GAME store ready to roll out redundancies?

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With the continued downturn of the physical retail side of the video game market, it has now been reported that British video game retailer, GAME, is now anticipating a high volume of upcoming redundancies following its alleged decision to move the majority of its employees to zero-hours contracts.

Both Eurogamer and GamesIndustry.biz have now looked into the matter and found that the video game retailer has started adapting zero-hour contracts at practically every level of the company. This practice is now standard procedure for all new hires and lower-end employees and is expected to also expand to the bulk of upper-end employees shortly.

GamesIndustry.biz is said to have contacted representatives at GAME to shed some light on the current situation unfolding within the company. According to their report, they were told that, with the implementation of zero-hour contracts, layoffs are now expected to follow in the coming weeks and months. However, an estimate of how many employees might be at risk of losing their jobs is not known at this time.

In 2019, the Frasers Group acquired GAME for $52 million with the optimism of turning the company’s fortunes around. Now, less than five years later, this doesn’t appear to be the case, as the entire physical retail gaming market continues to slide into obscurity.

The news of the zero-hour contracts and seemingly inevitable redundancies comes just a few short months after Game announced that they would no longer be accepting trade-ins on pre-owned games. Since February 16, GAME stores across the UK completely stopped buying pre-owned titles, with the goal of selling off the rest of its pre-owned stock by the end of the summer.

With this staple of the company no longer active, many believe that this is the beginning of the end for GAME and other video game retailers. At best, the future of stores like GAME might only remain active in a similar fashion to that of the vintage record store, where you can buy gaming collectibles and memorabilia.

Gamers will still be able to buy their video games and game consoles at certain stores, but with the disproportionate amount of games being bought digitally nowadays, it seems like dedicated gaming stores such as GAME will soon become a thing of the past.

If the UK’s leading video game retailer does eventually close its doors, it will mark a sad day in the history of gaming and symbolize a potentially ‘digital-only’ gaming world coming in the near future.