Retail

HMV has confirmed its entry into the pre-owned games market under the Re/Play brand. It will be officially launched on Friday 24th October with an extensive marketing campaign featuring national and consumer press. MCV was first to reveal HMV’s plans in the pre-owned space back in June after the appointment …

EA’s FIFA 09 holds onto the No.1 position in this week’s ELSPA/Chart-Track’s official UK All Formats Top 40 – despite sales being down 47 per cent. The football title – which has been garnering exceptional reviews – holds off the stern challenge of Lego Batman, which takes second spot in …

HMV has acquired Gamerbase in a move that will see many more of the firm’s multiplayer gaming offerings rolled out in conjunction with the High Street giant. Gamerbase first opened its doors within HMV’s Trocadero store in London last December on a concession basis, and has since flourished. HMV now …

GameStop’s acquisition of French market leader Micromania hasn’t affected GAME Group’s ambitions in Europe, insists GAME CEO Lisa Morgan. GameStop’s acquisition saw the balance of power in European games retail shift as the US giant snapped up an extra 332 outlets in France, increasing its European store count to 1,077. …

The industry was rocked by heavy discounting this week, as High Street giants GAME and Gamestation joined independent retailers in buying extra stock from supermarkets. The latest round of price slashing kicked off at Sainsbury’s over the weekend, with the retailer cutting 30 off the price of Xbox 360 and …

Supermarket chain Morrisons has slashed the price of FIFA ’09 on PlayStation 3 to 25, MCV can reveal. The deal is set to run for two weeks, and follows Tesco and Asda’s FIFA price promotions, which came to an end on Monday. This offer was a last minute decision,” explained …

Asda has asked around 15 of its entertainment distributors to set up direct accounts, should its relationship with Woolworths-owned buying team EUK ‘suddenly deteriorate’. And the supermarket has even admitted that it could be tempted into buying EUK as a last resort. That’s according to Cue Entertainment, which reports that …

Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime has confirmed that both Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training and More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima will be available on Nintendo’s recently announced DS-Ware download store . Joystiq reports that Reggie also says both titles would be ‘retooled’, presumably to make the most of the …

MCV understands that UK publishers are increasingly wary of pushing stock through EUK ahead of the Christmas rush – and are considering cutting out the distributor entirely. The mayhem began on September 17th, when the Woolworths Group PLC reported a 100m loss for the first half of the year. Two …

The world’s largest games retailer GameStop has made a major stride into the European marketplace with a shock deal to acquire French chain Micromania. The deal gives the US giant 332 stores in France, increasing GameStop’s European store count to 1,077. The transaction is worth approximately $700 million (€480m) and …