Category Archives: Retail

GameStop president Tony Bartel has told Forbes that sales of Wii U have been “slower than expected” now that the Christmas boom has passed; however, the executive feels titles in the current pipeline will help renew interest.

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Majesco has released its financial results for its first quarter of fiscal 2013. For the period ending on January 31, net revenues came in at $23.5 million, which is down 65% compared to $66.2 million year-over-year. Net loss for Q1 was $2.1 million compared to net income of $7.7 million during Q1 of fiscal year 2012.

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Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F and Soul Sacrifice took the top spots in the Media Create charts for the period of March 4-10, with the former moving 110,229 units on PS3 and Comcept’s debut moving 92,396 units on Vita. The handheld also took the top spot on the hardware charts, thanks to last month’s price drop. While sales were only up 1,038 units over the week prior, it still moved 63,581 units which is considerably better than its recent sales history.

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Ex-GameStop VP of corporate communications and public affairs Frank Christopher Olivera has been charged with fraud in US federal court, after funnelling over over $1.7 million from the retailer. He faces 51 months in prison.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and FIFA 13 outsold The Dark Knight Rises in 2012, placing at the top of the UK’s entertainment top 40 sales chart, the Entertainment Retailers Association has revealed.

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UK supermarket chain ASDA is rumoured to be in talks with HMV administrators Deloitte to put in a bid for the troubled games, music and movies retailer.

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Analyst Michael Pachter has said he has “high hopes” that PS4 and the next Xbox console will “renew investor interest” in game publishers, and he expects retail outlets, specifically GameStop, to well in the process.

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Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has said he’s not worried over the possibility of development budgets going up, due to the potential it allows.

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Deloitte has said further Blockbuster store closures will occur in the UK. At present the stores closing are ones already announced, according to the administration firm, but there will be more as the administration process continues. Blockbuster went into administration in January and 160 out of 500 stores were tagged for closure, with Morrisons picking up 49 locations for its own business chain. Thanks, MCV.

Game rental service and digital distributor GameFly issued a round of lay-offs earlier today. The company explained the cuts as a result of restructuring, but did not give details. Joystiq cites one anonymous source for word that cuts were around one third of total staff, while another put the figure at 35.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was the clear winner on the Media Create charts in Japan, moving 308,681 units on PS3. 3DS sales were down, but both models still maintained the numer one and two spots on the hardware chart. PS3 took third place with an uptick in sales, moving 18,529 units compared to 16,934 the week prior, likely this can be attributed to the release of MGR: Revengeance. Vita sales were also up over the week prior to 11,456 compared to the 8,044 units sold the prior period. It’s unclear when looking at the top 20 what caused the surge in sales, but the handheld outsold Wii U for the first time. Full charts are below.

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Michael Pachter deemed the UK games retail market ‘a joke’ a few weeks ago slamming British retailers’ attempts to undercut each other with incredibly low, unrealistic prices. The Wedbush Morgan analyst has now clarified what he meant in a new interview.

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EB Games Australia has opened pre-orders for the PlayStation 4 at $899, which is about £600/€700/¥86,000. Australian prices tend to be quite a bit higher than international price points after currency conversion. For comparison, the 60GB PlayStation 3 originally launched at $999 in Australia, which is now worth about £670/€780/¥96,000, but the PS3 actually retailed at £425/€599/¥59,980 in respective territories. In any case, it’s just an estimate at this stage.

Thanks, adumicic.

PS4 was revealed last night at Sony’s ‘PlayStation Meeting’ event last night, but no mention was made of the console’s price. Online retailer ShopTo has started taking pre-orders on the console, with the preliminary price of £399.95.

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PS4 was only just revealed by Sony this morning, but UK retailer GAME is already taking pre-orders for the powerhouse new console.

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HMV and administrators Deloitte have today announced that they close another 37 stores amid efforts to restructure the business.

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Industry analyst Michael Pachter expects Sony to announce a price-cut for PS3 next week along with the announcement of a new console. According to Pachter, the a price-cut should go into effect on “February 21st,” and he expects it to hit somewhere around the $199 mark. He also expects Microsoft to counter the reduction with one of its own by E3. next week can’t get here soon enough, right? Thanks, GI International.

HMV has reached an agreement with suppliers, which will allow it to sell new games and other media in its remaining stores. “We are pleased that these agreements are now in place, allowing us to replenish stock and bring in new titles,” joint administrator Nick Edwards told MCV. “The support of suppliers over the past few weeks has been significant and these agreements demonstrate their ongoing commitment to supporting HMV.”

The administrator also said it feels positive that a buyer will be found for HMV.

HMV’s restructuring with administrators Deloitte has seen its games division whittled down to just two games buyers. The group’s recent round of lay-offs and store closures suggests a severe down-sizing of HMV’s games business.

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Wii U has failed to set retail alight in the UK. The issue has prompted many UK retailers to speak out in demand for a console price cut.

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