Slashdot Mirror
GameStop's View of the Gaming World
Gamasutra has up a massive interview with some of the executives at Gamestop, the largest games-specific retailer here in the US. Speaking with folks like senior merchandising VP Bob McKenzie and marketing VP Tom DeNapoli, the site explores the retailer's unique position within the gaming world, their views on the three consoles, and even the possibility that they might someday stock AO titles. "Gamasutra: There was a point where Manhunt 2 was considered an AO game. Is an AO game something that you would consider selling if it came out? Is it something that you would consider carrying in your stores? Bob McKenzie: I think that it is an opportunity that we would have to look at on a case-by-case. In this situation, I'm glad that they went back, reworked it, and it will be M rated. I can't say that we would have supported it at AO, and I can't say that we won't. In the past, when there was an AO game such as Leisure Suit Larry from a couple of years ago, GameStop wouldn't support that game in our retail stores. However, that was before the merger with Electronics Boutique, and EB did take the title into their retail stores. So, again, it is a situation that we have to take on a case-by-case. But I have to say that we prefer that the AO games are not anything that we are out there in the market looking for."
> The refusal of all the major retailers to sell AO games amounts to nothing more than censorship.
Do you understand what censorship is? Here are three examples:
Only one of those is illegal. Do you know which one it is?
Frankly, I'm not sure what you'd propose as an alternative. Do you want the government to require that retailers who sell any video games must sell all video games out there, regardless of their rating, sexual content, violence level, or even based on whether it's any fun or not? And you think that's an improvement over the free market where a company decides on its own which products to sell? While you're at it, maybe you should get the government to force all video retailers to carry all NC-17 videos. And maybe they should also require all booksellers to sell all X-rated books and magazines that exist.
> We should get rid of the "sex is bad" crowd
Right! We need to censor those guys! Er... hang on...
It's not the "sex is bad" crowd that's causing this. It's driven primarily by the Jack Thompson "video games make people murderers" crowd. Hot Coffee was just the final straw on top of all the violence complaints about GTA.
And yeah, video games aren't different than movies. Movies went through this junk too. Unfortunately, this stuff doesn't get resolved until the people who grew up with the thing in question are old enough to have a significant influence in politics.
The refusal of all the major retailers to sell AO games amounts to nothing more than censorship.
Sigh. Private business should be and are allowed to make their own rules. How is that censorship? Whether the decision is moral, financial (smaller market for those AO games you see) or ass-watching (don't want an employee to accidentally sell one to a kid, or get accused of it, etc), it doesn't matter. My store, my rules. That's like saying you stop by a gas station convenience store, and get pissed off because they don't have (say) bread. Sure 99% of gas stations stock bread, but for some reason this one chose not to. More power to them. Are they now censoring the carbohydrate industry? Your argument is absurd.
If stores are refusing to sell games that aren't ESRB-rated, then the ESRB has a monopoly and should be taken care of by the antitrust laws.
Game studios can sell direct. 18 and a credit card. More power to them.
"Private business should be and are allowed to make their own rules."
Individually, yes, but what happens when they collude? There's a difference between individual retailers refusing to carry a product and all retailers refusing to carry a product.
The example used is Leisure Suit Larry. It made Sierra money, therefore there was quite the market for it. But in today's market, despite potential customer demand for such a game, the retailers as a whole would refuse to sell it, denying Sierra access to customers and vice versa.
"Censorship" likely isn't the right word, but it's certainly "anti-competitive practices."
"That's like saying you stop by a gas station convenience store, and get pissed off because they don't have (say) bread."
No, it's like every gas station refusing to sell a particular brand of bed. Because they all got together and decided they didn't like the bread you were selling and that it was best for "the children" that you not be able to sell it.