@plasticpals@wraithtek@austin_walker
The uncanny success of the GameStop business model over the years has always fascinated me given the perceived split among the community of gamers who seem to either loathe what GameStop represents and those who support GameStop because they feel they are getting value in trading games or simply owning a physical copy, and perhaps a third faction that shares both sentiments at the same time in a more self-defeating way.
Either way, Austin's article sheds light on something I find far more disturbing that's more between the lines of the subject at hand. That is the sheer power and control GameStop as a distributor has over the industry-at-large.
They "worked with Sony, Microsoft, and EA" to bend to their own demands. Sony, Microsoft, and EA are not small companies, they are juggernauts in the industry who are creating the product in the first place, yet GameStop (who is providing the shelf for it to sit on around the corner from everyone's house in North America) is effectively telling them how to conduct their own business - and reaping a huge share of the profits on the back end and on the back end of that back end and then on the back end of that as well. It's enough to make you wonder how many release dates for games the big GS has mandated over the years when digital distribution wasn't even an option for publishers - or how many creative decisions that affect the development of those games trickle down from that kind of veto power at the distributor level (not to mention content ratings).
Consider this: do you think Apple gives a flying fuck what Best Buy thinks of their release dates or potential bundle opportunities? Of course not, because Apple has more weight to throw around in terms of proprietary retail distribution power and consequently have more control of their own creative vision and product cycles and BestBuy and third party retailers compete on Apple's terms as a result to keep the market competitive for consumers. Would you want GameStop telling you what kind of bundle or what release date works best for them for the next Apple product you want to buy?
That's not to say that Sony, Microsoft or EA always have our best interests in mind as consumers either, but at least they would still have an open and free market to contend with to determine value and restrictions (just look at the Xbox One launch and reversal if you don't believe me).
If giving up physical copies of games is the price to pay for eliminating the kind of control GameStop exerts over the content and distribution of video games as an entire industry than I'm all for it. I would rather wait 24 hours to download a game than have GameStop determine when and how it should be released. I would rather pay an extra $50/month for Internet access to download games digitally than having GameStop influencing potential content in a game I want to play. If buying digital means no more used games but more of the revenue generated from game sales as a whole finds it's way back to the companies who are creating the content in the first place than I am all for it.
It's time to move on from physical copies and trade-ins for content that is inherently digital to begin with. There are games available at all price levels that cater to all consumers. Maybe the price of admission for AAA games with $100 Million budgets should be $60 for everyone and not arbitrarily discounted the day after it is released because someone removed the shrink wrap on the case and inserted the disc in a tray once, or decided to lend it to a friend for free - because that is the cost of the product (regardless of the license debate). Just as free to play models represent the value consumers are willing to ascribe to those games before they move on to something else. To me there is absolutely nothing anti-consumer about this because the medium of our time has evolved, for better or worse, whether it is more convenient for the majority or not, it is simply a result of the age we live in today rather than a discussion based on the way it used to be done for the past three decades.
Like most things though,I guess there's no easy or definitive answer to the debate - just strong opinions;)
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