On Thursday, I picked up a duo of highly promising titles from GAME. For different reasons, I had an intention to return the pair of them for a full refund. The 10 day return is GAME's trick card; where they can't financially compete the supermarkets who break street date and the online retailers who have no store front to maintain and pay for, they can offer consumers the opportunity to make to buy the latest release or make an impulse purchase on the offchance that, sure, they might like it, but if not, they can always get a refund. Alas, the routine trip to my local GAME to return the offending items led to the staff informing me that the scheme was over and that the relevant point-of-sale material had been all over the store for ages. Yeah, because a customer rushing in on their lunch break REALLY has time to look at posters. To cut an ultimately pointless story short, I was eventually able to get a refund from the Debenham's GAME concession just up the road - who aren't starting the scheme until Sunday.
I could sit here all day and complain about the lunacy of the previous sentence, but instead, I'd rather mention the circumstances that have led to GAME pulling their long-standing policy. It's down to publishers; games that are taken back play with their projected sales figures and create an inaccurate set of numbers for them. Nothing that they can't correct over the longer term, of course. GAME's return policy was abused by pirates and those looking for an extended free rental, but for every individual responsible for those moments, there were far more willing to use the service to give the more dubious titles a chance. The fact that GAME buckled to pressure to publishers is just another indescretion by the business suitss who steer the market further away from its target audiences. Any number of incidents over recent weeks do not reflect well on the attitudes on many organizations. Sony's action over the import of PlayStation products, EA selling cheats over Xbox Live Marketplace, Konami offering a half complete version of Pro Evolution Soccer 6... the list goes on.
Ultimately, all of this activity is only going to drive the long time gamer away. Using myself as an example, I used to spend upwards of ?250 every month in GAME, both to buy absolute triple A hits and to take a chance on the more obscure, conceptually fascinating productions. There's no longer a reason for me to do that. The supermarkets break street date almost every week, so I can pick anything up during my lunch break if I fancy strolling down to the retail park. Maybe I'll choose to save a little money, and import one of the Asian release region free titles from Play-Asia, where even the latest games are a pair of scores cheaper than the UK RRP. Or perhaps, I'll just ignore the release for a few months, until I get the opportunity to try a demo or get a second hand copy on eBay for less of a risky price.
You can be certain I'm not the only one with these thoughts buzzing through my head. Gamers like me will be making the same or similar assessments, which is going to damage publishers much more than they think. The publishers seem quite content to publish the hardcore for wanting to try out games before committing to them, or for wanting to experience them at the earliest opportunity - both easily situations that are resolved by showing just a little effort and care towards the European community. Whilst kids and the casual gamer won't realise this or understand, it won't be long until developers find themselves under the force of creating a generic sports title, Disney adaption or random first person shooter - because they're almost all that sells to the FIFA fan who might buy one game every 4 or 5 months and the kids who's parents resist spoiling their kids with a bloated ?50 toy that will only provide them with a few hours of enjoyment before it's tossed asides.
If the suits don't realise this soon, then the industry and everyone within it is in danger of eating itself.
I could sit here all day and complain about the lunacy of the previous sentence, but instead, I'd rather mention the circumstances that have led to GAME pulling their long-standing policy. It's down to publishers; games that are taken back play with their projected sales figures and create an inaccurate set of numbers for them. Nothing that they can't correct over the longer term, of course. GAME's return policy was abused by pirates and those looking for an extended free rental, but for every individual responsible for those moments, there were far more willing to use the service to give the more dubious titles a chance. The fact that GAME buckled to pressure to publishers is just another indescretion by the business suitss who steer the market further away from its target audiences. Any number of incidents over recent weeks do not reflect well on the attitudes on many organizations. Sony's action over the import of PlayStation products, EA selling cheats over Xbox Live Marketplace, Konami offering a half complete version of Pro Evolution Soccer 6... the list goes on.
Ultimately, all of this activity is only going to drive the long time gamer away. Using myself as an example, I used to spend upwards of ?250 every month in GAME, both to buy absolute triple A hits and to take a chance on the more obscure, conceptually fascinating productions. There's no longer a reason for me to do that. The supermarkets break street date almost every week, so I can pick anything up during my lunch break if I fancy strolling down to the retail park. Maybe I'll choose to save a little money, and import one of the Asian release region free titles from Play-Asia, where even the latest games are a pair of scores cheaper than the UK RRP. Or perhaps, I'll just ignore the release for a few months, until I get the opportunity to try a demo or get a second hand copy on eBay for less of a risky price.
You can be certain I'm not the only one with these thoughts buzzing through my head. Gamers like me will be making the same or similar assessments, which is going to damage publishers much more than they think. The publishers seem quite content to publish the hardcore for wanting to try out games before committing to them, or for wanting to experience them at the earliest opportunity - both easily situations that are resolved by showing just a little effort and care towards the European community. Whilst kids and the casual gamer won't realise this or understand, it won't be long until developers find themselves under the force of creating a generic sports title, Disney adaption or random first person shooter - because they're almost all that sells to the FIFA fan who might buy one game every 4 or 5 months and the kids who's parents resist spoiling their kids with a bloated ?50 toy that will only provide them with a few hours of enjoyment before it's tossed asides.
If the suits don't realise this soon, then the industry and everyone within it is in danger of eating itself.
Comment