Circuit City Doors Close for Good
All good(?) things must come to an end, and this weekend marked the end of Circuit City. Since announcing back in January that the company was going belly up, Circuit City stores throughout the country started dumping their inventories, culminating in last weekend’s final sell off of all remaining merchandise. While the last couple of months have seen Circuit City inventory clearanced out at upwards of 80 percent off, some customers (as well as potential employees) held out hope tha there might still be some sort of last minute reprieve, similar to what happened when Tiger Direct parent company Systemax bought out CompUSA’s assets when that company went under. Sadly, there was no last minute stay of execution and the switch was finally thrown, leaving all 567 Circuit City stores as nothing more than a memory.
One interesting note about this story, though. While all of Circuit City’s retail stores throughout the US have been shut down, there may still be a glint of life left in the company. A message on the company’s website states, somewhat cryptically that, “CircuitCity.com is also temporarily closed, although we anticipate the website will reopen in the coming weeks. Please check back for updates.”
Have we really seen the last of the Circuit City brand, or will the name rise up from the ashes of liquidation in some new form, such as an online-only retail presence? Only time will tell.
Free Radical Shutters Its Doors?
It’s a scary thing when the game industry’s theme song seems to be Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”, but if the early word coming out of the UK this morning is any indication, that may just be the case. Sources are reporting that employees at TimeSplitters and Haze developer, Free Radical Designs, were greeted this morning with a locked office and a note directing them to a business meeting at a nearby hotel. Add to that reports that many of the company’s senior executives have already taken off, and it looks like the game industry is about to add one more name to the list of casualties.
It’s been a rough patch lately for Free Radical. The company’s last game, Haze, took a pounding both critically and commercially. And despite showing off a round of conceptual assets for TimeSplitters 4, in early October, development on the latest entry in the popular FPS series had ground to a halt. Finally, the company’s biggest project, a “secret title” announced back in 2006 as a joint effort with LucasArts, has apparently been handed over to another development studio.
Official word has yet to come direct from Free Radical on whether or not the company is on life support or if it’s pulling the plug altogether. Either way, it’s one more bit of bad news spotlighting the financial troubles being faces by the video game industry, and by business in general, in today’s economic crisis. Sony, EA, Eidos, Midway, and Activision have all already reported major layoffs this year. It’s almost enough to make gamers wonder just who’s next on the chopping block.
