Tag Archives: retail

Train2Game News: Average UK gamer spent £334 on games last year

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The average UK gamer spent £334 on buying video games last year. That’s according to a survey from online retailer ShopTo.net, which suggests that more and more people are playing games on their smartphones, with 35% spending more time on mobile than consoles.

The survey, carried out via email across two days, received 9000 respondents who purchased an average of 16 games a year. Many of them have multiple gaming devices, with 80% owning two consoles a PC and a smartphone.

“Gamers are changing their gaming device of choice with more getting their casual gaming fix from Android and iOS devices,” said Founder and CEO of ShopTo Igor Cipolletta

“Interestingly, we are seeing game sales on the Nintendo consoles losing out as the casual games market on portable devices continues to grow.”

Cipolletta suggests a lack of new hardware is why gamers are moving towards mobile.

“The fact is consumers have more gaming devices than ever before, with thousands of games being published every week and this, coupled with the lack of new hardware from Sony or Microsoft, is seeing consumers move to mobile devices as their platform of choice,” he said.

“We believe this trend will reverse when the next generation of consoles are released beginning with the Wii U this Christmas.” the ShopTo CEO added.

With so much money being spent on games, it seems like a great time to produce and sell games. Indeed, as reported by The Train2Game Blog, industry legend Ian Livingstone believes “There’s never been a better time to run your own gig”

What are your thoughts on the figures from ShopTo? How often do you buy games?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Develop]

Train2Game students share views on pre-owned games market

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Train2Game students recently saw The Train2Game Blog post about Volition Game Designer Jameson Durall speaking out against pre-owned games, in which he welcomed the idea of a console that doesn’t play second hand titles.

Train2Game students had a variety of different opinions on the matter – as evident on the Train2Game Facebook page – but a common thread was banning the next Xbox console from playing pre-owned games would only work if games were sold at a lower price.

“That’s perfectly fine if they make games cheaper to buy in the first place. £20-£30 would prob sell more units, would stop trading and would also cut down on file sharing!” Train2Game student Rob Farmer replied.

And Train2Game student Craig License agreed, adding that it’s already happening with PCs and people already familiar with it.

“This happened with PCs years ago with the likes of CD keys and DRM. People will be pissed to start but over time they’ll get used to it. To counter this they do either need to lower the initial game price so more people will buy them or just have constant sales and discounts on games, like Steam does.” he said.

Meanwhile, Train2Game student John Esslemont thinks game developers would benefit from extra sales of games.

“I think this is an amazing idea. Just think of the better experiences we can have if the developers receive that extra cash and we are not talking 1000’s we’re talking millions.” he posted on the Train2Game Facebook page debate.

However, it was Train2Game student Leigh Radmore who offered a more radicial solution to developers losing revenue through second hand sales, suggesting that retailers should be required to hand over royalties to compensate studios lost revenue

“There is always going to be a massive divide between the industry and the consumers when it comes to the second hand market.” he said

“Whatever action is taken, whether it be to keep going along with how it is now which hurts development investment, or to increase the measure’s devised to force the consumer to buy new, the only ones that are getting anything out of it are the retailers in the middle.” Leigh continued.

“How about, instead of alienating the consumer, go after the retailers that are making all the profit on someone else’s work? How about licencing them or pushing for sales royalties?” the Train2Game student added.

Have an opinion to share about pre-owned games? Leave it here on The Train2Game Blog, the Train2Game forum, or the Train2Game Facebook page.

Train2Game news: Volition designer speaks out against pre-owned game sales

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Train2Game students may already be aware of the methods game developers are using to encourage consumers to buy new copies of their games, rather than second hand versions that are available at retail.

Some include bonus content when the game is bought new, others require a code to play online which comes with a brand new version of the game. Some even believe digital distribution is the way forward.

However, recent rumours suggest that the next generation Xbox console won’t play second hand games at all, and that’s welcomed by Volition Game Designer Jamson Durall.

“Personally I think this would be a fantastic change for our business and even though the consumers would be up in arms about it at first they will grow to understand why and that it won’t kill them,” he wrote on AltDevBlogADay.

“The used games market is significantly impacting the revenue we receive. I think what most consumers don’t realize is that every time they buy a used game, there is ZERO money making it back to the Game Developers. All of those profits are going directly to the re-seller and making it more and more difficult for us to continue making higher quality products.”

 “People often don’t understand the cost that goes into creating these huge experiences that we put on the shelves for only $60. They also don’t seem to realize how much they are hurting us when they buy a used game and how pirating a copy is just plain stealing.” Durall continued, before adding that if something isn’t done to combat the sales of second hand games the games industry “is going to fall apart”.

Train2Game students can read Durall’s AltDevBlogADay post in full here.

His name may be familiar to Train2Game students, as he spoke to us in a massive interview about Red Faction: Armageddon last year. Durall also revealed some excellent advice about how to get into the games industry.

But what are your thoughts on his views on second hand games? Do you understand his concerns as future game developers? Or do you believe that the industry just needs to adapt to second hand sales?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: AltDevBlogADay]