Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter has delivered a damning verdict on the state of games retail in the UK.
"The UK games retail market is a joke, with retailers pricing below cost to drive traffic," he recently told Digital Spy .
"That's great for consumers, but retailers can't make any money on games, hence the bankruptcies of GAME, HMV and Blockbuster, and the refusal of GameStop to expand into the market... The absence of GameStop and the demise of GAME limits the ability of consumers to trade in used games, depriving many of credits that can be used to purchase new games. Retail needs to make money to exist, and games retail in the UK doesn't make money."
Pachter's analysis of the UK market follows on from the recent troubles experienced by struggling High Street retailers HMV and Blockbuster.