GameStop confirms that it’s leaving Germany, divesting all Italian stores

GameStop has officially confirmed that it’s looking to “wind down” its operations in Germany as well as “divest” its operations in Italy, continuing its policy of retreat from Europe.

“Incurred in connection with plans initiated during the third quarter of fiscal 2024 to divest our operations in Italy and wind down our operations in Germany,” the company’s latest earnings report stated at two points when talking about costs and revenue projections.

Since the retailer has already pulled out of Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg, France will be the only country on the continent where GameStop remains active – though it’s operating under the Micromania brand there.

GameStop still operates 70 stores in Germany, employing around 500 people. These have been informed that operations will cease on January 31, 2025.

To get rid of as much of its inventory as possible until then, the GameStop stores have applied a general 10% discount to products, which may increase early next year ahead of the closures.

Customers in Germany can use the GameStop online store until January 10, 2025, and shop at the chain’s stores for the final time on January 30, 2025.

With around 4,000 stores worldwide, the 70 bases that remained in Germany are a drop in the bucket for the US company, which continues to struggle in its search for a sustainable business model in times during which physical games become more and more irrelevant.

• Read more: GameStop is closing Game Informer, the longest-running US games mag

GameStop was able to make a small profit of around $17.4 million USD in Q3 of 2024, which is a clear improvement to a loss of $3.1m incurred during the same period last year. Unfortunately for the company, this is not the result of better sales, but merely of reduced costs – indeed, its sales revenue went down to $860m from over $1b at the same point in the previous year.