I eventually picked up db14 for ps3 at an independent games store in sheffield. The price was appallingly high for a budget product.The problem with this game is that the retail distribution is an absolute joke. Therefore very few stores, including GAME want anything to do with them. If stores can't get any stock then they can't sell them. I really don't think that whoever has been distributing DB14 has a clue what they are doing.
i am not going to pre order this game from anyone. I actually am not convinced that anyone will have stock available to ship on the release date. it is entirely possible that Amazon have the stock cornered, hence the ridiculous price.
I think you're barking up the wrong tree a bit: it's a very tough job for a distributor to sell this game into stores.
The issue is that retailers don't want to stock niche games on the high street: they'd rather carry larger amounts of the AAA games and dedicate a lot of space to trade-ins. This is where their biggest margins are. If they don't think they can sell a game in good volume, then they don't want to stock it: a bigger company might prefer to stock it online-only and not on the shelves.
Picking a few key retailers and offering them exclusives and/or incentives is pretty much the only way to do it, but the key thing it comes down to is numbers: last year it was a new property which struggled to make an impact: this time will be better, next time will be better still, as reputation and sales grow.