GAME claims nearly 50% of Vita launch sales

Industry sources have told MCV that very nearly 50 per cent of all Vita
hardware sold in the UK on launch week was purchased in a GAME or
Gamestation store.
That, of course, is despite the fact that the
chains were not carrying Ubisoft’s Vita launch line-up of Rayman
Origins, Lumines, Michael Jackson: The Experience, Dungeon Hunter and
Asphalt Injection.
“As much as the world wants to bash GAME at the
moment, you can’t escape the fact that if you’re launching new hardware
or a big game there’s no better launch partner than GAME,” a publisher
exec admitted to MCV in an off the record capacity.
“Obviously its
position is threatened by not carrying some new games, and with every
new release they miss the problem gets worse. But if Microsoft or Sony
announced a new machine tomorrow or Nintendo surprised us with an early
Wii U release they’d be mad not do whatever it took to get GAME on
board.”
The source asserted that, in its opinion, “there’s no better
way of getting games and consoles to gamers in the UK” and said that in
his experience a game launch coordinated with GAME was nearly always
more effective than other options, such as a supermarket entrance
display or national print ad campaign.
“Sony owes GAME a lot for
getting Vita off the ground in the UK,” the source added. “Some other
publishers would do well to recognise this.”

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