Some 'bricks & mortar' videogame retailers have been selling Modern Warfare 2 before the official release date next week. Charlie Brooker, for one, picked one up and has been tweeting about it on his Twitter feed (@charltonbrooker). I don't know about the legality of what they're doing (though I imagine the publishers will probably turn a blind eye in any event) but I can see why they're doing it.
Supermarkets burned specialist game retailers recently on the FIFA10 and PES10 releases, selling both games, for the first 3-4 days on sale anyway, at less than cost price. Supermarkets do this to get shoppers through the door, as they hope these 'new' customers will buy something else to go with their new videogame, increasing their margins across all their other in-store products to recoup the videogame 'losses'. Rumours that supermarket prices for essential gaming foodstuffs 'Maltesers' and 'Monster Munch', in tandem with the FIFA offer, have yet to be confirmed. This theory worked for me - my internet purchase got delayed in the postal strike, so I picked up a copy in Tesco and while there bought a Halloween costume for my daughter. Curse you Tesco!
I've not seen anything to suggest that Tesco, ASDA et al will do this for Modern Warfare 2 but it is the biggest game release of the year so it would not surprise me if they did. Who can blame specialist game stores for breaking the official release date, getting in early and shifting their shipments of the game to avoid loads of unsold stock come Tuesday, if it's £15 cheaper at ASDA?
I have to admit I am waiting to see what Tesco/ASDA et al do on MW2, and strongly suspect/hope for the same tactic as FIFA.
ReplyDelete"Maltesers and Monster Munch" - surely you mean Rolo Donuts? ;)
The word on the street (by which I mean www.nowgamer.com/forum ) hints that Sainsbury's will offer it at £26 come Tuesday. If true, Tesco and ASDA will undercut, I think.
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, no disrespect meant to Rolo Donuts!