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GAME Group losses double in first half to £51m

Retailer blames weak games market in a period where only L.A. Noire proved to be successful

Specialist retailer The GAME Group has suffered losses before tax of £51.5 million ($80.2m) for the 26 weeks to July 2011, blaming a weak games market and other macro-economic conditions.

That's more than double the £21.5 million it lost for the same period last year. Sales were £558.8 million, a drop of 10.5 per cent.

"Like many other retailers, we believe that trading conditions will remain tough for the remainder of the year, and have set our plans accordingly," said CEO Ian Shepherd.

"We are determined to again outperform a difficult market this Christmas, by using our unique specialist position to give customers the very best choice and value."

Like-for-like sales at the company, which runs GAME and Gamestation stories in the UK, Europe and Australia, were down almost 10 per cent.

Shepherd said that only L.A. Noire has stood out as a strong title in the past 6 months, achieving sales in excess of £20 million, while Nintendo 3DS sales were below expectations.

The company said that sales in the markets in which it operates are down 15.5 per cent in total - hardware down 13.7 per cent down and software down 16.5 per cent.

"The current shape of both the wider economy and the pc and video games market leaves us under no illusion about the challenges we face in the remainder of the year," said the company.

The company noted that it will carry 18 special editions of upcoming games for the Christmas period, where it hopes to show growth compared to the past six months.

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Matt Martin

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Matt Martin joined GamesIndustry in 2006 and was made editor of the site in 2008. With over ten years experience in journalism, he has written for multiple trade, consumer, contract and business-to-business publications in the games, retail and technology sectors.

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