Itchy Thumbs: UK Supermarket to Boycott Red Dead Redemption?

Itchy Thumbs has learned that a major UK supermarket chain is set to boycott the release of Rockstar’s highly anticipated western shooter, Red Dead Redemption this Friday.

[George Sears]

You just know that it's a Rockstar game when you start reading boycott articles.

[MexicanAppleThief]

haha, so true. I personaly hoping for another price war between the supermarket giants.

Edit @poindat: Hmm, I guessing you're not from Britain? Every so often, supermarket giants have a price war on specific games depending on popularity. E.g when FIFA 10 and MW2 was released, thanks to the price war between the giants, you could pick up the game as cheap as £26 and bear in mind this would be where the game was just launched for the full retail price of £40.

I'm not exactly sure why they do this, (maybe to make gamers aware that they sell games too and its the easiest way to get attention) but at the end of the day you get awesome games which are incredibly cheap on launch day.

Hope that cleared up any confusion.

[poindat]

You are correct, I am not from Britain, and I was not aware of these price wars. Definitely sounds nice though, I would be amazed to pick up a newly released game for that nice "discount"!

Well that certainly changes my point about pricing consistency, but I still don't really see how a price war that may have gotten out of hand could lead to a retailer (a major one at that) completely boycotting the game. Failing to stock this game, pricing dispute or no pricing dispute, is going to cost that retailer a lot of potential sales.

[poindat]

Yeah, but with games such as GTA and Manhunt, retailers do have a sort of moral base for boycotting. Murdering innocents and participating in gruesome executions do not exactly promote the family-friendly image that some retailers are attempting to push.

However... I see nothing with Red Dead Redemption. Yes, there is violence and sex, but this is the wild west we're talking about. Deluding such elements would be taking away from the accuracy (and relevance) of the game. The violence present is inherent in the western genre, so it does serve purpose other than to satisfy the bloodlust of the player. So there's not really any excuse for retailers to pull the same sort of excuses as they did with Manhunt. Anyways, let's be honest, this retailer most likely stocks plenty of other games that are far more violent than RDR.

As for a pricing dispute, I'm not sure that I really understand how that is possible. RDR's pricing is going to be consistent with pretty much every other game released this generation, both in terms of what the retailer must pay and the markup for the consumer. I don't see how pricing could possible be an issue here.

Does anybody have any possible takes on reasons, because I honestly cannot think of any.

[ShOtCall3r33]

finally someone did it, now i have a reason to get it

[villevalorox]

I agree lol, now that we know it's making people boycott It has to have that special R* touch to it. :P

[Sheikh Yerbouti]

Now we just need an "endorsement" from Jack Thompson.

[ReBurn]

Not every game is appropriate for every outlet. Red Dead Redemption is not a family game, but supermarkets tend to have lots of kids running around and generally being annoying. Red Dead Redemption is not a game for kids.

The game will have plenty of outlets that don't boycott it. If this is true it won't make any difference.

[poindat]

If it's a major supermarket here that we are talking about (as the article mentions), then they likely do two things:

a)stock many games
b)keep those games behind a locked glass case

Trust me, a major chain would not miss out on the gaming market. Also, for the chain to be boycotting RDR, they need to stock games, do they not? And I'm sure that many of those games are much more violent than Red Dead Redemption. I honestly can't think of any major retailer that refuses to stock M-rated games, children or no children.

And anyways, as I said, the games are most likely locked behind glass, circumventing any issue of child-friendliness.

Trust me, the violence should not be an issue with this game.

[booni3]

y boycott a triple A title like this?

[kinetic100]

got a little worried then as mine is on pre order with tesco.com. got a good deal for £29.75. didn't think it was worth paying an extra £10 - £15 for one of the 3 pre order bonus offers.

oh, and thanks to the guy who posted the promotion code on N4G, forgot his name.

[ReputableSource]

All I can think is that the supermarket in question wanted to sell it dirt cheap (as they've done with previous titles lately), and perhaps Rockstar weren't happy about that. Could they then have gone as far as to refuse stock of future titles to the store? If so, maybe that then caused the store to turn around and say "well, we don't want to sell this one either".

[comp_ali]

A PR stunt , nothing more.

[Gun_Senshi]

Their loss

[Lombax]

Not because of the boycott, but that Amazon deal! :)

I was going to rent this game first to see if I it was worth the $60, but then I did some math. Amozon gift card -20 makes the game $40. A one week rental $10. If I sell it to Game Stop +$20-$30. If I get $30 from GS that's only a loss of $10 witch is compareable to a weeks rental. If I get $20 that's a 2 week rental that I could keep for months!

[CrIpPeN]

Rated R :D

[Cueil]

this thing isn't to realistic...

[xAlmostPro]

i highly doubt a UK supermarket will boycott this, i can pre order from asda, tesco, morrisons and sainsburys so.. which ones boycotting? hmm none

[ian72]

I am from UK and get 99% of my games from supermarkets. If you look around the large supermarkets you can always get new games cheaper than game shops. Games I get new are normally between £30 to £37. Other big shops, games are £39.99, and game shops can have a price of up to £45.
I only go to game shops for used/older games. Some older PS3 games are less than £10. Can get Quantum of Solace, RFOM, Motorstorm, Mirrors edge all for around £7.99 or less each.
I can't see this shop boycotting RDR, its too good a game not to sell.

[Corrwin]

I remember when Manhunt caused a scene and some stores took the loud, moral high-ground and banning (with much press coverage of course). This, as banning something will do, turned the game into a No 1 hit, and every one selling it made a profit.

Not to be discouraged, the people who banned it, quietly started selling it again a week later - without the press coverage, obviously.