Matt Martin
08:30 (BST)
15/01/2008
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Christmas sales climb 76 per cent for GAME
Lewis praises "outstanding" third year of growth for High Street specialist
High Street retailer GAME has revealed that sales over the Christmas period increased by 76.3 per cent across the group, with total UK and Ireland sales up by 77.9 per cent.
Group like for like sales — which exclude the recently acquired Gamestation chain — were up by 31.9 per cent, and 30.3 per cent in the UK and Ireland.
International sales also saw a similar boost with an increase of 72.8 per cent and like for like sales up by 35.4 per cent.
"The Group has delivered an outstanding sales performance particularly given the very strong comparatives for the prior year period when the Nintendo Wii launched," offered Peter Lewis, chairman of GAME.
"Our customer demographics are changing, with more women and mature gamers buying products than ever before. Our strategy of evolving our specialist proposition to meet the demands of these customers has driven our record growth," he added.
Total group sales for the 50 week period ended January 12 were up by 86.7 per cent, with the company expecting group profit for the full year to January 31 to be not less than GBP 73 million, compared to 29.5 million in 2007.
The best-selling games for the six week period ended January 12 were EA's FIFA 2008 and The Simpsons Game, Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Assassin's Creed from Ubisoft and Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.
Other titles singled out as "exceptional" were Sega's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for the Wii and Dr Kawashima's Brain Training for the DS.
The retailer also expects another good year in 2008 due to the amount of hardware and software on the market, although it anticipates a smaller like for like growth given the strong comparative period.
"The current range and quality of products in the market is unprecedented," said Lewis.
"We are confident that consumer demand for our products will remain strong as we approach the March anniversary of the launch of the Sony PS3, and that the supply of the Nintendo Wii and DS Lite consoles will continue to improve
"Next year the existence of five successful hardware formats and the evident broadening consumer appeal should stimulate further growth," he concluded.
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