For years, GAME was my go-to retailer for getting video video games. I might run in each time I handed by as a child, and attending to peruse it for brand new and previous titles was all the time so thrilling, much more so when my mother and father agreed to purchase one for me. Now, although, video games would be the one factor GAME received’t be stocking on its cabinets.

In keeping with Gfinity, which spoke with sources aware of the UK retailer’s plans, GAME plans to finish gross sales of bodily video video games in addition to {hardware} in retailer. You’ll nonetheless be capable to pre-order bodily copies of recent releases (so my Sonic X Shadow Generations pre-order fortunately isn’t going to be cancelled), however anybody who wanders in going ahead received’t be capable to simply seize a boxed copy of upcoming releases like Star Wars Outlaws or the brand new Mario & Luigi and take it straight house to play. This might imply an finish to midnight console launches as nicely if GAME isn’t planning to inventory new {hardware} just like the Nintendo Change 2.

As disappointing as this information will likely be for some individuals, this was maybe a very long time coming. Earlier this yr, GAME opted to not settle for trade-ins, and thus stopped promoting pre-owned video games as nicely. It’s additionally spent the final a number of years turning into a extra normal toy retailer, partially resulting from declining curiosity in bodily media. In a 2023 interview with GamesIndustry.biz, managing director Nick Arran mentioned, “We needed a brand new proposition that attracted new clients. … Our fundamental business is in decline so we have to plug that hole, but additionally for the long run to usher in these new clients, and get them off of on-line retailers.”

Arran additionally vowed GAME can be the “final man standing promoting bodily video video games,” including, “We see our place available in the market as proving that there’s a place for bodily, whether or not that be the collector’s editions, which we see because the vinyl of video video games, or the gifter who doesn’t wish to wrap up a obtain code for Christmas.” Though he admitted that he needed to be real looking: “We have now a enterprise to run and the expectation is it will decline. So we have to fill that hole.”

Even so, the retailer’s shift away from conventional video video games has, based on Gfinity, upset a lot of GAME employees. Mixed with a string of low-level layoffs again in April, with it reported that employees can be supplied zero hour contracts, it’s prompt there’s little or no religion within the model these days. Who even is aware of if GAME primarily being a toy store will maintain its doorways open for the foreseeable future.

In the end, that is one other worrying blow to the bodily video games market, and it’s not the one one both. As noticed by Misplaced in Cult advertising and marketing director Ryan Brown on Twitter, the web site for on-line UK retailer Hit, which has been considered one of my go-to websites for brand new online game releases, abruptly shut down over the weekend with no warning. I can affirm the web site is down on the time of writing, solely citing a 404 Not Discovered discover.

One Reddit person was capable of get in touch with Hit, which confirmed it had “ceased to commerce,” however promised the enterprise can be reorganised and return in some unspecified time in the future. Nonetheless, it’s been prompt Hit had been struggling financially beforehand, making the percentages of its supposed comeback fairly unlikely. This one’s an actual disgrace since Hit’s costs had been cheaper than most opponents. All in all, the way forward for bodily video games distribution is trying bleaker than ever.