UK retailer GAME to close remainder of its standalone stores after entering administration

UK gaming retailer GAME has confirmed that it will be closing the remainder of its standalone stores following its entering into administration.

Founded in 1990, the retailer was taken over by Frasers Group in 2019, going on to open a series of concessions inside Sports Direct and House of Fraser stores, and closing the majority of its standalone stores.

Now, as the company looks to further cut costs, the last three standalone stores are set to be shuttered, with managing director Nick Arran leaving his position, according to a report from The Game Business.

This news comes less than a week after the company filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators following poor financial performance in the years since its takeover.

At its peak in the early 2010s, GAME operated more than 600 stores across the UK, but after previously entering administration in 2012, the company has been on a steady decline.

Around 300 of those stores had been closed by 2019, when Frasers Group purchased the company for £51.9 million, with nearly all the remainder closing as their leases expired, in favour of smaller concessions opening up within other Frasers-owned retailers.

In 2024, the company announced that they had ceased trade-ins and the sale of pre-owned games, in a move many viewed as a shift away from gaming and towards the sale of other goods such as toys – a notion rejected by now ex-MD Arran in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz wherein he claimed that GAME would "be last man standing selling physical video games".

While this marks the end of GAME as a standalone – and for many, iconic – presence on British high streets, business will continue as usual for the company's concessions and online presence.

Despite poor performances for its brick-and-mortar stores, GAME retains a captive gaming market online thanks to its role in the sale of exclusive items such as collector's editions and pre-order bonuses.

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