Gamestop frenzy

dsio

Yea I don’t like going to that kind of length, its more just a commentary on how ridiculous the situation is than anything else

Foo2rama

hi, as stated I’ve worked for over 15 years on the business end of the video games industry. I’ve worked for such small companies as Blizzard, been the Launch Producer for multiple titles with Box product in GameStop, Bestbuy, etc. I’ve been invited to speak at industry conferences multiple times. While I focused mostly on PC and transitioned to mobile, all of the console publishers and by extension the console devs hate GameStop for lower sales, and being entitled little shits about it making unreasonable demands.
But hey what do I know.

Dan S

I think it's interesting that people are so angry that a platform offering free trades might not be acting in the best interests of people who are using the platform to trade for free. (Not talking about you @Walrus, just musing out loud here.) Who do they think Robinhood's "customers" really are? Certainly not the people who aren't paying them anything.

Dan S

I think it's interesting that people are so angry that a platform offering free trades might not be acting in the best interests of people who are using the platform to trade for free. (Not talking about you @Walrus, just musing out loud here.) Who do they think Robinhood's "customers" really are? Certainly not the people who aren't paying them anything.

Foo2rama

Because they weaponized it. Most places are more casual or small, GS asks every customer at least 2 times on every phone call, and when they go into the store. They use secret shoppers to ensure compliance with this policy. They actively fought against game developers and publishing houses when they tried to put into place ways to recoup the lost sales. No one else had this policy in a chain, no one else actively fought against the Industry to prevent measures to curtail it. No one else threatened to not stock items with ways for the publishers and developers to recoup money on the secondary market.

That is why.

Observer

The discussion about used games reminds me that it’s time to buy Borderlands 3 on eBay. Being so far behind the times, my digital monsters die for pennies on the dollar.

Foo2rama

We work very similarly to the movie industry where games take 3 years and 100 million dollars plus to bring a AAA title to market. For the developers it goes through 2 people’s hands before they get a cut after they pay of their investors. The publisher, then the retailer.

As for online game sales PC has almost completely moved that way this point, but for various reasons consoles not yet. Although the latest Xbox has an online only version that has no media drive.

Foo2rama

Some basic economic difference between watches and games. Games sales are front loaded in the first few weeks. Games usefullnlife is measured in hours of play. Most console games are 60-200 hours now for the average gamer. In the summer when most games come out that’s a week or so for a college student out of school. They can beat the game then return it for credit, and the person willing to wait a week can get it for less just by waiting a week or two. There is also the secondary release of a title as a classic or game of the year edition or something like that 6 months to a year later that allows the game industry to sell its own lower priced version down the road to people that did not play it when it came out or a year or so later as younger gamers move into its demographic.

Video games take time and cost a lot of many to bring to market. We work very similarly to the movie industry where games take 3 years and 100 million dollars plus to bring a AAA title to market. For the developers it goes through 2 people’s hands before they get a cut after they pay of their investors. The publisher, then the retailer.

As for online game sales PC has almost completely moved that way this point, but for various reasons consoles not yet. Although the latest Xbox has an online only version that has no media drive.

mrbreen

Also, surly there are discussions of the streaming service model. Would there be a windowing of game releases in that model? I’m not a gamer, so not well versed in the industry, but I am genuinely curious.

Foo2rama

Piracy primarily affects the smaller and independent studios that cannot afford to pay for DRM, large publishers using economy of scale can make DRM effective. Of course this only applies to PC titles, as console titles have built in DRM either by the media or by electronic purchase tied to a user account.

Piracy hurts the small guys, there is no question and it almost killed the PC game industry 2-3 times within the past 4 decades.

Streaming aka downloads is pretty much the defacto standard for PC and is the only option on mobile, and it is the preferable solution. One the title is locked to a user account on a service like an appstore or Steam, Bnet, Epic Launcer etc. it also means more money for the developers as they get a much bigger chunk of the revenue of the title, for example on steam I think the developers/publishers keep 70% of the profit, wherein a retail environment it is like 20% at the end of the day. Plus you only need a golden master about 1 week prior, instead of 1-2 months prior to print and distribute hard copies.

Online downloading and mobile both originally democratized the playing field and made the large publishers less powerful as anyone could put product into the appstore or Steam. The problem became to much ended up there and all titles tended to get lost in the shear volume of titles appearing every day, make the resources of the large publishers and the larger marketing outreach take control again. The rise and fall of large publishers is a trend that repeats every few years or so as new technologies or platforms for distribution appear, some fail, some shrink, then the survivors get bigger again as they reestablish control of marketing.|

Make sense?

Foo2rama

a rental DVD carries a different license then a consumer purchase DVD. Those DVD costs blockbuster or Redbox much much more then the ones you buy on Amazon.

the video game industry has almost perfect data in its users and in some cases could identify when a second person was using media that had already been used for hours on another machine. It was well documented how much was lost. It was then clearly shown when free dlc was included in the box product and would have needed to be purchased by the second or third buyer.

Look I spent a lot of time on the business end of the industry. I talked to people at industry only conferences a few times a year for over a decade. I’ve appeared in Documentaries about the business end of the industry and spoken at multiple conventions, I’ve been on multiple worldwide press tours for the titles I have managed. The video game industry at its heart is not about fun and games it’s all about money. It’s a cut throat business with a constantly shifting playing field and business model as trends and technologies change. People outside the industry and new employees especially have problems understanding this.

Can I give you direct numbers for the loss no, as any data I have on is under strict NDA. But everything I have said is considered fact in the industry, and can be backed up with some google use.