British retailer WHSmith has completely removed games from their shelves. Their games buyer Graham Pert have moved to another area within the business, the chain told Publisher Product Managers. This was a large move on their part, after the games being on their shelves for almost 30 years.

Games offer stripped out of High Street giant; Buyer switches roles to online sales

WHSmith has finally pulled out of games retail.

The chain confirmed to publisher product managers this week that games buyer Graham Pert has moved to another area in the business, now looking after online.

Ditching games comes after years spent battling skilful rivals in entertainment. Games have been a staple of WHS’ range for 30 years – it arguably pioneered selling them on the High Street – but in recent times market share dropped to single digits.

The chain first confirmed to MCV a year ago that it would reduce its games range as part of a product overhaul. Since then it constricted games to just over 100 stores.

WHSmith has over 550 stores nationwide, but has struggled to compete with music downloads, while its games offer suffered following the collapse of EUK and increased competition from the likes of GAME and HMV.

Dragoon via mcvuk.com »