SimonJK

Oh and the fun continues! First ya'll start compaining that profits are down for 2011 blaming the UK sales and now the industry saleries are up 10% again blaming the UK. Gawd your pattern is boring and obvious so can you please quickly get to the punchline peice where you trash the retail industry (and blame the UK) and start promoting digital sales, how great they are and it would be cool if MS did a direct to download only console never mind the retail economy and jobs it would destroy just to funnel all the profits in MS's pocket!

Well don't hold your breath, it did appear briefly as download content in the Saints Row menu but obviously had some problems with the concept of reduced price for the season pass holder and has since vanished. At first is said -1msps but on selection it showed the stupid 4294967295 price, fortunately there is still enough Row humor to keep me going till they sort it out.

Sorry but this is a case of the dead horse bringing the rider down with him. HMV sucks for prices and is on the verge of going bust simply because they almost insult the customer with these large prices. No store will ever make any profit when they sell stuff at above RRP when there is so much cheaper and better choice around. They recently started a pre-owned range but look at the prices:
Forza 4 Preplayed - £39.98
Battlefield 3 Preplayed - £38.98
Skyrim Preplayed - £43.98
Sh1t, they deserve to go bust, but don't let them blame the gaming retail market!
Source - http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1603550

As far as Game goes, most places also have a Gamestation - a sister store with more relaxed staff and better trade-in deals (My more frequent choice).
When you add to the fact that there was less releases this year and everyone is fairly skint, it's an obvious cause. Stop blaming the UK for the state of gaming profits. Why do I get the feeling the next news peice will simply promote how great stream gaming is and how we should all jump on it's band wagon!

I can say as an experienced gamer, game purchaser and UK resident that there was definately less game releases in 2011 that 2010. IMO this news peice has no merit or point what so ever. There is no reason given for the results or any comparision of actual releases compared to profit, they also say it was better than expected. They have simply targeted one country that the game retail market treats like dirt and only one retail method and then compared the fiscal result to another currency but the conversion doesn't actual compensate for the retail price comparision - a game in GBP isn't the same as the price of a game in USD and it then goes ahead to promote cloud gaming which has only started in the UK.

Gawd I just got over the 3 days it took me to complete Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7. Much as I actually enjoy the light hearted fun of Lego games, I was hoping they would do another Clone Wars next but I guess they'd need another 2 season of TV shows first:(

Lets hope someone in game development takes note and whilst Starbreeze Studios is remaking Syndicate, someone remakes the original Bullfrog Syndicateor Syndicate Wars!

Cool. Maybe with the next installment of The Elder Scrolls, the UK won't get totally screwed by the price of the limited edition with model and get it at the equivilent of the US price.

So what it has a few occasional glitches. Lets see how my gaming live has been since 11/11/11 - Got Skyrim and played. 18/11/11 got Sts Rows 3, installed it and downloaded preorder dlcs etc - played untill 1st manual save then when back to playing Skyrim. Today, after 126 hours and 22 minutes of playing Sykrim only had 1 dragon not give it soul up and a quest where you give book last King of Aleids stuck cause already got book. So recap - 126 hours of a game - 2 glitches and loads left to do still = one of the best games this year and definately the best value for money based on time played by money spent!

Lovin' the game so far and lovin' the picture of the coin. I still have mine that came in the Oblivion Lim. Ed.

The one, the only and the most important rumor I wish to listen to is if it's gonna have disc based games or Direct to Download only support!