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Image credit: GAME
GAME, the UK’s biggest high street video game retailer, will no longer allow customers to trade in physical video games from next month, staff have told Eurogamer.
The chain is expected to end its long-running video game trade-in facility on 16th February, with remaining pre-owned stock continuing to be sold until it has run out.
GAME staff have been told of the change, and Eurogamer has corroborated this with multiple branches of the retailer nationwide. We’ve contacted GAME itself for more.
It’s unclear when GAME itself is planning to detail the change, but if you’ve got physical games lying around you no longer want, staff have told us there’s still a month to take them in to your local branch.
GAME’s website notes that the chain currently still accepts “most consoles, games and gaming accessories” – although nothing “retro” (which it states includes the PlayStation 2 era and older).
At GAME, trade-ins can be exchanged for store credit or a gift card. This differs from CEX, the UK’s other major high street chain to deal in pre-owned video games, which still offers cash (albeit in lower amounts than store credit).
“Gaming is our core business and we will be last man standing selling physical video games,” company boss Nick Arran told Eurogamer sister site GamesIndustry.biz last year.
“We see our place in the market as proving that there is a place for physical, whether that be the collector’s editions, which we see as the vinyl of video games, or the gifter who doesn’t want to wrap up a download code for Christmas.”
At the same time, GAME has also pushed into the toy market, including Lego sets and trading cards.
GAME has been part of the Frasers Group since 2019, when the company accepted a takeover bid worth £52m.
The chain has since lost a number of standalone stores, but gained others via concessions in other Frasers Group outlets such as Sports Direct and House of Fraser. Including these, GAME now trades from more than 300 locations nationwide.
