Perhaps the boss of Game should have spent less time on his Xbox

Outlook

Martyn Gibbs, boss of the video games chain Game, told The Independent on Saturday that he was currently playing his way through the latest instalment of Tomb Raider.

I was sceptical. A chief executive with enough time on his hands to lounge around playing with Lara Croft? Pah. PR nonsense.

After Wednesday’s profit warning, though, I’m not so sure. If Mr Gibbs really has been spending hours in his trackie bottoms playing on his Xbox instead of working, that explains a few things.

Primarily, it might answer why he appeared so confident about his business in his interview with us just days before dumping such shocking numbers on the stock market.

Granted, Mr Gibbs was not specifically discussing the impact of customers migrating to the new generation of PlayStations and Xboxes, but he must have been aware that he was painting a rosy picture when, in truth, all was not right at Game.

Or perhaps, to give him the benefit of the doubt, he wasn’t aware of how dire trading was. Perhaps, as the Stock Exchange statement suggests, the lousy sales, especially since the start of the Christmas holidays, caught everyone by surprise.

The trouble with that excuse is that it means one of two things: either this business is so unpredictable that shareholders should stay away, or Mr Gibbs doesn’t have a grip on his own numbers. Neither is a happy thought for shareholders.

Nearly 44 per cent of Game is owned by the vulture fund Elliott Advisors, which has made itself hundreds of millions since buying the retailer from its administrators in 2012 and floating it on the stock market. While this latest warning is awkward for Elliott, financially it is still well up on its investment.

Not so for the star fund manager Neil Woodford. Game was one of the earlier investments of Woodford Investment Management, which he formed after quitting Invesco to go it alone. It built up a chunky 19 per cent stake in Game since the float, along with his old friends at Invesco who amassed 14 per cent.

Woodford and Invesco will now be asking Mr Gibbs some tough questions, if they can get him off his Xbox for long enough. The phrase “Game Over” may come up with regards to his continued employment.