Tag Archives: Don McCabe

Oh dear. The MD of Chips, UK’s largest independent games chain, has told GI he expects the PSPgo to “fail miserably”.

Don McCabe said: “My own personal opinion is that it’s a no-go. I’ve been to a number of presentations to see if there’s anything there and I don’t feel it’ll go anywhere to be honest.

“I’m 99.9 per cent sure it’s going to fail miserably, in which case it’s going to put back other potential people coming into that digital space.”

More joy through there. The handheld released last week.

Independent UK retailers are hopping mad at supermarket stores like Tesco and Asda, which are running specials on FIFA 10 for half its recommended retail price.

So mad, that an outcry for legislation to prevent the below cost selling is being shouted.

“It’s bully boy pricing really,” Chips MD Don McCabe told GI.biz. “Other countries have laws against this selling at a loss for very good reason.

“Once they’ve got the whole market they’ll expand their profits, reduce the choice and screw the suppliers,” said McCabe. The only thing that can be done is what other countries have, which is to recognize the insidious march of the supermarkets model is detrimental to the consumer ultimately.”

There’s more of back and forth there through the link. You should go have a read.

As expected, UK retailers have reacted badly to news that Nintendo’s to raise the trade price of Wii in the UK, with one saying the proposed rise will leave no margin on the hardware at all.

“It’s very bad,” ShopTo.net’s Igor Cipolletta told GI, admitting: “If it’s true that they want to increase it by [at least] £18 then there is no margin for us at all.

“It’s very disappointing because we believed that after two years the Wii machine would get cheaper rather than more expensive – I’ve heard that this is the first time in history that the price has gone up for a machine after two years.”

Retailer Chips added that the rise is likely to have an adverse affect on sales, and that the increase will have to be passed onto consumers.

“It will have a negative effect on the sales,” said MD Don McCabe.

“I think we’ll still end up with shortages come Christmas again, but through the summer it’s going to have an effect.”

Nintendo said yesterday it’s to raise the trade price of Wii in the UK by as much as £20 thanks to a depreciated pound.