This is somewhat related to yesterday's story regarding independent video game retailers and the difficult market they operate in. The Escapist recently published the latest issue of its online magazine. One of the pieces discusses how some retailers such as GameStop are relying on the sale of used games to make a profit since new software is failing to bring in the revenue. It's an interesting dilemma and one that is highlighted in the following quote.
"Videogames suffer from the shortest shelf life of any media. You can walk into a record store and buy CDs from the '60s, '70s, '80s and today. You can visit Barnes & Noble and pick up books written in the Renaissance. You can buy movies made in the black and white era. But you would be hard pressed to find a GameStop selling more than a handful of games older than a couple years, and the vast majority of shelf space will be for titles released in the last six months."
It's hard to deny that something about this doesn't sound rosy. Hopefully the retail model improves during the coming generation. Perhaps Nintendo's virtual catalog of former titles and services such as GameTap will help solve some of the ills of video game distribution that are currently facing both retailers and consumers. What are your thoughts? Send them to news@n-sider.com.