Author: Martin

Yesterday I called around, er, a number of branches of Dixons in Scotland to see if I could find one with both a Gamecube and a copy of Super Mario Sunshine in stock. Fortunately I didn’t have to go too far. The Falkirk branch had ‘cubes, and one copy of Mario left. A very friendly assistant laid it aside for me, and Alex and I went there first thing this morning to pick it up.

For a change, the customer service at Dixons was excellent. Euan, the guy who had laid the ‘cube and game aside for me was there this morning, and we chatted for a good fifteen minutes about what accessories and games were worthwhile. He was a gamer himself, which meant he knew what he was talking about, rather than spouting the usual “Um, it’s got good graphics” twaddle. He did try to sell me the extended warranty (as they all have to try), but he was friendly about it. He didn’t make me feel under pressure to accept it, and of course I didn’t.

I came out of Dixons feeling all happy. Not just because I had a Gamecube tucked under my arm, but because I had been sold something by someone who cared about the product, and who cared about the store. I was made to feel like a valued customer.

The feeling didn’t last long. Alex and I had got up early and we hadn’t had breakfast yet. So we went into the Greggs bakery nearby for some breakfast rolls.

“I’ll have roll with bacon and sausage, and a plain white roll please.”

“Okay, so that’s a roll with bacon, and a roll with sausage, and a plain white roll.”

“No, a roll with bacon and sausage.

“You want both?

“Aye.”

“We don’t do both. Wait a minute–Suzanne? Can I do a roll with bacon and sausage in it?”

“No. Well, you could, but we’d have to charge you two pounds, for two rolls. The bacon and sausage aren’t individually priced.”

“So do you want two rolls, then?”

Sigh “No, I’ll just have one roll, with sausage, you muppets.”

I didn’t actually speak that last bit aloud. And I had a stronger insult in my mind than just “muppets”, but this is a wholesome family web site, and it’s not past the watershed yet. It’s not like the rolls were pre-made, either. They had metal catering trays of bacon and sausages, and they assembled the roll right in front of my eyes. But apparently they’ve never come across the concept of a bacon and sausage roll before. Talk about going from the sublime to the ridiculous…

(Oh, and later on in the afternoon I went out again and bought a copy of Super Monkey Ball 2. Monkeys! Balls! They’re super!)

This afternoon Alex and I traipsed around town, looking for a branch of Dixons that still had Gamecubes in stock AND was selling Mario Sunshine as part of the £99 bundle. Unfortunately, we had no luck. The special offer bundle varies from store to store: some branches allow you to choose from 5 games, whereas other branches give you a selection of 6–Mario being the sixth. It’s hardly unexpected, then, that the stores with Mario were sold out of ‘cubes. Also, as they’ve now reduced the price of all GC games to under £25, the game shelves were looking rather bare, too.

Some of the stores did say that they were expecting new ‘cube stock towards the end of this week. I’ll probably keep poking my head in every now and then to see what’s available.

I’m starting to wonder if the huge Gamecube price drop at Dixons isn’t part of some cunning plot by Nintendo to just shift large volumes of ‘cubes in advance of their big game releases this year (Metroid, Zelda), or just to have a stronger claim at second place in the console market in the UK (getting the edge on XBox).

Dixons and Nintendo would have to be in it together. A rumour “leaks” out of Dixons to the effect that they’re about to drop the GC from their retail line-up, and have dropped their prices to shift all their leftover stock. Nintendo puts out a denial. Everyone who had been thinking about getting a ‘cube at some point in the indeterminate future now thinks, “Hey, now’s the time to get one at Dixons, but I’d better grab one before they run out.”

Dixons shifts a couple of thousand units in the space of a week or two. Then they put out an official press release stating that they never intended to stop stocking the ‘cube (confirming Nintendo’s official line all along), and that the price reduction was just a special offer. Presto, you’ve just hooked a bundle of customer who might otherwise have just let the ‘cube pass them by, and waited for the next wave of consoles.

That would be pretty cynical, wouldn’t it?

Big Dave pointed out to me yesterday that Dixons have dropped the price of all their GameCube stock–both consoles and games. You can now pick up a GC and a game for a pretty amazing £99. (But only in their retail stores–not online, so it seems.) The Register picked up the story today as well. Rumour is that Dixons are dropping the GameCube from their product line. Nintendo denies this, of course. But bringing the bundle down to £99 is a very deep price cut. It’s hard to imagine that “special offerness” is all there is to it…