fuel downloads of titles, it can be harmful to the digital market. “The mission of our industry is to convince players to buy games when they are released – not when they are discounted,” explains GOG.com MD Guillaume Rambourg. “The overabundance of promotional sales works against gamers, who often end up buying more games than they wished to and therefore do not have time to enjoy them.
bricks-and-mortar stores can stand toe-to-toe with current blockbusters in the digital world.
“Our back catalogue generates steady sales and gives us the opportunity to run campaigns on older titles – something that would be much more risky with physical products,” says Nisser. “Our Metro 2033sale, for example, helped people discover the game, which in turn permanently increased the number of sales. We’re still seeing the effects over a year later.” Green Man Gaming MD Paul Sulyok concurs: “We repeatedly see examples of a six-month-old product at the right price outselling a new release where the publisher has an unrealistic RRP.”
THE TRUE COST
GetGames operations director Dermot Stapleton adds that “the opportunity to re-invigorate a good title regularly is something that can only really be achieved in this digital marketplace.”
But some digital retailers argue that heavy discounting is not a perfect solution. While it can help
THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL RETAIL
FURTHER growth of the downloadable games market is both indisputable and inevitable, but how are digital retailers shaping their offers as they go forward? Many are experimenting with new business models. Green Man Gaming, for example, has signed a partnership with game streaming company Gaikai, allowing players to try games before they buy. Meanwhile, Gamersgate is launching its ad-financed games
service Void this summer, where customers have free access to titles after watching a few ads. GetGames’ Dermot Stapleton believes digital retail will become a lot more specialised, with fewer sites selling every type of game. “It won’t be long before you start seeing the penny drop that the games-buying public has specific areas of interest,” he explains. “They will favour outlets that can offer them exactly the type of
games they want and provide a community, specialist knowledge and good service – a bit like our specialist flight and train sim sites do at the moment.”
Some companies are even looking to take their catalogues beyond PC and onto new platforms, particularly Smart TVs. New payment models such as ‘pay what you like’ and Kickstarter-style crowd funding are also being watched carefully.
“Gamers jump from offers to offers. They now collect games, rather than developing an emotional relationship with a product they should love.
“Many digital outlets
Gamersgate reports that Metro 2033 is still a strong seller one year after the site’s initial price promotion
Many digital outlets make their bread- and-butter off steep discounts and that’s bad for retailers. Guillaume Rambourg, GOG.com
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make their bread-and- butter off steep discounts, and that’s bad for retailers, for publishers, for gamers, and for the whole industry. Pricing like this damages the long-term value of a brand, and the long-term value of games as a whole.”
THINKING OUT OF THE BOX The best solution is to embrace the one thing that digital retailers have over their bricks-and-mortar competition: flexibility.
The download companies that will succeed will be the ones that react quickly to sales trends, that think creatively about their promotions, and don’t just act like physical shops. “This is a 24/7 market – more akin to the financial markets than traditional retail,” Sulyok concludes. “Both retailers and publishers who
take a traditional nine to five approach fail to achieve the potential. Being agile is key, both commercially and technically.”
(Top to bottom) GetGames’ Stapleton, Gamersgate’s Nisser, GOG’s Rambourg, Metaboli’s Utz, GMG’s Sulyok and Ztorm’s Emblad discuss digital pricing