Despite closing nearly half of their stores earlier this year, new GAME Retail CEO Martyn Gibbs says they are planning on opening new stores in an interview with MCV.

“There have been a few closures, but in time there will be some openings as well and there will be a few new stores. We will announce these as we go.”

This may come as surprising news to many people, especially seeing as it was largely acknowledged that the company had too many stores. Take a small city like Preston, three GAME stores and a Gamestation.

The future of the Gamestation brand may be facing the chop, although Gibbs is remaining tight-lipped, only admitting, “We’re researching with our store teams and various different gamer sets across the UK to determine what they want from a specialist.” Apparently, this research is coming to an end and they’ll have an answer “shortly.”

There are some encouraging signs since Gibbs’ arrival though. He’s been in touch with distributers to reassure them and get them back on board and the company have implemented an in-store service that allows customers to order any product from GAME’s online catalogue. Also, every store now has its own individual Twitter account, adding a much-needed direct social link to customers.

You may start to notice that the company name is changing its from GAME to Game. A subtle nod towards not acting like they own the industry anymore. This more humble approach could appear more customer friendly and a meeker, less bullish approach towards distributors could do them wonders.