MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
UK retail has told MCV that it wants to be a part of the digital revolution, following news that Amazon is selling Xbox Live Arcade game codes in the US.
Key UK retailers have told MCV that they would be ‘very interested’ in selling digital games through their websites.
However, Microsoft and Nintendo have told MCV they have no plans to bring similar offers to Europe.
The Amazon programme is only in the US,” VP of European marketing for Xbox David Gosen told MCV.
It’s a test programme at this stage, and we have no plans to replicate it in Europe. But as an industry, we can’t stand still.
Retail is the cornerstone of the video games business and will continue to be. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be new business models. We’re just opening it up to a much broader audience.”
Despite not bringing the promotion to Europe, UK head of Xbox Neil Thompson has told MCV that Microsoft is committed to making retailers a part of the Xbox Live ecosystem”
A Sony spokesperson commented: With regard to the Microsoft initiative, we have already done something similar in the UK. When people bought the 160GB PS3 SKU it came with vouchers that enabled users to download PSN games.”
Play.com’s CEO Stuart Rowe and GAME COO Terry Scicluna have both expressed a desire to work alongside digital companies.
And ShopTo’s Igor Cipolletta said this week: We hope that Microsoft and others will allow us to sell digital titles. We are very interested in offering it to our customers.”
