Is Ubisoft lying about ZombiU?

[Viper1]

KylieDog said:

Seece said:

You contradict yourself there, first shipments Ubi would have got their usual cut per copy regardless of what retailers sold it at.

That isn't how it works.  Well for mom and pop stores maybe, but not anywhere that deals in bulk and really matters like Gamestop.  Publishers and retail will work out an agreement so that if a game underperforms the publisher will accept/refund so get a smaller payment on excess copies, rather than have them shipped back.

Is far too risky for retail to stock more than they are sure to sell otherwise.

Retailers don't get a refund of any kind unless product is sent back.  If the store sells it, even at a discount, they still paid full price for it.  They don't cut the price and then demand a refund from the distributor.

And even then you need to have a consignment agreement first which not all retailers (especially in the US) have.  Basically this means that units are shipped to retailers but the retailer only pays the distributor when a copy is sold rather than paying in full for product up front.  Then unsold units get returned.  There is also 4 or 5 different consignment sales models but this is really only common in some parts of Europe.