Blockbuster Enters Administration Again

Film and video game retailer Blockbuster is to enter administration for a second time, according to its owner Gordon Brothers Europe.

The chain, which previously entered administration back in January, will remain trading as normal while a buyer is sought. If Gordon Brothers is unsuccessful in finding a buyer, some stores may close.

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Any customers with outstanding orders should visit their local store who will deal with the matter.

A statement provided to IGN explains that the decision is due to continuing poor sales and rentals, despite Gordon Brothers having "striven to turnaround the historically loss-making company by restructuring the business, investing significantly in strategic marketing activities and negotiating with the landlords of its retail outlets.

"The need to significantly reduce costs whilst a buyer is sought will unfortunately result in 32 redundancies at Blockbuster UK’s head office," it continues. "All stores will continue trading as normal whilst a buyer is sought for the business. In the event that a buyer cannot be found some stores may need to close."

The big question this leaves many people with, however, is what this means for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 pre-orders. As of right now, the situation is unclear. While the original statement explains stores will keep trading, a statement provided to IGN from Blockbuster says, "Any customers with outstanding orders should visit their local store who will deal with the matter."

Having spoken to a number of stores, we were told they hadn't been briefed on what was happening as yet. However, a source close to Blockbuster has told us that store managers are being told pre-orders cannot be honoured, which supports a tweet from the official Blockbuster UK account that claims pre-orders will not be fulfilled.

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Before this i didn't know Blockbuster was still a business!

People who have pre ordered next gen consoles or games at blockbuster should check if they will be able to fulfil the order or not.

I honestly miss going to the video store to rent movies/games. :(

Redbox is better, they just started selling games. It's finally here, a video game vending machine.

Holy shit, man.

Blockbuster's still around?

I don't know about Blockbuster in other countries but I don't know anyone here in Australia who still goes to Blockbuster to rent/buy movies or games. I didn't even know they take preorders for next gen consoles either.

I was entirely unaware Blockbuster still existed outside of being a website. It's interesting, in downtown Seattle there is not a single movie rental business (sans Redbox), but once you get outside of town to more rural areas you'll still see a few (none of them Blockbusters, but local rental shops).

I can't recall the last time I saw an actual brick and mortar Blockbuster store. I was under the impression that Blockbuster was still just trying to develop their Redbox competitor because I do occasionally see their vending machine units.

Preordering a console at Blockbuster just seems like asking for trouble.

Much like playing a beloved PC flight sim from the 90's, the nostalgia beckons, but the moment you step foot inside the store you realize "oh... that's why I never go here anymore..."

Why on earth would anyone put a pre order for a console in with Blockbuster, I mean that's just asking for trouble right? They can't even do their main call of business which is Films well, why would you expect them to get Games right?

I always went to Hollywood Video and I felt like you could only choose one or the other so I always felt like scum when I got dragged to a Blockbuster for any reason.

@packs217: Scarecrow Video isn't in a rural area, dude.

I knew Blockbuster was still around but I'm kind of surprised they've been able to hold on for this long. The ones in my area shut down like over five years ago.

I miss game rentals. Every week my dad used to take my brother and I to the local rental place and we would rent something. We had these 2 for 1 cards so we could rent two games for a week for $1.99. We never bought games but I ended up playing a huge chunk of the NES, Genesis, and N64 library because of this policy. Sadly that place went out of business because of Blockbuster. It didn't make sense. Blockbuster was twice as expensive and not nearly as good, yet everyone went to it instead of the local place that was cheaper, more friendly and had a better selection.

Now all the Blockbusters here closed.

*sigh* miss the days when I could rent a game instead of either making the choice to drop 60 bucks or wait a year to play it when the price has dropped and the game of the year version is out. Or just not take the chance and not play try the game at all.

There's one Blockbuster retail store near me that's still hanging on. I have no idea how.

I'm always very sorry to see people lose their jobs, but nobody still working there must have been very surprised by this.

I tried to rent out Beyond last week and was told that because i hadn't used the card for 6 months it had deactivated and i needed to rent out movies for a month before i could rent a game out. I just signed up for boomerang games instead. Not a huge surpise this, the sting of netflix and lovefilm was going to catch up to them eventually.

Blockbuster huh? I forgot those even existed.

Didn't even know they were still around. I'd figured they already went out of business.

The only Blockbuster near my house was replaced by an A&W a long time ago. I kind of miss the feeling of going into a blockbuster to rent a game but having enough money to actually purchase games is pretty cool.

I actually recall seeing a Blockbuster fairly recently in... Layton, Utah. All other blockbusters I have known all went out of business years ago. Really, just refer to that South Park episode. That explains the absurdity pretty well.

This x 1000

I miss the shit out of the video store atmosphere, but I don't miss $5.00 for a fucking 24-hour rental.