New game sales ‘more than double’ at HMV

HMV says its market share on new games has more than doubled.

The firm is now getting the support it needs from suppliers. And as a result the latest blockbusters – namely products not stocked by GAME – have been flying off its shelves.

But far from feeling triumphant, HMV’s new games boss Ewan Pinder tells MCV that the loss of GAME would be a blow to the UK High Street.

Unsurprisingly we’ve seen quite a few extra customers coming in or pre-ordering online recently – mainly to pick up the likes of Mass Effect 3, FIFA Street, Street Fighter X Tekken, Mario Party 9 and other new releases,” said Pinder.

And by concentrating on our own positive message about these releases we’ve actually seen our share on quite a few titles more than double compared to their usual levels.

Although GAME is clearly facing a difficult situation, all sorts of permutations are still possible and we wish them and their staff in particular the very best.”

HMV lost market share in games last year. And as a result CEO Simon Fox told MCV that the firm will

reduce space given to games in-store.

But Pinder suggests that this could still change.

Simon also said that we would look to respond to developments in the market, and if there were to be any increased demand from games customers – as we’ve seen recently, then we would obviously look to cater to this and reflect it in our offer – both in-store and online,” he added.