Not Dead Yet: Game Retail Limited, which started doing business in 1992 as Rhino Group, is one of the few remaining chain stores selling boxed video games in the UK and around the world. Unnamed sources have suggested the company is finally ready to pull the plug, but this alleged business decision was quickly rebutted by a spokesperson.
Despite harsh market conditions, UK retailer Game will not stop selling boxed video games to customers anytime soon. Rumors shared by unnamed sources with Gfinity aren’t true, a Game spokesperson confirmed, although the company has long changed its main business priorities. The increasingly thin market for fans of the physical side of gaming is declining anyway.
Gfinity sources claimed Game was about to move away from stocking video games, gaming hardware, and game-related content in its stores. The company decided to stop offering pre-owned games earlier this year, and it was rumored that new consoles and major releases such as Indiana Jones and The Great Circle or Doom: The Dark Ages would only be sold after customers pre-purchased them.
Speaking with Eurogamer, a Game spokesperson said that Gfinity’s report is “categorically not true.” The company will continue to offer a “wide range” of boxed games, both in-store and online. “Game continues to support the physical gaming market,” the spokesperson said, with physical games, hardware, software, gift cards, and other ancillary products available on the shelves or through the company’s website.
Game also provided further clarification about alleged changes in its preorder policies. Nothing will change, the company said; boxed games and consoles will continue to be available for purchase as they were before, even if customers are not interested in pre-purchasing the products.
Game confirmed that it will keep selling physical games in its stores, but the company is now mostly focused on selling board games, trading cards, toys, and other non-video game products. The once-iconic video game retailer has gone through many troubles over the past few years, facing bankruptcy in 2012 and undergoing different acquisitions before becoming part of Frasers Group.
Frasers closed most of Game’s standalone stores, reopening some of them as part of the House of Fraser department store chain. Digital delivery, in-game purchases, free-to-play, and online-only games have long turned fans of boxed games away from local stores to secondary marketplaces like eBay or web-based retailers. This shift means Game’s surviving physical business will likely become history sooner rather than later.
