets, they're worse. A tiny selection of whatever games the staff have heard of, stock older then the person you're buying it for, and daft prices. ASDA are marginally better than the others, but only marginally. Sod that.
Nope, if Game goes, it'll be CeX only for me. That, and BHF. For some inexplicable reason, BHF round here always have great games in from a few years ago, at about a quid a piece!
Re: No sympathy here
Err, why would MS want you to buy a 2ndhand console? Think about it.
The fact is, they make more money off the 2ndhand crap because of the huge markup they put on it.
Re: Re: Costa, clothing and cash-converters
As far as our local town centre goes, its already happened. What the council should be doing is reducing car parking charges to encourage people to visit, but no, car parking has gone up again.
I know the following prices are cheap on a national scale, but people didn't go in to town before they went up. And this shows how crazy the prices are:
30 minutes: 30p
1 hour: 80p (wtf?!? since when did prices get MORE expensive per unit as you bought more of them?!?)
2 hours: £1.50 (that's more like it...)
That all said, round here its still cheaper to drive than it is go get the bus, the cost of which is just frightening...
