News
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Admitting “retail is not going to last forever,” GameStop details digital ambitions, including XBLA/PSN sales.
GameStop has been on a shopping spree of late. The erstwhile brick-and-mortar retailer has recently acquired flash-game provider Jolt and games portal Kongregate for significant sums of money. The firm realised it needed to get smarter about the gaming industry outside of retail.
One of these plans is to start selling PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade games through its online stores, according to Chris Petrovic, a senior VP and general manager at the firm with responsibility for digital operations. No timescale for this plan was offered or an indication of if discussions were underway with platform holders.
The firm wants to evolve into a more technologically savvy company, Petrovic said. One of the primary drivers was to enable our company to get smarter about the emerging business models, he said. Bringing in these entrepreneurs to teach is key to GameStops continuing success, with that section of the firms business still being in its infancy.
Accessing GameStops products on any device was also a priority, he said. Physical stores will still have relevance for some time, however. “The communal environment is still important, he said. Also, leveraging their huge customer base, as well as an environment featuring knowledgeable staff beyond the boxed product meant the company would have a future beyond traditional retail.
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“GameStop opens up on digital plans” was posted by Alex Sassoon Coby on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 05:21:08 -0700 -
Virtual goods are much more important for free-to-play titles than in-game and display advertising, according to the megapublisher.
Speaking at yesterday’s London Games Conference, two senior executives within EA made it clear that display advertising was not going to be key to the success of their free-to-play titles, though there was a future for in-game advertising to become an important revenue source.
Ben Cousins, head of EA’s Easy division, said that at the launch of Battlefield Heroes, the virtual goods market was in its infancy and the company hedged its bets with an attempt to integrate advertising into the platform. As time wore on, it was worked out that advertising items available for purchase in-game would generate 300 times the revenue that selling the space to external advertisers would.
John Earner, general manager of European studios for Playfish, a recently acquired EA subsidiary that focuses on Facebook games, was similarly skeptical about the value of display advertising. However, Earner suggested that within two years, 20 percent of his firms revenue would come from in-game advertising through branded product placement and other similar virtual goods.
This view was not limited to EA either. Floris Jan Cuypers, business development director for Spil Games, a Dutch portal that currently generates most of its revenue through advertising, agreed. “User paid will be the bigger part,” he said.
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“EA: Item sales more important than advertising” was posted by Alex Sassoon Coby on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 05:19:18 -0700 -
Bethesda parent company adds Swedish developer founded by ex-Starbreeze staff to its portfolio, according to Twitter.
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CEO of browser game publisher asks, “Why should you buy an extra console if your new TV has the capability to play games?”Heiko Hubertz, founder and CEO of Germany-based browser game publisher and developer Bigpoint, talked to us before his keynote speech at the London Games Conference last night.
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Report blames lack of tax breaks for development headcount decline of 890 over the last two years.
UK game industry trade association TIGA has published a report which claims the UK games development workforce has reduced by nine per cent over the last two years. According to the report, development staff numbered 9900 in July 2008.
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Queuing may be a good choice.
If you want to buy Kinect next week you ought to consider queueing – three separate shops have told Eurogamer stock will be tight.
Microsoft’s initial shipments will be limited, and the word is that shelf refills will happen in December.
Zavvi told us “Kinect is not in full supply at the moment”, but reassured that “we are working closely with Microsoft to ensure a full allocation to satisfy our customer demand”.
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Competing with Battlefield “awkward”.
DICE, the studio behind the multiplayer portion of the recently released Afghanistan shooter Medal of Honor, reckons reviews were affected by the controversy surrounding the game’s setting.
Medal of Honor hit the headlines for being set in Afghanistan, touching on fresh in the memory battles, and allowing gamers to play as the Taliban in multiplayer – the faction was eventually changed to Opposing Force.
“The controversy did affect some reviews,” DICE veteran Patrick Liu told Eurogamer.
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Star Wars MMO “a big bet, but the right bet”.
BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have told of how they were “disappointed” and “sad” after reading the recent scathing anonymous blog post from EA Louse.
Last month a disgruntled EA employee about to fall victim to lay-offs published a vicious diatribe against Warhammer Online creator BioWare Mythic, its staff, and claimed that forthcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a disaster.
The blogger claimed that BioWare had, “spent more money making the Old Republic than James Cameron spent on Avatar. Sh*t you not. More than $300 million! Can you believe that?”
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Ex-Sony exec Phil Harrison emphasises the leading role of digital distribution.At the first panel at this year’s London Games Conference, the message was clear: digital content is king. The opening debate at the second annual London Games Conference, held last night at BAFTA in London, addressed the changing shape of videogame platforms with a heavy emphasis on digital distribution, in a panel titled The Shape Of Clouds To Come.
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Square Enix reveals game sales.
Undercooked MMO Final Fantasy XIV was the talking point of Square Enix’s six-month money report yesterday. President Yoichi Wada was pressed hard by analysts wanting to know what on earth was going on.
“We’re quickly working on reforms,” he told them during a conference call (according to an IGN translation of a Japanese transcript).
“We’d like to put our full power into regaining trust.”