Comet's advertising sparks off the Christmas price war

Comet has kicked off a Christmas price war by advertising a selection of the season's big games for u29.99 or less in its Christmas catalogue.

Kingfisher stablemate Woolworths is expected to match the prices.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert and Screamer II, from Virgin Interactive Entertainment, are down to u29.99 and u24.99 respectively. Electronic Arts' Syndicate Wars and Fifa Soccer 97 are both priced at u29.99. All the games are released this month.

The multiples are now poised, waiting to see which of them follows the price cutting. Game's operations director Paul Lloyd-Roach (pictured) said: "It depends what everybody else does. We won't lead a price war, but when we have to we'll follow." HMV's games manager Gerry Berkley said: "It will depend what reaction you get from Dixons."

VIE thinks the move could deter independents from buying its games and may lead to the multiples making cautious orders. Adam Prichard, UK sales manager, said: "It could really damage our sales and pre-orders. We are very disappointed. There's no need for Comet to do this or for the other retailers to react. They should be able to retain the price and make some margin."

VIE hopes to convince Entertainment UK, the distribution company which supplies both Comet and Woolworths, to change the pricing. "We'll hopefully persuade them not to go out at this price but the catalogue is already printed. Its disappointing they went to press without talking to us," said Prichard.

One independent who won't buy any of the titles discounted by Comet is Dave Phillips, owner of MCM Video. "This is another nail in the coffin of the independent. I am packing in selling PC CD-ROMs."

Lloyd-Roach said Comet's move devalued the products. "People will see the top games this Christmas priced at u29.99 and only want to pay that."