Reason to hate Wal-Mart reason # 4,573,960

[CptStern]

Wal-Mart Controls Modern Game Design?

Do you buy your electronic games at Wal-Mart? Never mind, doesn't matter. The retail games you buy at GameStop or Best Buy or online are the games Wal-Mart has decided you can buy.

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.

interesting read

remember when 5 years ago, when computer game boxes got smaller? That was Wal-Mart

basically it talks about how Wal-Mart dictates the type of games publishers produce


the saving grace? online distribution

As national availability of broadband grows, Valve has already started its Steam distribution network. Ritual Entertainment - which ran afoul of Wal-Mart not only for Heavy Metal, but also for its hyper-gory 1998 shooter SiN, is using Steam to distribute its new SiN Episodes, almost as if it had been waiting for online distribution before making a sequel.

but...

But don't interpret that to mean Wal-Mart will just fade away. The company owes its current supremacy to its embrace of high tech logistics, and that attitude remains strong; Wal-Mart, along with the Defense Department, is the chief force behind the imminent adoption of radio-frequency ID tags (RFIDs or "arphids"). So it's possible Wal-Mart itself might move into online games.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/40/11

 

[OvA]

Holy carp... Steam may be more important than we all thought...

 

[Razor]

What about European and Japanese publishers? And in the hundreds of interviews i have seen of publishers, both big and small, not a single one has ever mentioned Walmart at all in any context. Walmart is a supermarket, games would most probably be less important to Walmart then a frozen chicken is, so why would Walmart take such a massive interest in game design.

 

[OvA]

What about European and Japanese publishers? And in the hundreds of interviews i have seen of publishers, both big and small, not a single one has ever mentioned Walmart at all in any context. Walmart is a supermarket, games would most probably be less important to Walmart then a frozen chicken is, so why would Walmart take such a massive interest in game design.

Oh God...they have you too...

 

[CptStern]

What about European and Japanese publishers? And in the hundreds of interviews i have seen of publishers, both big and small, not a single one has ever mentioned Walmart at all in any context. Walmart is a supermarket, games would most probably be less important to Walmart then a frozen chicken is, so why would Walmart take such a massive interest in game design.

read the article

for the lazy:

'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.'"

 

[Shamrock]

Wal-Mart is good but definetly 99.99999999999% bad which some loser (TheSomeone) will argue that the number stated would actually be 100%..

 

[Nat Turner]

9.99 repeating is actually 10!

 

[A True Canadian]

So even the big gaming publishers like Electronic Arts are effected? Scary.


Perhaps this is why the new Duke Nukem is taking forever.

 

[Adidajs]

Wal-Mart is good but definetly 99.99999999999% bad which some loser (TheSomeone) will argue that the number stated would actually be 100%..

so if you're rounding to 100% bad, wouldn't you have to conclude the Walmart is bad?

 

[Raziaar]

It sounds bogus... but damn, if thats true. UGH.

Obviously i'll still shop at walmart styled stores, until others can offer me the low prices that walmart does.

Sucks being poor!

 

[Reaktor4]

Sounds exaggerated, but you never know with america.

 

[DeusExMachina]

Sounds bogus.

 

[NotATool]

9.99 repeating is actually 10!

This is 8th grade math...

And yeah, wal-mart controls the unions, wal-mart controls the video-games, wal-mart controls the world.

 

[Greatgat]

**** Wal-Mart with an iron stick. Not just for this, but I really do hate them. Not least because everytime I walk into one of their stores (very rarely), I can feel my skin crawling with invisible creatures. *shiver*

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

If you shop at Wall-Mart you support terrorism.

 

[StardogChampion]

Total nonsense.

 

[sinkoman]

9.99 repeating is actually 10!

Omfg don't bring that up again.

 

[VirusType2]

If you shop at Wall-Mart you support terrorism.

HAHAHA I can hardly type a proper response whilst rolling around on the floor laughing.

I go to other retail stores whenever I can now, like if only to keep these places around a little longer and kept from being eaten alive by the Wal-Mart monopoly.

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

Wal-Mart sucks in a lot of ways but they're not 'utterly evil'- they do happen to try to do a lot of good in the community like with schools, etc, and at least here when they showed up it opened up a LOT of jobs (the only thing it hurt is traffic! UGH)

 

[OvA]

Wal-Mart sucks in a lot of ways but they're not 'utterly evil'- they do happen to try to do a lot of good in the community like with schools, etc, and at least here when they showed up it opened up a LOT of jobs (the only thing it hurt is traffic! UGH)

May your poor soul rest in peace...

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

May your poor soul rest in peace...

lol my bad for breaking off of the bandwagon.

 

[OvA]

lol my bad for breaking off of the bandwagon.

You must NEVER question the rules of the bandwagon!

-Estrux I think

 

[Nat Turner]

Walmart captures the essence of America.

 

[CptStern]

Wal-Mart sucks in a lot of ways but they're not 'utterly evil'- they do happen to try to do a lot of good in the community like with schools, etc, and at least here when they showed up it opened up a LOT of jobs (the only thing it hurt is traffic! UGH)

their staff are underpaid ..there's a good documentary that talks about wal-mart's depolarable labour practices, they rape distributors by forcing them to lower cost per item on every single transaction . They set the prices (usually a few percentage points above manufacturing costs)..for instance my company supplies them with wheelchairs (plus other medical items) ..hundreds of them a year yet we barely break even in costs. They also have a policy that if they dont recieve a product within 14 days of ordering they refuse to pay for shipping ..so when a distributor is back ordered on an item (manufacturer shortage) the distributor pays for shipping ...anyone have any idea how much 90 wheelchairs shipped all over canada costs? in the 10's of thousands

 

[Adabiviak]

lol - I came across this article elsewhere and thought to myself, "I bet Cpt. Stern is on the case." Anyway, this is bad news - money will absolutely steer project direction and I for one do not welcome my new Wal-Martian overlords. Steam FTW!

 

[15357]

I don't really see a problem with this. Everyone knows that Microsoft will own a third of the world in 20 years.

 

[CyberPitz]

I don't really see a problem with this. Everyone knows that Microsoft will own a third of the world in 20 years.

The 3 eyes of the world: Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Google.

We are ****ed.

 

[Insano]

The 3 eyes of the world: Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Google.

We are ****ed.

You forgot about EA.

 

[15357]

No, the EA-Microsoft War of 2010 will devastate it, and installl Microsoft as Dictator of Humanity.


But Google will launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the East Coast of the US in the year 2015 and thus will begin the 60-year war.

 

[$kelet0r]

No, the EA-Microsoft War of 2010 will devastate it, and installl Microsoft as Dictator of Humanity.


But Google will launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the East Coast of the US in the year 2015 and thus will begin the 60-year war.

where does Korea fit in all this?

 

[Parrot of doom]

The solution is simple. Stop buying stuff from Wal-Mart. Support your local shops, butchers, markets, hardware shops etc.

But of course that would involve walking in a land where drive-thru banking is seen as a good thing.

 

[OCybrManO]

But of course that would involve walking in a land where drive-thru banking is seen as a good thing.

That's nothing compared to the drive-thru liquor store and/or bar.

 

[Qonfused]

Here, the super Wal-Mart is where everyone does their shopping. There is no better choice.

But I do buy my games from Gamestop.

 

[CptStern]

there used to be choice before wal-mart came to your town right? ..what happened to all the retail stores that people used to go to before going to wal-mart?

 

[Qonfused]

there used to be choice before wal-mart came to your town right? ..what happened to all the retail stores that people used to go to before going to wal-mart?

There was a normal Wal-Mart before "super." We used to do grocery shopping at Glen's and Carter's (last one being a local store) which both now have no selection and high prices probably because of Wal-Mart. There's no other choice.

 

[CptStern]

wal-mart undercuts distributors, that's why their prices are lower. Distributors literally bid for Wal-mart contracts

wal-mart shuts down a lot of small communities because people from small towns go out of their way to do their shopping at wal-mart even if it means driving to the next town, which often kills the local businesses

 

[Qonfused]

wal-mart shuts down a lot of small communities because people from small towns go out of their way to do their shopping at wal-mart even if it means driving to the next town

Who can blame them? Wal-Mart has everything.

 

[CptStern]

I'm not blaming the consumer here

 

[Parrot of doom]

Who can blame them? Wal-Mart has everything.

One day perhaps they'll learn that with cheap prices comes a cheap community, or worse still no community at all.

Plus cheap food = sh1te food. I'd rather pay a premium for what I eat, since it makes me who I am thanks.

 

[15357]

I'm going to quote:

"You seem a little red to me, and by that I mean that you'd prefer a hammer and sickle over a hamburger."


Super-free market economy ftw.