GAME, Britain's largest specialist games retailer, has said its plans for France remain unchanged, despite US giant GameStop snapping up Micromania and gaining 332 stores in the territory.

Speaking to industry publication MCV, GAME's CEO, Lisa Morgan, said, “We have a detailed strategy in place regarding expansion outside of the UK and it remains unchanged. Since we entered the French market in 2001 with just a handful stores, we have had strong specialist competition in the form of Micromania and this has not in any way stopped us from developing a strong and growing business, where we are now approaching 200 GAME stores.

“We are well accustomed to competitors coming and going in the market and it is worth noting that we already compete with GameStop in a number of other international territories.

“We have demonstrated in other big European markets, such as Spain where we are also the market leading games retailer, that we can and do compete effectively with GameStop. We’ll certainly continue to do just that in the future.”

News of GameStop's deal to purchase Micromania, France's leading games retailer, broke earlier in the month. If it's cleared by the European Commission, it will see GameStop break into France for the first time and boost its European presence to 1,077 outlets.

^{Source: MCV}