THE BUZZ: Yesterday it was revealed that U.K. retailer GAME would no longer be stocking any EA titles after the launch of SSX, including the upcoming, highly anticipated Mass Effect 3. However, the company has announced it is in talks with the publisher to resolve the issue.

GAME released this statement:

“As part of the strategic plan development process which it announced on February 3rd, the Group has been working closely with its suppliers, as well as other stakeholders.”

“In particular, the Group has been discussing with its suppliers the level of support and engagement it needs from them over the coming months. There have, during that process, been isolated instances where it has not been possible to agree launch plans for individual game titles.”

“Today the Group confirmed that it will not be stocking a small number of titles from one supplier, Electronic Arts, during March and notes that this has caused speculation in the market.”

“This situation, which is a result of ongoing discussions between the Group and EA, is a temporary one and indeed both businesses are already engaged in discussions about future launches together. It is always a matter of regret when customers are inconvenienced, and both the Group and EA are committed to ensuring that this situation does not occur again.”

GAME has suffered a number of stock issues since it emerged that the company is facing credit insurance issues.

EGM’s TAKE: It appears that GAME is working hard to rectify the situation with EA, but if a solution isn’t found soon then the issue could spread into subsequent months and may result in them losing the publisher altogether. This could only mean incredibly bad times for the retailer, considering how many major titles EA actually publishes. It’s going to be a long, hard journey for the company to get back on top. This has been a long time coming with GAME constantly being unable to offer competitive prices.