First Commercial PlayStation Move Motion Controller Video

Here is the first ever proper PlayStation Move Motion Controller video release by Sony. Just click on the play button and enjoy.

Year of The PlayStation 3?

As time marches on in 2010 we are seeing more and more PlayStation 3 Triple-A exclusives as well as some very exciting new projects like PlayStation Arc.


So far M.A.G has not done badly at all, but the crown of the first quarter games has to go to Heavy Rain, and God of War III.


Although Final Fantasy is not an exclusive any more, sales on the PS3 version are, as expected very high. The Xbox 360 version has surprisingly seen just as much sales, if not a little more, but I suspect this is due to the fact that many Xbox 360-only console owners have been hungry for the game. This is despite the fact that the Xbox version runs on lower resolution, and requires the player to swap to a secondary disk midway through the game.


More upcoming brilliant releases will bring GT5, and Microsoft's Project Natal.


We can't wait!

Tekken 6, New Website, Ubisoft and Christmas

So here we are just under four weeks before Crimbo and it's almost as if The God of Retail Heaven (and Hell) pressed a button since the weekend. The button labelled 'Shop online now - Everyone'.

We went from just above average sales to running around like headless turkeys trying to catch up with the rain of orders coming in. The week so far has seen us sell an unprecedented amount of key titles - some of which we were starting to worry about as they were underperforming.

Top Ten Sellers (in no particular order) this week are:

Tekken 6

DJ Hero: Renegade Edition (all formats, but Xbox 360 is edging ahead)

Wii Console with Wii Fit and Balance board

Fifa 10

Hannah Montana Lilac PSP 3000 Bundle

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games

Wii Motion Plus

Skate 2

PS3 Console Bundles (Wolverine, Dark Night and Remote one taking the lead)

The Beatles Rock Band Limited Edition

Tekken 6 is really shifting in BIG numbers now as we reduced the price to a MAD £24.99 on Xbox 360 and PS3!

Crimbo's No.1

Christmas No.1 seller across the UK is still not showing signs of a particular favourite. We are putting our money on titles like Tony Hawk: Ride with Board, James Cameron's Avatar, New Super Mario Bros., Assassins Creed 2, SingStar Take That, and of course Modern Warfare 2

One thing is for sure - the ring is big enough for a lot of Xmas No.1 fighters to step in for a shot at the title.

Ubisoft Finding New Home(s) in the UK

Reports in the games media are telling us that Ubisoft is switching distributor in the UK over concerns of current distributor's finances (names are kept private to protect the innocent). You say 'So? This happens a lot'. The difference this time is that Ubisoft are looking to 'open up' distribution instead of being exclusive to one party.

This for Retailers means potentially better prices as competition for the publisher products will rise among distribution. It also means if current high prices fall, GameGears will pass on any savings made to our customers. So everybody wins!

It's Nearly Here!

We previously Tweeted, Blogged, and Facebooked about our major new website going Live in November. Well, November is nearly out, but we are STILL on schedule! We are currently testing the site in 'Demo' before we give the go-ahead for public Live.

If I dare use an American expression, I will say only one word about the New Website - "AWESOME"

Gears4Charity

We're launching a new initiative for Children who need our help.

Children in our opinion are the most innocent and vulnerable beings on earth. As a father myself, I know that the right thing for us to do is make an effort to end child suffering or at least minimise it as much as possible.

As a result we have come up with an idea.

'Gears4Charity' will be set up on our new GameGears.co.uk website (coming in November) to automatically donate 5% of profits to a variety of Children charities.

We want to hear from you here about potential Children charities you would like us to support, like Great Ormond Street and BBC Children in Need.

You can also help us by spreading the word about this to friends and family.

Yes we are foremost a business, but we are also avid believers that through our business we can help make a difference to those who matter most.

All the best,

Sam

The Price War Bites Back

So they've done it again.

Supermarkets today have once again taken a major release (in this case the biggest one of them all) and brought its price to the ground.

Sainbury's sold Modern Warfare 2 for £26, while Tesco was pushing it at £25 if bought with any other game. Asda went to £32, and Amazon closely followed Asda with a Price-match.

For the consumer this is great news, as they have a chance to get their hands on such a large title for less than half the RRP.

But what does this mean to the intellectual and sentimental value of the game?

Will this kind of price slashing devalue games, but more importantly tell customers that most other retailers (already selling at £10 below RRP) "they are charging too much!"?

In continental Europe, Japan and the Americas, aggressive price-slashing on video games is unheard of. MW2, Tekken 6, and games such as Smackdown 2010 will sell for by the shedload for the full RRP.

Why does the UK marker focus on market share and almost forget about profits. Isn't profit the key thing for a business existence.

We went into one of the largest Sainsbury's in Surrey today at 8am to find they had nearly sold out. At £26 Sainsbury's is losing a wopping £16 minimum on each copy sold.

What's worse? We observed for 10 minutes as the queues eased off and not a single person bought anything apart from the game (okay maybe one guy got a packet of .50p crisps). So we cannot see the 'loss-leader' argument fitting into any of this.

Anyway, back to playing Modern Warfare 2. The snowmobile stage is FANTASTIC!

Weekend? Or WeekNoEnd?

Well here we are again. In the same position we have been for the last 3 months. Working over the weekend when we promised ourselves on Friday to "chill out for a change this weekend".

But how could I have been so foolish to think that? Orders for Modern Warfare 2 having been coming in thick and fast by what I presume is an army of people (no pun intended), who made a last minute purchase. One customer even called to ask if we would accept his £200 mobile phone as a guarantee to keep a copy for him aside until Tuesday when he gets paid. Of course we said "That is not necessary. We will hold a copy anyway."

Anyway back to the WeekNoEnd issue. Because of the last minute extra orders coupled with 4 hours of trying to erect our new storage extension marquee, the week looks like it will roll into next with no rest for the wicked.

I must say though that we seem to thrive on the busy Christmas Season and the excitement of working hard towards our new website.

What lies ahead

November is traditionally the Golden Month for Games Publishers and although some have been avoiding Modern Warfare 2 (too big to compete with), there are some exciting and brilliant new releases coming that I can't wait to play.

Top 5 on my list (in no particular order) are:

Left 4 Dead 2

Tony Hawk Ride with Wireless Skateboard Controller

Assassin's Creed 2

Tropico 3

Lego Rock Band

There is also the underrated Muramasa for the Wii which I think will do well in the charts and can be the dark horse of online sales rankings.

Royal Mail, Modern Warfare 2, New Website, and other Chronicles..

Went to bed last night with the great news that our beloved Royal Mail Union (CWU) has called off all strikes until the New Year.

Obviously this is good news, and especially for businesses that had started to feel resentment towards this great British Institution - due to the fact that their (and our) businesses were being crippled by the strikes. In a statement to the BBC the TUC stated that the decision was made to provide a period of calm before talks would resume in the New Year.

Modern Warfare 2 - Its time to rise up and answer to your Call of Duty

Yes. The biggest Game of the Year and possibly of all time is here...well....nearly! 24 hours to go before this great sequel lands in our hands and to be honest, I can't wait to lock myself away for the entire weekend with a Hardened Edition and a set of shiney new Turtle Beach X41 Headset

This game is not just an over-hyped follow up to the awesome Call of Duty 4, but it truly engages players on a whole different level of challenges and combat simulations.

If you haven't pre-ordered it, I would simply say DON'T WAIT! - Not even in the hope that its price will come down soon. If there is one franchise that has held its value throughout the years, its Call of Duty. I should know. I have held on to all my copies of the franchise and so has every fan that I personally know.

New Website is nearly here....

After some expected delays we are nearly ready to test and approve the new website for Live. Many key people in the Games industry have had a sneak preview and I am happy to say almost everyone's initial reaction was "Wow! this looks very good!"

This is a very positive and encouraging sign.

We have some really cool site features that I think will give some other Video Games online retailers a bit more competition - and I don't mean on price only ;-)