Game Retailers Hurting Themselves With Digital Distribution

GameBiz recently had the chance to speak with Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock, about pricing and distribution within the games industry. Wardell follows up a bit on the Demigod piracy fiasco from a few days ago, and mentions that retail outlets may be on their way out. "Retailers need to be careful about this stuff. They're kind of signing their own death warrants once they push digital distribution at the store. Once you have the thing set up — once you've experienced how to purchase the game or deal with it online — why would I go back to the store for the next purchase? Especially if the store isn't providing added value. If you're a retailer, you're killing yourself. If I can't get a game off Impulse, I'm going to Steam. I like stores, but I'm really lazy."

Re:communism = forced economy

[fastest fascist]

Right, because before Marx, there was no government intervention in economies. I'm guessing you're from the USA by the casual way you throw the term "Communist" around.

Re:why the devs / publisher's LOVE online distro

[Daengbo]

Ummm, do you realize that Counter Strike was originally a mod for Half-life?

Re:why the devs / publisher's LOVE online distro

[Anonymous Coward]

Alone in the Dark

You're kidding, right? AitD was the first modern survival horror game! It had evil dogs bursting through windows four years before Resident Evil turned it into a cliche. It used 3D layouts and polygon characters back when most games were stuck on sprites. Genre-defining, period.

Man, it'd be dreadful if they'd tried to "reimagine" it last year. Thank heaven that never happened.

Re:Read on your Mobile

[krischik]

I don't mind eBook readers. What I do mind is reduction of choice or unnecessary and incompatible changes to an established file format.

Mobipocket can be read on various eBook devices, Windows PCs, PDAs and Smartphones.
Mobipocket. You can buy Mobipocket eBooks from about a dozen shops - most of which even features in the Mobipocket software them self.

Mobipocket was inviting other companies to join in.

And what did Amazon do after they purchased Mobipocket? A minor but incompatible change to the file format and reduction to just one device.