GameStop has reportedly shut down numerous stores in Europe, adding to the perceived dire outlook for the video game retailer. For several years now, the prospects and revenue of the company have declined, with some of the primary reasons generally believed to be the player base increasingly turning to digital rather than physical software purchases and the ongoing next-gen console shortage that would otherwise have brought in revenue from hardware sales.

The company began reporting marked sales losses as far back as 2016, with only a few noteworthy upswings in ensuing years, including the now infamous Wallstreetbets short squeeze of GameStop stock in January 2021. But the reputation of the gaming retailer has simultaneously gone downhill as employees have revealed some of the company’s enforced practices, such as the Circle of Life policy, which obligated and even encouraged GameStop workers to lie to customers in order to sell Pro memberships.

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Now, a GameStop employee has revealed via Reddit that the gaming retailer has shut down a number of stores in Europe. According to AzzurroDvahri, who was apparently a temporary worker with the company, all of the locations in Switzerland and Austria are “completely gone,” and only half of those in Germany remain open. Along with these closures came the inevitable round of layoffs that have left a number of people jobless in a global economy struggling with some of the highest inflation rates in decades.

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This isn’t the first time that GameStop employees have been hit with layoffs in 2022, and the company was expected to close approximately 300 store locations this year. In addition to the closures in Europe, other countries like Guam have also seen the video game retailer disappear entirely. Indeed, at the end of 2019, GameStop had more than 5,700 locations worldwide, but there were just over 4,800 by January 2021, and that number has continued to decrease.

The gaming retailer has also been dealing with other issues besides fluctuating stock values. GameStop is currently facing a lawsuit for allegedly recording and transcribing the conversations between its support workers and customers and then sharing that data with third parties to use for marketing purposes.

The company’s ongoing interest in NFTs and the blockchain is also being viewed negatively by many consumers. This focus became particularly controversial recently when it was discovered that GameStop’s marketplace was selling an NFT that was based on a photograph of a victim of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. That item was eventually pulled from the store, but not before being sold dozens of times over the course of several days.

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Sources: Reddit, Business Insider, Statista