COMPUTER games retailer Game has closed its York store after the business went into administration.

Game, and Gamestation, the brand which was founded in York in 2007 and later bought by Game, appointed Mike Jervis and Stuart Maddison of PwC as joint administrators.

The business suspended its shares on the stock exchange on March 21 after revealing losses for the year ended in January 2012 would be £18 million.

A number of stores have already closed, including the York branch on Spurriergate, which employed 19 people. Its Monks Cross store, which employs seven people and the Gamestation store on Church Street remain open.

The group, which had a turnover of £1.6 billion in the year to 31 January and operations in the UK and Ireland, Spain, Portugal, France, Czech Republic and Australia, has 609 stores throughout the UK and Ireland, employing 5,136 people, as well as 385 employees based in the group’s head office in Basingstoke.

Mike Jervis, joint administrator and partner at PwC said: “The group has faced serious cashflow and profit issues over the recent past. It also has suffered from high fixed costs, an ambitious international roll-out and fluctuating working capital requirements.

“Despite these challenges, we believe that there is room for a specialist game retailer in the territories in which it operates, including its biggest one, the UK. As a result we are hopeful that a going concern sale of the business is achievable.”

The administrators said that stores that had closed may or may not reopen in the event of a sale.