deanb Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/stop-the-price-war/084060 So after yesterday picking up Skyrim for 50% off I can say that it's definitely happening. What it like in other countries (specifically US, which is mentioned as having only a couple major games retailers) What's it like from publisher perspective. Personally I'm a fan since it means I can get cheap games, and as mystery UK man says it means shipping more units, which in this day n age means more people to sell DLC too, which isn't slashed in price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 Competition is always good for the consumer but it's up to the publishers how they react. Having lower prices can shift far more units as well as create a buzz around the game (possibly negative if people are going to declare rapid price drops indicate it is a 'flop'). If it's not a Wii title, they may find having a lower price point nets them far more. Plus, it may also get people acting sooner and buying new rather than used. I can see how it may look harmful (if profits really are down significantly) but it could actually be beneficial in the long-term. I seem to recall Dead Space didn't sell massively but had enough potential and a built-in audience down the line that a sequel was greenlit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P4: Gritty Reboot Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 Awesome for consumers, and like Dean said, better for DLC and add-on sales & sequels. To try to put pressure on the publishers to maintain high prices is the wrong approach: make games worth buying at full price and a higher percentage of your sales will be at full price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 make games worth buying at full price and a higher percentage of your sales will be at full price. Couldn't agree more. Though occasionally you will get retailers loss leading on big releases (FIFA 11, or was it 10? Was sold very cheap by UK super markets) so high quality does not always equate to a high sale price. To be honest, publishers are last in line to get affected by this. It's the retailers that will suffer first especially when you combine the lower sale price with reduced volume thanks to the rise of digital sales, depending on how quick digital takes up the slack it may not even hurt pubs at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted September 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 Yeah I'm not seeing why it's the publishers that are taking issue with this? Surely they still sell the product to them in bulk at the same price, regardless of how low the retailer then sells it on for. Unlike having a single major retailer like Gamestop can be, there's no one to really have the publishers by the balls (like how publishers supposedly hate gamestop, yet still give them pre-order exclusives). I can see how publishers may have hurt feelings on how it may devalue their product, but maybe it's just a sign that aiming for £40 every time just isn't the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 (edited) Yeah, the price war is mostly going to effect the retailers. The cost to the retailers will remain constant. Generally during a price war you're fighting for the future at a short term loss and it can be very damaging to retailers if it carries on too long. The result you don't want is for a bigger company to use it's deeper pockets to crush competition into bankruptcy. There's a lot of antitrust laws in the US about it and I'm sure there are similar laws in the UK. Specifically you trigger a lot of laws when you sell things for a loss. I know there's a lot of publisher rules too that retailers have to follow in the US. It's the reason why you get the "price too low to show, see in cart". It's also the reason why you'll see amazon doing gift cards instead of just straight up discounting the games. Publishers don't really want there to be a war for the price over the game because it impacts your total sales. If you can get it cheaper somewhere else then you're not going to buy it at the more expensive places so potentially you have copies that aren't going to move. I haven't been noticing a price war in the US though. Edited September 1, 2011 by Yantelope Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 I'm starting to think publishers won't be happy until we all sign over our wages directly into their accounts and they'll supply us with games if and when they choose. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr W Phallus Posted September 2, 2011 Report Share Posted September 2, 2011 I'm starting to think publishers won't be happy until we all sign over our wages directly into their accounts and they'll supply us with games if and when they choose. They certainly have some serious entitlement issues. Video games are finally shaking off the stigma that they are immature, if only the industry itself could follow suit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted September 2, 2011 Report Share Posted September 2, 2011 I'm starting to think publishers won't be happy until we all sign over our wages directly into their accounts and they'll supply us with games if and when they choose. Noted. JR will love this idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted September 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2011 "Who Shot John Riccitiello?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockyRan Posted September 2, 2011 Report Share Posted September 2, 2011 I'm starting to think publishers won't be happy until we all sign over our wages directly into their accounts and they'll supply us with games if and when they choose. They certainly have some serious entitlement issues. Video games are finally shaking off the stigma that they are immature, if only the industry itself could follow suit. Indeed. Everyone always goes on about how gamers have entitlement issues, but to be perfectly honest publishers are just as guilty over this, if not more. They always whine about something eating away at their precious profit that they feel for SURE they're entitled to, and make up random excuses to throw specific markets they don't like under the bus. The worst case of this by far was when some guy from Silicon Knights blamed the used games market for generic FPSs. Just...yeah. Let that sink in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted November 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2012 http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/supermarkets-are-now-the-uk-s-biggest-games-retailers/0106556 Just to revive this a bit: Supermarkets now outsell specialist game stores in the UK. Though given GAME fucked up early this year and closed down half their stores I'm not surprised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saturnine Tenshi Posted November 18, 2012 Report Share Posted November 18, 2012 I'm starting to think publishers won't be happy until we all sign over our wages directly into their accounts and they'll supply us with games if and when they choose. I think this about answers not only this, but several other threads around the forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted November 18, 2012 Report Share Posted November 18, 2012 I don't know what you consider a "super market" to be (to me that means grocery store, which don't tend to sell games here), but I buy close to 100% of my games from Amazon, which I wouldn't call a specialist retailer. Though a large part of that is probably that the nearest Gamestop is an hour away, and they don't offer free shipping or release date delivery for online orders like Amazon does, so they're just not nearly as convenient. When I lived in a town with a Gamestop I bought almost all my day-one games there because it was convenient to be able to go pick it up whenever I got done with class instead of waiting for the UPS guy, but I still bought pretty much all non-preorder games from Amazon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted November 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2012 Supermarkets sell food, clothing, electronic goods, stationary, books, music, films, games etc Like Wal-Marts. A grocers sells fruit n veg. Due to the small size of the UK you'd struggle to be an hour away from a game store, even with GAME closing down a bunch of theirs there's still plenty small chains amount, like we've got Grainger Games up north. Then there's those in-between like CEX, HMV and electronics stores. They sell games (CEX just do second hand), but it's not their main focus but enough so to pull from specialists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted November 18, 2012 Report Share Posted November 18, 2012 Okay, yeah, that's an English vs. English thing. Over here "supermarket" basically means "big grocery store". They sometimes carry a small selection of non-food items, but they're always primarily a food store. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted November 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2012 Well yeah ours mainly focus on food, you need more food than clothes and TVs after all. Seems Wikipedia classifies them as "Hypermarkets" (Then noted that it's not a term in use in the US. Nor is it over here. So no idea which country wrote that article) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted November 18, 2012 Report Share Posted November 18, 2012 Yeah, when I say "small selection" I mean like one or two aisles isn't food, the rest is. Like, 90% of the store is food. Unlike Walmart where even the Super Walmarts about 2/3 - 3/4 of the store is non-food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercurial Posted November 18, 2012 Report Share Posted November 18, 2012 You're complaining about cheap games? wut. Dean man...you'll argue about anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted November 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2012 You're complaining about cheap games? wut. Dean man...you'll argue about anything. Where the fuck am I giving you that impression? Personally I'm a fan since it means I can get cheap games People should maybe actually read what I'm typing instead of auto-engage a stupid mode of "Dean is complaining/argumentative". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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