Savvy shoppers buy MW2 for £25

By Games Industry.biz Published 2 November, 2009

Trade-in deals bypass price hike.

Smart consumers are taking advantage of various offers at retail to buy Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for less than half the recommended retail price.

The publisher has been heavily criticised for pushing up the console RRP of the latest from Infinity Ward to £54.99, but a cut-throat retail market is providing consumers with a number of options to avoid paying the inflated price.

UK retailer Gamestation is currently offered the game for £4.99 if a consumer trades in two games from a list that includes WET, Overlord II and Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. With Play.com selling Overlord II for just £9.99, users on website hotukdeals have already begun buying two copies of the Codemasters' title and trading it in for a pre-ordered copy Modern Warfare 2.

Online retailers are currently offering the basic Modern Warfare game for around £45, but all eyes will be on the supermarkets, which have already slashed two big releases – FIFA 2010 and Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising – in order to grab sales.

Last week, ASDA admitted that it sells some games at a loss because "customers continue to tell us that computer games are an expensive product in today's economic climate so we are working hard to try and offer them consistently good value for money within the games category".

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Comments (49) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #1 2 years ago

    If Tesco sell MW2 for £30 then I'll be placing my morals firmly in the bin, I'm afraid.
    Edited by 1 at 02/11/09 @ 17:23

  • bluem4gic #2 2 years ago

    Eurogamer's big mouth. I am sure now that Gamestation will not honour the deal

  • Gazza_UK #3 2 years ago

    Is that the same as having "special time" with "THE STRANGER"?

  • giant_frying_pan #4 2 years ago

    I think the lowest the supermarkets will go will be around £35-£40.

  • Paulie_P #5 2 years ago

    Its a pity the retailers will take the loss instead of Activision for these sales.

  • Benno #6 2 years ago

    29

  • Co_Starring #7 2 years ago

    A savvy shopper spends his coin on another game...

  • optimusprym8 #8 2 years ago

    Edited by 1 at 03/11/09 @ 06:45

  • Mordum #9 2 years ago

    @cabbadgecase
    Almost wet myself... you can never go wrong with a Lebowski line.

    I always pre-order any games that I'm really interested in, but with MW2 I'm certainly waiting to see what the supermarkets do. Although if lower prices aren't offered I'll still pick it up, like others have said, the sheer amount of online hours it'll give me will balance the cost out.
    Edited by 1 at 02/11/09 @ 17:52

  • Rirekon #10 2 years ago

    @optimusprym8 ; Reading Fail

  • Flabio #11 2 years ago

    @optimusprym8 - you're misreading it. People are buying copies of Overlord 2 for a tenner each online, then trading those in. Total cost, 25 quid. They didn't buy them at original retail price.

  • Mordum #12 2 years ago

    But say you buy two copies of Overlord 2 for £10 each, then trade those in and get MW2 for £25, that means a total cost of £45... which is the price you can get the game for anyway (Shopto is even £3 cheaper than that). Where's the saving?
    Edited by 1 at 02/11/09 @ 17:49

  • NickDude #13 2 years ago

    what theyre saying is you can get MW2 for £25 by buying 2 copies of Overlord 2 from play (£20) and trading them in at gamestaion to get MW2 for £5, making the game effectively £25, against what gamestation will charge on its own (£45-£50)

  • Mordum #14 2 years ago

    oh ok, I must've read it wrong. Well, now that does sound like a good deal. then.

  • the_dudefather #15 2 years ago

    you also trade in COD4 in Game to get MW2 for half price (the store price, not rrp), but you have to preorder I think

  • mingster #16 2 years ago

    some of you need to stop playing video games and redo basic maths.
    £10 + £10 + £5 = £25

  • Thedni #17 2 years ago

    I expect there will be some small print, somewhere, saying you can't trade two of the same games.

  • metalangel #18 2 years ago

    LOL @ Dragon Rising being put on sale. They know it'll be (quite rightly) consigned to a bug-infested bin when MW2 comes out.

  • TeaFiend #19 2 years ago

    I doubt they care about having two copies of the same game, selling them on is straight profit. If they sell them at £25 they have covered the costs. But I think Overlord 2 is about £30 preowned (or around that).

  • raion #20 2 years ago

    being able to keep a steady stream of new games coming in is becoming more and more like a delicate art.

    me? I buy pre-owned (or budget edition later). I don't like trading in games to buy a brand new one. I tend to keep the games I like. you never know when you'll have an itch to play that game again.

  • bad09 #21 2 years ago

    "A savvy shopper spends his coin on another game... "

    THIS YOU BLOODY SHEEP, FFS THIS!!!!!

    Don't buy it people, next time they won't try upping the price!

  • RandomHero #22 2 years ago

    "I expect there will be some small print, somewhere, saying you can't trade two of the same games."

    Guys I work in Gamestation and this is usually the case.

    Not looking forward to the angry mobs tbh. :S

  • dnbuk #23 2 years ago

    HUKD users are cocks.

  • curtlikesmeat #24 2 years ago

    Nice work on shoe-horning in the Lebowski quote, I did laugh!

    Fuck knows why the guy that said "but i accept value is a very subjective thing." got negatives - I swear if you say anything against MW you get negatives. Well, I won't be playing it online at all so to me it's worth £25 max and I'm not going out of my way buying copies of Overlord and all that malarky. If it turns out to be a great game, fantastic. If it turns out to be more of the same I hope EG give it an 8/10.... I can see you rabid fanboys making Eurogamer's first 1000+ comments on a review then!

  • icematt12 #25 2 years ago

    If Gamestation are getting dozens of copies of Overlord II, they will probably take that off the offer. Take care.

  • curtlikesmeat #26 2 years ago

    Actually, maybe I'm wrong but I could have sworn I read somewhere that GAME and Gamestation were actually the same company?!

  • RandomHero #27 2 years ago

    "Actually, maybe I'm wrong but I could have sworn I read somewhere that GAME and Gamestation were actually the same company?!"

    GAME own Gamestation but are keeping the two seperated from each other due to monopoly laws. :)

  • conners #28 2 years ago

    There have been deals out there for some time.

    Pre-ordered mine with CDWow for £27, although that was a few weeks ago and they have since increased the price (though it doesn't affect pre-orders.) Sweet!
    Edited by 1 at 02/11/09 @ 21:20

  • Wolverfrog #29 2 years ago

    Shame there's no Gamestation where I live...living in a small town sucks.

  • Laws #30 2 years ago

    erm get a car u bum!

  • Vin #31 2 years ago

    Haha, stick that in your craw Activision.

  • macmurphy #32 2 years ago

    Makes me laugh people whining about the price. IW produced one of the best few games of the last few years and built a massive following on the back of it. It has given many gamers many hours of enjoyment. They are a business; they have produced a product people really want and so they will charge as much as they can get for it. If people do not want it, they can vote with their wallets, but many people are willing to pay extra for a game they know will last them more than many other games combined.

    I would much rather pay £60-70 for a game of COD4's quality than buy two other titles that won't last me as long. If they produce a pile of shit, no-one will buy the next one. As it is, the extra profits are a just reward for producing a stellar game and hopefully the profits from this will make something extra special for Modern Warfare 3.
    Edited by 1 at 02/11/09 @ 22:19

  • Triggerhappytel #33 2 years ago

    Doing this isn't hurting ActiBlizz though - they still make the sale and the retailer still bought the stock at the same price. Ultimately it's Gamestation who are going to end up with thousands of copies of Overlord 2 they can't sell and they'll take the hit!

  • CB.Gamestation #34 2 years ago

    Yeah t's and c's are that you must trade both games in at the same time as buying the game.
    Gamestation policy is that you cannot trade more than one copy of a game at a time!

    These people just wasted £9.99...

  • SMOM #35 2 years ago

    I'm sure Gamestation only allows one copy of a game to be traded in per day.

    Bought my copy from Tesco Direct for £32.

  • Mongoose #36 2 years ago

    Yeah I won't be buying it new regardless of how cheap, as I disagree with Activision's pricing and they get the same amount regardless - it's the retailers this is hurting. I'll wait for the first preowned ones to show up and get it then (if I haven't lost interest).

  • Collymilad #37 2 years ago

    It's just a pity those bastards at Activision still get their cash.

  • CunningLinguist #38 2 years ago

    @curtlikesmeat
    MGS 4 already passed the 1000 comments mark. I think it made it to 1300 or something.

    Edit: Just checked. It has 2318 comments. So MW2 might have a tough day at the office in that regard.
    Edited by 1 at 03/11/09 @ 01:00

  • thewool #39 2 years ago

    awesome!! @ cabbadgecase

  • AphoticCosmos #40 2 years ago

    Savvy shoppers simply don't buy MW2.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #41 2 years ago

    Yay after MW2 is out - i can buy Overlord 2 on the cheap the first is such a good game :)

  • WiseGuy #42 2 years ago

    @ Kremlik - isnt £9.99 cheap enough :)

  • Murton #43 2 years ago

    While it's cool that retailers are addressing Activisions pricing fail, it's a shame that they're the ones who are paying for it as they will have bought MW2 from Activision at whatever price they sell to retailers at.

  • Nodebug #44 2 years ago

    Regardless, I'll purposefully be buying this one second hand to shun Activisions price hike. Its not fair that the shops have to take the hit, its hard enough to keep a retail games shop running as it is
    Edited by 2 at 03/11/09 @ 09:03

  • M_of_the_sys #45 2 years ago

    If I can't get the deal in GAME to get MW2 for half price when you trade in COD4 then I won't buy this game. There are more games on my radar that sound better than this for less money.

  • Demikaze #46 2 years ago

    I am very much looking forward to playing this, but I can't condone the price hike by purchasing it day one. I know it won't make a jot of difference since it will sell in the millions at the full price, but I don't want even the smallest part to play encouraging this sort of practice in the future.

  • shikz #47 2 years ago

    FFs EG, why u put this up, now they will prob take OVERLORD off the list for sure with this being seen by loads of people and other sites have already talked about this from EG :(

    DAMN

  • SMOM #48 2 years ago

    Quite a few Gamestations are only accepting OF:DR, CoD4, HALO:oDST and Borderlands as the two games now.

  • clockworkzombie #49 2 years ago

    The market place will determine the price, if the price is too high it will not sell. I suspect the price is not yet too high for the fans of the series.

    As an example look at the thread for Demon's Souls for PS3, when demand was high, people were paying over 40 or 50 pounds for that. One fellow paid 70 Euros and declared it money well spent.

    People will pay what they think the game is worth for them. There is no doubt it may be expensive. Value for money and cost are two separate things. The amount of time I spend playing the various CoD works out to a VERY cheap cost per hour in the long term. More so than something I play for 10 hours or so and dispose of.

    I ordered the Prestige version for 360 and I traded in a bunch of games at the same time. The cost was lowered and I will get an incredible amount of game time from this.