Chris Hartmann, the President of 2K Games made an interesting comment in an interview with MCV
“UK retail slashes prices if something’s not quite hitting its numbers,” he said, “I’m not talking about a big gap – I’m talking about expecting to sell 1,000 and selling 950.”
As a consumer in the UK, I say hell yeah this is great news. I’ve seen Fallout 3 tumble in price at GAME to GBP 27.99 from it’s RRP of GBP 49.99. While it’s a shame to see retailers drop quality titles to make shelf space for the next AAA, I do appreciate the discount. Retailers should keep some stock of back titles to entertain discount buyers, the latest releases are not always the best for the customer.
If you have been living in a cave recently or at least not in the UK, it’s a bit of news for you to hear about the collapse of retail giant Woolworths. The windows and doors will be boarded up shortly after the holidays.
Why should you care? Woolies, as it is affectionately known, is one of the top three game retailers in the UK. They fit a nice little niche of not a game store but being the kind of store mothers from all demographics drag kids in to buy school gear. And what do kids do in these situations? They throw a fit until they get their video games as well. Who will cover this gap now?
The good news is if you have a Woolies near you, there is a huge liquidation sale on right now, so to our UK readers get down to your local if you are willing to brave the fearsome bargin hunters. Now with Woolies gone, where do our UK readers end up going to get games? For me it’s the ASDA by the train station down the street and the GAME near my office since the Woolies by my house already boarded up a month or so ago.
This is a shot from Best Buy’s circular this Sunday, October, 19, still showing LittleBigPlanet coming out this week. And, as Yaris posted about yesterday, the game has been postponed until next week. His post goes on to explain the reason for pushing back the release date is the discovery that one of the background music tracks in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qu’ran. The game was pushed back to rectify the situation and avoid further offending anyone.
Now, this is not a “look how stupid Best Buy is,” post. In fact, the Sunday ads for Circuit City, Target, Toys R’ Us, and probably a few others contained the same thing, and some (including Best Buy) tagged with, “Date subject to change.” It seems to be just a case of the release date changing after the ad material already went to press. This is, instead, a sort of letter of sympathy to any who work in video game retail for having to give the above explanation to who knows how many pissed off parents and uninformed gamers looking to grab one of the years most anticipated games on the date given in the circular.
Word of advice: Sometimes less said is best said. When asked why you don’t have the game, just say, “It got delayed,” and if asked why just say…well, just say, “it’s complicated.”
Every time we say his name, he just gets more power. This is officially the last time you’ll see me say Jack Thompson. From now on, the law buff will be known as Chuckles, because every time he does something, the entire gaming world gets a laugh.
So Chuckles decided to rock out another “sting” operation. He previous sent his son in to a Best Buy to pick up a copy of BioShock. His son isn’t yet 18, which is what he’s trying prove. However, he’s going after 2K Games for the problem instead of Best Buy. 2K Games doesn’t control a retailer’s action. They brand the game as mature and it’s up to the retailers to enforce the sales. The new “sting” operation involves Halo 3.
Chuckles sent his son into a South Florida Target store to buy a copy of Halo 3, which he was able to do on the first try without an ID. Granted, this shouldn’t happen. But again, Chuckles isn’t going after Target, he’s going after Microsoft. Because somehow the gaming industry is responsible for this happening at retailers. Are they also responsible for R-rated movies and CD’s with Parental Advisory stickers being sold to minors as well?
This editor can only hope Chuckles stops his antics and gets put in his place pretty soon.
In case you live in a bubble, there was chaos yesterday as Toys R Us prematurely sold BioShock in many of their US stores. Combine that with a commercial that also ran prematurely saying the game was available, and the intarwebs went into a tizzy. Rest assured, this was all user error. BioShock has not yet been released.
2K had to take some time and wrap their heads around what happened before releasing a statement.
It recently came to 2K Games’ attention that one of our retail partners prematurely sold some copies of BioShock prior to the game’s official launch date. Retailers are typically shipped product in advance to ensure they can meet launch day demand on street-dated product. As a result, a few people were able to purchase the game early. Additionally, a TV advertisement for BioShock prematurely ran that incorrectly indicated that the game was available for purchase. 2K Games has reached out to our retail partners and is maintaining the street date of August 21st in North America and August 24th in Europe, when BioShock will be available at retailers. 2K Games is appreciative of the gamer excitement and critical acclaim leading up to the title’s launch.
Yep, Toys R Us is gonna get jacked up. Word on the street is it’s going to cost them $5000 per unit sold before the street date of August 21st in the US. That’s gonna add up pretty quick.
So, with all the hubbub, did any of you get a copy of BioShock early?
Sony sent out word that Warhawk for the PS3 has gone gold via PlayStation.Blog. The game will be available on August 28th.
Pricing for the title was also announced. The retail version will run you $60 and include a Jabra Bluetooth headset as well as some behind the scenes footage from the game. The PlayStation Store download will be $39.99.
I’m thinking it’s a pretty fair price for the downloadable title. I know some critics have said $30 is the maximum they should charge, but I think $40 is a good value. The game is online only and will include a multitude of maps and game types to provide hours of fun.
After played the beta extensively, Warhawk is one of my favorite online titles of late. There’s a lot of ways to play, whether in flight, in ground vehicles, or just running around shooting. I would highly suggest picking this one up if you can.
GameStop managers received an email letting them know of a special announcement from Microsoft on August 8th, as reported by Joystiq.
The email states that this announcement will become public on August 8th and they should not display the signs they receive early, lest they be bitch slapped by upper management. Yeah, because we know that’s going to work.
There’s very little chance this is something other than the rumored price cuts we’ve seen from retail ads. We’ll keep you posted as more information is available.
It is probably easier to score black tar heroin right now than a Nintendo Wii. Unless you plan to buy a $600 bundle that contains the must have titles like Happy Feet or Shrek 3 or pay some eBayer who somehow has 10 unopened(stolen??), you are basically SOL. Finally Nintendo has promised to churn out more Wii’s to meet the demands of the market that they grossly underestimated reports Consumerist.com The system so far is good, but not great. The fact that you can’t get one may be the reason its so sought after. Either way, more Wii’s to come.
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