Wal-Mart Controls Modern Game Design?

An anonymous reader writes "That Wal-Mart smiley face is looking pretty evil now that Allen Varney has explained how much influence they have on virtually every modern game: 'Publisher sales reps inform Wal-Mart buyers of games in development; the games' subjects, titles, artwork and packaging are vetted and sometimes vetoed by Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart tells a top-end publisher it won't carry a certain game, the publisher kills that game. In short, every triple-A game sold at retail in North America is managed start to finish, top to bottom, with the publisher's gaze fixed squarely on Wal-Mart, and no other.'"

Comments

/. strikes again with misleading headline

[Sargeant Slaughter]

When I see "Game design" on a slashdot headline, I think oh, they must be talking about enforcing less violence, or push for earlier release dates resulting in sloppier code etc... But package design? Who gives a crap? I think it would be natural for Walmart to give feedback about what marketing techniques work well in their stores...

Tomatoes

[Nemus]

I'm ready and willing to be flamed on this, so here goes. Let's take the example of a grocery store, Like Bi-Lo, or Krogers, or Publix. All of these stores have a produce section, and all of them buy tomatoes. The question is, do they buy every tomato that a distributor lays in front of them? Of course not: they check for quality, freshness, appearance, all of which have to meet certain minimum metrics. Now, obviously, the argument is a bit different when it comes to creative content, like games. Opinions as to quality (Civ 4) can difffer (Deer Hunter). However, I do know that I've never bought a tomato that looked fugly just because it was the only one on the shelf, and I've never bought a Deer Hunter game just because it took up a quarter of the shelf space.

Wal-Mart may have a large amount of influence over how games are made, marketed, and packaged, but it is still no different than the example of a tomato. Wal-MArt can't make me buy bad tomatoes, and Wal-Mart can't make me buy bad games. And Wal-Mart knows this. So what does Wal-Mart do? Well, for one, it starts selling an anime series called Gantz. Gantz is the "new thing," in violent/gory American released anime, and in its first episode features a dual decapitation, complete with a full minute of flying heads, the reconstruction of a naked girl with slashed wrists, incluing brains and intestines, as well as attempted rape. Gantz volumes one through three are also currently sitting on the shelf of one of my local Wal-Marts, right here in the buckle of that opressivee, socially dominant "Bible Belt," (Tennessee.)

So tomatos, games, and attempted rape anime; how does it all fit together? Simple, Wal-Mart is clever. Wal-Mart tells tomato growers to use chemicals and certain methods to grow the tomatoes that it wants. In this way, Wal-Mart isn't selling a product that offends customers. Wal-Mart sells GTA San Andreas up until the revelation of the stupid, stupid, stupid addition of Back Coffee, stops selling it, and then sells it again once the stupid, stupid addition is removed. And Wal-Mart will keep selling Gantz, as long as the publisher keeps it low-key and quiet, so no Soccer Moms are screaming at a Wal-Mart middle manager about the product that they themselves bought. Simply put, Wal-Mart does send a message to developers and distibutors of all type, but it is not the messge of "Don't do this, don't do that." Wal-Mart HAS sold games and other products with Graphic nudity before. Wal-Mart HAS sold products with sexual content, including games, before. The message isn;t "Don't," the message is: Keep it quiet, and don't make it a big problem for us.