Digital Distribution will Ruin the Video Game Industry

I know I have been all gloom and doom lately whenever I touch upon the changes that our beloved game industry is going through. From The end of the world as we know it? Are Casual games destroying the Video-Game Industry? to Are Gamers no longer “Gamers?” and yesterday’s Latest Video Game Trend: Trade-ins are Cool I have said that our industry is changing and it could be potentially ruined.

Will this seize to exist?
As I concluded yesterday on Latest Video Game Trend: Trade-ins are Cool video game trade-ins might make developers start offering and pushing more digital distribution as opposed to retail. This is will make places like GameStop, who are profitable because of the trade-in business, have not only a stale business model, but won’t be able to offer what gamers want – cheap games!

When I say cheap games, I don’t mean low-value, low quality games – oh no! At a $60 USD price tag (plus tax, and shipping if buying online) current generation video games are expensive. With the state of our economy dishing out $60 USD for every major title is prohibitive (even when games were $50 USD) and at times the game is really not worth $60 USD (Too Human anyone!). However, these are games we want to play no matter the reviews, length or actual worth, which is why we buy used games to save some money and still experience a new title.

Some developers have come and acknowledged that video games are expensive, but they’re still trying to master the art of pricing and they have some interesting results. Now, with the addition of “Toy Cars” , “Cops & Robbers”, “Legendary Cars Pack” and Big Surf Island it is understandable that it is not free, after all it’s seems like an addition to the experience, not something they just simply cut out of the original game.

Burnout Paradise Legendary Cars Pack DLC
By offering digital distribution developers can control that their games won’t be trade-in with stores like GameStop, but whoever wants to download their game will pay a “cheaper” price. I see so many wrong things with this type of distribution for full fledged games (shorter games like Braid, Flower etc… doesn’t count here)CONS of Digital Distribution. Some believe that digital distribution is something that already happen to the music industry with the mp3s and now the video game industry has to adapt to it. I can honestly tell you, I hope this is not the case. The music industry hasn’t still adapted that well and in the end more people download illegally mp3s than the one’s that actually pay for them.

Latest Video Game Trend: Trade-ins are Cool

As I recently commented on the post: Are Gamers no longer “Gamers?” Gamestop had a successful fiscal year mostly in part because of it’s sale of used-video games. GameStop’s sales climbed 22 percent from the same period last year to $3.5 billion, proving that video games are recession proof. As with any success story, it wasn’t a long shot to predict that sooner or later other video games distributors would copy GameStop’s playbook and started offering trade-in games. Best Buy and Toys R Us are testing the waters, while Amazon.com has already launched it’s trade-in service. Video game website 1up.com recently commented ,on the Best Buy jab into the trade-in offer, on the fact that video game developers won’t probably be too happy about all this, given that when you sell something used they don’t get any profit out of it. This might be true, but the video games company already profited when the game was originally purchased; you simply can’t expect every company to receive profit once the product exchanges hands for a second time. It doesn’t happen on any business, not cars or other products, it won’t happen on video games. Why am I bringing this up? I fear now that because of the amount of copy cats (who’s next, Walmart?) video game companies will start pushing for digital downloads instead of retail and things like trade-in games will be a thing of the past.

The Oj wasn’t as pretty. Tropicana will change back its packaging.

I have to be the first one to admit that the first time ever I saw the new Tropicana juice packaging I thought it was actually a store brand product. Ouch! I kept on buying it, because well – I like the product, even If I wasn’t fond off the packaging (wasn’t crazy about the original either).

Now, Tropicana after receiving consumer complaints is changing back the packaging to it’s previous form. “Some of those commenting described the new packaging as “ugly” or “stupid,” and resembling “a generic bargain brand” or a “store brand.” Tropicana Discovers Some Buyers are Passionate About Packaging, by STUART ELLIOTT, The New York Times. The New York Times reported that the new redesign made it more difficult to distinguish among the varieties of Tropicana Juices and to distinguis Tropicana from other competitors. Here’s what Tropicana had to say:

“We heard our consumers and we listened,” said Jamie Stein, a Tropicana spokeswoman said Monday. “We appreciate their love and passion for Tropicana and when they told us they missed the look of ‘their Tropicana’ that said to them premium, natural and squeezed from fresh oranges — we responded and we’re bringing back the original.” Tropicana Backs off new Packaging Plan, by Grace Gagliano Bradentonherald.com. It is important for new brands, or less known brands to have some strong branding, which involves everything from logo to business cards and packaging. Everything produced by a company or organization needs to be constructed with the branding in mind. Usually when an organization starts the ideal thing would be for brand designers to build a “Brand Book,” in which it is explained to employees or whoever is going to manage the brand the best ways to use the logo (or how not to), letterheads, advertising. etc. . . Is basically your brand’s bible. In some cases because of budget constraints and/or cheapness from part of the organization this is not done, hurting only the company. This was obvious not the case here, Tropicana has been around since the 1950’s it has already established itself as a brand and I’m pretty sure it was on the “top of mind” from consumers. Why would they go through rebranding? Did they want to connect more with their consumers? This was done through advertising, it was even successful. But if what they really wanted was to increase orange juice sales, then why spend all that money rebranding your product without (apparently) testing it with your consumers first? I know a lot of you are wondering (maybe not) why all the fuzz about the packaging if the product is still good? See that’s the whole point of branding. Tropicana here’s a small tip, from me to you, in states like California and Florida I’m guessing your sales are rather low, because compared to other States you can actually buy oranges for cheap; however, when it comes to States like New York where buying juice oranges would be rather expensive, charging $6.99 for 84 oz of juice is not really a bargain either.