A lack of blockbuster releases has sped up a fall in sales at high street entertainment group Game.
The group, which trades from almost 1,400 outlets in Europe and Australia, said like-for-like sales fell 15.4% in the 21 weeks to June 27.
The slide shows a worsening trend since the 6.3% decline it saw for the 11 weeks to April 18 - indicating underlying sales have slumped by about 25% over the latter 10 weeks.
Chief executive Lisa Morgan blamed the decline on the weaker release schedule in the first half compared an exceptionally strong start to last year.
But Ms Morgan looked forward to a far more promising software offering for the second half of the current year, with titles including Wii Fit Plus, Singstar: Take That, and Forza Motorsport 3 due for release.
"Although we have seen further like-for-like declines...this was expected, given the exceptionally strong trading period last year when sales were up 25% on the back of record-breaking launches such as Mario Kart, Wii Fit and Grand Theft Auto IV," she said.
The results were worse than analysts forecast, and Game shares fell heavily on the news.
Before the trading update the firm's shares had lost 43% of its value over the last year on fears of slower growth, lack of information on the next generation of consoles and the threat of digital distribution.
The group forecast first-half profit before one-off items to the end of July to be in line with its guidance, at between £13m and £16m, down from £36.4m in the previous year.
On Tuesday music, books and games retailer HMV reported a 12% rise in annual profit.
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