Be Excellent To Each Other

MVC has an interesting article on how and why specialist games retailers are having a tough time recently. Some interesting viewpoints of people in the industry which I shall CHOICE QUOTE.

Good! It's these same stores that have perpetuated this homogeny for the past few years, offering fewer and fewer games in their physical stores and hyping the release of the CoDs and FIFAs.

They're basically admitting that the majority of "gamers" only buy these games, and they've chased that pot of gold and neglected the people who've been supporting them since the eighties (people like us). They need to adapt to survive, and start serving us again. Leave the supermarkets to it. You never know, the CoD lot might turn into gamers with more varied tastes, and these retailers can be there for them.

Certainly the last few months have been quieter than usual for SavyGamer. I put it somewhat down to the traditional Summer drought that always happens, and the Olympics taking up a lot of people's time.

Quieter both in terms of total spend, and also traffic to the site. Things usually pick up for me around this time of year and then November/December/January are my busiest months, earning roughly double what the average for a year would be.

Edit: Although I'm doing quite good business for PC downloads, iOS stuff, and the older cheaper console games people missed first time around (£5-10 range) at the moment, as people want to pick up games they never played before the end of the generation.

Um, well, yes, this is totally true; but a statement of fact does not an actual argument or informed opinion make. Yer Call of FIFA crowd can't be your core market because there's barely a market there so you should carry on trying to sell the rest of the product that's in your shop, like any other shopkeeper in any other industry would do. I'm a bit puzzled why anyone would say this in the context of this question because it doesn't actually seem to mean anything.



I don't even know what this quote is trying to say? Who does he think was relying on the main review sites that no longer can and how is this costing him sales? Is he trying to say that the main review sites pump up shite games so they'd sell but now he can't rely on people to believe their lies and thus buy shite games from him? Or am I totally misreading that?

It's a vicious circle though isn't it? Their limited funds will only allow them to stock so many games a year so they go for the safe option of stocking FIFA and COD as they know they'll sell the majority of them and make a profit.

I can't blame them for not taking risks on obscure stuff like Catherine etc. (I can't actually think of anything else obscure)

Further to my point, these stores have always existed, and their old customers still exist. But there are also millions of new customers who previously didn't play games. Maybe just admit that they're not your customers and downsize back to catering for hobbyists?

The amount of boxes on shelves for pre-order games amuses me taking up valuable retail space that the shops could use for, I dunno, actual games that are available there and then.

Shadows of the Damned horrifically under-performed probably cause of its lack of presence. The shelves are stacked with the same culprits and reems of games are stored in swathes on nondescript racking lost to everyone except those who choose to go looking. It's about time the games shops woke up and tried something different.

Not just physical stores. Of the 7 cycling main adverts on Game.co.uk only one of the offers is not a pre-order (which are easily cancellable).

Yeah, it was almost a half decent game.

The average person buys fewer than 9 games over the lifetime of the console (passim).

Published reviews aren't really worth sticking much value on.

CoDIFA will sell loads twice a year. EPople probably own two things of each. Chasing the other half of games is going to go into the law of dininishing returns.

Hobbyist shops will have to charge more to account for the lower volume and add value to the game. Online shops and the use of price aggregators like the most excellent http://www.finditcheapest.com will be where most people go to get their games still.

I think there are some much bigger problems here - the report and odd quotes do cover some (the attempt to kill off the 2nd hand market for example and the way that some retailers push 2nd hand games for pennies less than the new titles) however going just by anecdotal evidence at this point last year i'd spent ~£200 on games and went on to spend about double that with all the bargains and sales at the end of the year (mainly for things that came out that I'd missed)

This year I've pretty much bought the games I'm interested in so far and have spent around 1/2 that amount , and looking at all the new stuff coming out there is virtually nothing i'm going to buy even if it was at a knock down price (at the moment i think its just BLOPS2 , Dead Space3 and perhaps Resi6 if it isnt as bad as it looks)

In my old workplace I knew so many of those so called 'hardcore gamers'. Playing a million hours of CoD and FIFA only, and it was the only game they talked about (they only knew about things like BF3 because EA had specifically targeted the whole thing at CoD players). I'm trying to decide if there's a parallel to be drawn with the people who played nothing but Quake or even Doom back in the day.

Catherine might have done better if it wasn't £44.99 in the shops every time I went in one.

I've seen it for sub-£20 in about three different shops in the last couple of weeks. Why don't you just pop down to Asda when you've got a moment?


Probably not. It's more akin to someone who only dines out at McDonald's, or watches soaps. Playing CoD/FIFA is barely scratching the surface of what gaming can offer.

So in other words, yes, there was something to what I said?

Sorry, I should have elaborated - I don't think it's comparable, because back in the Quake and Doom days gaming was still rather niche. You'd be very unlikely to find a stranger in a pub who was a mad Quake fan. I bet you could go almost anywhere today and find someone who plays CoD.

Ex- Fat Radio Funnyman Moyles was always going on about it, too.

I remember Jeremy Clarkson said "it's like buying a Playstation wargame that isn't Call of Duty" when talking about a random car too.

I was talking about the individuals who just play that one game (whichever it is), as opposed to how many of them there are out there (or rather, in their basement, ho ho etc). Those guys who played Quake constantly didn't buy any other games, and were 'just as bad' for retailers as these CoD goons are now. However, I do grant that yes, there's a lot more CoD players than there were Quake players so the badness effect is magnified.

I wonder how many of these CoD nuts are relatively new to gaming? As in, they're going through the phase that those of us who played from an early age did, where one game in particular was THE BEST GAME EVER and that was all we'd ever play ever. Eventually you pass through that phase and start taking an interest in other games too... but because they're arriving late to the party they might not realize just how much there is out there?

Terrible how people wait for a game that the fucking store has been fucking heavily fucking advertising over six fucking months before it is fucking released.

You would think that these companies are run by morons or something.

Most of the small sample set of such people that I know in real life are all folks who had a Megadrive/SNES/N64/PSX back in the day so they're not new to gaming per se; their interest in games is now just channelled entirely into on line multi-player games and CoD/FIFA are the big hitters in that arena so that's mostly what they play. Actually most of them spend even less time playing games than they did when the current generation of consoles was released so with the people I know the problem is likely to get worse rather than better.

Of course I've no idea how representative my mates are in this respect.

Having Bayonetta 2 as a Wii-U exclusive certainly won't help matters.

That's their first mistake. Calling yourself a 'hardcore gamer'? Gross.

*smile slowly fades*

*closes buttcheeks*

*pulls up shorts*

I don't necessarily take having had an interest back in the days of (x console of yore) into account as an indicator one way or another. Every student house in the UK had an N64 with Goldeneye and quite possibly a PSX with Tekken and Gran Turismo, for example. Getting time on it to properly enjoy the games was another thing... when I first had a Dreamcast it was in the living room but the TV was in such demand that I needed to get a VGA box or I'd have hardly ever gotten to use it, for example.

Just wait 'til they announce Dark Souls 2 as a Wii-U exclusive as well.
*runs*

Well what are you talking about then? You seem to keep moving the goalposts of your theory with every post. If people had played loads of games when they were younger (which would, by necessity, be on "x console of yore") then surely they've definitely moved past "the phase that those of us who played from an early age did, where one game in particular was THE BEST GAME EVER and that was all we'd ever play ever"? I genuinely now don't have a clear idea of what you're trying to say at all.

If they get that I'll eat a SNES dipped in dog shit.

*Starts a Kickstarter for Dark Souls 2*

A teacher friend of mine teaches woodwork to teens who are utterly obsessed by CoD. All they want to do is play CoD make wood shapes of the MW3 silhouette and so on.

So, yeah, kids love the CoD but one day they might give up gaming altogether or they might try some other games. Who knows.

GAME are killing the Gamestation brand.

They've both been shit since the takeover anyway. I used to buy all my games in Gamestation. I think I've bought one game in both shops combined in the last two years.

I go into Gamestation probably once a month or so but I'm always surprised at how expensive the games are.

Why people don't buy everything online is beyond me?

Sometimes I just wake up and I decide that I might like a new game to play, actually then though, not in maybe a week's time. So I go and buy one.

Amazon do same-day delivery in most large places* now. It's spendy, though.

All this changes when the next-gen gives us proper downloadable games.

*London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea and, excellently, Bedford.

Shopto deliver games on the next day.. and they're cheaper. I'd rather wait a day and save some money.

Same for me, but I pay for Amazon Prime.

It depends how much the difference is and what my plans are. If it's a fiver different, I wanted to go to town/Asda/wherever anyway and it means I get to play it over the weekend then I'll probably just go and get it.

That's where we differ I'm afraid. I would rather wait a few days and get the cheapest possible price. I kind of like the anticipation of the post coming too.

I don't care about price in the main (except in the case of super-bargains), but so many of these so-called cheaper online games emporia are terrible for delivering on time. Quite important if you preorder new games.

ShopTo are usually quite good when I've used them, though.

GameStop are simply fantastic for pre-orders being delivered on time. Zavvi/TheHut are the worst online company I've ever dealt with.

I'm the opposite, I don't deal well with the disappointment if it doesn't turn up when I expected. Especially if I've been looking forward to it all day at work and it's still not there when I get home. No, much rather nip into town at dinner and grab it.

Oh totally, I've learnt which sites will deliver on time and which sites take ages.

I pretty much agree with Dimrill there. I have had a game on order with TheHut for about 6 months now... just sitting there. They haven't charged me for it and I haven't cancelled it.

Ho Ho Wermo
\

LewieP's guide to games retailers that reliably deliver promptly:
Amazon,
boomerangrentals (consistently the fastest, presumably because speed matters more to their rental business, but they sell cheap ex rental games too),
Cool Shop,
GAME,
Gamestation,
GameStop,
Play (only OK I think, not as good as they used to be),
Sainsbury's,
Shopto (one of the fastest, not as good for prices as they used to be),
Simply Games,
Tesco,
The Game Collection.

Don't you have to be a member to use Boomerangrentals?

Amazon messed up two of my last half dozen preordered games. Maybe three, actually.

They've only messed me about once, and I suspect that's because I have stuff delivered to work and it went to the wrong building.

You have to be a member with a subscription to use their rental service.

You have to have an account (like pretty much any retailer) to buy their ex rental games. No subscription is required though.

Perhaps it's different in different parts of the country, they've always been fine for me.

They've only messed up one order for me, ever. But I don't think I've ever had a game early when I've pre-ordered with them. With ShopTo, having it arrive on release day is a rarity, in a good way — they usually arrive two or three days early. So even if they're a few quid more than other places, they have some pretty strong loyalty from me.