Former GAME Australia employee speaks out about the fall of the retailer

In the wake of video game retailer GAME Australia going into liquidation last week, the former GAME regional manager of the Australian Capital Territory, Scott Parbery, wrote a guest post on Kotaku Australia recounting the collapse of the company.

In the wake of video game retailer GAME Australia going into liquidation last week, the former GAME regional manager of the Australian Capital Territory, Scott Parbery, wrote a guest post on Kotaku Australia recounting the collapse of the company.

Parbery, who had been with GAME Australia before they were bought by GAME Group in the UK in 2007 (the retailer was previously known as The Games Wizards), wrote of the rapid rise of the retailer during a time when spending was rampant and expansion of the GAME stores was rapid. He said that during this time of growth, the potential for future problems were already showing.

"[GAME Australia] opened an absurd amount of stores, barely spending time developing locations before moving onto the next; making poor location decisions, getting screwed on rent and associated conditions in the mad dash to open more and more stores," Parbery wrote on Kotaku Australia.

"Whether this was a directive from high up, or just the Executives riding the high of a massive influx of money from their UK benefactors, was never made clear to us employees. That's where the cracks started showing."

Parbery says the rapid expansion of GAME Australia coupled with the lack of support for staff meant that staff were under-trained, a system to support stores wasn't implemented, staff were overworked, communication was inconsistent, and people began making mistakes.

"Then, cracks began to be apparent, then became structural, and then the whole thing started to come down"

"Then, cracks began to be apparent, then became structural, and then the whole thing started to come down," Parbery writes.

Parbery also spoke of GAME Australia's inconsistent marketing campaigns that drained the company of money while conveying a confusing message about the brand.

"They hired two comedians to act like tools on promotional material online and in-store. They adjusted the company's image weekly, it seemed: one minute edgy and borderline offensive; to bargain-bin retailer; to ‘HARDCORE GAMERZ'; to satirical; to ‘the place for mums'. They tried too hard and spent absurd amounts of money doing so," Parbery writes.

He describes the final days of GAME Australia and how the collapse was inextricably linked to the UK-based GAME Group going into administration.

GAME Australia's administrators opted to put the retailer into liquidation last week after a vote from creditors. All GAME stores in Australia are to be closed, more than 500 staff laid off, and the stores that are currently still open are holding a 60 percent off sale to clear stock.