Is Ubisoft lying about ZombiU?

[Viper1]

darkknightkryta said:

Viper1 said:

darkknightkryta said:

 

It most likely is though.  I can only really speak about Square Enix games since I looked into their financial statements, but the reason Hitman, Tomb Raider, and Deus Ex wasn't profitable was because of that retailer insurance.  I don't see why other publishers don't make those deals with retailers, it lets them stuff channels.  I actually see games hit the bargain bin way faster now than they did back in the PSX/N64 days.  Back then a game stayed full pirce until it became a greatest hit and if it didn't, it just got discontinued.  From what I know Nintendo doesn't do that which is why their games stay full price until they cut the price themselves.

True, Square Enix did engage in price protection rebates but Ubisoft has not.  SE engaged in that pricing scheme because they believed they would make up the difference via DLC.  Definitely a gamble that didn't pay off.

But we don't know if Ubisoft had price protection or not.  Assassin's Creed doesn't need it, nor do most of their bigger titles, but that's not to say they don't have protection in place.  Or maybe they had to with Zombie U since it's a new IP on an uncertain console.  I doubt Gamestop would just take large volume of copies without the safety net of discounting.  We ultimately don't know and if the title has been discounted soon after launch, they most likely did.

SE is an exception, not a rule.  As I noted before, retail consignment policies are incredibly rare.  Why would ZombiU be an exclusion for Ubisoft?  Why would they not apply it to all their titles as SE did?

You also need to realize that most publishers are not the direct distributors of their games to retailers.  Or they will often distribute for other publishers.  SE, for instance, distrubutes Ubisoft titles in Japan.   That means that any consignment or price protection deals would actually go through...SE.   And who is the only publisher currently known to engage in that practice?  SE.  And in turn Ubisoft often distributes SE games in Europe and Australia.

Ubisoft distrubtes titles for many other publishers too. 

It should also be noted that Gem Logistics distributes all Ubisoft titles in the UK.  They also distribute for Take-Two and Microsoft.

Finally, it should be understood that many distrbution methods work on monthly invoices or even quarterly.   Meaning that a retailer gets a bill for all products supplied for the previous month/quarter   Doesn't matter how they ended up selling from the retailers point of view, they still get charged for the initial delivery of product.