Forget EA, Wal-Mart is our true enemy

    Saw this on slashdot. Pretty interesting: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/40/11

    The Slashdot page about it: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?si ... 5&from=rss

    From the Slashdot summary

    Quote

    "That Wal-Mart smiley face is looking pretty evil now that Allen Varney has explained how much influence they have on virtually every modern game: 'Publisher sales reps inform Wal-Mart buyers of games in development; the games' subjects, titles, artwork and packaging are vetted and sometimes vetoed by Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart tells a top-end publisher it won't carry a certain game, the publisher kills that game. In short, every triple-A game sold at retail in North America is managed start to finish, top to bottom, with the publisher's gaze fixed squarely on Wal-Mart, and no other."'

    Its not suprising if this is true. I just didnt think that Wal-Mart sales make-or-break the game revenue. I mean I knew Wal-Mart was big, but I didnt think it was that big.

    discuss?

    That is pretty stupid. What about other places like Target, they are pretty big. Then you have all the other revnue stores.

    Walmart is more about console I think though too. This dosnt apply to pc I don't think.

    Wal-Mart will have a hard time convincing Rockstar that they can't make GTA because "it's baaaad" when the game will sell a million copies in its first week.

    And I think they'll kiss their smiley goodbye when they see their competitors cranking up the cash on the GTA copies and they missed out on it because, again "it's baaad"

    Sure Wal-Mart is big but it's not that big. Even in the US there are many other big retailers like Best Buy and not to mention online stores like Amazon.com.

    And don't forget that there's a world outside the USA. Europe has a huge market as well and this is almost Wal-Mart-free.

    Last but not least, there's Japan. Not only that Japan is one of the worlds biggest game markets, it is also the the most important country for game development and I'm quite sure that Sony, Big N and all the others over there are not influenced by Wal-Mart.

    To be honest, the whole article from that guy sounded more like a conspiracy theory than a factual report.

    What did you think happens? The game industry stands on a soapbox and say "No, Mr Big Bad Walmart! You can't deny us the right to make great art." You really think that happens? Pssh. Publishers want money. Walmart gives them money. If Walmart stops giving them money, the publisher loses. The same thing happens in every industry. If a movie comes along that horrifically offends theater owners, they don't show it. If a CD comes out that is going to cause a shit storm, major stores usually don't carry it. Walmart isn't abusing anybody here. They're obviously not swinging this bat around too much or else we wouldn't have shit like 25 to Life or 50 Cent Bulletproof on the shelf (dear god, I would pay Walmart to ban those for the common good).

    If you want to boycott Walmart, feel free to do it for the following reasons:

    1) Abusing hiring practices

    2) Full time workers making poverty wages

    3) Scheduling people at 35 housr so they aren't forced to give them health care

    4) Firing anybody who joins a union

    5) Abandoning stores to build super-centers rather than renovating existing space

    6) Targeting small community businesses to prevent competition

    7) Discrimination against women, gays, and minorities

    Having shitty products

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