Games retailers confident about 2010

UK retailers believe they have cracked the formula to survive the next decade – after enduring a true annus horribilis on the High Street in 2009.

In a year of financial troubles, company closures and an erratic release slate, a whopping 91 per cent of retailers claimed they were confident about the future of their business in MCV’s annual Retail Survey this week – proving that it takes more than the recession to dampen the industry’s spirits.

Only one per cent of companies contacted were pessimistic about their business’s prospects.

Optimism was further reflected elsewhere in the survey, with 48 per cent of companies predicting their Christmas takings would be greater than last year’s, and an additional 27 per cent believing they would match those of 2008.

Activision Blizzard’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 dominated other polls, including retail’s Highlight of the Year with 73 per cent of the vote. 64 per cent of respondants also backed it to be this year’s Christmas No.1. The record-breaking game easily outperformed competition from the likes of Assassin’s Creed II, FIFA, PES and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Activision was just pipped to the post by EA in the Best Attitude and Quality to Retail poll, with the latter winning over 21 per cent of the vote.

Elsewhere, Koch and Gem had a strong year, but it was Centresoft that was named the most highly commended distributor, taking 48 per cent of votes. In the peripherals market, Mad Catz came out on top, with Venom following in a very close second.

The kind words reached a halt when it came to the supermarkets, however. A third of retailers identified price slashing on major releases at the likes of Tesco and Asda as the biggest problem facing the industry.

These aggressive price points even angered twice as many retailers as the economic recession.