GAME denies claims it will stop selling physical games outside of pre-orders

You’ll mostly find GAME today in Sports Direct (Shutterstock)

After it appeared UK retailer GAME might stop selling physical games off the shelf, the company has released a statement in response.

Despite reports suggesting otherwise, GAME has denied claims that it plans to stop selling physical games and consoles in stores.

Earlier today, a report claimed gaming hardware and software at the UK retailer would soon only be available to customers through pre-orders – meaning you wouldn’t be able to walk in and buy games or consoles off the shelf.

After the report was published on Gfinity, GAME has since issued a response stating that this will not be the case.

‘This reporting is categorically not true,’ a GAME spokesperson told Eurogamer. ‘GAME continues to support the physical gaming market, offering a wide-range of physical games, hardware, software, accessories and digital gift cards, in stores and online.’

The statement, however, doesn’t fully clarify whether these sales will require a pre-order or not. GameCentral has reached out to GAME for comment.

In the original report, it was claimed the only method for buying games would be through pre-orders on the store’s website, where games can either be shipped to a store or delivered to your home for an extra fee.

Caption: GAME to stop selling physical games outside of pre-orders report claims

With the rise of digital sales putting a huge question mark over the future of physical games, GAME as a business has put a stronger emphasis on merchandise over recent years, between board games, trading cards, plushies.

GAME was acquired by the Frasers Group in 2019, with many stores since either being closed down or relocated inside the parent company’s other chains, including Sports Direct and House Of Fraser.

Over the past six months, the store has stopped selling pre-owned games entirely, while it plans to shut down its reward points scheme from July 31.

In April this year, there were also reports of redundancies and employees being moved to zero hours contracts within the retailer.

While this change doesn’t appear to be going ahead, the presence of games on the high street is still increasingly bleak.Aside from GAME, CeX is the last chain left standing, which has over 390 stores in the UK.

This is a rare sight these days (AP)

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