Retailer Game Crazy Shuttering 200 Locations

U.S.-based Movie Gallery said this week that it is shutting down about 200 locations out of approximately 680 stores. The company blamed a difficult economy on the closure of the Game Crazy stores, which are located with Movie Gallery movie rental locations. Movie Gallery told weblog Joystiq in a statement, "Movie Gallery, Inc. is currently operating in an unprecedented consumer/retail environment. In order for us to continue to best serve our millions of customers across North America we're addressing underperforming stores and ensuring that there is sufficient [return on investment] associated with each of these stores going forward. The vast majority of our stores will be unaffected by these efforts." Game Crazy stores that are closing will reportedly start marking their games 30 percent off to clear out stock of games and hardware, Home Media Magazine reported. That publication quoted a stock portfolio manager who said that leading game retailer GameStop's future is uncertain, as it relies on the same physical media sales as Game Crazy. "The whole online gaming sector is gaining steam,” said portfolio manager Bryan Ashenberg. "You can play games from home that aren’t even sold in stores. Until we see the advent of the next hardware platform that could really get people interested in buying games again, we’re going to stay away from GameStop [as a stock]." GameStop generated $8.8 billion in revenues last fiscal year. A media rep for Game Crazy did not immediately return a phone call requesting further comment.