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GAME to publish games too?
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 4th July 2008
GAME is looking to expand business by publishing games from smaller developers.
The retail giant, which also owns Gamestation and is often accused of having a chokehold on the UK games market, isn't intending to star developing and publishing AAA titles though instead it has an eye on the indie circuit and is searching for smaller developers.
“If it works commercially for GAME and helps a smaller publisher get off the ground by GAME sharing some of the risk, then we would look at it – we have a distribution channel and we can offer a service," said a GAME spokesperson.
The plan to start publishing games itself though may cause more friction between the chain of stores and larger, existing publishers. There's already plenty of disagreement between the two groups and several publishers are vocally annoyed that they get zero revenue from the sales of pre-owned games.
GAME meanwhile is quick to point out that it doesn't want to threaten publishers and is more interested in publishing smaller titles.
"This isn’t about us doing something that threatens publishers. It is about listening to developers who may come to us with titles that may not otherwise be able to get to market."
Would you buy a GAME-published game, or do you only go for online distribution now? Let us know what you think in the forums.
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Comments (23)
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and this is why Steam doesn't allow you to sell on the games you buy. (something I see people complaining about a lot)
You don't see other industries jumping up and down about the secondhand market. If I buy a book secondhand, I don't get mugged by representatives from Penguin asking for a cut of what I paid; if I buy a secondhand fridge, Hotpoint don't ask for more money.
id say 80% of my games were bought new and the ones i was iffy about i bought preowned.
if im confident in the quality of a game ill buy it new, but im not paying â¬70 for a game that could out to be tat
and if game publishers were making games that people didnt want to part with there wouldnt be a preowned market, im not getting rid of pgr, orange box, cod 23or4, halo 3, rainbow 6, GTA4 probably not crackdown because of their replay value
Car companies actively encourage the second hand market. The easier it is to sell your Hyundai when the warranty/ 3 years is up the more likely you are to buy it new. If only games pubs would see it that way, if your game has a good resale value i'll buy it new and get it before its up for resale safe in the knowledge its cost £30 in stead of £50 since i got £20 back for it.
Im lazy.
mobile phones come to mind, what do you think why they offer you money (through a as complicated as legally somehow possible procedure) for your old one? exactly, so you dont give it to your grandmother (or someone else who cant tell its old crap) and has to get a new one as well.
They bought Gamestation from Blockbuster months ago... it may have even been a year now..
You didnt read Joe's article did you? Or you would have noticed this int he first line of the second para.
Theres something about the fact that you cant physically touch something that makes people go nuts, and greedy. mostly greedy.
God, I think you touched a nerve with that.... seriously! When I buy something, I OWN it. All this software licensing stuff has gotten so overboard, its like we're being bled dry by some sort of licensing-mafia.
When you own something you should, by my reconing, have the right to:
1) use it, abuse it, do whatever you want to it - its yours. [modding]
2) loan it to others (bearing in mind, only that one person is using it in the case of software, at the same time) [rental]
3) sell it on [um.. capitalism?]
and all without these greedy companies getting all whiny about not getting EXTRA pocket money :( :(
yeah, and they said there would be a paper-less office too...
people will always want a reason to go and see the world outside, and touch the stuff they're buying. not everyone likes the future where everything is digital... including human beings.
I'm not a fan of digital games if it's the big titles, I like to see the box on my shelf (I've got HL2 in a retail box). Indie and cheaper games are ok, but like with the Wii when I sold it I couldn't sell the games I bought with it, which pissed me off somewhat tbh
OT: Game selling indie titles could be cool, if they're any good of course:
Your opinion is not the only one. Your idea of how the world should be like is not the right one. No single idea is. You need to work together with other people. Together we will be right. Live in harmony!
There are lots of different people out there. Some people like digital distribution, some people don't like it.
Some people go retail because they don't have fast no-caps internet. There are a lot of bad ISPs out in the world.
Just read this and was wondering who you were aiming at and if you were high at the time. If it was me I said I like having a physical DVD on the shelf and wasn't thrusting my opinion on anyone else. If not, then ye of course it's just 1's and 0's burned into a disc layer, but I personally (along with quite a few others) like seeing em there :D
Digital distribution has it's place, but it's not the be all and end all that people seem to think it is
Yet at least. Maybe one day we'll have decent net speeds in the UK and no DRM :p
if everything is digital, if we can buy, recieve, and take part in everything we want or need - what kind of world does that make it, and do you think you would really be a part of it, or would it merely be watching shadows on a cave wall? (bonus points for the reference)
look, digital distribution is fantastic - I love the fact that if i want, i can buy a game right off of steam or whatever when i feel like getting a fix. However, I also like retail stores, I like being able to go out, and rummage through the bargain bins trying to find something good, talking to the staff - getting a bit of advice, and even just having a reason to leave the computer for a couple hours. Digital distribution, as good as it may be is not so grand as to uproot all retail chains, thats just folly. Anyone who is just going to assume that while they like sitting on they're arse more than seeing and interacting with real people - even if it costs a small amount extra, that everyone in the world is like that, is just dilluded. im sorry.
there will *always* be people who want to touch what they're buying.
My point is this: digital distribution good. but not everyone likes the inhumanity of the experience. if that makes any sense. How else do you explain book stores still being alive after 10 or so years of amazon and its dopplegangers, or auction houses even though ebay and the likes are "better".
Edit:
back on topic for a second here; im all for Game supporting indie developers, good on them i say. honestly i dont give a rats about publishers getting pissy, the likes of EA are starting to look an awful lot like the RIAA to me - and boy is that not a good thing!
What's this 'real people" thing i keep hearing about and why would i want to deal with some of them? :?