Report: Nearly half of UK Vita launch sales tied to GAME

MCV's reporting this afternoon that nearly half of all sales of PlayStation Vita at launch in the UK came from GAME Group.

The next-gen Sony handheld launched in the UK and Europe on February 22.

Almost 50% of sales were tied to GAME and gamestation, according to the trade site, despite the chain not being able to have the launch line-up for the system from Ubisoft at first.

One publisher exec, speaking off the record, said to the site: "As much as the world wants to bash GAME at the moment, you can’t escape the fact that if you’re launching new hardware or a big game there’s no better launch partner than GAME.

“Obviously its position is threatened by not carrying some new games, and with every new release they miss the problem gets worse. But if Microsoft or Sony announced a new machine tomorrow or Nintendo surprised us with an early Wii U release they’d be mad not do whatever it took to get GAME on board."

This would be a great bit of good news for GAME, having been going stock troubles for upcoming games and speculation on its future recently.

I spoke about those troubles on BBC Radio Ulster this morning, and you can listen to the interview here from 5:30 in. Just click the March 6 episode.