It has been making the news this morning that GAME Australia is entering administration, something we have been expecting after the events in the UK. According to Australian gamers however, it’s not only the employees who are getting the shorter end of the stick.

Sometime this morning, people who had pre-ordered Diablo 3 through GAME in Australie received a message which read, “Due to the appointment of an administrator to our business this morning, it is with regret that I inform you all that our stores will not be receiving any stock of diablo 3 (sic). Because of this, we regrettably will be unable to fulfill any pre-orders. Also, we will be unable to refund any deposits paid towards a pre-order of diablo 3. If you need any more info, please email “

“It seems to be legal,” forum user Talizaar wrote on the Diablo forum. ”Now they are officially in administration anyone that has placed money on a pre-order is considered an unsecured creditor so if things have to be wound up they have to be paid back out of funds remaining once secured creditors are paid. If they started handing out refunds now to pre-orders they are theoretically breaking the law.”

Seeing how harsh things went down in the UK, gamers probably won’t be getting refunds if there actually is no room for legal action, but maybe there’s some hope they can make it out of this mess as well. Regardless of what is going on behind the scenes, it would have been nice to have received this message a little bit earlier than 24 hours before the servers go live.