[quote name='raiser']Publishers have ALWAYS sold games to retailers for $30 at launch. At least to BIG buyers like Walmart, BestBuy, Amazon and Gamestop.
Mom and pop shops might pay $35-$40, but either way they are making $20-$30 profit per game.
There hasn't been much price competition until recently so the margins have held. Now all hell is breaking loose.
I'm not surprised to see a retailer with no B&M cut margins to $10/game and make it up on volume.
And I'm not surprised to see Gamestop matching that ($45 new releases) in order to maintain their marketshare.
Remember if Gamestop loses games sales it cannot make them up in other departments.
Look what happened to Blockbuster and Hollywood when Netflix came around. Empires are crumbling.
All other retailers, and especially Amazon, make profits on a wide variety of other items, so stealing gamestop marketshare is a no lose for them.[/QUOTE]
Having worked for a large studio with a video game publishing arm, I can state for a fact that this is 100% incorrect. Even big retailers only get a 20-30% discount on new games. Most smaller retailers get 10-15% and that's only if they buy a minimum of five copies. That's why many mom and pop stores specialize in used games or even go to those sales at TRU or elsewhere to stock up on games as they will get them for less than they pay from their distributor. Sometimes, a publisher will provide incentives in the form of credits to spur sales, but it usually is not right at launch and it's not cash back, it's credit against future orders. These sales are designed to gain market share, not actually squeeze out profits in the short term and it is unlikely that they are making anything on these games.
, other prices like Bioshock 2, uncharted 2, heavy rain and FF XIII haven't changed... maybe in the rest of the day.
ing Demon's Souls thread do we need?
