Struggling retailer Game Group has a week to raise £180million or collapse into administration.

The group, which employs 10,000 people under the Game and Gamestation brands, warned it was in trouble last week after several suppliers refused to provide new products.

A third party – thought to be private investment firm OpCapita, which recently bought electrical goods retailer Comet – has shown interest in stepping in but, so far, no guarantees have been made.

Game reportedly faces a £21million rent payment next Sunday and a £12million wage bill at the end of the month.

It also owes more than £10million in VAT and £40million to suppliers.

The company suffered a disappointing Christmas period with like-for-like sales down 12.9 per cent in the eight weeks to January 7 - blamed on a lack of new consoles and a squeeze on consumer spending.

Losses for the year to the end of January are also expected to be around £18million.

The situation for GAME is getting worse by the hour as it is delisted from the London Stock Exchange and the firm admits its shares are worthless.

Shares in GAME Group, the company that owns both the GAME and Gamestation chains, has had its shares suspended on the London Stock Exchange, meaning that nobody can buy or sell them.

As GAME itself predicted just over a week ago the value of the company has become essentially zero. Although it was never confirmed, multiple rumours over the weekend gave GAME just one week to raise £180million - or otherwise it would be unable to pay rental and wage bills.

Ever since Christmas GAME has been unable to stock major new titles, including Mass Effect 3, Street Fighter X Tekken, Ninja Gaiden 3, and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. After disappointing Christmas results the company's credit insurance was pulled and many publishers refused to take the risk of sending GAME new stock.

The delisting from the stock exchange was at GAME's request, with the company issuing the following statement:

'Further to the announcements of 12 March 2012 and 14 March 2012, the board of GAME has assessed the status of the ongoing and regular discussions between GAME and its lending banks and between its lending banks and a potential third party provider of finance to the business.

The Board now considers itself to be unable to assess the business’s financial position, and is of the opinion that there is no equity value left in the Group. Therefore the Company has requested that the listing of its securities on the Main Market of London Stock Exchange plc be suspended from trading with effect from 7:30am today.

The Company will provide a further update in due course.'

The move is likely be an attempt to spur possible buyers into action. Private investment firm OpCapita, which recently bought electrical goods retailer Comet, is believed to be interested but will only make a move if the company actually goes bust - or perhaps comes as close as it has now.

US chain GameStop is thought to be in a similar position, and so up to now US retail giant Walmart, which also owns Asda, has seemed the most eager suitor. Whether this will change before or after GAME's one week deadline is up remains to be seen.

UK retailer GAME has officially entered administration, as insiders claim management now have three possible plans on the go, with one of them involving closing down all Gamestation stores by Monday.

Update: GAME has announced it has officially entered administration, although in the meantime it will continue to trade as normal (or as normal as the last few weeks have been).

Here's the full statement:

'Further to this morning's announcement of the suspension of trading in shares of GAME Group plc, the board has concluded that its discussions with all stakeholders and other parties have not made sufficient progress in the time available to offer a realistic prospect for a solvent solution for the business. The board has therefore today filed a notice of intention to appoint an administrator.'

'In the short term the Board's intention is that the business will continue to trade and discussions with lenders and third parties will continue under the protection of the interim moratorium'

Original story: According to trade paper MCV there are currently three possible outcomes for GAME at the moment, all of which will involve it transforming into a very different company.

The chance for GAME to sort out its finances and return to the pre-Christmas status quo has now apparently passed. This was Comet owner OpCapita's favourite option and so presumably lessens their interest in buying the company.

Another 'White Knight' investor could still make an offer for GAME before Sunday, although according to MCV this is now thought to be 'incredibly unlikely'.

That leaves two real options: the first of which is GAME going into administration and closing down all its stores, including Gamestation, on Monday.

Option number three isn't quite as drastic and would involve the closure of Gamestation stores only. This would also happen on Monday, with this morning's delisting from the stock exchange allowing GAME to form a new company that includes only GAME's UK and Spanish stores.

GAME's Spanish business was the only one US retailer GameStop was interested in, but whether there's any relevance to that in this new plan - beyond the Spanish stores being very profitable - is unknown.

A 'handful' of Gamestation's best-performing stores could be kept open but all other international stores would be closed. This should leave around 300 or more GAME stores in the 300. They'd presumably keep the GAME name and logo, but how much they'd change in terms of business practices isn't clear.

GAME has challenged 'many' of MCVs claims but failed to deny anything specifically.