Gamestop struggling to stay afloat and looks towards Digital games resale
CEO of Gamestop, Paul Raines, has stated in an interview that the company is looking into making Digital Games resale a reality.
These days most of the developers and publishers would agree that Digital Distribution is the future of video games. The push towards digital distribution is pretty apparent as many companies have stopped producing their games on physical media and only
use the internet as the means to distribute their product.
Games like Minecraft, Super Meat Boy and Braid have proven that many developers that retail is not important anymore as digital copies are also capable of moving millions of units and the majority of them are now backing digital distribution.
The main advantage of Digital distribution to developers and publishers is that they can cut out the middle man and save on all the costs of producing the digital copy of the game. Digital Distribution also means that there would be less game leaks as no
one would have access to the game before it comes out.
It is a fact that the amount of p****y on the Microsoft’s console is huge and it is also true that the Xbox 360 version of every new game is leaked on to torrents about a week before the game officially comes out. This ends badly for gamers as hackers download
and complete the game before anyone else and spoilers end up on the internet ruining it for all the legit players waiting for the official release.
Going digital only will also impact p****y as without physical media it will be harder, though not impossible, for hackers to leak a game on torrent sites. The downside of going digital only is that game retail outlets all over the world will be forced to
shut down or might end up only retailing hardware as retail software will no longer exist. In other words the video game retail will suffer just like the music retail industry suffered after the advent of the Apple iTunes online store and the worldwide increase
in music p****y through torrents and P2P.
Retail outlets like Gamestop also rely on second hand game sales and trade in for a major portion of their revenue. Publishers believe that they deserve a cut from those resale proceeds and have implemented various methods, for example EA’s online pass,
to prevent gamers from reselling their games. This is one of the reasons that Multiplayer modes are slapped on to almost every title just to extend the game’s life and give gamers some incentive to keep the game rather than trade it.
Things are looking bright for Gamestop as last month European courts passed a ruling which states that gamers have the right to resell the digital copies of their software, at least in Europe anyway. The news pleased gamers but came off as a slap to the
face for publishers and developers as they have lost monopoly over digital game sales as well.
Gamestop CEO stated that the company is already trying to make digital games resale work. "There are some technologies out there in Europe, and we’ve looked at a couple that are involved. We’re interested; it’s not a meaningful business yet. Right now we’re
not seeing that as a huge market, but I think we’re on the leading edge," said Raines. Will Gamestop be successful in their most recent endeavour? Gamers will have to wait and see if Gamestop can work out a deal with Publishers to facilitate resale of digital
games.
DISCLAIMER: The views and the opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of bettor.com.
Tags: