Best Buy is predicting that electronics (including video game hardware and software) sales during the 2014 holiday shopping season will be down (at least for them by single digits) compared to the same period in 2013, and that it will not see a big sales lift from the iPhone 6. The company made this prediction during a conference call to discuss its latest financial results.

Nintendo has a novel way of getting gamers (who do not already own a Wii U) excited about the games it will be showcasing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles next month. At participating Best Buy stores consumers will be able to get hands-on time with pretty much the same game demos as the press gets access to from the E3 show floor. The announcement was made by Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime today during a Nintendo Direct presentation.

VentureBeat is reporting that Best Buy founder Richard Schulze is moving forward with a plan to take the electronics retail store chain from being publicly traded to a privately held company. Talk of taking the company private was first floated back in June of this year, but this time the founder of the company is backing it up with offers to buy up stock at a premium for shareholders.

According to InternetRetailing.net, Best Buy will close all of its stores in the United Kingdom. Best Buy has 11 retail outlets in the country. It first started opening these stores almost 18 months ago. The stores are a joint venture between Carphone Warehouse in the UK and the US electronics giant Best Buy, showed a loss before tax of £46.7m in the half-year to September 30, according to C&VG. The first Best Buy store opened in May 2010 in Thurrock, Essex. Stores in locations including Bristol, Hayes and Nottingham opened shortly thereafter.

Newsweek has released its annual list of how the top 500 largest publicly traded companies in America rank in terms being environmentally friendly.

Electronic Arts clocked in at number 378 on this year’s Green List (it was number 381 last year), while Activision Blizzard took 391st on the list, improving from last year’s ranking of 416.

On the retail side, Office Depot grabbed the highest Green ranking, coming in at number 18 overall, followed by Wal-Mart (#51), Target (#61), Best Buy (#86), Amazon.com (#162) and GameStop (#318).

Dell came in first overall on the list, with Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and Intel rounding out the top 5.

Amidst a litany of other new initiatives the company plans, electronics retailer Best Buy announced this week that it plans to roll out a used game trade-in program later this summer. Consumers will be able to bring in those used games and trade them for Best Buy gift cards that can be used to buy "anything in the store."

Trade-ins will take place at your local Best Buy's service desk -- and in some stores - "dedicated Trade-In desk within the gaming department." Best Buy also plans on launching a program at BestBuy.com that will allow gamers to get "estimates" on trade-in values and allow them to mail their games (for free) to Best Buy and receive a Best Buy gift card 7-14 days later.

Naturally, Best Buy will also sell those used games that it buys, which will all be backed by the company's return policy.

Best Buy also revealed details on "@Gamer: The Official Gaming Magazine of Best Buy." Here's more from Best Buy:

A unnamed Best Buy store is taking the liberty of cracking open new Xbox 360s and updating them with the latest firmware. The only problem? They slap on an additional $29.99 charge for the service.

A reader of the Consumerist website snapped the pics to prove it. Updated consoles were resealed, given an “Inspected by Best Buy” sticker and adorned with magic marker indicating the date that the firmware update had been applied.

The story was originally posted on the Consumerist a few weeks ago, but we thought it was still worthwhile for those who hadn’t seen it. What do you think—a value-added service for those without Internet or consumer gouging?

A handful of game companies and retailers are listed within Newsweek’s Green Rankings list, which rates the Top 500 environmental companies in America.

While the list, with 500 entries, is hardly exclusive, each entrant was awarded an overall hard numeric score. The company that fared the best overall? Hewlett-Packard with a Green Score of 100, followed by Dell in second with a 98.87.

In the gaming (and related) business sector, Microsoft came in at #31 with a score of 83.79, followed by retailers Wal-Mart (#59) with a score of 80.38 and Best Buy (#61) with a score of 80.33. GameStop clocked in at #228, with a score of 71.37, with Electronic Arts (#381) and Activision Blizzard (#416) following. EA and Activision Blizzard had scores of 65.58 and 63.80 respectively.

Image via otherpower.com

Brand-new games at used game prices?

A pilot program that does just that is being tested at a Best Buy location in Utah. While it sounds like a good deal for consumers, Wedbush-Morgan analyst Michael Pachter doesn't expect to see the Best Buy experiment gain traction on a large scale.

Of the program, under which Best Buy will match used game prices in effect at either GameStop or Game Crazy, Pachter said:

I don’t think it will do well.  The price match means that Best Buy either cuts their profit per game in half, or wipes it out altogether.  I don’t think that they can afford to sell $60 games for $50, and don’t think that it will be effective in the long run.  If it does well, then GameStop will cut used game prices to the point where Best Buy can’t match without losing money.

The used game debate rages on...

Joystiq reports that big box retailer Best Buy is testing a used price matching program for new releases at its store in West Jordan, Utah (see pic).

In the pilot deal Best Buy will sell customers new games at used prices offered by GameStop and Game Crazy. This should save game buyers at least five bucks, and maybe more for certain games - and saving money is always a win for consumers.

There's more discussion of the Best Buy test program at CheapAssGamer.

In a move that has been anticipated for some time, big box retailer Best Buy has jumped into the used game business, reports gamesindustry.biz. Best Buy will apparently be using a kiosk system similar to that now employed by Wal-Mart.

Used game trade leader GameStop is not bothered by the new competition, however. A spokesperson for the retailer told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

GameStop understands that trading in used games and consoles is a highly-assisted activity. We are very confident in our business model that allows our expert associates to help consumers trade in product, a fact not addressed with a self-serve process.

Meanwhile, gi.biz reports that analyst Colin Sebastion of Lazard Capital Markets sees no threat to GameStop with Best Buy's move into used:

While we believe that Best Buy’s entry into the used video game market will create a new overhang on shares of GameStop, we expect Best Buy’s initiative to expand the used videogame market rather than take significant share from the speciality channel.

GP: With the Best Buy announcement we can expect the obligatory round of hand wringing from certain game publishers and developers.

As GamePolitics has reported, the U.S. Army has taken a fair amount of heat in recent times over its use of video games and game-related events for recruitment.

Over at ripten, Chad Lakkis notes with a disapproving eye the Army's presence at a Best Buy midnight launch event for the recently-released Resident Evil 5:

I couldn’t help but notice the “GO ARMY” recruitment tent mixed into the Best Buy Resident Evil 5 launch party video... I don’t mind the idea of recruiters but what I do mind is the methods by which they often recruit.

This isn’t the first time the U.S. Army has been accused of blurring the lines between gaming and recruiting. Promoting an official U.S. Army videogame and lacing their official army game website to contain soldier bios designed to look like videogame stat cards is youth marketing at its finest. Look at all the stats you can wrack up kids - assuming you don’t die first.