The politics behind the power of the retailer gets the Escapist treatment this month, with Allan Varney dissecting the unequivocal power Asda-owners Wal-Mart have over the games we play.
Wal-Mart and other retailers display an ever- decreasing range of game types. More and more, it is difficult-to-impossible to market an adventure game, or a non-Microsoft flight simulator, or a non-Maxis city-builder, or a non-Civilization turn-based strategy game. Did the audiences for these forms simply wither away? No, they're still out there - but they're not sufficiently profitable for big-box retail chains. The commercial range of games shrinks because of the free market's uncompromising pursuit of the majority at the expense of all minority tastes. We see this most clearly in Wal-Mart's signal triumph in game design, Deer Hunter.
Worth a read, if only to fuel the amazingly spiralling distain for this superstore.
