DISTRIBUTION

Red Dead Redemption

Browsing on www.mcvuk.com

Same producer as RDR

This graf shows how the physical media distribution is decreasing, while the digital media is increasing. This is due to technical convergence.

Article: «The price of digital»

• It costs less to buy games from Tesco than it does via Steam.

• Digital prices don’t drop as quickly as physical.• GAME cut Skyrim’s price to just over £22 before

Christmas, over digital platforms it held its £34.99 RRP.

Comparing prices

There is a difference in £11 from cheapest to most expensive when buying Fifa Street. The cheapest is from ‘Simply Games’, and is probably so because the distributor specialises in games, and does not have many other expences as it is only an online shop. Asda on the other hand offers a range of different products, and is also selling the game in store, and will therefor also have more expences to cover. For example getting the game to the store and pay the wages of the workers in the store.

The prices for Mass Effect 3 for Xbox 360, also varied a lot in price. In many cases the price was higher if there was extra content with the game.

The prices for Wii Fit were pretty simialar everywhere, except for at iwantoneofthose.com. In the information about this retailar, it says ‘hard to shop for people’. This might indicate that the site is not very seriouse or customer friendly, and maybe saves some expences on that.

RDR

The cheapest way to get hold on a copy, is to buy the pre-owned one. Here, the money only goes to the retailar, not the producers and developers of the game. Other than that, the price range is not very wast. There is about a £5 difference, the higher the price – the more validity in name of retailer.

Recent advancements in connective technology included within game consoles has had an impact on modes of game

distribution. What are the different modes of distribution and what impact has this technological convergence had for the various console game institutions, retailers and audiences?

There are two main ways to distibrute video games. 1. Physical media: where you have an actual object – a plastic

box, a printed cover and the game disc itself. This physical media is purchased from a range of retail outlets in a pre-packaged form.

2. Digital media: Complete gaming software downloadable from online stores.

The distribution of the physical media objects happen in retail stores, such as Game and Gamestation (niche shops), Argos, HMV and WHSmiths (general entertainment stores), and supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda. In most cases the comsumer can decide to order the game online or buy it in store.Digital media is distributed through the platform stores. Playstation Store for Playstation and PSP owners, Xbox Live Marketplace for Xbox owners, Direct2Drive , for PC owners, Steam for PC and Mac owners and Mac App Store for Mac owners.

The increace in technical convergence of the platform, especially the fact that they are all now connected to the internett, has had a huge impact on the distribution of the products. In 2008, 90% of all games were sold by retailars, but in 2011 40% were sold online. The fact is that, with online distribution, there are far less post-production expences which should make the price of the game lower. All the clear advantages of online distribution suggests that it has come to stay.

But the retailers should not be forgotten just yet, as the majority of sales still go through them. They are therefore in the position to threaten the producers to not realase the games to digital distribution, if the games are to be distributed in the stores. Still, the big retailer ‘Game’, have had to close down many shops in spring 2012, because of bankruptcy.

As for the impact the technical convergence has on the platform, it creates greater competition. For example now that the App Store has started selling complete games, Apple is in the position to pressure game producers and developers into releasing the game to Mac before it is realeased to PC.