Tag Archives: wal-mart

Following news that the OpCapita buyout may not be happening and reports that this week marks the company’s last stand, shares in GAME Group have crashed – and then rebounded again.

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The LA Times reports that a San Fernando resident shopping for games at a Walmart Black Friday sale was pepper-sprayed by what he called a “competitive shopper.” Matthew Lopez, 18, was attacked inside the store. By the time he got to the games section, the display was torn down and employees were having to pick up copies of games and DVDs that were scattered on the floor. Another customer said that screaming began when 100 people started shoving over Xbox 360s and Wiis.

There’s more through the link.

Pre-order bonuses based on where you purchased the game are becoming all the more common. When it comes to inFamous 2, your choice of games retailer will grant you one extra in-game power – and we’ve got the videos to prove it.

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GameStop may finally be taking its show online, but that doesn’t mean it should stop watching its back at retail. Case in point: Best Buy. The jack-of-all-trades giant is done sleeping on the gaming space, and it’s carved out brand new positions to prove it.

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Black Friday looms, and never larger than at Wal-Mart’s door. Destructoid’s listing the store’s deals, which are apparently “damned solid”.

Steph’s American, so she’d know if this is true or not, but it’s Steph-night-off-Monday, so we’re assuming it is.

Here’s some of it:

• Nintendo DS Lite – $98
• PS3 Slim + Batman: Arkam Asylum, inFamous, and Dark Knight (movie) – $299
• Xbox 360 Arcade + Madagascar 2 game and movie – $199
• Nintendo Wii Console w/ Wii Sports Resort (walmart.com only) – under $300
• Rock Band Special Edition (PS3 or Xbox 360) – $50
• Midnight Club LA – $10
• Grand Theft Auto IV – $10
• The Godfather (PS3) – $10
• NFS: Undercover (PS3) – $10
• Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 (360) – $7

Hit the link for more.

Wal-Mart now has machines to take your old games. The US retail monster has has included 77 “Video Game Buyback” stations at various stores, Gama reports.

The machines also carry movie DVDs and video game discs for Wii, Xbox and PlayStation platforms for $1 per day rentals, on top of accepting game discs that customers want to sell.

There’s a bevy of information through there. It’s only a tiny trial, remember: Wal-Mart has 3,656 total US stores.

According to this Reuters story, Wal-Mart’s site is to put “tens of thousands” of Wiis on sale tomorrow.

The US retailer will offer the machine for $249.24, and a “value bundle,” which includes the console and other items like an extra set of controllers, for $329, while supplies last.

More through there.

MTV is reporting that US stores such as Wal-Mart are now refusing to stock new, large, plastic peripherals citing a lack of shelve space.

Apparently, XS Games wanted to release a new guitar peripheral for PopStar Guitar Wii, but after the notion of stocking the device was rejected by stockists, XS was forced to redesign a much smaller add-on to suit retailers needs.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Joystiq has got an image of an entry in Wal-Mart’s intranet, known as “The Wire”, showing a listing for Halo “Blue”. The unknown game is apparently due for release on September 30.

No more details are available at this time, but with Microsoft’s E3 press conference just hours away, we’re sure we’ll get some kind of answer this evening.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Following Wal-Mart’s decision to cease stocking HD-DVD films and players in favour of Blu-ray, Toshiba is to pull out of the next-gen disc race, according to this.

Blu-ray has already flooded the Japanese market, assuming 90 percent of sales. With Wal-Mart offside for US sales, the game was finally lost.

The news ends what has been a humiliating decline in HD-DVD’s fortunes since Waner Bros. very publicly dropped the format just before CES last month. PS3 is now the only console on the market to include Blu-ray support, Sony’s massive gamble sure to now pay-off at large odds.

It also means we don’t have to keep on writing about which logo’s going to be on your movie discs for the next five years, so thanks for not prolonging the agony, Toshiba.

Surely this means the end? Wal-Mart is to completely drop HD-DVD players and movies by June. You can’t get much more final than that. The company officially announced its intentions today, saying, “By June Wal-Mart will only be carrying Blu-ray movies and hardware machines, and of course standard-def movies, DVD players, and up-convert players.”

If HD-DVD manages to survive after this, we’ll eat our hats. And we don’t have hats, so that tells you how final this is.