Mobile and Online Games Threaten Gamestop's Bottom Line

[aba1]

Once physical media isn't used, are publishers even necessary? Might as well just find some investors instead, since you don't need a large company to handle the creation and distribution of game copies.

True and nice, though marketing is supposed to be insanely important for games to be successful. Marketing expenses in and of itself could become enough to warrant publishers.

Even in a digital environment? I discovered many indie games by just seeing them on the main page of the Steam store - and nowhere else. They always show new games on the main page.

It costs money to advertise on the front page.

 

[aba1]

The funny thing is with the job market shrinking and things going online things are only going to get worse. It takes many people to run stores across a country only a small team to run a online store, depending on the size it can get big but still a fraction of the size compared to the stores.

Plus when games are digitally purchased you lose all your rights to the content you purchased, it is essentially a long term rental. The people running the store can take away your games at any time by forcing you to be online or just dropping the service to your game or various other ways.

 

[Doom972]

Once physical media isn't used, are publishers even necessary? Might as well just find some investors instead, since you don't need a large company to handle the creation and distribution of game copies.

True and nice, though marketing is supposed to be insanely important for games to be successful. Marketing expenses in and of itself could become enough to warrant publishers.

Even in a digital environment? I discovered many indie games by just seeing them on the main page of the Steam store - and nowhere else. They always show new games on the main page.

It costs money to advertise on the front page.

I don't think it works this way on Steam. I doubt all those small indie developers have that much money to compete over advertising space with the big publishers. It does work as you describe on X-box Live - There's an old article here on the Escapist about it.

 

[MrTub]

What's the point of a brick-and-mortar store when online sites like Amazon, or digital download outlets like Steam or the Playstation Store can offer a better service at a cheaper price?

Maybe it's different in Gamestop / America, but in my experience, online stores are almost universally more expensive than buying from a shop, not to mention slower. For a large game (e.g. 3+ gigs) I actually find it quicker to drive a few miles to the local game shops and buy the game there, come home and install it, than to wait for Steam or w/e to take forever and a half to download it - and I have fast broadband and regularly achieve download speeds of 1Meg a second plus!

So yes, I really, REALLY don't get people saying this: "Online stores are cheaper and more convenient" when I usually find the exact opposite - they're slower and more expensive.

I wouldnt really say 1MBps is fast. When I download from steam I avg about 18-20MBps

 

[nickpy]

Well clearly internet is better in the states

Also, when I say 1MBps I do mean 1 megaBYTE, not megaBIT. Just to make sure you're aware 'coz thats 8megaBITs which would be closer to what you get. I mean, I don't have the Fastest internet available, but we have pretty good internet for Britain.... hence, there are going to be a lot of people for whom download times are even greater. And even if download speeds are better in the States, that doesn't deal with my point on the cost.

 

[MrTub]

Well clearly internet is better in the states

Also, when I say 1MBps I do mean 1 megaBYTE, not megaBIT. Just to make sure you're aware 'coz thats 8megaBITs which would be closer to what you get. I mean, I don't have the Fastest internet available, but we have pretty good internet for Britain.... hence, there are going to be a lot of people for whom download times are even greater. And even if download speeds are better in the States, that doesn't deal with my point on the cost.

Yes i know you ment MBps. I have 200/10Mbps and I live in Sweden not US.

And stuff is cheaper on the Internet since I can from buy sites that uses $ instead of euro (one $ is 6.6kr and one euro is 8.8kr) (derped out and thought about steam and not in store prices so see below)

And in the store the default price for games is 449kr and online the default price is 50$ and that's 325kr

 

[nickpy]

Well clearly internet is better in the states

Also, when I say 1MBps I do mean 1 megaBYTE, not megaBIT. Just to make sure you're aware 'coz thats 8megaBITs which would be closer to what you get. I mean, I don't have the Fastest internet available, but we have pretty good internet for Britain.... hence, there are going to be a lot of people for whom download times are even greater. And even if download speeds are better in the States, that doesn't deal with my point on the cost.

Yes i know you ment MBps. I have 200/10Mbps and I live in Sweden not US.

And stuff is cheaper on the Internet since I can from buy sites that uses $ instead of euro (one $ is 6.6kr and one euro is 8.8kr) (derped out and thought about steam and not in store prices so see below)

And in the store the default price for games is 449kr and online the default price is 50$ and that's 325kr

I want to live in Sweden now. Sorry for being presumptious about your situation, obviously for you my arguments make no sense because, well, online makes sense for you.... but I know I am not alone in my situation, certainly I cannot think of a person I know in my area who has faster internet, and -even on launch day- Skyrim was cheaper at my local supermarket than on steam.

 

[Zipa]

*Sigh* Why does nobody ever mention Gamestop Downloads? It's one of the better DD platforms, mainly because it's Impulse with a new skin, lower prices, and a lot more titles, because Gamestop is better at negotiating with the publishers than Stardock was.

Heck, it's not even impossible to sell digitally distributed games in a brick and mortar store. If you can find a gamestop with a half decent PC selection (not always easy), they usually have a shelf with display cases for their DD games, which they'll gladly sell you a code for (at what I think are slightly cheaper rates than the boxed copies) in the store. I don't know too much about how it works, mainly because their app is already on my computer (I've had the program since Stardock was running things), so if I want to buy something digitally from them, I'll just do it that way. You tend to get better prices that way anyway, since the sales, as far as I know, don't apply to codes they sell in brick and mortar stores.

Quite a number of PC gamers have a not completely unjustified hatred of Gamestop for pulling shit like removing free stuff from new sealed physical copies of games, missing manuals, and cd keys, high prices and generally pretending PC gaming doesn't exist. That is not even counting things like selling pre orders for games they have ran out of serial codes for and so just gave out the same used codes again(SWTOR apparently had this issue)

So while generally people didn't mind using Impulse and Stardock as they do treat customers well when it came to Gamestop people tend to have long memories.
That and their back catalog sucking under Stardock for a long time likely made people think screw it and check Steam/GoG ect.