14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that retail giant Wal Mart is pushing hard for a solid foothold in the videogaming space by cutting prices on a selection of big titles and by offering a special deal on the Nintendo Wii. The deals are part of its regular Christmas promotions, which also target products like holiday food, electronics and toys.
A Reuters report says that some of the most popular videogames of the moment, like The Beatles: Rock Band from Harmonix and MTV Games, and Left 4 Dead 2 from Valve and Electronic Arts, will get their prices cut by 10 dollars and Wal Mart is also pushing the Nintendo Wii home gaming console by offering a 50 dollar in store gift card with all purchases.
Wal Mart is keeping the deals active until Christmas and might announce new ones as other important retail chains, like Target or Best Buy, also push out their own special deals in order to be able to compete and to draw players to their stores.
Arvin Bhatia, who is an analyst of the videogames market working for Stern Agee, has said that the move made by Wal Mart is a direct threat to GameStop, the retailer that specializes on videogames, as it will be forced to also offer special deals on popular titles, like Assassin's Creed 2 or Modern Warfare 2, in order to make sure that potential customers visit its locations rather then go to the big generalist retailers for their Christmas gaming shopping.
Recently, Ubisoft has said that the frequent and deep cuts retailers are making to their videogames products have the potential to affect its bottom line and advised against them. Until now, the biggest publishers, Activision and Electronic Arts, have not reacted to the cuts and are probably content to see their titles sell, even if at discounted prices.