Game chain sold

Retailer rescued by Comet owners

By Caleb Cox, 2nd April 2012

UK High street retailer Game has been acquired by Comet owner OpCapita.

The Game Group's administrator, PwC, yesterday said it had agreed to sell the troubled company's UK business to Baker Acquisitions Ltd, an entity overseen by OpCapita, for an undisclosed sum.

The move takes The Game Group's UK operation out of administration. Its overseas assets remain under the control of PwC.

Last week, PwC shuttered 277 of Game's stores. OpCapita/Baker assured staff at the remaining 333 UK stores that their jobs are secure and no further Game branches will be closed.

"We are pleased to have reached agreement with the Administrator," said OpCapita Managing Partner Henry Jackson. "We strongly believe there is a place on the high street for a videogaming specialist, and Game is the leading brand in a £2.8bn market in the UK," he added.

OpCapita was one of the first to bid for the retailer. ®

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Posted Monday 2nd April 2012 11:00 GMT

Tom 260

Re: WHY!?

I still don't see physical media being replaced any time soon, so many areas still have inadequate broadband speeds to cope with downloading 10-30GB for one game - Virgin aren't laying new cable, probably never will, and the fibre replacement of copper is slow and mostly limited to areas that already get >8Mbit connections.

I'm not sure whether Game can cope with the current market though, clearly their business model needs changing since they've been relying on credit rather than capital to get new stock in, but since they're dealing with internet savvy consumers now, they need to keep a closer eye on online pricing trends, rather than having a ton of recent releases on the shelves that you know half of it is easily £10 cheaper if you look online. The preowned market would seem to be viable on it's own, given the spread of CeX stores in the past few years, so I'm assuming that their losses have stemmed from new stock.

Posted Monday 2nd April 2012 12:09 GMT

Wild Bill

Re: WHY!?

My house has this amazing device installed called a letter box. Google it, I think it's going to be the next big thing.

Posted Monday 2nd April 2012 11:55 GMT

Oliver Mayes

Re: WHY!?

Not everyone can wait in all day for the postman to deliver Amazon packages. I'm at work between 8 and 6 Mon-Fri so my only option is to book the day off or have it left with a neighbour. Now they're lovely people next door but I feel a bit bad relying on them this much. Plus, downloading a game can take several hours at peak times, compared to going into a shop and buying a physical copy that I can play right away.