A surge of customers in the run-up to Christmas buying games such as Unreal Tournament III has boosted profits at Game Group, the company said yesterday. In an unscheduled trading statement, Europe's largest computer game retailer said it had enjoyed "continued strong sales performance" over the last three weeks. It now expects that pre-tax profits for the year to January 31 2008 to be significantly ahead of market expectation, at not less than £70m. Analysts had expected pre-tax profits of about £62m. Shares in the company gained 18p, closing at 250p.