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News Activision: 'Retail is crucial for games industry'

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 9 Jun 2011.

  1. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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  2. NethLyn

    NethLyn Minimodder

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    Tough luck on HMV, I only ever looked at their games section in big seasonal sales or when someone else gave me a gift card. The rest of the time, they were overpriced and the Trocadero gaming cafés weren't going to get anyone back buying games without constructive pricing throughout the group and online.

    Whining about supermarkets? Diddums, should've learned a thing or two when relaunching the purehmv loyalty card, like not making people spend a ton before they could get anything decent.
     
  3. Ph4ZeD

    Ph4ZeD What's a Dremel?

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    Maybe Mr Fox needs to read up on capitalism. Adapt or die, and HMV is going to die.
     
  4. oMonarca

    oMonarca Elitist Brick

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    Yeap. Adapt indeed. To once be a proud business-owner and now to become a cog in a very big machine to make sure food's on the table.

    Go, go cold, heartless capitalism. Megacorp Cheesecake
     
  5. HyBry

    HyBry What's a Dremel?

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    Doono if anything has changed but last I remember you still needed a DVD to play the good games on consoles. So no wonder a game developer thinks retail is important.
     
  6. Phalanx

    Phalanx Needs more dragons and stuff.

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    By theatre experience, do you mean, "Hi, can I help you? No? Have you seen our latest preorders? Are you looking to buy a new console? We can give you an extended warranty!"?

    Yeah, I'll pass on that, thanks.
     
  7. SMIFFYDUDE

    SMIFFYDUDE Supermodders on my D

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    It's been a while now since I went inside a video game shop and longer since i bought from one. Game and Gamestation's PC shelf is just that.. a shelf.
     
  8. DragunovHUN

    DragunovHUN Modder

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    No, high street needs no protection. If they can't deal with the competition's prices they can **** off. That's how business works.
     
  9. NethLyn

    NethLyn Minimodder

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    To be fair, I went to Game for my 360 and extra pad, but just used their online shop, and have also used their Ebay wholesale for rare games like Yager, and Crysis 2 came from Gameplay.

    They know what's coming and are well prepared for when it's time to nuke the shop chain, unlike HMV.
     
    Last edited: 9 Jun 2011
  10. Pete J

    Pete J Employed scum

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    Pert of me feels bad about retailers taking the hit. I remember when I was ickle perusing titles in Electronics Boutique.

    But Steam is just so damn convenient!
     
  11. Bauul

    Bauul Sir Bongaminge

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    I distinctly remember the days when the consoles were a couple of meteres of shelf space, and PC games made up the rest of the shop. Oh I miss those days.
     
  12. Technobod

    Technobod Minimodder

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    Couldn't agree more.
    And then you get the companies whinging 'But internet companies have smaller overheads'... Well get on the internet then or drop your prices.
     
  13. Arkanrais

    Arkanrais What's a Dremel?

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    I think they only want the high street stores so they can charge me $120 NZ for a new release, instead of $50US on steam (which ends up being around $65NZ after exchange rates and currency conversion fees)
    They'd like to keep their stranglehold on charging almost double the competition for a game that's barely going to entertain me for 15 or more hours.
    Things like steam are the way of the future. I got STALKER CoP for $20US a week after it was released, and have over 110 hours played on it, L4D2 for $25 with over 1000, and L4D for $7.50 with over 700.
     
  14. thil

    thil What's a Dremel?

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    "Would you like to save 5% by buying a used game? Would you like to buy an Ultra-Special-Super-Duper-Limited-Collectors-Edition Master Chief Pez dispenser? Would you like to buy an official Mad Catz Modern Warfare 2 headset? Would you like scratch insurance? Are you here to collect a pre-order? Wait, you want that game on...P...C? Am I saying that right? 'P-C'? Um, excuse me. Hey, Phil?"

    "Yeah?"

    "Is Starcraft II on...'PC' in?"

    "'PS3'?"

    "No, this guy here wants for 'PC'?"

    "Is that like Kinect or something?"

    "I'm not sure. It's not showing up in the Xbox inventory."

    "Check Sony, then."

    "Hmmm...nope."

    "Nintendo?"

    "No."

    "Huh. Wait...PC - is it for iPhone or something?"

    "I don't think so. I would've heard about it."

    "Hmmm."

    "Maybe it came in with that new shipment this morning?"

    "Yeah. I think it's something to do with Microsoft - you sure it's not in the Xbox stock list?"

    "Hang on, I'll check."

    "Maybe check the used games, if we don't have any new ones in."

    "Yeah..."

    "Well?"

    "Nothing."

    "Huh. The guy's sure we'd sell something like that?"

    "Seems pretty adamant, yeah."

    "Well, I've never heard of this StarKart or whatever."

    "Oh, wait, maybe it's for, like, computer?"

    "Computers? My Macbook Air doesn't really play games, not the ones we sell. Doesn't sound right...but check to see if we have a 'computer' section. Maybe there's a different sort."

    "Hmmm...oh! We do."

    "Huh. All right. Is it in there?"

    "Yeah."

    "Do we have any copies?"

    "No. We only did pre-orders for that one..."
     
  15. SexyHyde

    SexyHyde Minimodder

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    The only thing that needs changing is the premium rates of having a high street location. People don't shop in the high street because It's expensive and its expensive because they are charged extra for the location which is not as beneficial as it once was and this charge prevents them from competing with e-tailers and supermarkets.
     
  16. Woodspoon

    Woodspoon What's a Dremel?

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    So what Kotick has essentially just said is "people lining up outside a shop is a great free advert".
    If thats "critical to the future of the business" then the whole business is really boned.

    High streets are the first place to put their prices up, the last place to bring them down and the first place to whine when they have competition.
     
  17. Arkanrais

    Arkanrais What's a Dremel?

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    Woodspoon wins. Flawless victory.
     
  18. thil

    thil What's a Dremel?

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    Now, to be fair, they only whine when the competition can't be undercut or bought out. If it *can* be undercut unfairly, or bought out, they'll be the first to say "Well, that's the free market for you. What are you, a communist?"
     
  19. DbD

    DbD Minimodder

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    xbox 360 has a reasonable selection of full (i.e. normally boxed with DVD) games for download, although not sure how popular it is being as it tends to not be the newest games, and hence you can normally buy it cheaper second hand off ebay.

    Which incidentally is why I am very surprised Kotick is still keen on real copies as obviously you can buy/sell them second hand - you can't do that with downloads.
     
  20. Pughy

    Pughy Fancy a game of Starcraft?

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    I like HMV but its not at all shocking they could shut down/go bust. Seriously everything in the place is priced at the RRP. Even now Starcraft 2 is like £40/£45 when its £30 at amazon. They overcharge for everything there and people realised it so they stopped shopping there.
     
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