Game Sales Plunge As Gamers Buy Second Hand

Game Group saw revenues fall over the past year despite the launch of two of the fastest-selling video games of all time. Skip related content

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Company name	Last price	Percentage change
THE GAME GROUP	67.17	+0.42
Microsoft Corporation	27.08	-0.15

The high street gaming chain saw like-for-like sales in the UK and Ireland fall more than 12% in the 10 months to December 4.

Online sales remained virtually flat over the period but fell slightly in the latest 18 weeks.
However this did not include December 6, dubbed "Mega Monday" by analysts, when an estimated £830,000 was spent in just one minute according to Retail Decisions.
Game maintained a leading market share in the Sony PlayStation 3 games Fifa 11 and Call Of Duty: Black Ops, which both saw record-breaking sales.
But stronger customer preference for pre-owned games and trade-ins means the firm expects margins to drop up to 1.9% by the end of the year.
Pre-owned games account for a quarter of total sales for the full year, up from 21% last year.
Including international operations, Game's performance looked slightly better with like-for-like sales down just under 8% in the 44-week period.
The company said it is maintaining a cautious outlook for the rest of the financial year but it is looking to the Christmas trading period with optimism.
"Our most significant weeks are still ahead of us, historically representing over 25% of our annual revenues, and every part of our business is primed to deliver everything out customers need," it added.
The gaming specialist may indeed see a boost in the run up to Christmas.
It is Microsoft's main European partner for Kinect, the hands-free controller for the Xbox 360, which is proving popular with gamers.
Xbox games console sales soared past rivals after the launch of the motion-sensing controller, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Xbox sales jumped 31% to 1.075 million units, whereas Nintendo Wii sales slid 23%