There are reports that the UK’s second biggest supermarket chain ASDA, will not be stocking Red Dead Redemption in-store. Long time TSA member GamerRiley gave his local store a ring to find out if they would be stocking it from midnight he was told they “won’t be stocking the game”.
Obviously that’s quite baffling for a title which is expected to be the biggest selling game of the year so far, so he inquired further as to why and was told that ASDA wanted to sell the game at a specially reduced launch price (presumably a below cost supermarket special that we have all come to know and love) but they were told they had to sell it for a minimum price.
I’m no legal expert but I’m of the opinion that price fixing of any kind is illegal so we would be surprised if this is the case, also we obviously aren’t privy to talks between the companies so we can’t be clear on the arrangements between ASDA and TakeTwo (Rockstar’s publishers). I have made a couple of phone calls myself which lend weight to the point that all is not well between the two companies and they may indeed have had a falling out over RDR’s pricing.
In phoning my two nearest ASDA stores to query RDR’s release date and availability, one said they didn’t have it in stock and the other said they weren’t stocking it but didn’t know why.
Long time readers of TSA will know I hold the supermarket’s pricing strategies in contempt and although launch day price reductions are a short-term win for cash strapped gamers, of which I myself have been a beneficiary (thanks Sainsbury’s for MW2). I believe it could actually lead to reduced competition and higher prices in the long run through independents going out of business. The issue here is that something could have happened which could leave large amounts of gamers paying more than they otherwise might have this launch weekend.
Let us know in the comments below if your local ASDA has the game in stock, or any reasons they have given for not stocking it.
