UK videogames retailer GAME told its staff to take advantage of Tesco's rival Nintendo 3DS prices in order to bolster its own supply.

A leaked internal document has emerged which encouraged employees to nip over to the supermarket chain, who was selling the device for £175 when bought with a game for £34.90, buy up additional stock using money from their own tills, and then resell them as "Preowned".

Staff members taking part were authorised to take a maximum of £1049.50 from their respective tills per trip (equating to five bundles at Tesco's £209.90), and could make as many trips as they liked as long as it didn't compromise their own launch events.

The document, which was uncovered by Eurogamer, also states that the Preowned Tesco stock was to only be released to the public when all GAME's new units had been sold, and that they were to be sold at "the same price as mint due to expected supply shortage on the market and the quality of the stock".

GAME's price for the Nintendo 3DS on launch was £219.

The Tesco bundled games to be bought were also listed in a priority order, presumably to maximise resale value for the GAME stores who took part. Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars was the most sought after, closely followed by Super Street Fighter IV, Nintendogs and Pilot Wings.

Naturally, the last line of the document states, "Please note this is a highly sensitive document. It is for internal use only and is confidential to staff members only."

Speaking to Eurogamer, a GAME spokesperson explained: “Some of our stores wanted to move quickly last weekend to build their pre-owned stocks of 3DS at the same time as their local competitors, so we gave them a process to do that. It was not mandatory, and happened in small volumes.”