Christoph Hartmann, global president of 2K Games, has criticised UK games retailers for slashing games prices too early and warns that they may be making the same mistakes as the music business. While Hartmann has praised the country’s retailers for creating a good buzz around key launches, he believes that games sellers are too quick to relegate month-old titles to the bargain bin instead of giving them a chance to prove themselves over time.
“Your guys really understand how to create a buzz and an event around a product – even compared to the US,” Hartmann told trade mag, MCV. “But by the same token, they’re willing to take less and less risk over what that product is. “By concentrating on the highlights, they up their revenue short-term – but they’re driving certain important customers away.”
Having witnessed the massive price cuts on so many blockbuster titles even ahead of Xmas, you can see what he’s talking about. In the festive rush, some games prices were cut dramatically, probably well before some players had even received the compatible console.
Arguably, we consumers shouldn’t have anything to complain about. We get the games cheaper, after all. However, the danger is what this affect will have on the games development and publishing industry in the long term. We already suffer from too little variety, endless sequels and genres flooded with me-too titles. And we already know that publishers are rarely willing to stick their necks out for a new idea; so if retailers aren’t bothered either, or won’t sell it at a decent price for more than a couple of weeks, there’s even less incentive for the rest of the industry to try out new ideas.
On the flipside, you can hardly blame retailers for wanting to clear out some of their valuable shelf space, especially in the latter part of this year, when big budget titles were arriving in their droves. The publishers themselves have a lot to answer for in letting nearly the whole of the rest of the year go unnoticed, just so they can compete for the Xmas market.
It’s way too early to tell whether Hartmann’s warnings will have any effect, but with the troubles facing Zavvi and Woolworths – and quite possibly other retailers in the coming months – 2009 may see dramatic changes to the face of the games retail industry.
(via MCV)
