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DISTRIBUTION SPECIAL: OVERVIEW
Business as usual With recent turmoil highlighting how truly crucial distributors are to the games industry, MCV takes a look at how the sector is maintaining the flow of products to retail. James Batchelor reports… THERE HAVE BEEN more than a few changes since we last looked at the UK’s distribution scene. Companies have come and gone, new partnerships have formed and died – but the UK’s games industry is still being serviced by numerous veteran and efficient distributors, ensuring that games make that final step from production to retail. The closing months of 2008 can only be described as climactic for the nation’s distribution landscape. While all types of businesses were feeling the economic slowdown, the loss of a few key distributors stood to affect scores of publishers, vendors and retailers. Contracts were broken, jobs were lost and barriers arose preventing companies from getting their stock to store shelves. The loss of Pinnacle proved that no one was safe. The veteran distributor was originally founded in 1992 and had spent 16 years working with some of the biggest companies in our industry, as well as the DVD and music markets. The company was the first to explore the concept of ‘exclusive distribution’ – something which soon became an industry standard – and even trialled a co-publishing model with developers. A MOVING EXPERIENCE
With some key accounts with leading publishers EA and Ubisoft lost to rival firms Centresoft and Trilogy respectively, Pinnacle’s diminishing strength meant that the pioneering distributor was doomed to be the first major games distributor to become a casualty of the recession. But perhaps the more devastating loss was the collapse of EUK. After the demise of the distributor’s owners, the Woolworths Group, the firm was unable to maintain itself and promptly followed the beloved British retailer into administration. The impact of this is best shown by the subsequent closure of Zavvi. The fledgling retailer, formed after a management buyout from Virgin Megastores in 2007, struggled to
PACKED SHELVES: The trouble experienced by some distributors hasn’t dampened the flow of product into UK retailers
keep the business trading as its sole Distributors such as Music Box supplier was shut down, leading to the Leisure are working hard to fill the void loss of a sizeable retail presence on the left by the fallen firms. In February, for High Street. example, the company picked up the It is a tribute, then, to the versatility retail accounts with Morrisons – formerly of the UK games retail scene that things supplied by EUK – and announced it was began to improve significantly as the looking for opportunities to work with new year came around. more retailers. Out of the ashes of such tragic developments, It’s a tribute to the versatility 2009 saw a new of the UK distributors that determination from things have turned around retailers and for the sector this year. distributors alike, who recognised new opportunities. Larger distributors have drawn up A mere six months after such a new contracts with various publishers, devastating end to 2008, the remaining including those robbed of their former companies are still going strong. distributors by the economic turmoil. Publishers and retailers left without a Centresoft has welcomed companies distributor are now finding support in such as Majesco and new publisher new contracts with the surviving firms, Nordic Games, Gem picked up the and as a result games retail has Oxygen account and Trilogy has remained healthy, with the likes of formed a new partnership with Centresoft, Trilogy, Gem and Koch City Interactive. As recently as last assuring their clients that all is well. week, Koch arranged a deal with
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European publisher Playlogic, proving that new developments in this sector are still ongoing. Even smaller distributors on the continent are a beacon of optimism, showing that the retail landscape is not as troubled as once thought. Game Outlet Europe, for example, recently revealed that its annual sales have now six million units of boxed game products. BOXING CLEVER
It’s a sign that the industry has been able to move on and keep going, despite what seemed to be a dangerous and depressing situation arising as recently as last Christmas. Distributors are still working with an admirable determination to keep bringing new titles to retail and it will take more than these setbacks to stop them. While the loss of former distributors dealt a significant blow to games retail, the companies on the following pages show that it’s business as usual as we go forward.
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