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UK Games Retailers Threaten Boycott of Steam Games
RogueyWon writes "Games industry trade site MCV is reporting that two major UK video games retailers are threatening to ban Steam-enabled PC games from their stores. The as-yet-unnamed retailers are apparently concerned that by selling Steam games, they are pointing their customers towards a competitor and will by trying to bring pressure upon publishers to strip Steam functionality from their games. This could prove an interesting test of where the real power lies at the retail end of PC gaming."
I feel so conflicted over this one, to be honest.
On the one hand, high street game retailers have nobody but themselves to blame for their woes, particularly where PC games are concerned. Going out on a limb, I'd guess that the two UK retailers the story refers to are Game and Gamestation. Of course, both of those have the same owning company, so maybe there's actually another retailer out there who's thinking the same way, but I wouldn't bet on it. I think HMV (our major music/dvds high street retailer that also does games) is too diversified to be really worried about the PC gaming market.
The main difference between Game and Gamestation is that the latter is almost entirely used games sales, while the former generously gives over a good 25% or so of its shelf-space in the average store to new games. Occasionally, they'll even let you buy one without a pre-order.
Gamestation is, in my opinion, pretty much unspeakable. They have a business model that revolves around buying copies of Fifa Soccer off teenagers for £3 (or £5 if they accept payment in store credit) and selling them on at £30. I've nothing against used games sales, but really, people could be getting a far better deal either as vendor or buyer from ebay. And that's basically the entirety of Gamestation.
Game used to be somewhat better. Sure, they have the same used-games model, but they did at least used to be a reasonable place to buy new titles. These days, however, if you want anything other than the last couple of big releases for each platform; well, I hope you pre-ordered. They have a small number of flagship stores that are slightly better, but shopping in the average branch pretty much comes down to "Do you want Fifa new or used (oh, and the right answer is "used")?". I remember when Valkyria Chronicles 2 came out... I was told by the staff at the Game branch in London's Victoria Station that I had no chance of getting one without pre-order. So I walked a few yards to the (tiny, cupboard-like) branch of HMV and got one there.
And as for PC gaming, both chains have completely neglected it since the start of the current console cycle. If the store had a PC section (and not every store did) it was usually a single rack with a new release or two and a collection of 5-10 year old casual titles. No refunds on PC games (though they might reluctantly exchange a damaged disc) and, with no used market, the retailers weren't interested. And yet now, with the current gen consoles looking a little bit tired (with no successors in sight) and Valve having revived the PC market quite effectively, high-street retailers decide that they want a slice of it. And apparently they want it handed to them on a platter.
And at the same time, Steam is, in many ways, an extremely good service. As DRM goes, it's not offensive. It's tied to an account, not a PC, and you can redownload data as many times as you want. There's no need to put any kind of game disc in your drive. And Steam does generally seem to offer at least an alternative to the kinds of hideous DRM we've seen elsewhere. Plus it's a well-rounded platform that includes achievements, friends lists and most of the other features we expect from the (subscription based) Xbox Live service.
However... there are aspects of Valve's business practices that are starting to worry me. I have no sympathy for high-street retailers, but I do think that some of Valve's online competitors are being very hard done by. It must suck for direct2drive (who I have used and who are fine, if not as good as Steam) that every copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops they sell has to be installed within Steam, sending customers direct to their main competitor. Steam has, thus far, been a net positive for PC gamers. But should Steam become the only platform in town, then I don't think that's going to work so well for the customer. Ideally, we need some of their competition to get their act in gear and improve their own services to the point where they become a valid alternative.
I can't remember if it was on here or some other site but I read a bit where a guy went to go buy Oblivion from GameStop and he just so happened to enter when someone was trying to sell their copy of Oblivion to the store. The used copy from the store was going for 30 or 40 bucks while they were only willing to pay like 10 dollars for buying it back.
The guy interrupted and offered $20 for the exchange and the two of them left the store happy.
I think I may do this with some of my older games - I'll go stand right out front of Gamestop and huck my goods.
they dont force onto you a restricting client, you never have any issues with modding the games or patches, and most of the games are drm free even.
Read radical news here
No offense taken, and the battle of used-store vs. streetcorner/ebay/craigslist vs. new is a difficult and complicated situation. In the end, all anyone wants to do is "get on by" without upsetting people, but all these things seem to be in contention with one another for one thing: your dollar.
I could say how we don't normally set our prices at "just below retail": most of our prices are determined by what we research online (for media this is usually a quick check on Amazon) and we price them as such, unless we're POSITIVE it will sell for more. We've also ran into some competition with Walmart, actually, where they price their brand new blu-rays and some consumer electronics items at or below USED value (which tends to be ~60% retail on average).
As for what we pay, it reflects the risk we're taking on what we buy. A vendor has the ability to get replacements or refunds if there is a significant amount of a defective product; for us, it just goes in the trash. We have to do our research, hold it for a number of weeks to be processed by the police, clean it, maintain it, and then guarantee it - all after buying this thing from someone that decided to use their DVD cases as coasters. Fantastic. $10-$15 for something we're going to turn around and sell for $30 sounds more than fair to me, but I suppose I'm biased.
The issue isn't that people are buying and selling between each other instead of us. It's using our facilities, our store, as a way to find that connection. Go use craigslist or ebay - we refer people there all the time when they don't like what we're willing to pay - but it's akin to us coming and selling our crap in the middle of your store and saying that it's OBVIOUS and INEVITABLE because you're selling everything SO FAR ABOVE market value.