Shelf Life
It often seems to me that games are marketed and promoted as though they only expected to have a short shelf-life. Considering that most consoles have a four or five year life span and some are backwards compatible, this seems like a very short-sighted approach to me.
Increasingly I go into Game and see that the titles are arranged on the shelves in a way that's increasongly reminiscent of a bookshop, particularly in the budget PC section, which more often than not displays the game cases with the spines facing outwards to maximise shelf space and show the customer the titles more easily. The potential for holding games on the shelves for longer and allowing the customer to find just what they are looking for is on the verge of making a big difference, but perhaps needs a little more work in order for it to succeed.
In a bookshop, the books are usually sectioned very clearly into non-fiction and fiction and then sectioned off still further for crime, horror, science fiction, etc. Perhaps the game shops need to use this as a way of providing an easier way of the customer getting to the games they want to buy.
If, for instance, the PC games were divided up into FPS, RTS, RPG, Platform, Adventure and so forth, the customer who goes into the shop looking for an FPS doesn't have to trawl through all the games in order to find something suitable.
Many within the industry complain that games are not reaching a wider market, but for the inexperienced, looking though the games in a shop can be very bewildering at times. If you're in the market for something specific it's easy to get frustrated and walk out of the shop not having made a purchase at all.
Perhaps publishers and retailers could get together and work out how the categorisation approach may work best to improve the way that games are sold to the customer.
Increasingly I go into Game and see that the titles are arranged on the shelves in a way that's increasongly reminiscent of a bookshop, particularly in the budget PC section, which more often than not displays the game cases with the spines facing outwards to maximise shelf space and show the customer the titles more easily. The potential for holding games on the shelves for longer and allowing the customer to find just what they are looking for is on the verge of making a big difference, but perhaps needs a little more work in order for it to succeed.
In a bookshop, the books are usually sectioned very clearly into non-fiction and fiction and then sectioned off still further for crime, horror, science fiction, etc. Perhaps the game shops need to use this as a way of providing an easier way of the customer getting to the games they want to buy.
If, for instance, the PC games were divided up into FPS, RTS, RPG, Platform, Adventure and so forth, the customer who goes into the shop looking for an FPS doesn't have to trawl through all the games in order to find something suitable.
Many within the industry complain that games are not reaching a wider market, but for the inexperienced, looking though the games in a shop can be very bewildering at times. If you're in the market for something specific it's easy to get frustrated and walk out of the shop not having made a purchase at all.
Perhaps publishers and retailers could get together and work out how the categorisation approach may work best to improve the way that games are sold to the customer.
posted by Steve | 3:42 PM
1 Comments:
I have to disagree; these days, especially with "hardcore" gamers, they don't just walk into the shop and look for a suitable game. Today people use the internet to check what's good and what's selling.
I've started doing that myself. Walk into the shop and you'll always find a picture of a guy with a big gun, or a group of manga-characters, or cars or a licensed poster (FIFA, Lord of the Rings) on the case as a cover. What to buy?
It's why I bought Beyond Good and Evil (and Idle Thumbs said it was good); the cover was different. Good thing I bought it, too, because it was fantastic.
I think stores are realising this and so they're just packing games onto the shelves (to say they have them, I guess), instead of using the promotional covers.
I do agree with putting different genres in different areas, though; it'd encourage experimentation on part of the buyer.
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