GAME to accelerate push into esports as revenue falls
GAME Digital has said that it expects group revenues for the 52 weeks ended 29 July 2017 to be approximately £780 million compared to £822.5 million in the 53 weeks ended 30 July 2016.
The company’s total gross transaction value rose by 6.8% in the second half of its financial year to reach £325.4 million.
This meant that total gross transaction value for the full year to 29 July was £891.7 million compared to £912.6 million in the previous year.
In a statement, the company said it is continuing to implement its UK action plan, initiated in January 2016, to address the challenges faced in its core console markets in the UK. This has included reducing fixed and variable costs across its UK retail footprint, where it has over 220 lease events to manage by the end of 2018.
GAME expects to deliver a total cost reduction of approximately £5 million across its UK retail operations compared with last year, before absorbing the impact of statutory increases in staff costs.
Following an “encouraging” early performance of the company’s esports activities, including the first 18 retail concepts now in operation under the BELONG brand, GAME’s board has recently undertaken a review of all business areas and is now making the development of its experience based gaming proposition and esports activities a priority.
Martyn Gibbs, chief executive of GAME Digital, said: “GAME has made further progress in the second half of the year as we continue to focus on developing our strategic initiatives whilst creating a new cost base for our UK retail business to address the challenges in the UK console market.
“We have been encouraged by the recent growth in both the UK and Spanish markets overall and we expect that this momentum will continue into peak trading driven by the benefits of continued customer demand for the Nintendo Switch, the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox One X and a strong line up of new games releases.
“GAME has now opened 18 BELONG arenas, and we have seen encouraging early performance. We have reviewed our operations and are now accelerating development plans as we seek to fully capitalise on the strong growth potential in our exciting and growing esports activities.”
