Well, well. Funny what you overhear in you local Gamestation outlet. Today Gamestation staff banter included a reference to a buyout and staff policy not to discuss pricing with the local GAME store, located but 2 mins walk away. Maybe I was lucky, but it turns out that was right. GAME bought out Gamestation just last month, and bosses want to keep the branding (pricing too?) separate. This line in a report on the sale also caught my eye:

“GAME lists Gamestation’s standing amongst the more hardcore gamer as a key reason for the acquisition, compared to GAME’s more mainstream offering.”

And what do you know the Office of Fair Trading is also interested in how this will effect the ‘hardcore gamer’..[Gamesindustry.biz report]

“The OFT enforces competition law, and is currently looking into the GBP 74 million (EUR 108m) retail buyout to see if it will result in reduced competition in the games retail market.”

“The GAME Group offered the following comment: “As expected we have notified the acquisition of Gamestation to the OFT for normal regulatory review. This review will take about two months and we will be co-operating fully with the OFT process.”