9th June 2007, 11:56 AM
Okay I'm back again to explain some unusual things I've heard in searching various stores for certain "off brand" titles that I desire, such as Odin Sphere. Let me first say that up until a year or so ago, I didn't really have a problem finding these titles.
Anyway, here's what I've been finding out when I ask places if they have Etrian Oddessy or Odin Sphere. A lot of these people seem to respond with "actually, we haven't even got that in our system" or "it seems we never got any shipments of that" or "we never even ordered that game". That's right, they aren't even bothering to STOCK with these games. They aren't hard to find due to sheer crazy sales, but because they don't want to bother with them. Looking at the way stores today are stocking their games, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I've seen 3 different FULL slots of "Bratz" for the DS (now THERE'S the sort of ideal attitude we want to teach our kids), and not one copy of games that were only released a month ago. A little digging around and I find out these stores are basing how they stock games not on the fact that the gamers like us, who buy more games on an individual basis than any casuals, want certain things but rather based on what seems to sell the most on a national basis. So basically I end up walking out of store after store seeing a massive rack of games that I have NO interest in save like 5 or 6 sporadically dotted amongst the lineup without a single purchase. Great job you guys. By going for the biggest looking number, you just lost a bunch of potential sales. Yes, pokemon and Nintendogs are big sellers, but do you really need to stock THAT much? What's with all the stupid movie spinoff games? Why not ditch that and stick in some quality stuff? It seems that in recent years the number of spinoff games has reached epidemic proportions and this has combined with businesses thinking "well let's just release the new Cars game" to the point where all the good games are driven right off the shelves.
Well, I generally don't like waiting a week to get a game delivered to me, but at this rate I may end up having to order all my games from the company's online stores. The big quality titles seem to be geting pushed aside to make way for maybe a handful of the big franchises and everything else is Madden or a movie/toy line tie in. At the very least, the "popular franchise" bit means at least some of the games will be good on those shelves.
Digital distribution can't come quickly enough. That will murder these Real Space stores in their sleep. If they find a way to get us access to those games without a constant online access feed ala Steam, it'll take over even quicker than it has already. Instruction booklets are already pretty much a thing of the past.
Anyway, here's what I've been finding out when I ask places if they have Etrian Oddessy or Odin Sphere. A lot of these people seem to respond with "actually, we haven't even got that in our system" or "it seems we never got any shipments of that" or "we never even ordered that game". That's right, they aren't even bothering to STOCK with these games. They aren't hard to find due to sheer crazy sales, but because they don't want to bother with them. Looking at the way stores today are stocking their games, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I've seen 3 different FULL slots of "Bratz" for the DS (now THERE'S the sort of ideal attitude we want to teach our kids), and not one copy of games that were only released a month ago. A little digging around and I find out these stores are basing how they stock games not on the fact that the gamers like us, who buy more games on an individual basis than any casuals, want certain things but rather based on what seems to sell the most on a national basis. So basically I end up walking out of store after store seeing a massive rack of games that I have NO interest in save like 5 or 6 sporadically dotted amongst the lineup without a single purchase. Great job you guys. By going for the biggest looking number, you just lost a bunch of potential sales. Yes, pokemon and Nintendogs are big sellers, but do you really need to stock THAT much? What's with all the stupid movie spinoff games? Why not ditch that and stick in some quality stuff? It seems that in recent years the number of spinoff games has reached epidemic proportions and this has combined with businesses thinking "well let's just release the new Cars game" to the point where all the good games are driven right off the shelves.
Well, I generally don't like waiting a week to get a game delivered to me, but at this rate I may end up having to order all my games from the company's online stores. The big quality titles seem to be geting pushed aside to make way for maybe a handful of the big franchises and everything else is Madden or a movie/toy line tie in. At the very least, the "popular franchise" bit means at least some of the games will be good on those shelves.
Digital distribution can't come quickly enough. That will murder these Real Space stores in their sleep. If they find a way to get us access to those games without a constant online access feed ala Steam, it'll take over even quicker than it has already. Instruction booklets are already pretty much a thing of the past.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)