best-buy posts

With Red Faction Armageddon now set for release on May 31, the sci-fi shooter's publisher THQ has sent out word on some pre-order bonuses that are being given out by various retailers. Ordering the game ahead of time at GameStop will net the player the Commando Pack that adds the exclusive Commando uniform and two unique weapons, the Plasma Thrower and dual Laser Pistols.

Over at Best Buy, pre-orders for the game get the Recon Pack (you can see it after the jump) with the Recon uniform and two more exclusive weapons; the Arc Welder and the "XNG-5000, which launches devastating Nanite-filled projectiles that seek out targets and dissolve them." Finally Walmart gives pre-orders a Red Faction comic book and a mini-strategy guide for their money.

[Via email press release]

Batman Arkham City will be getting some pre-order bonuses from various retailers but at the moment those bonuses are just being hinted at on the upcoming super hero action game's web site. We do know that people who put their money down on this game at GameStop will get an exclusive "Joker's Carnival" challenge map when the full game is released.

It also lists Best Buy as offering a pre-order bonus but at the moment the site only says its offering a "combo pack" for Batman Arkham City fans. It looks like both Amazon.com and Wal Mart will also have pre-order bonuses but those have yet to be revealed.

[Via Joystiq]

Square Enix has now confirmed that the US release date for Dungeon Siege III will be on May 31, a few days after the next game in the fantasy action-RPG series shows up on European shores on May 27. More importantly, a number of retailers have announced their own pre-order incentives for putting your money down early to get the game from developer Obsidian Entertainment.

Perhaps the coolest pre-order incentive is if you get the game via the Steam download service. Those folks will get free single player versions of both previous Dungeon Siege games (developed by Gas Powered Games) for free. Pre-orders at GameStop get two exclusive in-game items (Burning Band of Scorch and Talisman of the Grand Mage) while Amazon.com pre-orders get the Bite of the Arakun in game item and Best Buy pre-orders get the Sacred Heart of the Legion in-game item. Wal-Mart pre-orders will get a mini-strategy guide for the game along with a Dungeon Siege mini-comic produced by Dark Horse Comics.

While GameStop saw its holiday revenues for 2010 increase the same cannot be said for one of its big retail rivals Best Buy. On Friday the company announced that its revenues for December 2010 came in at $8.4 billion, down 1.6 percent from the same period a year ago.

One of the reasons for the decline was much lower sales for "entertainment software" that covers games, movies and music. Best Buy said that revenues from this catagory were down 15.4 percent and blamed "a decrease in gaming" purchases as part of the reason. Best Buy has been trying to make itself more well known to the gamer consumer. That included the launch of a Best Buy-dedicated print magazine, @Gamer, in 2010.

Just a heads-up: Starting tomorrow Microsoft will being a five-day sale event on the Games For Windows Marketplace web site with 24 hour sales until Christmas Eve. Until then let's look at today's one day sales and some price cuts for PC boxed games over at Best Buy:

• That Best Buy sale can been seen in its weekly sales ad where they have cut the prices of PC boxed games like BioShock 2 ($9.99), Fallout 3 and Mafia 2 ($29.99 each) and Call of Duty Black Ops ($49.99).
• Impulse has the family-themed puzzle game The Machine on sale for just $1.99 for today only
• GamersGate has Konung 3: Ties of the Dynasty on sale today only for just $6.24.
• Telltale Games has its Sam and Max action figure set on sale today only for $19.95.

Black Friday is over but the online-only Cyber Monday sales have actually started early at some retailer's web sites. Here's a selection of PC game related sales that we know about at the moment:

• GameStop has put a bunch of downloadable PC games, including recently released titles, on the price chopping block down to 90 percent of their normal price until the end of the day on Monday. They include Fallout New Vegas for $29.99, R.U.S.E. for $39.99 and MLB 2K19 for a mere $1.99.
• Amazon.com also has a ton of downloadable PC games on sale until the end of the day of Monday. They also include recently released titles like Medal of Honor for $39.99 and Need For Speed Hot Pursuit for $34.99.
• Best Buy has a number of boxed retail PC games on sale until Monday. They include Star Trek Online for $4.99, Guild Wars Trilogy for $14.99, City of Heroes: Going Rogue for $9.99 and Split/Second for $9.99.

Test Drive Unlimited 2, after being pushed back from a previously announced September 21 release date to the first quarter of 2011, now has a more specific release date. The open world racing game from developer Eden Games and publisher Atari is now set to ship out on February 8, 2011.

Along with the new release date, Atari has sent over all of the pre-order specials that various retailers are offering for people who purchase Test Drive Unlimited 2 from those outlets. All pre-order specials include unique cars and other items. Retailers include Atari.com as well as Kmart, WalMart, Best Buy, Amazon.com, GameStop and digital download retailers Steam and Direct2Drive. You can check out the pre-order details after the jump:

[Via email press release]

If you like going to the store to buy your boxed copy of PC games (in other words the old fashioned way) lots of retailers are prepping up to open up on Monday night to sell you a copy of Treyarch's first person shooter Call of Duty Black Ops at the stroke of midnight,

Over 700 Best Buy stores will be open on Monday night for the Call of Duty Black Ops launch. Meanwhile over 4,400 GameStop stores will open up at 9:30 pm on Monday night, which is the most stores ever for a midnight launch event in GameStop's history. Finally over 2,700 Walmart locations will be open at midnight for the launch and the first 50 people who buy the game at the store will get a special bandana. The game's official web site has a midnight store locator web page to make finding a store easier.

After being pushed back from a previously planned fall 2010 release schedule, the horror shooter sequel F.E.A.R. 3 now has a solid release date. IGN reports that the game from developer Day 1 Studios and publisher Warner Bros. Interactive is due to be released in the US on March 22, 2011.

In addition to the new release date, the publisher also revealed that select retailers will offer pre-order incentives for F.E.A.R. 3. Amazon.com will give pre-order customers a 12-page prequel comic book to the game. Best Buy offers an exclusive in-game weapon, The Shredder while GameStop customers get their own exclusive weapon, The Hammer.

It sounds like Company of Heroes Online is getting close to its official launch. The online persistent RTS title from developer Relic and publisher THQ has already started accepting real cash for in-game items. Now comes word that the game will have cash cards sold in retail stores.

Specifically the cash cards will start being sold on November 1 exclusively at Best Buy stores for those players who can't or won't use debit or credit cards to purchase in-game items. There will be two types of cards available; one for $10 and the other for $25. Currently the game is in open beta but there's no official word on when Company of Heroes Online will officially launch.