Just as news breaks that The Last Story was being released in North America, UK retailer GAME had downgraded everyone’s preorders of the Limited Edition version to the standard one. Now comes word that they won’t be stocking that version either and have cancelled all preorders for The Last Story. So far there’s no word yet if those preorders were getting refunded. As Metro point out, this is just another black eye in what seems to be a flurry of punches aimed at GAME as they try to survive losing credit insurance from banks. Ever since the credit downgrade and losing that insurance, it’s been difficult for GAME to stock games as companies are fearful that they won’t see those sales. GAME couldn’t stock Tekken 3D Prime Edition, Metal Gear Solid HD, and NeverDead. And now they’re having trouble stocking not only The Last Story, but practically all of Ubisoft’s Vita titles. That five games in one shot!

Hopefully this won’t spark a downward spiral for the videogame retail industry. Many have been citing the death of brick & mortar game stores as being close by. With the problems occurring at GAME and publishers’ efforts to curtail the used game market through practices like online passes and DRM, those analysts might have something to boast about. Though as a person from the outside looking in, it looks like the UK gaming public saw this coming (if the comments are anything to go by).

GAME won’t sell The Last Story or Ubisoft’s Vita games [Metro]