GAME to publish games too?

[Zoibie]

UK games retailer, GAME, has indicated that it might be moving into the publishing business directly in the near future according to MCV.

The retail giant, which also owns Gamestation and is often accused of having a chokehold on the UK games market, isn't intending to star developing and publishing AAA titles though instead it has an eye on the indie circuit and is searching for smaller developers.

“If it works commercially for GAME and helps a smaller publisher get off the ground by GAME sharing some of the risk, then we would look at it – we have a distribution channel and we can offer a service," said a GAME spokesperson.

The plan to start publishing games itself though may cause more friction between the chain of stores and larger, existing publishers. There's already plenty of disagreement between the two groups and several publishers are vocally annoyed that they get zero revenue from the sales of pre-owned games.

GAME meanwhile is quick to point out that it doesn't want to threaten publishers and is more interested in publishing smaller titles.

"This isn’t about us doing something that threatens publishers. It is about listening to developers who may come to us with titles that may not otherwise be able to get to market."

Would you buy a GAME-published game, or do you only go for online distribution now? Let us know what you think in the forums.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/07...sh-games-too/1

I think indie games are more suited for online download, can you imagine a whole disc of Pixeljunk Monsters? Would it really be worth 40 quid?

[VintageElise]

I think this is an excellent idea, It gives small companies more chance of getting a good game to the public.

[Jaeger]

I think indie games are more suited for online download, can you imagine a whole disc of Pixeljunk Monsters? Would it really be worth 40 quid?

I doubt they'd charge £40 for their games. If I recall correctly, GAME did their own line-up of 'indie' PSOne games and released them at £10 a go. If they were to do this, then I'd imagine they would sell quite well. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

[jamieson87]

Leading high-street retailer GAME is considering launching a range of self-branded video games.

GAME, whose idea could see the chain sell its own video games at lower prices, has caused concern among many leading publishers, with one firm remarking: "If any retailer were really to go for it with own-brand games, it would be an act of war."

Tricia Brennan, MD of GAME, told MCV: "This isn’t about us doing something that threatens publishers. It is about listening to developers who may come to us with titles that may not otherwise be able to get to market.

“If it works commercially for GAME and helps a smaller publisher get off the ground by GAME sharing some of the risk, then we would look at it. We have a distribution channel and we can offer a service.

“As a specialist, we need differentiation on the high street. Exclusives are a real positive for us. We have already published driving test and anti-virus titles as own-brand, plus Vegas Casino on DS.”

Source: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/a...nd-titles.html

I cant understand how they could start developing their own titles, would they simply buy small independant dev's and give them the "game" name.

This could be interesting though as it could change the way games are sold at retail.

(For our overseas cousins Game is a UK based video game retailer who can be compared to gamestop as they overchare for games and make bucket loads of cash from trade-in's)

www.game.co.uk

[carocat]

Merged the two threads.

Not too sure this is really a good idea though, as said in that article GAME has already got a monopoly on game retail in the UK and they could pretty much set the prices at anything.

[jamieson87]

Sorry, didnt see this had been posted, thanks carocat,

[Treefrog]

If it helps the indie devs get off the ground then I'm all for it.