The clouds traverse the ageing skies, a darkness falls, and all around the
cries of diminished responsibility become all too apparent, the voice prevails,
"do not fear, for tomorrow brings another day, another breed, another future."
With scene established, I can comfortably preach and emphasise
'the looming demise' of physical retail, physical software product
and all the middle men that surround it.
This is a 'wake up and smell the digital coffee' sort of cry, a
voiced opinion that is passionately motivated to provoke positive action,
changing the current infrastructure of software development, manufacturing,
publishing, distribution and retailing.
If you follow 'gaming software industry news', a definitive pattern soon
becomes apparent. Take any software trade magazine, of recent months, and
you'll read about how the majority of independent retailers are suffering
financially through lack of consumer purchase but how well distributors of
budget price software are doing compared to their full price counterparts,
how the bigger retail chains are slowly replacing software 'shelf space'
in favour of DVD movies, how retailer/distributor trade shows reflect their
own lack of enthusiasm and how consumers are getting more and more disgruntled
at the ever increasing price of new software titles.
The message is clear! Physical software product, physical retail and all
the middle men that have formed an income around this reality, is a 'dying
and diseased concept'. It's struggling to make sense of it's future, it's
becoming more and more unstable and quite frankly it's had its day!
I'm not cruel, I have fond memories as child, sifting through all the audio
cassettes of spectrum games in my local town store, every rainy Saturday.
Memory suggests that all the games were made by Codemasters? but that may
just be an idealistic and simplified form of memory that we often create as age
takes it toll.
The bottom line is that too many middle men
(manufacturers, distributors and retailers) are adding their
livelihoods on top of the consumers 'purchase price' for entertainment software.
The end result is that either the consumer waits for the software to be released
as a budget title, or the publisher takes a cut in revenue, or the sale simply
doesn't happen. The ultimate chain effect, being the developers seeing a paltry
trickle of the consumers money.
Is there a solution to this ever growing trend? Indeed there is, it's
Digital distribution, direct from the developer or publisher straight
to the consumer, ultimately changing the industry's infrastructure, permanently!
The fors are incredible, all are in the favour of the consumer, developer and
publisher, whilst the againsts are devastating, cutting manufactures, retailers
and distributors out of the loop entirely.
This is evolution at it's finest, it's no good running or hiding.
But I cannot emphasise (or warn) enough, that
digital distribution must come DIRECT from the developer or publisher!
Recent strategies of some online retailers (you know who you are)
are preaching digital distribution to their suppliers of software,
the publishers and distributors. This ludicrous (and leech based) concept
is 'parasitic' by nature and will over complicate an otherwise pure vision of
our future, the future of software development.
Ultimately their enthusiasm for this new buzz word is designed to save their
ass and they are desperately trying to establish what role they might play in
this movie, sorry, but there is simply is no need for a retailer or distributor
in this (heaven sent) digital path from product to consumer.
A representative of one such online retailer, in an effort to attract publishers,
recently stated, "there is no reason to believe that customers will go to
several different publisher sites to buy games direct".
Okay, Joe Public walks down the street and want's Microsoft's windows 2000.
He sees two shops, one is David's Digital Haven that sells the product for
50 potatoes and right next door is a brand new Microsoft Shop selling it for
25 potatoes, they can sell it for less as David's livelihood was not added on top.
So which shop would Joe public enter?
I know giving an analogy of physical shops within this article is in bad taste,
but my point is, take away the shop, it's overheads and staff, and there is simply
no justification for middle men fees.
So what to do?
Developers and Publishers need to make the plans, take the pioneering role,
dictate their own future. In order to provide a light at the end of this tunnel,
they need to build the infrastructure and sell their finest software products,
at ridiculously low prices, direct to the consumer via digital distribution.
Simply ask the consumer would they rather pay 50 or 20 potatoes, knowing the answer,
developers and publishers need to ensure that they see all of those 20 potatoes
and therefore need to remove the excess baggage, the spanner in the works,
the weakest link.
Without the middle men fees the same revenue can be achieved
(per software sale) with a much lower consumer price, and with a lower
consumer price we see more sales, and with more sales we see happy developers,
developers that can explore, experiment, diversify which ultimately makes the
consumer happy, it's a happy concept, a happy happy concept.
It's digital distribution with the shortest path possible.
One final thought, this brave new world of digital distribution,
will also affect duplication and software packaging companies ...
but they will not be lonely surrounded by the retailers, distributors,
high street banks, green grocers and butchers, all happy, in that virtual
place in the sky.
Vulcan's Digital Distribution solution for developers and
publishers can be found here www.vulcan-portal.co.uk
Live Long & Prosper!
Paul Carrington
Director Vulcan Software Ltd
Vulcan Software News
21st September 2001
