In an effort to maintain its important position as the premiere American specialty retailer of videogames, GameStop COO Paul Raines has said that the company will be introducing downloadable-content (DLC) kiosks in its stores. Variety’s Chris Morris reported:
GameStop COO Paul Raines, speaking at the BMO Capital Markets entertainment conference today, detailed plans for the company to install kiosks in its stores next year, letting people buy digital add-ons for titles as they buy the retail game.
While I understand that some customers, like younger gamers without credit card access, will have to trek to a brick-and-mortar store to buy a points card, a DLC kiosk sounds completely stupid to me. I should probably reserve judgement until a demo of the kiosk is shown, so for now I’ll just say the idea is mostly stupid.
Of course, I could be wrong. Do you like the idea of DLC kiosks at GameStop? Would you purchase content from one of these machines?
@R-Pad
Would you be interest if the kiosks don't require you to use the point systems required by the consoles?
@Sandrock323 Absolutely not. Downloading from my couch always beats going to GameStop.
A few questions come to mind:
1. Is this simply printing a token for you or would you need some sort of memory device or does it supply the memory device?
2. Notice he said "letting people buy digital add-ons for titles as they buy the retail game.". That is a scary thought that the industry is headed towards selling me an incomplete title for full price and then selling me the remaining 25% piece-meal.
Your reason #2 is why I don't buy any DLC… EVER! Someone has to send a message to these people that we will not stand for such outrageous and deceitful practices. And if I have to stand on my own against it (which is looking likely everyday), then so be it.
I think that if people showed a little more restraint and become a lot more discriminating in their tastes for DLC, a lot of these developers wouldn't think to be getting away with what you mentioned. DLC should be bought in the utmost moderation and NEVER be bought if it comes out within a month of the game’s release. We really need to send these people a message that we will not be nickel and dimed for an “incomplete” job.
-M
P.S.- @ Mr. Padilla; Why don't you come up with a DLC "Bill of Rights" on behalf of gamers everywhere. You know, kind of like the Bill of Rights we have in the U.S. Constitution, only this one will actually be read by people.
@Iceman I can't. You'll see why in tomorrow's Coffee Talk.