Thursday 8 March 2012

Paradox Interactive CEO Says GAME Trouble Shows Digital Distribution Advantages | Technology News

United Kingdom based retailer GAME has been in trouble recently and the leader of one major developer and publisher believes that karma is to blame for them and that something similar could happen to other big video game chains.

Talking to GamesIndustry International at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Fredrick Wester, who is the chief executive officer at Paradox, said, “GAME has basically been bullying people around and now it comes back to bite them on the ass. It’s been abusing their situation in the UK for a long time but it always come back to you.

“Look at EA and Nintendo, they’re not even willing to help. They will take the hit just to get rid of GAME and start over. One of the biggest problems is they haven’t behaved nicely to other people, so it’s karma.”

Wester also talked about new retail channels and the rise of the Xbox Live Arcade service and the PlayStation Network, saying that both Sony and Microsoft use too many filters when it comes to allowing games to be launched on their consoles.

Wester added, “On the App Store you end up with a lot of crap, but you’re not forced to buy it. The customer decides. Angry Birds would never have made it to XBLA, Minecraft would never have made it to XBLA. There are so many games that are million sellers that would never have made it to XBLA.”

He also said that independent developers were not able to get on XBLA and the PSN and that even Paradox Interactive had trouble getting its titles on the services, despite the fact that it has the money to support the certification process.

Paradox Interactive has long bet on digital distribution and the company has recently reported that launching games via download channels has managed to drive up its revenue while expanding its audience.

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