Games on demand

[Kuokkanen]

Today at work I had an inspiration, a new(?) kind of way to sell video games! I detail it like so:

1. Customer comes to video game store and names a game he wants to buy.

2. Customer's payment is processed.

3. Store employees make a copy of the game on recordable media of customer's choice. It would include a graph on an optical disc or a sticker for an USB storage media.

4. Cover papers would be printed for disc's case, and possibly game manual for an extra fee. Possible license key is also printed and included.

5. Store makes payment for chosen game's publisher or directly to the developer (possibly just before making a copy for customer).

This process would mean some hardware investments for the game store: hefty colour laser printer which also staples the manuals, variety of disc writers (unless there is a kind that writes discs for all the game consoles), and training of the employees. In addition whole printing process would take time, maybe about as long as baking a pizza (more for 30+ GB games?). But less storage & transportation expenses!

Has this ever been done before? Would Matrix & Slitherine consider this delivery method if it were available?

[uncc]

Video game stores (the brick and mortar type) are going the way of the dodo birds, land line phones, cassette/8-track tapes/CDs/DVDs. Today's consumers (most of 'em anyway) want it all digital and now.

...and as a tail-end Boomer, I include myself. No longer see much need for physical media.

[AndySfromVA]

Delete.

[Kuokkanen]

No longer see much need for physical media.

How do you buy a downloadable game to gift it to another person? Sure there are "gift" options available, but those presume one receiving the gift has an account. Or that buyer has it: can I buy a downloadable PS4 game as gift to my nephew when I don't have the console myself?

[IainMcNeil]

Kuokkanen this is exactly how our factory system works

[Kuokkanen]

Kuokkanen this is exactly how our factory system works

But there is still matter of delivery: games are shipped out from your factory which I presume is in USA (do you have more of them around the world?). What I present here is making a copy of the game in video game store in Finland or anywhere else in the world. They still need to order blank recordable discs and paper for the manuals, but I assume those can be sourced from closer than Slitherine's factory. And store could have larger selection of the games with less leftovers of unsold games.

[wodin]

Alot of the latest PC's have no CD drive, or the case doesn't have room for one. My new build doesn't

[IainMcNeil]

Our factory is attached to the office here is Epsom. Its a little robot connected to the internet that burns disks and prints the labels when someone orders and stack them. The ops team then assemble the boxes and dispatch them out.

However its not a simple process and you still have to hold stock of the inlays. We have 12 rows of filing cabinets just for our line up. Then printed manuals is ever more complex. We have stacks of them round the room all in labelled areas so you can find them. To be able to stock enough of the bits you cant print on demand would be impossible if you had thousands of games to choose from, let alone tens of thousands, unless you accept its lower quality. At that point though you could just do it yourself at home. You'd also need deals with all of the providers of the games to get unlock keys and stock enough of every game so you could instantly issue them. The logisitics and business deals require for this to work are probably prohibitive unfortunately, unless it was done by someone like Steam who already has all those deals in place.

[Zovs]

I had to buy an external USB CDROM drive, my 2019 machine did not come with a CD. Luckily most games are downloadable content now (WDS/JTS, etc.). I mainly only purchase Matrix Games and WDS games.

[Kuokkanen]

The logisitics and business deals require for this to work are probably prohibitive unfortunately, unless it was done by someone like Steam who already has all those deals in place.

Interesting stuff, and not as easy as I thought. I just remembered a TV ad where man prints a file from computer and printer spits out a stapled book (or pamphlet?). I guess that won't cut it for the thickest game manuals...

Alot of the latest PC's have no CD drive, or the case doesn't have room for one. My new build doesn't

In past 20 years, my brother and I have bought more than a handful of computers. We haven't had a CD drive in any of them; instead it has been either a DVD drive, and more recently, BD drive (excluding tablets). But considering increasing popularity of tablets and small media computers without disc drive of any kind, does Matrix & Slitherine have USB media to offer?

[wodin]

The logisitics and business deals require for this to work are probably prohibitive unfortunately, unless it was done by someone like Steam who already has all those deals in place.

Interesting stuff, and not as easy as I thought. I just remembered a TV ad where man prints a file from computer and printer spits out a stapled book (or pamphlet?). I guess that won't cut it for the thickest game manuals...

Alot of the latest PC's have no CD drive, or the case doesn't have room for one. My new build doesn't

In past 20 years, my brother and I have bought more than a handful of computers. We haven't had a CD drive in any of them; instead it has been either a DVD drive, and more recently, BD drive (excluding tablets). But considering increasing popularity of tablets and small media computers without disc drive of any kind, does Matrix & Slitherine have USB media to offer?

SOrry I meant no CD\DVD\Blu Ray drive at all.

[Kuokkanen]

SOrry I meant no CD\DVD\Blu Ray drive at all.

You can short it down to disc drive

[ernieschwitz]

I was surprised two years ago, when getting a new computer. The default option was to NOT have a disc drive of any kind.