half of Game Group's 609 British shops will close today while adminstrators try to find a buyer for the remaining branches of the video game retailer.

 

 More than 2,000 people will lose their jobs as 277 shops are closed, while staff at the 333 remaining stores will be hoping a buyer comes forward for the company. The shops have become a High Street fixture and at its peak the retailer was making profits of £90 million. Mike Jervis, joint administrator and partner at PwC, said: "The group has faced serious cashflow and profit issues over the recent past. It also has suffered from high fixed costs, an ambitious international roll-out and fluctuating working capital requirements. "Despite these challenges, we believe that there is room for a specialist game retailer in the territories in which it operates, including its biggest one - the UK. As a result we are hopeful that a going-concern sale of the business is achievable." This is a technology brand whose undoing has been technology itself. Founded in 1991, the stores’ presence underlined the importance of a new industry that brought brands such as the Commodore Amiga into every lucky boy’s bedroom, and built a global business that is now more valuable than Hollywood. Game and its high-street rival and then subsidiary Gamestation were the only places consumers could try new titles, test out new consoles and get their hands on games the second they were launched. Its midnight store openings for big releases became focal points for fans and publishers alike.