24th August 2011, 10:44 PM
It's not that retail itself will vanish, it's this specific form, the Game Stoppery. My nearest Best Buy has any game Gamestop has, but in much higher supply (Read: enough for people to get them on day one without preordering). Gamestop invented the "preorder exclusive DLC", a horrible way to divide up a player base while simultaneously screwing over the collector wanting anything "complete".
Retail has one big benefit that Gamestop should focus on instead of their aggravating preorder DLC, and that's good ol' "feelies". Cram a special edition with physical objects that are actually reasonably limited in supply. While not every game is really interesting enough to deserve a pewter figurine, I love the glut of this stuff. Some of it is garbage, but things like a Fallout Boy bobble head or a massive dragon statue are nice collectibles. Keep it there, and put some work into making those things desirable for the public at large. If art books aren't getting people in the store, try something more substantial. Try interactive things. Try unique board games! Heck, go old school in the next Etrian Odyssey by making the map one creates an actual parchment with quill. That'd be cool.
In the end though, even these things are going to leave retail. I would say digital, but that's not entirely accurate. It's just that the process of manufacturing such things is going to eventually shift to the home instead of being made elsewhere and shipped to retail outlets. That's the big 3D printing revolution that's on the horizon. At first, it'll be plastic, yes, but I can see a day when substances that simulate other densities and textures can be used, and eventually an object's creation can be done from multiple vats to make an object of varying stuff. A 3D printing of a large story book, for example (using a papery paste and some sort of hardening emulsifier, or a 3D printed metal lunch box. The fine details such things can make will likely improve in the coming century to the point fine circuits can be printed, and so the day might come when someone can "print" a perfect NES replica just like it was assembly line made. Well, if that's ever possible it'll be a long way off, but at least in the shorter term, 3D printing will be a big punch to the retail industry. It'd certainly make shopping centers shrink, and honestly if it is good enough, then you get the best of everything right there ABF.
Well, until a toy company sues a kid who printed a Rubik's cube...
Retail has one big benefit that Gamestop should focus on instead of their aggravating preorder DLC, and that's good ol' "feelies". Cram a special edition with physical objects that are actually reasonably limited in supply. While not every game is really interesting enough to deserve a pewter figurine, I love the glut of this stuff. Some of it is garbage, but things like a Fallout Boy bobble head or a massive dragon statue are nice collectibles. Keep it there, and put some work into making those things desirable for the public at large. If art books aren't getting people in the store, try something more substantial. Try interactive things. Try unique board games! Heck, go old school in the next Etrian Odyssey by making the map one creates an actual parchment with quill. That'd be cool.
In the end though, even these things are going to leave retail. I would say digital, but that's not entirely accurate. It's just that the process of manufacturing such things is going to eventually shift to the home instead of being made elsewhere and shipped to retail outlets. That's the big 3D printing revolution that's on the horizon. At first, it'll be plastic, yes, but I can see a day when substances that simulate other densities and textures can be used, and eventually an object's creation can be done from multiple vats to make an object of varying stuff. A 3D printing of a large story book, for example (using a papery paste and some sort of hardening emulsifier, or a 3D printed metal lunch box. The fine details such things can make will likely improve in the coming century to the point fine circuits can be printed, and so the day might come when someone can "print" a perfect NES replica just like it was assembly line made. Well, if that's ever possible it'll be a long way off, but at least in the shorter term, 3D printing will be a big punch to the retail industry. It'd certainly make shopping centers shrink, and honestly if it is good enough, then you get the best of everything right there ABF.
Well, until a toy company sues a kid who printed a Rubik's cube...
"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)