Digital Downloads The Place To Be

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If you’re not marketing your games through digital means, you re missing out on the fastest growing market in gaming.

A recent editorial in IndustryGamers raised the specter in context of GameStop and their slow-to-market digital efforts, offering a reminder once again that being among the first movers in the digital distribution space is extremely important in marketing games.

“I think that they are too far behind digital services like Xbox Live. Over 70 percent of content sales happens on the consoles,” Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities told IndustryGamers. “If you have a 360, you don’t need an aggregator, since Microsoft won’t let you go to the Internet and download content anyway. This has been part of Microsoft’s strategy from the beginning: THEY want to be the aggregator for their console, and Sony will follow suit with PSN. The Wii Plus (HD) will likely have a hard drive, and the Wii Channel will be the aggregator there. Bottom line, unless the console guys open a gateway to the Internet, GameStop has no place as an aggregator.”

Of course, there will be a market for physical game media in the future, and GameStop may dominate that market forever. But the importance of marketing your games and having them available on digital distribution cannot be discounted, because while the market may be small right now, things are ramping up quickly.

And if you have any doubts, just ask yourself, when was the last time you strolled into a record store to buy your music

AFK: S*** My Dad Says

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Today s AFK has to do with dear old dad, and the messed up things he can say from time to time.

The Twitter account ShitMyDadSays recounts the things a 73-year-old dad says to his 28-year-old son.  A few examples:

How the f*** should I know if it’s still good? Eat it. You get sick, it wasn’t good. You people, you think I got microscopic f***ing eyes.

You need to flush the toilet more than once…No, YOU, YOU specifically need to. You know what, use a different toilet. This is my toilet.

The dog is not bored, it’s a f***ing dog. It’s not like he’s waiting for me to give him a f***ing rubix cube. He’s a g** d***ed dog.

[Follow him on Twitter]

AFK: Zombie Couture

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Today’s AFK shows that brand can expand into anything and everything, even if you’re talking about small casual games.  PopCap, creators of games like Peggle and Plants Vs. Zombies, just opened up their online store with a bevy of goodies for the casual gamer.

Our favorite item is the old tyme Moustache Mode shirt that harkens back to an older, simpler time full of hair tonic and zombies, but the Peggle plush toys and collectable coins are nifty too.

We’ve said it time and again on this blog: if your fans love your brand, give them more of it!

[PopCap Merch] {link no longer active}

 

AFK: The Game Factory

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If you’ve ever wondered how the golden rings of Sonic the Hedgehog are made, or who crafts the thousands of blocks used in a game of Arkanoid, wonder no longer.

Photographer Marc Da Cunha Lopes shows us a fantastic look inside a game factory where all of these items are made.  Jaw-droppingly awesome.

[Via Offworld] {link no longer active}