How Wal-Mart Designs the Games You Play
The anti-game conspiracy theories coming out of Miami and elsewhere these days generally go something like this: video game retailers don't care if they push sex and violence at children as long as the cash registers keep ringing.
That formula, however, conveniently ignores the impact that mega-retailer Wal-Mart's family-friendly policy has had on video game content in recent years. The latest issue of The Escapist examines the profound - and in some ways rather scary - amount of influence that founder Sam Walton's company has on the games we buy.
Increasingly, Wal-Mart's market dominance has led to a shift in creative control over video game content from the hands of developers to those of the giant retailer. While no doubt frustrating to game designers, hard business facts are at play. If the largest chain of stores in the world won't carry a game, is it worth making? Author Charles Fishman, dubs this the The Wal-Mart Effect
, and chose that term as the title for his new book.
Initially, game companies reacted to Wal-Mart's growing influence by publishing alternative versions of certain games. Wal-Mart friendly editions were sanitized in order to meet the family values standard espoused by the retail monolith. Duke Nukem 3D & Blood had the naughtiest bits removed, for example. Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K 2 was designed from the ground up with the idea of grabbing Wal-Mart shelf space. The U.S. version of Giants: Citizen Kabuto had some minor nudity covered up before Wal-Mart would even consider carrying it.
Wal-Mart's influence, however, hasn't been just on content nor has it always been pernicious. Remember the days of huge PC game boxes, when consumers received 90% air, along with a tiny manual & CD-ROM? Wasted space, and only Wal-Mart was able to do something about it. The company pressured game publishers to downsize the boxes in an effort to cram more titles onto its shelves. The result was a boon not only for retailers, but for the environment as well, since the amount of packaging needed was reduced. Game publishers made out okay on the deal too, since smaller boxes cost less.
For independent game publishers or developers trying to market a quirky game concept, Wal-Mart can be a huge obstacle. The company didn't get to be the world's dominant retailer by spreading itself thin, inventory-wise. The cold, hard dictates of the bottom line factor into the selection of game titles Wal-Mart chooses to carry, and niche players generally need not apply. If a game doesn't have the pedigree of a best-seller, don't expect to find it there.
On the other hand, Wal-Mart is credited with discovering a demographic largely ignored by the gaming industry, the so-called "mass-market gamer." These consumers don't have a gig of RAM, the fastest CPU, or a top of the line video card. And they definitely don't like the idea of plunking down sixty bucks for a game they might play for a couple of hours on the weekend. Titles like Deer Hunter and Bass Fisherman do exceedingly well with this demographic.
While Wal-Mart's retail dominance in the video game space is unquestioned, advances such as widespread broadband penetration in the not-so-distant future may inevitably shift design power back to developers. It won't happen next year, but the day will surely come when digital distribution via the Internet is the primary means of getting games into the hands of consumers. And unless Wal-Mart can figure out a way to grab a choke-hold on that market, their days of controlling the video game market are numbered.
-Reporting from outside the newest Wal-Mart in Saskatoon, where he has just purchased a pack of beef jerky and a sanitized copy of GTA San Andreas, GP Correspondent Colin "Jabrwock" McInnes