New retail games agency Sold Out signs Mastertronic

A new retail sales business has launched, and has signed Mastertronic as its first publisher, MCV can reveal.

The new company, Sold Out, is a spin out of the former retail sales team at Mastertronic, led by Garry Williams and James Cato. It will handle the packaged good sales of Mastertronic titles across all territories.

Mastertronic says it is committed to retail products, but will focus on ‘high quality releases’. It will continue to handle logistics itself, but with a reduced headcount. As a result there are nine redundancies at the company’s Huntingdon distribution facility, although Mastertronic boss Andy Payne stresses that some of these employees have already found new work.

Mastertronic will now focus on four areas, the firm says. These include its simulation business via Just Flight and Just Trains, its digital retail business Get Games, mobile publishing via AppyNation and core games from developers, helping them publish them worldwide under the Mastertronic label.

Payne said: "The games industry is in constant transition and it is essential for all companies to adapt to the market conditions whilst retaining focus on high quality games and servicing their communities of fans.

"We have seen these changes coming and believe we have made the right decisions at the right time. We have some pretty big product announcements due very soon across all of our core areas of focus. It is incredibly sad to say goodbye to loyal friends who I have worked with for many, many years, but the market has changed and so must we. Fortunately many of our team are already headed towards new positions in other companies."