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Game Australia to close all of its stores in the coming weeks
Retailer Game Australia will shut down all 31 of its remaining stores over the coming weeks, its administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers announced today. Game will close 16 Australian stores immediately and the remaining 15 within a few weeks.In May, Game Australia entered voluntary administration; it shuttered 60 stores, affecting 264 employees, and cut 17 head office positions. Before any closures, Game had an estimated 500 employees in Australia."This is a difficult time for employees, and closing the stores was not a decision we made easily," Warwick said of Game Australia's complete closure (and the ones in May). "Despite exploring available opportunities for continued trading, the ongoing trading performance and absence of viable offers for the purchase of the business has resulted in these closures."Game Australia is running discounts in a final closing-down sale online and in its remaining stores.
60 GAME Australia stores to close
GAME Australia administrators announced plans to close 60 retail stores at the cost of 264 jobs, GamesIndustry International reported Friday. An additional 17 head office positions will be terminated at the company.In a media release, Kate Warwick of PricewaterhouseCoopers said, "this is a difficult time for employees and closing the stores was not a decision we made easily. However it is not financially viable to continue to operate at this level at this time." Warwick was appointed as voluntary administrator of GAME Australia on May 14.The Australian Financial Review posted a list of the 60 stores that have closed.
Blizzard fixing GAME Australia's mess, giving Diablo 3 to those who preordered
GAME Australia (a large video game retailer) is entering voluntary administration, which is the same as going into bankruptcy in the United States. Included in this fact is that GAME will not be giving Diablo III to all those who preordered it. To add salt to the wound, GAME will also not be offering refunds for Diablo III preorders -- or rather, it will, but only after practically every other person under the sun is paid back, and only then if people specifically file as an unsecured creditor, of sorts. Essentially, if you live in Australia and you bought Diablo III from GAME, you're screwed. But wait -- Blizzard to the rescue. In what has to be one of the classiest moves I've seen from a gaming company, Blizzard is offering a solution for those who have gotten the short end of the stick. Those who preordered from GAME can buy the Diablo III digital edition tonight, submit their GAME Australia receipt to Blizzard, and get refunded from Blizzard whatever money they paid for their preorder. It's rare that anyone gets to report news of a company going out of its way to do something like this, let alone a multinational as huge as Blizzard. Huge kudos to Blizzard. Check out the full post announcing this, along with key dates, after the break.
