Game stocks shops with Tesco 3DS consoles
Pre-owned, never pwned
As pre-owned 3DS consoles line the shelves of Game, customers could be forgiven for thinking Nintendo gamers were unsatisfied with their purchase.
While this may be true in some cases – with complaints emerging about the 3DS effect causing eyestrain – it turns out the retailer has actually had its staff queueing up to purchase new stock from Tesco and is then selling it on in a bid to cover expected shortages and boost game sales.
So how does this box shifting work out for the customer? A 3DS can be picked up in Tesco for £175 when bought with any 3DS title for £35. Game meanwhile sells its new 3DS consoles at £220 and offers "pre-owned" consoles for £5-£10 cheaper. Hmm.
An internal document - snapped in a Bond-style spy capture and sent to Eurogamer - revealed that staff at Game were encouraged to take a trip to the supermarket and snap up all the stock they could get their hands on.
"Whilst we are unable to competitively match this offer in terms of a mint price, it offers a great opportunity to gain 3DS consoles and games for your store's pre-owned stock." reads the document.
It does go on to say how staff shouldn't up-sell the consoles to customers and how the Tesco incentive was a non-mandatory mission. It also says such consoles shouldn't be sold until regular stock has dried up.
Game has since said it only happened in small volumes in selected stores to build pre-owned stocks at the same time as its competitors. However, ardent gamers may well be happy to see this supermarket spree continue with stockpiles of frozen pizza and Red Bull available in Game stores. ®
COMMENTS
Warranty, probably
Responsibility for problems with something you buy in the UK lies not directly with the manufacturer, but with the retailer.
So, in theory, if anything went wrong with these pre-owned units, the warranty would have to be dealt with through the original retailer.
It would be interesting to know what Game says regarding warranty on these units (and other pre-owned gear they sell.
How returns are handled by Nintendo will be interesting too; most of these stores probably just send equipment straight back when it's brought in as faulty, so it wouldn't necessarily matter on the face of it if they were returned to Game or Tesco. But they may need to keep track of where a unit was bought from for accounting and other purposes.
Preowned, bargain?
You've not been to game much have you?
squeezing cash from those polygonal udders!
"milk their now-ancient cash cows of Zelda, Metroid, Mario, etc"
Urm, that's a good thing if you ask me! And they're hardly unique in doing so - remind me how many GTA, Halo or COD games there are now? The game industry is all about squeezing cash from those polygonal udders!
Also how is one FPS not essentially a remake of all the ones that came before it. COD is basically Doom with bad voice acting and prettier graphics.
Paris, 'cus I mentioned udders.
Nothing illegal perhaps
But it speaks volumes for GAME's profit margins and morals that they buy a console incl VAT from a competitor and turn around and sell it for £45 more. Customers should be disgusted with this.
Tesco too - they might be selling the console cheap as a loss leader knowing that people usually buy a game or two which would pull the sale back into the black.
I'm pretty certain Tesco would have the means to hurt GAME in the pocket if they wished to retaliate.
Why?
Nothing Game have done is illegal.
The only people who should go balistic are Game at Nintendo, because Nintendo are obviously giving Tesco a much better trade price, or they wouldn't be able to sell them so cheap.
Why anyone is buying at Game when you can get new at Tesco or Amazon for cheaper is beyond me though.
