That's something I've seen mentioned in plenty of places. Only one I can name of the top of my head would be David Reese at http://www.sierrafans.com:Vance wrote:What?Crowley wrote:Yes! Wal-Mart is evil! They're the reason that 99% of games now come in a tiny DVD holder.Vance wrote:1) Support your local shops more from now on. They're rare and getting rarer thanks to a lot of factors I don't even need to mention anymore. I'm working with another gaming site to put together a big index of indie stores, this thread kinda makes me think I should convince the guy to allow browsing by services rendered.
Anyway, as for the smaller boxes, we can thank Walmart for that. When I was working at Westwood, I had a conversation with one of the guys about box art for a game (I think it was Yuri's Revenge, but I'm not sure now). Anyway, he said that smaller boxes were a requirement if we (the game developer) wanted Walmart to sell the game. Apparently the higher-ups at Walmart got fed up with the fact that they only had so much shelf-space for computer games and they couldn't carry a big enough selection to compete with video-game retailers because the boxes for the games took up too much space.
So, that said, they (Walmart) issued a statement to the publishers saying they would only sell games that were more compact in shape and size. From what I understand, Walmart is one of EA's bigger distributer/retailer so they obliged and started shipping games in smaller boxes/cases. And as we all know, when EA does something, odds are VERY good everyone else will follow (whether because they want to sell games through Walmart or because they want to follow the pack.) Since games were being packed in smaller boxes, there was no need to mass produce the "big boxes".
People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
-Bob Dylan
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
-Bob Dylan
Okay, I had never heard that. Thanks.
Just another reason to hate Wal-Mart, I suppose. There are already too many to keep track of.
Oh, I just remembered something one of my distributors told me a few years ago! I asked him about the occasional insane low price you see at Wal-Mart, where they'll offer ten to fifteen bucks off a $50 game. He told me they do take a loss on those in an effort to bring gamers in to spend money on other items. I need to scan their prices anyway in an attempt to stay competitive so I tend to pick up their underpriced stock. I feel I'm doing some small part to hurt them, since I don't but anything else EVER.
Just another reason to hate Wal-Mart, I suppose. There are already too many to keep track of.
Oh, I just remembered something one of my distributors told me a few years ago! I asked him about the occasional insane low price you see at Wal-Mart, where they'll offer ten to fifteen bucks off a $50 game. He told me they do take a loss on those in an effort to bring gamers in to spend money on other items. I need to scan their prices anyway in an attempt to stay competitive so I tend to pick up their underpriced stock. I feel I'm doing some small part to hurt them, since I don't but anything else EVER.