A reasonable question since greater retail distribution should yield more sales. And yet, a selection of niche titles are only available at GameStop.
By the end of this month, Natsume will have shipped two GameStop exclusives this year, Harvest Moon: Magical Melody (the Wii version) and Adventures to Go.
Why did Natsume go this route? I asked Graham Markay, Vice President of Operations at Natsume, to elaborate the benefits of being a GameStop exclusive.
Adventures To Go is a niche title aimed at hardcore and casual RPG fans. GameStop is really the best place to go for gamers who want to find those niche titles that won’t necessarily be out on the shelves of all of the big-box retailers. So this lets us put our title in the store where it’s going to get plenty of attention and shelf space, and it really helps us focus our advertising on where it counts most.
Obviously the con is that, on some level, you’d always like to see your game getting the treatment of a Halo or Madden and have it out there front and center at every single retailer, but that just wasn’t a strategy that made sense for a niche title like this one. GameStop has a ton of stores across the county, so we don’t think anyone will have a problem finding this game.
Interesting note about the shelf space. Aren’t GameStops typically cluttered? If Adventures to Go gets a big sign or centered display that might help the tiny title get attention. We’ll check up on this next week when Adventures to Go arrives in stores.
Want to know more about Adventures to Go? Markay will be back later this week to give us an overview.
