While customers will only be able to use money earned from old games in Tesco stores, the company has stated that a wide-selection of preowned games will be available to buy and that credit can be redeemed against anything in store.

Tesco believes that its trade-in prices compare favourably with those of high street specialist games retailers. Gamers can expect to receive about £19 for recent Xbox 360 and PS3 titles like 2010 summer hit Red Dead Revolver. Popular Nintendo Wii games like New Super Mario Brothers and Mario Kart Wii can be exchanged for around £17 credit.

Tesco is just the latest in a series of businesses to move into the games trade-in market. Previously the preserve of specialist high chains like GAME, the last few years have seen companies such as HMV add a trade-in service to their existing retail offering. Supermarket Asda and catalogue-store Argos are also expected to expand into used games in the near future.

Any infringement on the trade-in market will upset many specialist retailers who have already faced stiff competition from the supermarkets in recent years. Last year Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s caused controversy by offering major new releases like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, FIFA 10 and Batman: Arkham Asylum at rock bottom – and sometimes below cost – prices.

The move will also attract the ire of large games publishers who receive no income from used software trade-ins and have recently started offering customers incentives to buy brand new copies of games including special preorder bonuses and exclusive downloadable content.

UK High Street games retailer GAME is to trim its high street presence with the closure of 12 GAME stores as well as six Gamestation stores and the removal of all its Debenhams concessions.

The move will see the closure of 43 outlets in total which the group attribute to tough market conditions. Most of the closures will occur where outlets are situated close to one another.

The company also said that it plans to seek employment opportunities for all 247 affected workers.

A statement made by GAME to Edge Online said:

“We are committed to evolving our business to make sure it operates as efficiently as possible while consistently delivering the high standards of service our customers demand,”

“We regularly review our entire store portfolio, including our concessions, to maximise the opportunities to reach customers while also ensuring that the business is running as effectively as possible.

“The majority of the identified sites are located close to another one of our stores, and we will help each customer affected by a closure to transfer to their nearest store as well as our online offerings.

“We will provide extensive support to the teams in each store. However, with deep regret, we have had to offer redundancy to 247 employees. We will do our utmost to redeploy roles if possible, and have started consulting with all affected employees in the 43 sites.”

GAME have announced the new Nintendo DSi XL is available for pre-order. The console is due to hit UK shelves from 5th March 2010.

The console, which will be available in two colours – wine red and dark brown – will feature two 4.2-inch viewing screens – making them larger than those on the original DSi. The advantages of having larger screens include larger game graphics, while making it easier to watch and use.

The new console will feature all the features and functionality of the original DSi, and will come pre-loaded with some of Nintendo’s top DS software, including ‘A Little Bit of… Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: Arts Edition’, Dictionary 6 in 1 with Camera Function and the Nintendo DSi Browser, which enables easy access to the Internet from anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection.