AfterDawn: News

DVD Empire exits game business, attacks industry

Online retailer DVD Empire has closed its games business and attacked the games industry in a statement revealing its reasons. "The video game industry only cares about mass merchandisers like Toys-R-Us, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc. They completely ignore the needs and wants of the medium to small game retailers," the statement reads. The retailer said that lack of price protection and unpredictable MSRP changes take smaller retailer out of the business.

The company said it is not big enough to return products and receives no compensation when there is a dramatic change to a product's Manufacturer's Standard Retail Price (MSRP), which they must observe. "If we buy a bad title, we are stuck on an industry-induced money losing ride through the land of price drops," it says.



The statement also says how it is too hard to compete with physical retailers when you are online. "Games bring in great foot traffic for physical retailers and they make money elsewhere. EB Games/Gamestop relies heavily on their used business. It is very difficult for online retailers to have an advantage, except for convenience." the statement reads.

The full statement is available at the DVD Empire site.

Source:
GamesIndustry.biz

Written by: James Delahunty @ 3 Feb 2007 18:37

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• 21 comments

• mknapper1

  i have never even heard of dvdempire

  3.2.2007 18:51 #1

• webe123

  I never heard of them either....oh, well......

  3.2.2007 21:39 #2

• ZippyDSM

  double kill...er...post

  3.2.2007 21:55 #3

• ZippyDSM

  A small retailers woe but I have to agree tho Publishers only care about the first 2 months after a game is launched after that they move on to another victim and theres not a damn thing the consumers can do about it,retuning a game no,selling a used PC game thats been reduced to "RE sold only online" ,greed has decimated the game industry and have been wapeing its soul for the past 5 years sooner or later it will all fall...or hollywood will merge with it...
  
  can you see it GOLLYWOOD were only A+ pubs make games because the industry dose not sell B class actors!

  3.2.2007 21:56 #4

• xhardc0re

  well i have heard of this company & they also have an adult DVD empire site & their regular video biz. So they couldn't compete...TOUGH!

  4.2.2007 01:40 #5

• S2K

  dvd empire is the largest dedicated online seller of dvds.
  
  they are also the largest seller and renter of adult titles on or offline.

  4.2.2007 05:51 #6

• mystic

  being an ex retailor its a standered that most are not aware of if you buy a game because its going to be a good seller or one that will increase the traffic to your store you ut it on the list of what you want then it comes out now you have agreed to buy it at the going rate then a magor company like walmart buy thousands of copys and get a price break or the price due to sales drops then your stuck taking a lose just due to recoveing your investment.... but games have always been the reason machines have been in a need of an upgrade of the computer system. if they dvd empire was watching the could have sent back those titles as an rma to their distributors. the problum is when a company is bought for a spasific platform and that they cant sell their title to another due to ownership like bungy and thier halo software. after six months they should have ported the title to all other platforms to increase revenue. with microsofts hand this will not happen they have you either you buy a 360 or you upgrade to vista nice not fair and no one calles them on it. microsoft was built on the backs of the game industry weather or not they beleive it check the sales of windows only games verses mac games. and now if you want to buy a game thats really kewl your stuck with a consol or two... what happen to the day when all games came out on pc and a consol?

  4.2.2007 06:55 #7

• ZippyDSM

  mystic
  what happened to PC games begin out onto PC first,good god the game industry has a mighty racket gong on you cant return most games to the maker and smaller retailers bear 50% of the loss on bad games and the publishers are nearly completely protected from it devs get disbanded and shuffled off to reformist projects while monetary losses get placed on retailers to keep the larger pubs afloat....this is the corporate machine at its best.

  4.2.2007 08:18 #8

• scorpNZ

  There's no reason why the smaller retailers can't ban togeather & turn into a co-op to get better buying power,a company going bust that specialised in a particular fickle field is no suprise,there a small companies in NZ that sell software,games,modchips etc and have been around for a while,seems to me mismanagement would more than likley be the cause,as the books would've shown early on things were not going well and something needs to be done

  4.2.2007 11:09 #9

• ZippyDSM

  scorpNZ
  then they become like game stop or EB and become part of the problem.
  
  this is not a small company as they sale alot of DVDs however when the gaming part starts eating up money its supposed to make what do you do cling to it and hope for the best...I think not
  
  Altho I do have a question is not the video industry as bad as the game industry or dose the video industry treat smaller retailers a bit better?

  4.2.2007 12:27 #10

• xhardc0re

  I read over their comments & a few things are obvious.
  They're very bitter about their experience.
  They want to tell everyone in the world (who actually gives a f*** what they have to say) about their lack of sales.
  They sold lots of complete crappers like Curious George & Shamu
  They offered nothing beyond a webpage with pricing for the customer to order from. No reviews, no news, no pictures, nothing. (OK so they have a few scattered comments & box covers :
  There is no added value! They are just trying to sell something.
  Their prices are teh suck
  
  So absolutely not, this company isn't going to succeed as a games retailer. Remember Sound Advice (U.S.) sold computers at one time & decided it was a bad idea. Tough luck, they made a wise decision.
  
  LOLz @Shamu:
  http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?userid=99365318930905&item_id=765625&searchID=
  
  Final Fantasy X-2 page is basic!
  http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?userid=99365318930905&item_id=598648&searchID=

  4.2.2007 13:04 #11

• ZippyDSM

  xhardc0re
  you forget they want to be a nice retailer and take returns on products no matter what the issue is and for gaming thats not cheap....
  
  they use the same template for movies and EB and Game stop has the same basic setup for games any links to gamespot or gamespy is just corporate propaganda.
  
  while they might not have the best game plan most of their ranting is reasonable.

  4.2.2007 13:10 #12

• xhardc0re

  are they kings of pr0n? yes.
  are they kings of video games? no.
  Let's not mix the two together. There are children in the audience.

  4.2.2007 14:24 #13

• GernBlan

  Since when does any retailer take returns on opened games?
  
  I think what they were talking about with regard to returns is returning their stock to the manufacturer so that they're not stuck with all the inventory when the suckwad game title makes the 2-month transition from the $59 new game rack to the $9.95 budget game rack. I guess a company like Wal-Mart, BestBuy, etc., can strong-arm the manufacturer into taking back these loser titles (for repackaging and mass redistribution as budget titles) or else they simply won't stock anymore of their games. DVD Empire isn't big enough to get the manufacturers to take back loser products.
  
  Welcome to the business world. I tried to open an online gadget/nerd shop myself, but quickly found that even going through wholesalers to get my stock, I could actually get better prices from Buy.com than I could my wholesalers, and Buy.com usually offered free shipping. Basically, my customer base would consist of idiots who didn't know to search the internet for a better price. My wholesalers explained it to me that they take back unsold inventory, they take back customer returns, they'll even do drop-shipping to avoid the whole inventory thing. I didn't want any of these services because I wanted to be able to buy product for the absolute cheapest wholesale price in order to increase my profit. That just wasn't going to happen. Buy.com is huge. I can't possibly hope to compete against them. DVD Empire can't hope to compete against Wal-Mart, BestBuy, etc. Welcome to the real world. If you don't like that the grapes taste sour, move on to a new fruit. I never did open my online store. Seems like DVD Empire should've done some research into the gaming industry prior to selling games. They're obviously doing well in the adult film industry -- maybe they should stick within their realm.

  4.2.2007 15:00 #14

• ZippyDSM

  GernBlan
  I believe they were,some stores do work with costumers to try and find a middle ground rather than bending the consumer over and letting the corporate probes in.
  
  wallmart is a horror...we just got one here in the middle of "rural America" its a super center mini,has a bit of everything but a crafting/sewing depo...for crist sake thats one floor that would be sold out...you can even special order things the "NORMAL" walmarts have...
  uhg
  

  4.2.2007 15:08 #15

• GernBlan

  Okay, I just checked out there website and saw that because of this announcement, they have all of their games on sale for 20% off. "Wow", I thought, "What a deal!" Not afraid of being a vulture, I immediately dived right into their PC game inventory list to see what deals I could score.
  
  I no longer wonder why they've stopped selling games.
  
  Battlefield 2 - ON SALE for $39. I can get it at Target for $29 right now.
  
  F.E.A.R. - ON SALE for $39. I can get it at Target for $29 right now, and it was recently on sale at Target for $19.
  
  Star Wars Battlefront II - ON SALE for $39. I already have this game, but checked the price to for reference. This is another game that's currently sold everywhere for $29. Didn't Lucas Arts recently re-release this game as part of it's 5-game PC Classics package (or was that just BF I?) for $39?
  
  If they're having a site-wide 20% off all games sale, and there prices are still about 20% higher than anywhere else (including new games from individual sellers on eBay), why is it a wonder that their game sales tanked?

  4.2.2007 15:16 #16

• GernBlan

  @ZippyDSM: So you're saying they were accepting returns on their games? That explains their failure a lot. I don't know of anyone who accepts a flat out return on a game. They will usually only do an exchange (for an identical game) and will only let you get a different game if the original game is unopened or they no longer have it in stock and the one you received was defective.
  
  This is the way I buy games -- I don't expect to be able to return a non-defective game just because I didn't like it or it otherwise sucked.
  
  I wonder what their DVD policy is? Let's see, I buy a porno movie from them, "use" it (haha), and then I can return it and tell them I didn't like it and want to pick a different title? What business would do that? Even rental business don't do that.

  4.2.2007 15:21 #17

• ZippyDSM

  GernBlan
  you forget they bought these games at retail price when they were new they are only trying to make back some of the losses.
  its kind of a good thing game prices fall so quick,I don't buy crappy games at retail price,half price maybe.
  
  

  4.2.2007 15:22 #18

• ZippyDSM

  GernBlan
  "So you're saying they were accepting returns on their games? That explains their failure a lot. I don't know of anyone who accepts a flat out return on a game. They will usually only do an exchange (for an identical game) and will only let you get a different game if the original game is unopened or they no longer have it in stock and the one you received was defective."
  
  if you read there rant it dose in a wayhowever I think its more due to crappy game syndrome 59.99 one week 19.99 the next,look at this way they are a online DVD place DVDs prices don't go ape sht,they ight have bit off more than they can chew but I'd be happy to pay 10-20% more or 50 a year to have the ability to return a horrid game with in reason.
  ---------------------------
  "This is the way I buy games -- I don't expect to be able to return a non-defective game just because I didn't like it or it otherwise sucked.
  "
  you cant anymore the industry banned returns a decade ago!
  
  Sorry but I will return a game if it suxs I don't do it alot but I am an very annoying and polite,I manged to get store credit from a small game shop over Q4 PC,that was the last straw I will never buy new again and have not I get games mostly from ebay 8-25 for a used or unopened game is very nice and if the game blows I dont have to feel cheated over it.
  ----------------------------
  I wonder what their DVD policy is? Let's see, I buy a porno movie from them, "use" it (haha), and then I can return it and tell them I didn't like it and want to pick a different title? What business would do that? Even rental business don't do that.
  
  its called "recerting"
  you get a return its in like new condition and works fine you sale it as new,OMG to go back to the days were returns could be sold as new in order for the retailer to not lose a profit but no we cant have that we must ban the sale of used games for it blocks publishers ability to push unsold copies of games no one wants.
  
  Since EB and Gamespot have stopped selling used PC games they are going to off console games next and then replace it with a recertify program where they can mark it up a extra 25%......
  
  really its called a receipt and on it is a used PC game warranty,keys/serials are not covered so GFY!
  
  oy vay.....I remember the days of 14 and 7 day warranties on games with full refund and store credit policies...I am goign to cry now ;_;
  

  4.2.2007 15:40 #19

• solarf

  Dvd who?

  5.2.2007 07:59 #20

• crof27

  I have never heard of dvd-empire either but it holds a few valid points in its statement. What is the point of in goin in to and staying in a business that you are goin to make such meagre profits for yourself and such vast profits for a multinational empire? Unless you can become a large company very fast which is v.doubtful or you have the backing. the only other option for small business interest is to sell there small portion of the market and hope they can do something else to make more.

  6.2.2007 08:16 #21