Koch Media’s Georg Larch has commented on the retail environment in Britain, and described how hard it is for publishers. Digital distribution would make things easier.
Eidos’ Ian Livingstone says they’re ”a marketing tool, a window” to sell the industry wares. The second hand market is the problem for studios, ”no benefit” outside the retailer’s own profit.
”We’re seeing companies like Amazon take a larger market share, and the growth of digital distribution, but it’s going to be a long-term development as people still want to have something in their hands,” Larch of Koch Media told the BBC.
”We can see a lot of cheap imports from the UK to Europe”, because of the exchange rates he pointed out. Pricing and pre-owned sales are hurting the British market, it’s ”a far more competitive market than the German market,” says Larch.
”These aren’t just shops, they are a marketing tool, a window into our world where software houses can display their wares,” said Eidos president Ian Livingstone.
”The pre-owned market is a serious problem, because there is no benefit to developers or publishers,” he continued. Retailers need to pay publishers a percentile on new game sales, but pre-owned sales have no such string attached to the deal.
”A shop makes a bigger margin on a pre-owned title, and can sell them six or seven times, so there is no incentive for them to reorder and the content creator gets no slice of the action.”
Should retailers be made to give publishers a slice of the second hand sales? Even a single percent would be better than what they get now - zilch. Do you trade-in?
