Halo’s Master Chief is going head-to-head with Call of Duty’s Black Ops team next month - with retailers hoping they’re the ones who win out.

Supermarkets will be looking to the two giants of first-person shooters to help turn around a 25% year-on-year slump in video game sales by emulating the success of Fifa 13. More than a million copies of the latest Fifa game (rsp £54.99) sold in its first day on shelf in the UK three weeks ago - a record for the long-running football franchise.

Observers say this shows how the biggest game franchises are getting bigger as the market becomes more seasonal, with release schedules compressed into the last quarter of the year.

‘Back-ending’ - scheduling releases for the end of the year - was particularly bad in 2012, according to the Entertainment Retailers’ Association (ERA), as publishers held back more releases to avoid the Olympics.

“There has been a dearth of big game launches up until now,” said ERA director general Kim Bayley. “The launch of Fifa 13 was the first time all year that comparisons with last year’s sales looked better.”

Sales figures for the first half of 2012 were down 33% on the same period 12 months ago. This has now improved slightly, with sales down 25% year-on-year [2012 YTD], said ERA.

Sainsbury’s games buyer Craig Kerman said the retailer’s sales of Fifa 13 had exceeded those of its predecessor, and disagreed that 2012 had seen a lack of launches - pointing to Mass Effect 3, Darkness II, and FIFA Street as strong titles.

The retailer will be launching Halo 4 and CoD: Black Ops 2 into more than 500 stores, with CoD also carried by some of its Local stores.

Tesco said its Fifa 13 launch had been very big, and added that it expected Call of Duty to be even bigger.

Both retailers will be selling licensed products including Call of Duty-branded headsets. Tesco will also be selling a Halo controller and CoD Xbox Live points packs.

Halo 4 launches on November 6, followed seven days later by CoD: Black Ops 2.

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