gamestop posts

One of the few former Vivendi Games titles to be kept by the merged Activision Blizzard, the open world action game Prototype is due for release this June. Activision is tempting folks to put down some money before its release with some interesting pre-order specials.

Folks who choose GameStop as their choice of retailer can get a special figurine featuring the game's main character Alex Mercer (shown above) plus a two-sided poster that offers up some hints about the game's version of New York City. Hollywood Video/Game Crazy stores are giving out a hardback art book featuring lots of concept artwork on the game, its characters and locations for its Prototype pre-orders. Finally Amazon.com pre-orders will be able to get a special limited edition version of the Prototype comic book from DC Comics' Wildstorm Studios with any pre-order of the game from their site.

[Via email press release]

The game isn't due out until this fall but retailer Gamestop is already offering a pre-order bonus for folks who want to buy Dragon Age: Origins, the long awaited fantasy RPG from BioWare. The bonus adds two in-game items that can be added to the full game when it is released.

At least one of the pre-order bonus items sounds like it will be very helpful indeed in the full game. The Memory Ring will allow characters "to accumulate experience points at an accelerated rate and therefore level up more efficiently." The other in-game item is the Memory Band which will "help apprentices retain their lessons."

While overall video game sales for the month of March actually went down 17 percent, according to new figures from the NPD Group, one of the biggest outlets for games is telling folks it will stick with its prior predictions for sales in its stores. In a press release this morning, Gamestop stated it is " . . . reaffirming its first quarter comparable store sales guidance of flat to +2 percent and earnings per share guidance of $0.40 to $0.42."

The company has also kept its guidence for the full 2009 fiscal year, saying it expects its earnings "to increase between +18 percent and +22 percent."

As some of you who might have wandered into GameStop stores this weekend have discovered, the game retailer went ahead and broke started selling copies of Demigod a few days before its planned release tomorrow. That allowed lots of folks to get the long awaited strategy game from Gas Powered Games and Stardock a few days earlier than planned.

Over at the Impulse web site, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell comments on the GameStop issue and he's clearly not happy. He states, " . . . many of us had just finished a good solid 8 weeks of massive crunch and were looking forward to the weekend to recover. Instead, we found ourselves back at work having to turn on and configure the multiplayer matchmaking servers." Because of the early release from Gamestop, Wardell also says, " . . . piracy on this title will, in theory, be maximized." He adds, however, that this situation will actually be a way to see the effects of piracy, saying, "Since we know Demigod is an outstanding game with a wide appeal with equal retail and digital distribution to other titles that came out this year with similar demographics we can see how well it sells compared to them."

Because of Gamestop's actions (which have yet to be shown as either intentional or unintentional) Stardock has allowed all digitally distributed copies of the game to go live today. The other retail copies of the game will still go on sale beginning tomorrow at all the other retail outlets.

If you thought that the upcoming Wanted: Weapons of Fate game was going to be just another mediocre movie-based game title, well...it still may turn out to be that kind of a title. However we are encouraged by the fact that the game is being promoted as something special and it looks like PC owners will be getting a very special extra.

Comic Book Resources reports from a Wanted game panel at last weekend's New York Comic Con that one of the producers of the game, Universal Interactive's Jeremy Hibnick, stated that the PC version of Wanted will have a different ending. Furthermore, Hibnick said the conclusion of the PC port will have "one of the most vulgar endings of any game." Works for us. The panel also revealed that Gamestop will have a pre-order special that will add an unnamed female playable character to the game. Wanted: Weapons of Fate is due for release in late March.

Gallery: Wanted: Weapons of Fate

Southpeak Games looks like it will be heavily promoting the upcoming WWII stealth action game Velvet Assassin. Today the publisher announced that folks who purchase the Replay Studios-developed title at Gamestop will get access to a digital comic book created by Peter Chung.

Chung is best known for creating Aeon Flux, which was adapted into an MTV animated series and later a really crappy movie starring Charlize Theron. The Velvet Assassin comic will tell a story of the lead character, Violette Summer, and her early years as a spy working against the Nazis. The game itself is scheduled to be released this spring.

It's one of the biggest PC game releases of the first quarter but the US's biggest brick-and-mortar game retailer Gamestop has apparently stopped taking pre-orders from customers for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. The sci-fi RTS game from Relic and THQ had a deal with Gamestop to offer its customers a pre-order special that included extra maps, armor and other exclusive in-game content.

Big Download has confirmed that the game no longer appears on Gamestop's web site and calls to local Gamestop stores have also confirmed that the game can no longer be pre-ordered from their retail store locations. Kotaku, who broke the story, states through unnamed sources that the reason for such a move might be because Gamestop disapproved of THQ's decision to also install Valve's Steam service along with the game.

However, Big Download's conversation with Gamestop employees have offered two other less sinister explanations: Gamestop may have simply sold out of all the pre-order units it was willing to take for the game or the recent change in the game's release date from Feb. 23 to Feb. 19 may have screwed up Gamestop's ordering system (also Valve's games like Left 4 Dead, which also install the Steam client, haven't been pulled from Gamestop's site).

A THQ spokesperson told Big Download they could not comment on the situation. The spokesperson added, "The game is available at all other major retail and online outlets." Emails and phone called to both Gamestop and Valve reps have yet to be returned.

"Recession? What recession?" That's what execs at the game retailer Gamestop are bascially saying today. Indeed their press release that announced its holiday sales numbers for 2008 is actually titled "Gamestop Rises Above Recession". For the time period between Nov. 2, 2008 to Jan. 3, 2009 Gamestop's sales were $2.85 billion, a 22 percent increase from the same period last year. Same store sales were up 10 percent from the same period a year ago.

A PC game exclusive, Blizzard's MMO expansion World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, was one of the top five best selling games at Gamestop during the period. Activision's WWII shooter Call of Duty World at War was also among the top five.The news has set Gamestop's stock price up over 12 percent as of this news post.

We are just one week away from "Black Friday" and more and more retailers are revealing what specials they will have on the single biggest shopping day of the year. Blackfriday.info has revealed what game retailer Gamestop will have on sale on that day and it includes some PC game titles. It's admittedly not much of an offering compared to all the console game titles but it's better than nothing.

Crysis - $19.99
Guild Wars Trilogy With Free Eye Of The North - $49.99
Guild Wars With Free Eye Of The North - $19.99
Lord of the Rings Online - $29.99
World Of Warcraft Battle Chest - $19.99
World Of Warcraft - $9.99

It was a case of "good news-bad news" today for game retailer Gamestop. The good news is that the company, even in the midst of a bad economy, had a profit of $46.7 million for its latest quarter that ended Nov. 1. The bad news is that its profits were lower than the same period a year ago when it earned $52 million.

The results missed expectations from Wall Street analysts and as a result Gamestop's stock has taken a hit today, going down as much as 8 percent in trading. The retailer also cut its forecasts for the current quarter and the full year in earnings due to the uncertain economic situation. Gamestop also completed its recently revealed purchase of the France-based retailer Micromania for $636 million, less than its previously predicted price of $700 million.