If The Game Is Up a secret scheme or a plot has been revealed. Though it’s often thought that it relates to a sporting event that has come to an end, in actual fact its origin lies in hunting. People hunting game on country estates employ beaters to drive pheasants and other game birds out into the open. The yell “the game is up” goes out when the birds’ hiding places have been found and they have been driven up into the path of the guns. The shoot can now begin.