Well done Martin! The industry is in dire need of leadership and shake up.

The current chairman of ELSPA is too busy knocking small publishers who have gone out of business by throwing parties and belittling the efforts to save these companies. In a way getting cheap publicity for his own company.

We have not heard one word from ELSPA leadership on this issue of pricing, which with the Euro at the current rate is crippling sales and margins in UK and Europe.

I guess its too much to ask after all its better to keep knocking struggling companies, and wait for the Knight Hood.

Shame on ELSPA management.

Whilst I can understand Mr Defries being a little frustrated, most UK retailers don't have shops in Japan. Japanese Games have very limited appeal in the UK market.

We all have targets to hit and limited money to spend. Therefore the big hitters take president I'm afraid.

I can see both sides of the argument but in order for what might be viewed as a niche title by retailers to succeed they have to be given some support in the first place. This is where both retailer and publisher need to work together in order to make this happen. Big hitters will always be of priority after all profit is king. It will be very hard to get the majority of retailers to support new IPs over proven sellers but you have to give the retailer a reason to stock it not just the fact that it has sold x amount in overseas territories. Smaller publishers need to put themselves in the retailers shoes if it were you would you be any different.
I believe it is possible to get support for New IPs but you must be creative with how you want to bring it to market and offer something with it that the retailer will buy into as well as the consumer. Don't ask me what though. Smaller publishers may well need to play the long game with their releases. I could go on and on about this the presentation of the product i.e. the box artwork etc, realistic pricing all come in to play. I have been there as the small publisher many times and it isn't easy. For either side. Would be interesting to see more feedback from both sides

I'm not sure which particular companies you are referring to but, as a ex-employee of one that went under this year, I can tell you that me and my former colleagues greatly appreciated the ELSPA chairman's support and the beers he bought us all, particularly as we hadn't been paid for some time. Yes, it was nice to have someone external to the company noticing that it was a pretty crap situation for us.

I assume you weren't among our number and therefore don't know what you're talking about. Never mind though eh?

Thanks JS, that is very kind and the Empire do was meant to help with the shocking was staff were treated by employers. Captain Scarlet you may think you are indestructible, but if you want to have a pop, at least be brave enough to use your real name. Otherwise shut your mouth and go and seek the oxygen of publicity elsewhere. Your call if you are so disposed.

Hmmm. Looks like this forum is no different to any other when it comes to trolls, despite what you'd expect. A publisher bemoans retails lack of foresight in not stocking something different and the first comment asks why ELSPA has not commented on pricing and the rate of the Euro! Presumably it won't take many more posts before we are treated to the reasons why the CIA planned 9/11 and how the Germans were flying UFOs from a secret location in the Black Forest in 1944.

If anyone can still remember the original article I think Martin makes a fair point, but he is taking a King Canute stance if he thinks that retailers will dare to stock anything left of field - even if it was profitable. Rest assured that Christmas shelves will be groaning under the weight of Harry Potter and The X Factor of Strictly Doom. The public wants what the public gets!

Of course, in the 'old days' there would have been a couple of thousand indies to help sell these games, but exclusive distribution helped strangle the life out of that route to market.

Wouldn't it be great if there were such a thing as open distribution for all, so that a retailer could go to one distributor and buy his entire weeks releases in one go, with one delivery charge, then many indies could take a punt on a few niche titles.

May even bring back an element of competition to the distribution channel.

LeisureSoft, please come back.

Martha Farquar's quote:

"Whilst I can understand Mr Defries being a little frustrated, most UK retailers don't have shops in Japan. Japanese Games have very limited appeal in the UK market.

We all have targets to hit and limited money to spend. Therefore the big hitters take president I'm afraid."

This is precisely the A grade bufoonery that needs to be removed from UK retail. The line about not having 'shops in Japan' is either grossly patronising or an indication that she has not grasped the point or, more worryingly, both.

I would love to hear an explanation of how "Japanese Games" such as 'Soul Calibur', 'Tekken', 'Final Fantasy', 'Bomber Man' (showing my age now) and the fundamentally Japanese, Mario franchise have limited appeal. The fact of the matter is that retail buyers are lazy in thought and have a default setting of 'no' when it comes to anything out of their comfort zone. It is harder to get bollocked for not buying something than it is for saying 'yes' to the wrong product.

I'd would be heartened if I thought this was a new trend that could be nipped in the bud, but sadly it has been inexorably moving in this direction for years. The running joke of the buyer saying "oh I can see it is a great product, but its just not for us" is now endemic.

Regards,

Declan Brennan