Alby_da_Wolf said:
Hidalgo said:
As far as I'm concerned, this is how it works in Spain:
Games -> Price for retailers 49'90~54'90. Price for consumers -> 64'90~69'90 for most recent games.
Consoles -> Price for retailers is 5~10€ minus the consumers price.
You might ask yourselves where the hell is the big deal then. Well, the big deal comes from two ways.
1. As the retail space taken by consoles is quite big and the profit is really low, retailers obtain advantages from console makers (Sony, Ninty, MS). If they take 10 consoles, they will be getting more units of a game for a discounted price, official gamepads or other official periferics for free or at low price.
Periferics themselves as a category is quite profitable.
2. Self-branded products. They make the most of the money for the big retailers. When you buy a HDMI video cable from "gameware", Game is getting lots of money there. The same applies for non-official controllers, cases, and everything you can imagine. Another source of money is the renting and used games market. In order to expand that market to its limits, they rent used games and they sell renting games. Once a game has been used and has reached their hands, it is out there just to give money. They pay you about 25 or 30€ (in best cases) for the most recent blockbuster hits, and then they rent them for several weeks and/or selling it for about 50€.
In a nutshell: No money for consoles. Poor money for new games. Accesories and used games make their day ^^.
PS: I write this as writer from the point of view of a reviewer from a website and also as retailer (partner of the retailer actually). I hope this helps. |
Thanks. The peripherals part actually helps making sense of appliances and electronics stores that sell relatively few games. I'm also wondering how much is the margin on budget edition older games priced between 9.99 and 19.99€, as they often get more space than new ones and are placed closer to checkouts at MediaWorld.
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Well, at least here in Spain it would be like -> 6.99 and 12.99 for retailers more or less. There is a little chunk of information that may satisfy you as it helps taking a full picture of the scene. Those games that are sold at low prices usually had a higher price point before. The devaluation is compensated by the publisher re-buying those games (the common solution for very little stores, though they lost money still they didn't lose it all) and re-distributing them where they can still get some profits or giving newer games to the store at discounted prices (a good deal for big stores).
Anyway, I'd like to point out that UK market moves much more on a "Adam Smith's wet dream of free market" 
. In Spain the market is controlled by a few huge distributors that make everything as they please. Only massive retailers such as Game or "El Corte Inglés" can overpass them and treat with publishers themselves. There are other so-great retailers that unbelivably can't afford that, so they have to suck up distributors. In the UK there is much more competition on prices, which obviously is good for gamers, but may change the percentages and margins that I pointed above.
