Retail

UPDATE: An official spokesperson from the US GameStop office has contacted MCV with the following statement: These comments from an unnamed and unknown person claiming to be a GameStop employee are inaccurate. Pre-owned is the cornerstone of our business and, as you say, a key driving force for us. Both …

Tesco has increased the size of its games buying team from six to nine over the past year, with a tenth member to follow. The news comes as the supermarket doubled its market share in software and hardware year-on-year. Tesco senior buying manager for games John Stanhope told MCV: While …

Sales for video game software, hardware and accessories in the UK saw a decline of 16 per cent during the first half of 2010, it has been revealed today. Data from Chart-Track shows that sales made from the first 26 weeks of this year stand at 963m – a drop …

Online retailers with distribution facilities off the UK mainland are safe from the VAT hike. The likes of HMV, Amazon, Play and The Hut run operations from Jersey or Guernsey, which means they’ll remain unaffected by the increase. Digital distributors not based in the UK will also be able to …

Square Enix has announced that the PC Collector’s Edition version of MMO Final Fantasy XIV will be released in Europe on September 22nd. The standard SKU will hit retail on September 30th. The PS3 version of the game will not be released until March 2011, with pricing to be announced …

HMV has stated that despite what it describes as a very challenging year” for the video games market that saw it decline 25 per cent year-on-year, the retailer has gained market share in the sector – thanks in part to an increasing contribution” from its pre-owned offer Re/Play. Overall sales …

It was named early on as one of the big sales hopes of 2010, but Take Two’s BioShock 2 has not met the expectations placed upon it by the publisher, chief executive Ben Feder has admitted. We’re in an entertainment business. The surprise factor is always going to be there. …

The growing trade in pre-owned games is the driving force behind the High Street’s struggle to combat year-on-year declines in video games sales, according to a report by analyst group Cowen and Company. The study compares the current hardware userbase of the PS3 and Xbox 360, which it claims at …

Reports from the US say Hasbro is in early-stage buy-out talks with a private equity firm. Financial scuttlebutt says the firm is in talks with Providence Equity Partners to take the company private in a leveraged buy-out – a way for private equity firms to finance large acquisitions through debt, …

The second hand games reseller believed to be behind Best Buy’s fresh tirade on the US pre-owned games market has filed an S-1 for common stock offering as it looks to boost the mass-market credentials of the sector. Game Trading Technologies is a fast-growing business that deals with the acquisition, …