They remain ”very respectful” of brick and mortar stores, and there are ”no plans” for physical and digital Xbox 360 releases to achieve ”day and date parity.”
Microsoft is keen to keep their relationship with retailers strong and so will not permit digital releases on Xbox Live to disrupt physical sales. Sony however has announced PlayStation Vita titles will be launching digitally and in stores at the same time.
“There are no plans in terms of that kind of day and date parity,” said EMEA Xbox Live marketing manager, Robin Burrowes. ”We are very respectful of the retail environment, in that we have a window between the release of a retail game and the digital one.”
”There’s no immediate plans to change that.”
Microsoft has big plans ahead to include their retail partners in more digital services. “We are continuing to talk to retail in different ways. We are looking to introduce new digital innovations to drive more business,” continued Burrowes.
”We’ve been testing electronic software distribution in a couple of places. We will be testing point-of-sale activation, which is similar to buying cards in store and being able to redeem that code at the point of purchase.”
”We are introducing new digital tokens and are working very closely with retailers. 68 per cent of Europe’s Xbox Live subscription acquisitions come from retail.”
They’ve now started to bundle more downloadable content and Xbox Live Arcade releases with retail releases to help promote sales. One example is Fruit Ninja Kinect being included with fellow Kinect title The Gunstringer.
”For certain Kinect games out this Christmas there will be codes included. Sometimes we will be doing: buy a subscription card and get some points which can redeemed against movies or games. We are continuing to innovate that,” said Burrowes.
Have you bought digital wares or subscriptions at a retailer, videogamer?
