DVD Empire's rant on the video game industry

[Adam Tyner]

DVD Empire stops selling games and is very open about why. Ouch.

 

...and 20% off!

[dogbert]

All of that rant comes back to one item -

Also, our main distributor, Ingram, does not take us seriously.

 

The rest of the rant is fundamentally affected by it. Why? Their prices from distributors are so high because their small - $55 is most definitely not the average distributor price for a console game to retail. Publishers most definitely do offer price protection & returns to retail, just not to mom'n'pop stores... Distribution does not aim to serve mom'n'pop stores - the margin is too small. It's all about the big box stores, just like it is with books & music.

 

Sad, but that's the way life is. As for their big complaints about 80% of games being crap - Sturgeon's Law says that's just as true for the DVDs they sell (of which many, many more are released each year).

 

I heard a big import shop back home in Glasgow is getting out of the industry too (allbeit a very different side of the industry). It's a tough life for any mom'n'pop store in most retail markets.

[Camp]

Brian is absolutely right. DVD Empire's beef is with the distributor. Any retailer using a middle man (distributor) is not a real video game retailer. Typical margins on a new game runs between 25% to 30% -significantly better than you would get buying through a 3rd party distributor. That's why mom & pop shops can't compete with new product either.

 

Granted, it's not particularly easy for a smaller chain or Internet business to suddenly make orders with Nintendo, for example. In fact, it's impossible. These deals protect the integrity of the product in the eyes of the manufacturer (look at Apple as an example, they are very protective of the iPod at retail).