The title says it all really. I went into the Walthamstow (in London) branch today, Sunday, and they had new, sealed copies for PS3 and Xbox360 for £70. What do people think of this? Personally I think it is outrageous. Don't sell the game til Tues if you don't want to but don't try and rip people off.

I would understand it a bit more if they were a small independent but they have hundreds of shops throughout the UK. They could try and justify it by saying they are a second-hand shop and they are selling market price, but these were all new and sealed.

I spoke to the guy in the shop about it and he said "we paid over the odds for them, that's why they are expensive," ??? I asked him then if they would be the same price on Tues and he said "oh, the price might have come down by then," really hmmmm.

They often sell games before street but I have never seen such crazy price hiking, normally it is no different before and after release date. I wonder with Rockstar trying to keep such a tight lid on early sales (no independent I have spoken to has the game yet) what they would make of a large company trying to profit in this way from breaking street date?

They are absolute scumbags.

That's shit. Those guys are shit.

I'm sure people will buy it though.

They are arseholes. What's more annoying about it is that because R* are not delivering to all the independents till Monday stores like CEX are profiting from R*'s vigilance and planning. They have created an oppourtunity for them to make an unfair profit. I really hope no-one is crazy enough to pay that price, and hopefully R* find out and do a GTA style drive-by on some of their stores.

I happen to work for those arseholes, and the price is always stupid ridiculous before the actual release date, When Tuesday rolls around they will drop down to 38 quid. Same thing happened with the Ni No Kuni CE we we selling them for 175 quid when people got them early, then the release day happened they dropped down 90 quid. Geez calm down.

I've bought plenty games from CEX before release for the same price as at launch. Dishonoured, Bioshock Inifinite, Borderlands 2 to name but a few. This is the first time I have come across something like this and I think it is shitty way to do business, especially because they are profiting from the late release to other shops to stop street date being broken.

I like CEX most of the time, I think they give reasonable prices for trade-ins compared to elsewhere and they are much better these days about always having cash if you want it. Its just I want this game so much so to go into the shop and to see them all on the shelf but not want to give in to being ripped off is maddening.

I be interested to know how many they sell at this price if you could tell me?

To be honest they'll probably lose money on every single one - They did it to a nice degree on Iphone 5's, Pay out more cash for them than they retail for to get them in, then charge over the odds then realise no one buys them and had to drop them all substantially.

Yuck. That's the UK for ya.

Can't say I'm shocked, had some really dodgy deals with CEX.

Take some pictures and forward them along to Rockstar. They probably won't do anything, but you can always hope that when the next Rockstar game comes out these CEX jerks won't have any copies to sell.

Sucks big time but they are a terrible company anyway, so I expect it from them.

I think you should buy it digitally and avoid crap like this in the future. The Pre-load has been available in the European region since 3PM GMT today.

I'm gonna go out and buy it from a local independent tomorrow. He'll only charge face value and i'll still get it a day early. Just one more sleep!:)

lol

@nekroskop: If you buy it digitally, at least on the PS3, you're still getting this kind of crap. It's £50 on the PSN whereas Amazon are selling physical copies for £35.

@petiew: Unfortunately due to import restrictions, the game has to be under 33 USD, or else it'll be taxed 25%, not to mention that AmazonUK has a 30 USD charge for shipping. I'm paying as much or more for the game that way. But to everyone else it's probably a good deal.

That makes sense. Sony/Rockstar aren't going to sell the game at a reduced price at launch. It would be crazy for a publisher & console manufacturer to sell brand new release at a 30% discount. But Amazon (and other retailers) are free to sell it at whatever price they like. Amazon probably aren't making money selling it at £35 (if they are, it'll be a tiny profit). But it builds brand loyalty and gets people using your service. People will buy more things from Amazon in the future because they get such great deals from them. It's even more straightforward for retail stores - if you get people into your store to buy the latest game at a reduced price, they're probably going to pick up some other stuff while they're there. You might not make money on GTA V, but you'll make money on the Doritos and Mountain Dew they'll get whilst they're there. It's business.

CEX is a company I would love to see disappear overnight.

@mattyftm: I just realised Rockstar are selling it on their own site for £55. Sure, it makes sense for them to sell their game for as much money as they think people will pay for it. Personally I just see anything over £40 to be extortionate, online retailers have ruined me.

That's gross.

CEX pay a shed load more for my games than Game when I can't be arsed selling on Ebay, plus I can get Game to match each game plus a quid on trade ins. If you use the shop wisely and notice the seasonal ebb and flow of prices you can end up buying games and trading or selling them back for the same price or more than you paid. I am a complete freak, though.

I don't like CEX but they don't get new games from publishers so they likely did have to pay more for those copies.

CEX always strikes me as a front for organised crime. I always imagine the stock room is just a drug den.

CEX always sells bullshit early for ridiculous prices. They had the Wii like a month before hand but that shit was £600.

CEX sucks for new stuff, but their preowned shit's alright.

A little information for you: CeX woks on a supply and demand system for pricing. Is something is in high demand they rocket up the price. The cash/credit prices are also linked to the sale price. And if you check their site you'll see that they were giving £55 cash and £60 credit for GTAV, so if the person bought their game for the standard £35 then they made £20 profit. So that's not half bad.

Also, having asked about this in some of their London stores almost all their games and systems they get early are from games reviewers looking to make a quick buck from their free copies or from staff at competing retailers and even the publishers. Apparently there are two guys who work for EA and Square Enix who will come in 3-4 days before every new release with 10-20 copies of next week's games.

EDIT: the price is also £65 now http://uk.webuy.com/product.php?sku=5026555258043

You think £34.99 (Amazon UK) to £70 is a crazy price hike?

Huh.

Surely the high price is because people were getting a great price for selling the copies they owned to them?

That's great for the people who have it to sell and great for people prepared to pay extra to get a copy before release day.

This isn't them breaking the embargo to sell new copies early - that'd be a terrible move.

Personally I love CEX, they are absolutely clear on the website about the prices they pay, they make careful checks on people selling to them and they pay much more than other stores.

Compared to other places I've dealt with over the years they are the absolute pinnacle of respectability. Plus the staff have always been friendly and knowledgeable and rankly, in the Wood Green store especially, I've seen them spat at, sworn at, had people try to assault them and throw sexual insults at them until the Police arrived.

I know it's always frustrating to see something too expensive early but if you don't want to pay the extra just wait for the release date. But CEX are essentially second-hand traders, pawnbrokers without the layaway, if you deal with pawnbrokers you just have to accept that isn't the same industry as a video game store.

They were all new sealed copies. They had shelves full of them. No way were these copies which had been sold on to them unless someone hijacked a truck.

On the whole I don't mind CEX and they generally provide an OK service. However on this occasion they are using the fact that they are a second-hand shop to sell new games before street date at a huge mark-up. They are obviously hoping that they can use the cover of providing a 'pawnbroker' service as you say, to get away with selling in an in demand game, before street date at a premium, by creating the illusion that the new, in package games they have are somehow differently sourced to the new in package copies Tesco or Game might have. (Game also do trade-in for cash and credit btw - what's the difference)

I can't see any real difference between them selling the game early and any other store doing the same thing and would wager Rockstar would think the same. These games were not second hand, they were all in the wrappers and they had around 100 copies over both formats. I also checked their website and they had more copies at other stores around London. CEX have sold me games in wrapper on countless occasions, all they do is take them off the shelves and open them up in front of you, although sometimes they don't even do that.

The final concluding point to this argument is that they will not accept a sealed game if you try to sell it ,so no-way where those games from other punters, reviewers, or whatever that had it early and decided to sell.

I am not hugely outraged, just I think there behaviour on this occasion is kind of shitty and I think they are taking advantage of success of the measures R* have taken to ensure street date doesn't get broken by more than a day (nothing they can do about Monday - you can't deliver stock on the day its released). and yes some of it is frustration from wanting the game early but refusing to be taken for a mug :)

@sgcharrison They were all new sealed copies. They had shelves full of them. No way were these copies which had been sold on to them unless someone hijacked a truck.

On the whole I don't mind CEX and they generally provide an OK service. However on this occasion they are using the fact that they are a second-hand shop to sell new games before street date at a huge mark-up. They are obviously hoping that they can use the cover of providing a 'pawnbroker' service as you say, to get away with selling in an in demand game, before street date at a premium, by creating the illusion that the new, in package games they have are somehow differently sourced to the new in package copies Tesco or Game might have. (Game also do trade-in for cash and credit btw - what's the difference)

I can't see any real difference between them selling the game early and any other store doing the same thing and would wager Rockstar would think the same. These games were not second hand, they were all in the wrappers and they had around 100 copies over both formats. I also checked their website and they had more copies at other stores around London. CEX have sold me games in wrapper on countless occasions, all they do is take them off the shelves and open them up in front of you, although sometimes they don't even do that.

The final concluding point to this argument is that they will not accept a sealed game if you try to sell it ,so no-way where those games from other punters, reviewers, or whatever that had it early and decided to sell.

I am not hugely outraged, just I think there behaviour on this occasion is kind of shitty and I think they are taking advantage of success of the measures R* have taken to ensure street date doesn't get broken by more than a day (nothing they can do about Monday - you can't deliver stock on the day its released). and yes some of it is frustration from wanting the game early but refusing to be taken for a mug :)

EDIT: I guess the crucial thing here is where did they get the games from. Is there some sort of other supplier than the usual distributors? What makes this strange is the bulk they had and if you look at www.webuy.com now they have 46 online and scores more in the shops. Where do they come from? This is hundreds of copies we are talking about. If they don't get new games I am interested to know how the get this much stock before release.

I can tell you right now that they don't get games from a supplier, mostly because as a purely second hand retailer they don't pay VAT and if they were new and they sold them as second hand and not new that'd be super bad for them. The reason that they can buy and exchange games for such a high price compared to Game and some Indies is that they pay WAY less tax as a business.

I can almost bet that there will be people, especially in our great nation's capital, who can obtain early access to games and are making a swift buck selling them. One of my friends works for Game for example, and he always gets his games at least two or three days early. And he's been playing GTA V since Saturday evening.

@leebmx: Cheers for the added detail, it's interesting to hear they had so many on sale. I know in my days of debt I used to burn store cards (Argos cards specifically) to buy whole stacks of new games to sell on at CEX for the cash value - but it'd have to be something really bizarre to have the quantity although they did take the sealed games without question from me in the past.

Then again they had some people getting Amazon copies early but that wouldn't account for the number you're describing. Interesting, especially in the context of the VAT issue.

I can tell you right now that they don't get games from a supplier, mostly because as a purely second hand retailer they don't pay VAT and if they were new and they sold them as second hand and not new that'd be super bad for them. The reason that they can buy and exchange games for such a high price compared to Game and some Indies is that they pay WAY less tax as a business.

I can almost bet that there will be people, especially in our great nation's capital, who can obtain early access to games and are making a swift buck selling them. One of my friends works for Game for example, and he always gets his games at least two or three days early. And he's been playing GTA V since Saturday evening.

hey man that's commerce for you

you can't walk into amazon drop your cash, and walk out with a copy right now. hence price difference for a limited time

I believe you if you say they don't get their games from a supplier. But you cannot account for hundreds of sealed copies of the game across multiple stores on the Sunday before release (they had none on Sat - I checked) just through individual people, all seemingly coming in on Sunday morning to sell the game. That is just not believable in any way.

They must have got these copies all as one job lot, I am interested to know from where if they don't use suppliers.

I also have a friend who works at Game and they will not release the game to even employees before Tue (he bought one from CEX for £70 on Sunday). Your mate must have sneaked one out. I find it almost impossible to believe that their stock came from individuals. It just doesn't makes sense. Especially as they were all sealed and with the codes inside.

I might seem a bit obsessive about this, but I am just really interested to know what they are getting up to. CEX always sell new copies before release. When I went to buy Dishonoured all the copies were in a brown delivery box behind the till and the guy pulled one out for me to buy. They are definitely getting games in bulk from somewhere - if they don't use the normal suppliers/distributors - from where?

I've been in a couple of CEX stores in my lifetime. Both times I felt bad afterwards.

American here: so what's the average cost for a new release in the UK? If you walked into a not-so-shady retailer and bought GTA V right now, how much are you looking at spending?

I bought it for £38 at a midnight launch in the end. I suppose £40 is the average release price but you can get most games for anything down to £35 if you shop around. GTA5 was £35 on Amazon which is the cheapest. So it is roughly equivalent to US prices.

Came in here expecting Gex.

Leaving disappointed.

@captain_felafel: Worth noting that the CEX mark-up sounds about average for an early copy of a game as well. That doesn't excuse the possible corruption of them selling new copies as second-hand but it's similar to what I'd pay to the little game shop in London I used to buy under the counter early releases from.

Oh and one other thing about CEX, outside of supermarkets, in a lot of towns they are about the only place you can buy DVDs from. That's crazy these days, especially if you've got a hankering for a nice blu-ray edition of a TV show and can't be arsed waiting on the amazon delivery.