Today, Dean Takahashi wrote up a new game distribution technology, called OnLive, that’s announcing at the Game Developers Conference this evening. He feels that it has the potential to destroy retail, with a new technical model of games executed on the server side, enabling gameplay (video) instantly streamed back to the player. This may be a valid threat to retailers, and it’s a danger I’ve warned retailers about for years. Specifically, I first warned of it because PS3’s cell technology seemed focused on the fast video decompression necessary to this sort of system. But, despite the breathless adoration of Venturebeat, I would point out three things: Read More »
Monthly Archives: March 2009
I’m a bit too harried to post as I prepare to depart for GDC, but will no doubt be prolific next week. -I still have a couple of meeting slots open for later this week, if anyone wants to chat.
-Nathan
I posted last week about the apparent entry of several retailers into the business of buying-in and selling used videogames, and someone very insightful in this area mentioned that it would be interesting to see whether someone trading in games at Amazon would put their credit back into new game purchases. He’s right, because this could be pivotal to next steps, if these retailers are successful. -GameStop’s argument is that buying-in pre-owned product is part of a healthy cycle driving new games sales, and generalist retailers getting involved in the model does sort of dilute that benefit.
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It seems to be getting an awful lot of press today that Toys R Us, Best Buy and Amazon are all buying-in used games for re-sale, and hence endangering GameStop’s revenue from this element, but:
We all know that games sold quite well over the holidays and continue to do so. In addition to the conventional product (weighted toward console titles), we’re seeing good volume for casual and online titles. So everything should be great for developers and publishers…but somehow it’s not.