47 MCV546_final:47 MCV443
14/7/09
14:34
Page 1
WWW.MCVUK.COM
MCV 17/07/09 47
MCV FORUM
Discount is the danger Following last week’s letter from a publisher on the threat posed by preowned sales, an indie has written to MCV about a far greater peril...
JUST READ the latest issue and in particular the article in MCV forum from a publisher concerning the sale of preowned games. I am an independent game shop manager and obviously trade in pre-owned as well as new. Whilst I am sure there is truth in the article, what I think is a greater threat is the discounting of new games. For the last six months or so, game selling prices have been all over the place with huge discounting if a game does not sell well. This is even followed in some cases by prices being increased again. As an independent, we get no special price protection or ‘sale or return’. We have to bear the loss if a game falls in price. We have shelves littered with loss-making games from when we were over optimistic of a game’s popularity. Like many other indies, we’ve become wary of the number of games we buy as the forced discount means that we only probably make around £2 or £3 on a new game. If this game then falls in price we are quickly losing money. It is not the independents doing the price discounting. We just have to follow the trend. Therefore here are some thoughts on the matter: 1) Sales of new games are often funded by part exchanging previous games. This is more so in a recession. So the writer of the previous article would need to consider whether stopping
As mainstream retailers discount the selling price on new releases, indies are forced to follow suit
“
It is not the independents doing the price discounting. We just have to follow the trend in order to survive. Steve Hinchliffe, GameCentre2
”
pre-owned games sales would actually increase or decrease sales of new games.
weeks of release, then they are bound to wait for the price drop before purchasing.
2) The present drop in sales of new games on release is partly due to the volatile price of new games. Consumers are not stupid – if they see new games being heavily discounted within
3) I firmly believe the way to generate more sales is to offer some price protection to indies either by sale or return, or price protection for a credit if the price drops.
We indies really need to start our own buying cooperative – after all, we surely account for more sales in volume than any one national outlet. Steve Hinchliffe, GameCentre2, Scarborough
‘MCV is beating rivals online’ One PR hails the success of MCV and its sister publication...
I THOUGHT I’d drop you a line to congratulate you on the fine work MCV and Develop is doing online. I have been checking out my viewing statistics on
GamesPress recently and thought I’d share some info with you: the traffic coming from MCV and Develop is double that of your nearest rival. It’s not just a one-off
either – and I’m sure I’m not the only PR to have noticed. It’s consistent, so keep on keeping on. Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley PR
LATEST NEWS STRAIGHT TO YOUR MOBILE Bookmark us in your phone:
MOBILE.MCVUK.COM