The Australian operation of collapsed UK retailer Game has been placed in voluntary administration. 

Inside Retail understands efforts to find a buyer for the chain have proved fruitless, despite strong growth in the games market and the rationalisation of the Dick Smith Electronics network by parent Woolworths. 

Pricewaterhouse Coopers announced it had been appointed to handle the process.

Game has 92 stores across Australia and other news sites are reporting it turned over a modest $33 million locally in 2011. If that’s true, each store would have averaged just $358,000 in sales, insufficient to meet wages and rent let alone stock costs. 

The Australian arm was just a small part of a 1300-store global network largely centred in the UK and Europe. The board of the parent company declared in April the company was essentially valueless.

An estimated 500 jobs now hang in the balance in Australia. 

Pricewaterhouse Coopers says Game’s stores will continue to trade while options for their future are considered.

Inside Retail suspects the most valuable aspect of the operation would be its network of sites, but with retail chains contracting and collapsing in a challenging market, there are few companies seeking sites for expansion and already a surplus of vacancies in many major shopping centres. 

The collapse has left an unknown number of customers out of pocket who had placed deposits for preorders of the popular game Diablo 3. They’ve been told they won’t be receiving the game – or their money back.