According to a report from MCV, U.S. games retailer GameStop has closed down stores in Northern Ireland this week. The company had three stores in the region, and why it has decided to close them down is unknown at this time. According to web site TheGamingLiberty, employees were told about the closures on January 22.

In a press release issued this morning video game retailer GameStop trumpeted the success of its iPod, iPhone and iPad buy-back / trade-in program. The company claims that in the months since it began accepting trades on iOS devices, it has seen "strong consumer enthusiasm for the program." GameStop customers trading in an iPod Touch get up to $180 in cash or in-store credit, up to $300 for an iPhone, and up to $400 for an iPad.

GameStop has put a questionable practice in place for adults seeking to purchase single action figures for Activision's Skylanders from its web site. In case you are not familiar with Skylanders, the game features a portal peripheral that you connect to your console of choice to scan in action figures which then become playable in-game. There are 30+ action figures but apparently supply is low because Activision didn't anticipate the demand for them and the supplier is overseas.

Video games retailer GameStop faces a lawsuit filed by a former employee who claims that employees who endured constant security checks during breaks and meals were not properly compensated for the time it took. GameStop has a policy of conducting mandatory security checks on employees when they take breaks or finish a shift. The lawsuit filed in California isn't about privacy or employee dignity, but about the amount of uncompensated time it takes.

Uh oh!  Looks like one popular games retailer may be getting a lump of coal in its stocking this Christmas.

Consumer Reports has released its 2011 Naughty & Nice Holiday List.  First introduced last year, the list examines various companies’ shopping policies and gives them a thumbs up or thumbs down depending on how consumer friendly they are.  Consumer Reports notes that the list merely comments on specific policies, not “everything else the company does or how it treats its customers.”

As part of its latest financial results games retailer GameStop revealed that it sold well over a half-a-million Call of Duty Elite subscriptions. The Call of Duty Elite subscriptions were a big hit at GameStop stores, mostly due to the November 8 launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Elite sales certainly helped GameStop's digital business, which the company expects to exceed internal expectations of $450 million for the current fiscal year. So exactly how many Elite subscriptions were sold? According to GameStop, right around 600,000.

US video game retailer GameStop announced that it recorded sales of $1.95 billion for the third quarter ended October 29, up by about 2.5 percent from $1.9 billion in the same period a year ago. The company reported that profits were down ever so slightly from $54.7 million to $53.9 million, which it blamed on lower sales of new software.

GameStop UK has an interesting trade-in offer that will give consumers across the pond Modern Warfare 3 for 0.99p. All they have to do is buy Battlefield 3 before October 27, then buy Modern Warfare 3 before midnight on November 7. If consumers who bought Battlefield 3 send it back to GameStop UK before November 18, their GameStop accounts will be refunded for MW3 minus £0.99.

In a quick-and-dirty interview with IndustryGamers, GameStop President Tony Bartel confidently proclaims that the world's largest games retailer has a huge advantage over streaming game services such as OnLive and Gaikai. When asked the question "How do you see cloud gaming evolving as a business model?," Bartel responds by saying that their advantage is knowledge of what customers are buying in advance:

As we reported last week, GameStop has launched an iOS device trade-in program that allows consumers to trade in their old iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mini, Shuffle, or Nano devices for in-store credit. GameStop is not saying how much they'll pay for each system, but they are saying what condition it has to be in order for consumers to sell it to them. The company said that it will not accept iOS devices in with the following issues:

- iPod, iPhone or iPad devices with dents, severe scratches or personal engravings on the casing.

Have a crappy iPhone lying about? Well apparently you can resell it to GameStop. The world’s largest video game retailer will start buying Apple's iOS devices from customers, according to a report from 9to5Macs. According to a screen grab from the site, GameStop is saying that it buys iOS devices for store credit:

Traci Turner bought her 6-year-old son a used copy of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games so he and all his little friends could entertain themselves during a playdate.  Needless to say, she was a little shocked when he showed her the naughty images he’d found drawn on the inside of the game’s case.

“They were extremely inappropriate. It was very sexual in nature and I was not prepared to answer the questions of what was going on in the picture,” said Turner.

While GameStop was bold in removing OnLive coupons from PC retail copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, it found some humility today as it realized that yesterday's situation put them in a bad light with customers. Many customers felt that, by taking a coupon that was worth around $50 out of those boxes, the company was ripping them off.

Today GameStop CEO Paul Raines issued an apology via email to customers and offered an olive branch to smooth things over.

"Dear GameStop customer,

UPDATE: Square Enix has acquiesced to GameStop, issuing an official statement apologizing for the inclusion of a third-party coupon without informing the retailer about it prior to the game's retail release. The news comes from an updated report on Giant Bomb. Square Enix issued the following statement:

Wired's Game | Life taps into the legal expertise of attorney Mark Methenitis to determine if GameStop might face legal action for removing OnLive coupons from PC retail boxed copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Yesterday it was revealed that cloud-gaming service OnLive and Square Enix had teamed up for a special promotion that would give consumers that bought a retail copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution for PC a free OnLive version of the game. Well, apparently retailer GameStop was not interested in participating in the promotion. The retailer took steps to make sure its customers did not get an OnLive version of the game - and they did it without telling them.

GameStop this week reported sales and earnings for the second quarter ended July 30, 2011. While store sales of traditional boxed software and hardware declined, the company found a silver lining with better-than-expected digital sales and pre-owned sales. Total sales for the second quarter of 2011 were $1.74 billion, a decrease of 3.1 percent compared to $1.80 billion in the prior year quarter. Total company comparable store sales were -9.1 percent, impacted by lower hardware sales and a lighter software title releases than the prior year quarter.

U.S. game retail chain GameStop has opened up a retail site dedicated to consumers in the united Kingdom. The new site opens with a bang, offering customers several promotional deals including a three-for-two sale on pre-owned games, and reduced prices on some console hardware and software. The new site is located at www.gamestop.co.uk.

GameStop is doing something a bit unprecedented: it is honoring ancient pre-orders for Duke Nukem Forever. GamePro asked the retailer if they would honor pre-orders taken just after the game was originally announced many years ago. The company confirmed that it would.

"With a long-anticipated release like Duke Nukem Forever, we encourage customers who pre-ordered more than a year ago to verify their reservation with their local store prior to launch," a GameStop representative told GamePro. "Provided the customer has a receipt, we will honor even those pre-orders taken long ago. At this time, we expect that all pre-order customers will receive Duke's Big Package at time of purchase, regardless of when the reservation was made."

Duke Nukem Forever releases June 10 on various platforms, with a demo coming June 3. Obviously it is rated "M" for "Mature" by the ESRB.

GameStop's Kongregate and publisher Ubisoft Entertainment are hosting a game development contest that will see one winner take home a $10,000 first prize. The contest is to promote the upcoming release of Child of Eden, the spiritual successor to the popular game REZ. Game director Tetsuya Mizuguchi will serve as a judge in the contest and will help decide which game is the best of the best.

The game development contest, dubbed "Experience the Music," challenges participants to "electrify the senses by creating a game that synchronizes music and unique gameplay."

GameStop is up to something big. The company announced that it has acquired a streaming technology company and a popular digital distribution platform. The company announced that it has acquired Spawn Labs, a streaming technology company and has entered into an agreement with Stardock systems to purchase Impulse. The Impulse acquisition is subject to closing conditions and is expected to be complete in May 2011.

Spawn Labs becomes part of the GameStop network, and will bring its game streaming technology to GameStop's suite of digital game products and services. Once the Spawn Labs integration and testing on a new consumer interface is complete, users will gain access to a wide selection of high-definition video games on demand.

Impulse is a digital distribution platform that allows users to download and manage games. The Impulse suite is comprised of a client, Reactor technology for DRM, and publishing tools.

On March 17 we chronicled a father and son who were wanted for robbing several retail locations in North Carolina and South Carolina. The son, 18-year-old Shawn Douglas Hefner was nabbed by police, but his father, Douglas Hefner remained at large. A third person, 29-year-old Thomas Douglas Barr, was apprehended at the same time as Shawn Douglas.

It looks like police have caught up with the father. Douglas Scott Hefner was arrested Wednesday on outstanding warrants from the York County Sheriff's Office and other jurisdictions. The senior Hefner was caught by police after trying to sell video games to a GameStop in Greenville, S.C. Apparently he'd forgotten that he stole some of those games from a GameStop in the first place. Oops.

GameStop is reporting a 10 percent increase in net income for the fourth quarter of 2010, citing robust holiday sales of hardware and accessories such as Kinect. Fourth-quarter net income was $237.8 million, up from $215.9 million in the same period a year ago. Quarterly revenue was up 6 percent to $3.69 billion.

Sales of new game hardware accounted for 21.2 percent of GameStop's overall revenue, up from 20.9 percent in the fourth quarter of the previous year. Hardware contributed 7.2 percent to overall gross profit, compared to 5.5 percent in 2009. Used games accounted for 21.8 percent of total net sales and 44.2 percent of gross profit.

The family that steals together.. goes to jail together. At least that is what has happened to two York County, South Carolina men were finally nabbed for robbing businesses in both North and South Carolina. According to a joint press release issued by the York County Sheriff’s Office and Shelby Police Department, two men have been arrested for "commercial" robberies: 18-year-old Shawn Douglas Hefner and 29-year-old Thomas Douglas Barr. Shawn's father, 37-year-old Douglas Scott Hefner, is still at large and wanted on several warrants.

U.S. retailer GameStop has been targeted by a class action lawsuit alleging it obtained and recorded personal information about its customers without their express consent. The main plaintiff in the case is Melissa Arechiga of Alameda County California. Her attorneys allege that GameStop illegally recorded her name, credit card number, and personal identification information (PII) following a shop purchase. The thrust of the lawsuit is that GameSpot regularly uses PII from customers to derive additional personal information, including residential addresses.

"Such conduct is performed intentionally and without the knowledge or consent of the cardholder, and is of potentially great benefit to [GameStop]," reads the suit.

Suspects in a 2010 robbery that lead to the murder of a GameStop customer will not face the death penalty, according to the Rockdale Citizen. Three Atlanta men were robbing a GameStop in November of last year when the victim, 40-year-old Adrian Snow of Stone Mountain, entered the store. He was immediately shot by one of the defendants and was killed instantly. The men were later apprehended and face a litany of charges.

The men arrested were 27-year-old Giovannte Maddox, 25-year-old Tron Lamar Hill, and 17-year-old Markus Isiah Seymore. The men were charged with "malice murder," felony murder, three counts of armed robbery, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of obstruction of a law enforcement officer and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Hill faces an additional charge - possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

A man who robbed a GameStop in Weslaco, Texas at knifepoint is now behind bars after Action 4 News viewers spotted him and turned him in. The men fled the scene after the robbery but security cameras captured his image making it easier for police to eventually track him down - with the help of tips from the public. Police said that Treviño is accused of robbing the GameStop off Expressway 83 at around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Weslaco police arrested 22-year-old Rogelio Treviño III of Mercedes on an aggravated robbery charge on Wednesday morning. GameStop employees told police that Treviño walked into the store, picked out two games, and went to the counter. At this point, he threatened the clerk with a knife and demanded money.

Treviño appeared before a Weslaco municipal judge early Wednesday afternoon where he was held on a $250,000 bond.

Source: valleycentral.com

Bronx police say that they have identified the man they suspect of robbing three businesses in the Bronx. David Piparo, 48, of City Island, is wanted for his involvement in a failed robbery at the We Buy Gold pawnshop on Bruckner Boulevard November 10, and two GameStop stores located at 43 Westchester Square and 2163 White Plains Rd.

Police allege that Piparo "brandished a black handgun" in all three robberies, but did not say what (if anything) was taken from the stores. He enjoys long walks in the park, wine tasting and fleeing on foot after committing robberies.

Piparo is described as 5-foot-10, 195 pounds, with brown hair, hazel eyes, a scar under one eye, and multiple tattoos.

Source: Bronx Network

Game Informer Magazine is apparently the seventh most popular magazine in the United States, hanging out with such brand name rags as Time and Cosmopolitan. This is according to data gathered by media research firm BurrellesLuce, who found that GI had a circulation of 4,364,170, up 800,000 from 3,564,170 in 2009.

The secret formula for the magazine's success is pretty obvious: GameStop. A 12-month subscription to GI is given away when making purchases with a GameStop card. Still, bought, given away, or jammed under a hotel door like a pamphlet on Jesus, GI is out there.

Source: BurrellesLuce by way of GI.biz

GameStop announces the launch of its new PickUp@Store service. This new program is free to use and allows customers to pick out the games they want online at www.GameStop.com, select a store of their choice that has the game in stock, place a hold on the game and pick it up as soon as that same day. One wonders why it took GameStop so long to figure out that consumers would want this kind of service, but better late than never.

PickUp@Store works as follows: