Play.com officially no more

Once popular UK entertainment retailer Play.com is no more.

Play.com was once viewed as a serious competitor to Amazon, and even launched its own video games expo – Play.com Live – at Wembley Stadium in 2008.

But some disappointing results saw Play struggle to attract investment and the company was sold to Japanese retail specialist Rakuten in 2011 for 25m. The website no-longer sold products directly and instead became a marketplace for other retailers to utilise.

But as of today, Play.com doesn’t even exist as that, and anyone that visits that website will be directed to Rakuten.co.uk instead.

We are expanding our marketplace all the time, as well as all the merchants and products you love from Play.com we are constantly adding new and interesting merchants and products to discover to make shopping on Rakuten.co.uk a fun and entertaining experience,” the firm told MCV.

If merchants are interested in joining Rakuten.co.uk they can register their interest with us.”