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Business News HMV Timeline Retail
HMV boss confirms less shelf space for games, but still committed to gaming products
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 3 February 2012
HMV is not turning its back on video games, boss man Simon Fox has assured gaming industry magazine MCV, though he did confirm less floor space would be given over to gaming products, implying that the fact the games publishers had not been as supportive as the record labels and DVD distributors during the entertainment retailer’s recent year of woe was partly behind that decision.
Fox has previously stressed his company’s commitment to music and film in-store, despite throwing over more shop space to tech products, leading to wide speculation that games – which are not performing as well for HMV as they did – would be cut back. Fox confirmed less racking would be given over the games, and that behind the scenes the games and tech teams were being merged, though he insisted “we intend to do that in a way that doesn’t undermine the offer – our intention is that neither our publishers nor our customers will notice it”.
Admitting HMV’s games sales had been disappointing last year, he said he was optimistic that this year they could “fight back” in this domain, adding: “We are committed to games. Bringing games and tech together gives the category a much higher profile and will prove a real advantage. We want to work closer with publishers and the format holders. And I am hopeful they want to do the same with us”.
