Given the recent history of the company, its various financial problems, internal layoffs, and most recent inability to negotiate with publishers to stock major product on its store shelves, it should come as no real surprise to anyone to learn today that UK specialty retailer GAME has entered administration.
For those not up on the UK's financial laws, administration is effectively the country's equivalent of bankruptcy. As a result of the declaration, GAME has been removed from stock trading and all current shares are suspended.
While going into administration doesn't necessarily mean the outright end for the company, were some new version of GAME to emerge from this whole mess, it wouldn't necessarily resemble the video game retail giant that more or less dominated the UK's brick-and-mortar market. MCV has laid out a few possibilities for the company once its board has made the necessary preparations to move forward. The best among the likely scenarios sees GAME shrink down to about 300 locations (from its current 1,300). This would result in the company's Gamestation brand being sold off almost entirely, alongside any locations outside of the UK. Reportedly GameStop has shown an interest in those foreign retail outlets, but no deal has been settled on just yet.
It's telling just how dire things are that the above scenario is the most ideal one at this juncture. While the possibility of some angel investor coming in and saving the whole company is a possibility, it's a highly unlikely one. This means that the only other realistic possibility outside of the shrunken version of GAME rising from the ashes is for no version of GAME to rise from the ashes. If any of the above plans fail, it would likely mean the end of the company outright.
Regardless of where it ends up, it's safe to declare that GAME, as many European customers once knew it, is dead. This translates to quite a lot of lost jobs any way you slice it, as well as a massive, gaping hole in the UK games retail market. It'll be curious to see who rises up to pick up the pieces left by GAME's destruction, assuming anyone sees benefit in such a venture, given the current business climate.