Can @PathVariable return null if it's not found?

They cannot be optional, no. If you need that, you need two methods to handle them.

This reflects the nature of path variables - it doesn't really make sense for them to be null. REST-style URLs always need the full URL path. If you have an optional component, consider making it a request parameter instead (i.e. using @RequestParam). This is much better suited to optional arguments.

As others have already mentioned No you cannot expect them to be null when you have explicitly mentioned the path parameters. However you can do something like below as a workaround -

@RequestMapping(value = {"/simple", "/simple/{game}"}, method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView gameHandler(@PathVariable Map<String, String> pathVariablesMap,
            HttpServletRequest request) {
    if (pathVariablesMap.containsKey("game")) {
        //corresponds to path "/simple/{game}"
    } else {
        //corresponds to path "/simple"
    }           
}

If you are using Spring 4.1 and Java 8 you can use java.util.Optional which is supported in @RequestParam, @PathVariable, @RequestHeader and @MatrixVariable in Spring MVC

@RequestMapping(value = {"/simple", "/simple/{game}"}, method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView gameHandler(@PathVariable Optional<String> game,
            HttpServletRequest request) {
    if (game.isPresent()) {
        //game.get()
        //corresponds to path "/simple/{game}"
    } else {
        //corresponds to path "/simple"
    }           
}

You could always just do this:

@RequestMapping(value = "/simple", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView gameHandler(HttpServletRequest request) {
    gameHandler2(null, request)
}

@RequestMapping(value = "/simple/{game}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView gameHandler2(@PathVariable("game") String game,
        HttpServletRequest request) {