Video game retailer GameStop will close all of its branches in Germany in early 2025. The company confirmed this on Instagram on Friday. There was earlier a media report about the plans, which was based on statements from customers and employees of GameStop Germany.
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like a portal sports economy Reported on Friday, all 69 GameStop branches in Germany will close permanently on January 31, 2025. However, this was unconfirmed information as of Friday afternoon.
Employees are already informing customers
Accordingly, branch managers were informed about the decision on Thursday. Employees at branches informed customers about the upcoming closure. Pre-orders are no longer possible in the store and voucher sales have also stopped.
On Friday afternoon the social media team finally confirmed the rumours. When a user asked if GameStop Germany was closing at the end of January, the company responded with German Instagram account only with “yes”The company has not given any further information yet.
About 500 employees will be affected by the closure of all branches. One Reddit user, who says he works in management at a German branch, wrote that he shed a few tears after the call with the cancellation message. He gushed, “It was the best work experience I’ve ever had in my life, I enjoyed coming to work every day.”
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GameStop Germany will close on 01.31.next year
Byu/viagramail69 InGamestop
Other users and GameStop employees have their say on the topic. They also regret GameStop’s demise and confirm information from Gameswirtschaft, according to which the workforce was informed of the closure on Thursday.
GameStop Germany sales in 2022/2023 were around 140 million euros with a profit of 2.8 million euros, although the retailer was still in the red in the last financial year.
Europe-wide trends
American company GameStop has been following the trend of withdrawing from the European market for some time. It has branches only in France, Italy and Germany. The retailer closed all of its stores in Austria last year. In France, GameStop still lags behind the branch network of the Micromania retail chain, which specializes in video games and was acquired by GameStop in 2008. In Italy, all branches were taken over by Italian retailer Cidiverte. Apparently no suitable investor has been found in Germany. There is a possibility of sales in Christmas business.
In 2021, shares of US parent company GameStop played a central role in a dispute between a group of small investors and short sellers as a “meme stock”. Members of the Reddit community r/wallstreetbets tried to drive up the value of the stock to force short sellers to sell their shares. The operation was not successful in the long run, but it caused the hedge fund to collapse and the kingpin to face legal problems and a hearing in Parliament.
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