Be Excellent To Each Other

[MD of Revolution Software, Charles Cecil, says] "When it comes to retail, everything is f***ed up, all the way down the line. If we sell a game in a shop, the retailer takes 40 per cent of the cover price, the format holder takes 15 per cent and the publisher pays us 20 per cent of what's left. That money has to be set against our development costs, so you can imagine how many copies of a game we have to sell to recoup. But on iPhone we receive 70 per cent of the game price immediately and we can sell direct to our audience. So we can charge a fraction of the price of a boxed product."

So is this re-release just a quick way to make a quicker buck? "Not at all. We've put a lot of effort into this BASS port," he explains. "It's not shovelware. As with Broken Sword: Director's Cut, we've added content that I think makes it a very justifiable and worthwhile project." That new content includes, amongst other things, fully animated cut-scenes, notable for being created by renowned comic book artist Dave Gibbons. In motion the sequences are beautiful, perfectly capturing the game's dystopian ambiance. But the proposed $2-3 asking price for the game isn't all being spent on new art and re-sampled dialogue. Rather, as Cecil is quick to point out, buyers are investing in the genre's future.

"Yes, you can jailbreak your phone and play the game for free. But if you like the game and like the kind of games we make, then pay us a little bit of money and, if it's a big enough success, we can reinvest the funds. We can start to look at a potential BASS sequel. You know, I think a massive part of the piracy problem is due to a broken-down relationship between game makers and consumers. There's no respect between the two parties anymore. So I'm very excited at the prospect of repairing the relationship. I think this is the model we'll take with our future games. If you like adventures and like what we write, then please work with us. We're looking at ways of including fans names in future games and so on. It's more exciting than ever before. It reminds me of the early eighties where anything seemed possible for smaller game-makers."

I remember years ago when Virgin megastore dropped their full price games to £29.99.

I was working at GAME at the time and we did the same with all our games. That was when PSone games were expensive.. I remember Final Fantasy 7 being priced up at £44.99!

No! Games have always been cheap! I paid thre'pence ha'penny for CoD4, and were happy wi't.

No! Games have always been cheap! I paid thre'pence ha'penny for CoD4, and were happy wi't.

Where do shops get their stock from for games? is it direct from the publisher? How do these small ebay shops get stock? How could I get this game for wholesale price?

http://www.gem.co.uk/

Gem provide our partners with end to end integrated supply chain solutions and added value distribution to the retail channel for software, peripheral and connected home technologies.

Stop letting your marketing people write for your web site!

Most of the new text I have to build the company website with starts 'Lorem Ipsum...'

I'd pay more if it didn't come with a disk.

I am considering halfway house solutions we might see between now and whatever day we all just download games and Game/Gamestation go out of business.

The games can obviously be digitally distributed but we will always need somewhere to buy hardware.

Margins on hardware sales are very slim though -- too slim to support an entire shop dedicated to it. I would expect hardware to only be sold in places that do other sales too, like HMV, or Asda.

Meanwhile, in another retail sector, second hand booksellers are angry that Oxfam undercut them. The parallels with the second hand games market are striking.

Meanwhile, in another retail sector, second hand booksellers are angry that Oxfam undercut them. The parallels with the second hand games market are striking.

One thing Ive seen looking at the prices of ashes 09 online is that game are charging 44.99 for pre-orders of MW2
And 54.99 for pre-orders of Forza 3.

This is the point that I think Gaywood's trying to make. There's no way he's paying £55 for those games.

I had a pre-order spree last night. Using the extra 10% off voucher on The Hut I ordered Assassin's Creed 2, Halo: ODST and Dead Rising 2, all for 84 quid. The way I like to look at it is that I pre-ordered 2 at regular price and got Dead Rising 2 free.

I had a pre-order spree last night. Using the extra 10% off voucher on The Hut I ordered Assassin's Creed 2, Halo: ODST and Dead Rising 2, all for 84 quid. The way I like to look at it is that I pre-ordered 2 at regular price and got Dead Rising 2 free.