Independents day finally arrives

The response from indies to last week’s

price wars story online

was phenomenal – both in its quantity and its choler.

Yet despite a no less gloom-sodden

cover story this week,

it might be time for indies to celebrate.

After all, the real spice in the battle between EUK’s ‘everything’s fine’ rhetoric and the anxiety of the UK’s publishers is time. And as that big bomb marked ‘Q4 balance sheet’ ticks down, the money men are starting to panic.

Sure they can go to GAME, but are they really going to be able to squeeze that much more stock through the Basingstoke-based giant?

Surely the unstoppable success of the GAME Group – including another sterling H1 fiscal announcement this week – would indicate its buying team is already operating at terminal velocity?

So if not GAME, where? What kind of retailer can publishers find this late in the day that has room for countless more units of triple-A new releases and a games-hungry audience to sell them to?

Finally, it seems the humble indie might just get the Christmas it’s been crying out for. And the sweet irony for all those indies? It is the financial problems at Woolies that’s gifted it a potential boom period.