A Crisis of consumer confidence is having a radical impact on electricals retail. A major shake-up is taking place at Comet after it posted an 8.9m loss for its financial year. The firm will close 17 under-performing shops and is on the hunt for a buyer for its 230-strong chain …
Read More »‘Rent day’ claims more victims
The UK High Street is at breaking point and landlords must step in to avert another ‘rent day’ disaster, says the British Retail Consortium. The message comes following last week’s collapse of Habitat and Jane Norman on ‘rent day’ (the quarterly time when rent is due) which has claimed many …
Read More »UK retail braced for summer of woe
The number of specialist games retailers is in free fall as the crisis on the High Street deepens. And the situation is only going to get worse over the summer, warn analysts, with many expecting a significant rise in the number of empty High Street units. MCV can reveal that …
Read More »HMV’s profits plunge
HMV swung to a loss of 121.7m from a profit of 49.2m the year before. Total Group sales fell by 7.4 per cent, while like-for-like sales fell 11 per cent. Pre-tax profits sit at 18.8m. HMV’s total debt now sits at 170.7m, a significant increase from the 67.6m the year …
Read More »Ubisoft triumphs at industry quiz
Ubisoft was crowned quiz champions at the MCV/Xbox 360 Pub Quiz in Holborn last night. The great and the good of the UK games industry took part, with IGN and Microsoft coming close to Ubisoft’s total of 56. There was also a host of spot prizes for each of the …
Read More »Just Dance expansion pack announced
Just Dance 2 – Extra Songs will be released for Wii on July 22nd. The game is the first retail expansion pack for Ubisoft’s best-selling dancing series and features 21 tracks that were previously only available via download. It will not require Just Dance 1 or 2 to be playable. …
Read More »Portal 2 passes 3m sales
Valve’s recent release and critical hit Portal 2 has now sold in excess of 3m copies. The number comes from Gabe Newell himself and was revealed at the Games for Change event at New York yesterday, according to Joystiq. It’s understood that it covers both boxed retail and digital sales …
Read More »Yakuza series ships 5m
Sega’s popular Yakuza series has shipped more than five million units worldwide to date. The series began in 2005 with the PS2 original, which combined with a re-release years later has since sold one million units, according to Andriasang. Yakuza of the End, a zombie apocalypse-themed spin-off for the PlayStation-exclusive …
Read More »Gaikai signs Walmart deal
Gaikai has joined forces with the world’s largest retailer to bring its games streaming service to Walmart.com. The new Game Center section of Walmart’s website now allows users to play PC titles using Gaikai’s service for free, according to VentureBeat. If they like the game, they can then purchase it …
Read More »New Rayman ‘too big’ for download
Ubisoft’s Rayman revamp has been promoted to a boxed product because the game concept doesn’t fit download services. New game Rayman Origins from the firm’s visionary designer Michel Ancel was conceived and first announced as a digital download title. But at E3 last week, the firm demoed the game and …
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