Reports are coming in that GAME Australia will plan to close 60 stores across Australia, and 264 employees from its stores and 17 employees from its head office will be made redundant. This comes about a week after it filed for voluntary administration – just before Diablo III was to be released and causing some panic for some gamers.
In a statement, according to The Verge/Polygon and Kotaku Australia, Kate Warwick from PwC 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.
“PwC has been in touch with the Federal Government Department that deals with General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS) and will assist the employees with their applications,” she continued.
Game currently operates 95 stores and has around 500 employees – and in effect, this will reduce its presence in the Australian gaming market by more than half. Locations, however, are not known.