Retail

While Game Retail Limited, the new owner of retailer GAME, appears in good health, the future looks less certain for its flagship Oxford Street Store in London. The Telegraph reports that the outlet could be forced to close its doors after the landlord, Lazari GP, won a court order last …

Blizzard’s long-awaited RPG doesn’t even go on sale for another 16 hours but fans have been queuing for three days now. Eager consumers have set up camp outside HMV’s flagship store on Oxford Street ahead of tonight’s official launch party. They have been there since Saturday. The first person in …

Same-store sales at US retailer GameStop dropped 12.5 per cent year-on-year. These include sales at stores which have been open for at least one year, and exclude revenue generated at newer shops. The games chain blamed the decline on a lower demand for new games, but said it had outperformed …

Dixons Retail says its like-for-like sales fell three per cent for the 52 weeks ending April 28th, while overall sales remained flat. The group – which owns PC World, Currys, Dixons and other retail chains worldwide – ‘enjoyed good performances in the UK and Ireland and Northern Europe, trading ahead …

Claims emerging from the US suggest that retailer GameStop is to start selling gift vouchers for Valve’s digital PC games portal Steam. Kotaku claims to have word of the move from a GameStop source”. It also claims that the decision to stock such cards is a direct result of its …

Specialist games retailers cannot survive without second-hand, says Blockbuster. The firm’s UK commercial director Gerry Butler has hit back at trade-in critics, and told MCV that the current new release business model is broken and in need of a radical overhaul. If you’re a specialist you need certain margins to …

Starhawk, the PS3 exclusive from Lightbox Interactive, which was originally set for release in India today, will now be delayed by up to two weeks, Sony has confirmed. A Sony representative told MCV that the delay was forced by logistical issues, adding that the game will be in stores within …

UK retailers saw a year-on-year decline in sales as excessive rain deterred shoppers from venturing to the High Street. Like-for-like sales across all sectors fell by 3.3 per cent when compared to the same period last year, according to data from the British Retail Consortium. The BBC reports that the …

According to the FICCI-KPMG Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report 2012, the Indian games business was valued at 13bn Rupees ($259m) in 2011 – up 30 per cent. The market is expected to grow by 38 per cent to 18bn Rupees ($359m) in 2012 and to a staggering 46bn Rupees …

Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency has announced an investigation into how social games firms sell their microtransactions in Japan, causing shares in the country’s two major players to nosedive. Nikkei.com reports that shares in both DeNA and Gree – the two major players in Japan’s social gaming scene – plunged to …