Dixon's Group to drop GC support (UK)
- Thread starter zurich
- Start date
Yup, it's apparently true. I spoke with our UK sales person and he told me that they have been mulling this one over for a few months. He wasn't suprised at all either... Apparently they account for around 20% of Nintendo's sales in the UK from what I've heard. This certainly isn't a good thing.
I was just talking to one of my friends the other day and he was saying he was holding off getting a GC until it dropped to £99 (well that and MP's release anyway) as he thought that would happen very soon (since its been £129 since launch). So it looks like I'll have another friend to play multi-player with now 
I had no idea about this Dixons offer of £99 plus one free game (despite walking right past Dixons yesterday) and neither did my friend or anyone else I've talked to recently, so perhaps they should advertise a bit?
Its a slightly od time for Dixons to do something like this (its an od move all round really for such a big store). There selling everything off cheap just before Metroid Prime and Zelda are released (this month and next). They might very well regret doing that once those games release. Because those games could very well increase GC sales significantly. We've been starved of new top quality GC games over here since before 2003 started.
Looking at this from the point of view of a console store (I have a friend who owns one) this will lessens competition for them, once Dixons sells out that is. So every other console store around, including my mate, must be very happy about this. The 20% that were buying there consoles at Dixons (if that's an accurate number) will simply buy them somewhere else now.
I had no idea about this Dixons offer of £99 plus one free game (despite walking right past Dixons yesterday) and neither did my friend or anyone else I've talked to recently, so perhaps they should advertise a bit?
Its a slightly od time for Dixons to do something like this (its an od move all round really for such a big store). There selling everything off cheap just before Metroid Prime and Zelda are released (this month and next). They might very well regret doing that once those games release. Because those games could very well increase GC sales significantly. We've been starved of new top quality GC games over here since before 2003 started.
Looking at this from the point of view of a console store (I have a friend who owns one) this will lessens competition for them, once Dixons sells out that is. So every other console store around, including my mate, must be very happy about this. The 20% that were buying there consoles at Dixons (if that's an accurate number) will simply buy them somewhere else now.
RaolinDarksbane
Newcomer
Got this from GA.
http://www.xsorbit1.com/users/cubeeurope/index.cgi?board=gena&action=display&num=1047348539
So it means that it is a pissing match and not a result of GC doing badly??
http://www.xsorbit1.com/users/cubeeurope/index.cgi?board=gena&action=display&num=1047348539
So it means that it is a pissing match and not a result of GC doing badly??
if it was selling well for them, why would they even consider doing somehting like this? It's all about the sales.
Anyway, what teasy mentioned regarding the 20% of of nintendo sales going to other stores, isn't exactly true. The more stores your product is in, the more sales you possibly can get from them. Availability plays a big part int eh popularity of any product. Think of it this way, would you really think if Walmart stopped selling the gamecubes in north america, that would mean all those possible sales would go to the smaller stores? after all walmart makes up 25% of all consle sales in north america. you may get some people that will search it out, but this will hurt things when it comes to the casual buyers.
Anyway, what teasy mentioned regarding the 20% of of nintendo sales going to other stores, isn't exactly true. The more stores your product is in, the more sales you possibly can get from them. Availability plays a big part int eh popularity of any product. Think of it this way, would you really think if Walmart stopped selling the gamecubes in north america, that would mean all those possible sales would go to the smaller stores? after all walmart makes up 25% of all consle sales in north america. you may get some people that will search it out, but this will hurt things when it comes to the casual buyers.
Quincy, REALLY?
How many people do you think go casually strolling through a Walmart, see a gamecube and think, 'Hmmm. Maybe I should pick one up just for the heck of it', as opposed to those who go to a gaming store with the deliberate intention to actually get themselves a gamecube?
You must be off your rockers if you think group A (the casual buyer) rates anywhere near group B. It's not cheap enough to fall into the impulse-buy category really. It's not a bag of potato chips we're talking about here!
*G*
How many people do you think go casually strolling through a Walmart, see a gamecube and think, 'Hmmm. Maybe I should pick one up just for the heck of it', as opposed to those who go to a gaming store with the deliberate intention to actually get themselves a gamecube?
You must be off your rockers if you think group A (the casual buyer) rates anywhere near group B. It's not cheap enough to fall into the impulse-buy category really. It's not a bag of potato chips we're talking about here!
*G*
I don't knw what area you live in, but this happens all the time. I'm not just talking about casual purchases, but there is a very good reason why walmart sells more games then any other video game chain, and that's because the stores are all over the place, and it's "easy" to get what you want. Make it tougher to get what you want, and whatever the product is, it won't sell as well as it could have.
Casual buyers/gamers makes up a far bigger percentage of the video game sales compared to the hardcore gamers.
Quincy
Dixons dropping GC will definitely have some effect on GC sales yeah. I didn't mean to say that every single sale Dixons would get for GC would then happen at other stores if Dixons drop GC. But if Dixons make up 20% of GC sales in the U.K currently and they drop GC then the large majority of that 20% sales will happen at other stores. 99% of the people who buy a GC will go out with the intention of doing so. A GameCube at £129 ($206) is not an impulse item. When GC's price drops below £99 and if Dixons are still not stocking GC then it'll become a bigger problem.
BTW just as a guide to how big Dixons are in the U.K. If I went out to buy a GC I'd have the choice between about 10 stores, all able to sell me a GC, in very close proximity and two of them would be in the Dixon's group. So basically if Dixons don't have a GC in stock its a matter of walking 10 feet to a store that does, for me anyway, I'm sure its something similar in most places. Also to be honest if I was looking for a console I wouldn't even be at Dixons as its not a game store.
If this happens it will definitely be bad, obviously, and frankly a little od IMO, but not that bad at the current time. At the moment, given what Nintendo said I'm not even sure this will happen.
I don't actually buy that this is happening because of poor GC sales. Your right of course that this wouldn't be happen at all if GC was selling excellently here. Poor sales are deffinately allowing Dixons to do this. But sales are not the actual reason IMO.
From what Nintendo are saying this sounds like some sort of dispute. Say Dixons say to Nintendo that they're not happy with something. Nintendo say well you can just put up with it or we won't give you GBASP. So Dixons say ok if you don't give us GBASP's then we'll drop GC. This sounds more like the sort of thing that's going on IMO.
Nintendo's words aren't the only thing that make me think they aren't dropping GC because of its sales either. There are a few things that make me think that.
1 - Dixons didn't drop DC or N64 until they were totally dead. Despite the fact they must have been selling many, many times worse then GC is now well before they dropped them. Dixons aren't the sort of company that will give up on a product that is still alive. Even just to take sales away from competing stores.
2 - Two of GC's biggest games are coming this month and next, the biggest games so far for GC in the U.K IMO (Metroid Prime and Zelda). Then you have GBASP coming very soon. Not wanting to miss out on a money spinner like GBASP would surely, in itself, be enough to make Dixons keep up GC support. If your going to drop GC due to bad sales this is the worst time imaginable to do it AFAICS.
3 - If GC was so unprofitable for Dixons that they had to drop it I'd think we would have seen plenty of smaller stores dropping it a long time before now. After all smaller companies can't afford to hang on to a poor selling product as long as a big company like Dixons can.
This is why I said earlier that this seemed like a very od move if they were dropping GC based on poor sales. Not only does it not make much sense to me to drop GC now (with MP, Zelda and GBASP coming very soon) but it especially doesn't make sense for Dixons to do it, given there track record.
Dixons dropping GC will definitely have some effect on GC sales yeah. I didn't mean to say that every single sale Dixons would get for GC would then happen at other stores if Dixons drop GC. But if Dixons make up 20% of GC sales in the U.K currently and they drop GC then the large majority of that 20% sales will happen at other stores. 99% of the people who buy a GC will go out with the intention of doing so. A GameCube at £129 ($206) is not an impulse item. When GC's price drops below £99 and if Dixons are still not stocking GC then it'll become a bigger problem.
BTW just as a guide to how big Dixons are in the U.K. If I went out to buy a GC I'd have the choice between about 10 stores, all able to sell me a GC, in very close proximity and two of them would be in the Dixon's group. So basically if Dixons don't have a GC in stock its a matter of walking 10 feet to a store that does, for me anyway, I'm sure its something similar in most places. Also to be honest if I was looking for a console I wouldn't even be at Dixons as its not a game store.
If this happens it will definitely be bad, obviously, and frankly a little od IMO, but not that bad at the current time. At the moment, given what Nintendo said I'm not even sure this will happen.
I don't actually buy that this is happening because of poor GC sales. Your right of course that this wouldn't be happen at all if GC was selling excellently here. Poor sales are deffinately allowing Dixons to do this. But sales are not the actual reason IMO.
From what Nintendo are saying this sounds like some sort of dispute. Say Dixons say to Nintendo that they're not happy with something. Nintendo say well you can just put up with it or we won't give you GBASP. So Dixons say ok if you don't give us GBASP's then we'll drop GC. This sounds more like the sort of thing that's going on IMO.
Nintendo's words aren't the only thing that make me think they aren't dropping GC because of its sales either. There are a few things that make me think that.
1 - Dixons didn't drop DC or N64 until they were totally dead. Despite the fact they must have been selling many, many times worse then GC is now well before they dropped them. Dixons aren't the sort of company that will give up on a product that is still alive. Even just to take sales away from competing stores.
2 - Two of GC's biggest games are coming this month and next, the biggest games so far for GC in the U.K IMO (Metroid Prime and Zelda). Then you have GBASP coming very soon. Not wanting to miss out on a money spinner like GBASP would surely, in itself, be enough to make Dixons keep up GC support. If your going to drop GC due to bad sales this is the worst time imaginable to do it AFAICS.
3 - If GC was so unprofitable for Dixons that they had to drop it I'd think we would have seen plenty of smaller stores dropping it a long time before now. After all smaller companies can't afford to hang on to a poor selling product as long as a big company like Dixons can.
This is why I said earlier that this seemed like a very od move if they were dropping GC based on poor sales. Not only does it not make much sense to me to drop GC now (with MP, Zelda and GBASP coming very soon) but it especially doesn't make sense for Dixons to do it, given there track record.
Johnny Awesome
Veteran
I can't believe that Teasy is trying to argue with QRoach that retail space at large retail chains isn't important for Gamecube. It's absolutely ridiculous.
Please Q, don't sink into this pointless debate. You may as well try to teach Teasy that the sky is blue. He won't believe you though.
Please Q, don't sink into this pointless debate. You may as well try to teach Teasy that the sky is blue. He won't believe you though.
Johnny, do everyone a favour and just don't post at all if your going to act like that.
You seem to be the only person here who has taken no notice at all of John Reynolds recent warning about silly pointless flames. I believe he said if you have nothing constructive to say then say nothing, so just take his advice.
Everyone was having a perfectly civil discussion until you posted. And I'm sure everyone agrees that we don't need you, or anyone else, trying to start flame wars in this thread. So just give it up.
BTW what you claim I am saying isn't even true, which is a testament to the complete irrelevance of your post.
You seem to be the only person here who has taken no notice at all of John Reynolds recent warning about silly pointless flames. I believe he said if you have nothing constructive to say then say nothing, so just take his advice.
Everyone was having a perfectly civil discussion until you posted. And I'm sure everyone agrees that we don't need you, or anyone else, trying to start flame wars in this thread. So just give it up.
BTW what you claim I am saying isn't even true, which is a testament to the complete irrelevance of your post.
Teasy, I really don't know how you could argue something like this. Having your product avaible in less stores is bad no matter how you think of it.
Teasy, think about this for a second, what are the types of people that shop in stores like dixons? Parents, mothers? We all know that Nintendo will always target the younger demographic in some way, and parents that buy things for their kids still shop at stores like this instead of people like you or I. Having your product avaible in less stores has two effects.
1. The trickle down effect, where smaller stores could also stop carrying the gamecube if it "also" hasn't sold well for them.
2. Availability/mindshare. The more you see or hear about something in a store, the greater the chance of you purchasing it. It just like advertising.
The only way you'll get that 20 % hunting out gamecubes is if the demand is extremly high. At this point it's not very high.
Umm, dixons actually "is" selling the game cube for 99 and they are NOT stocking them anymore.
So how many of those other stores close by are a Curry's, or a PC World? Either way, you're not a casual gamer judging by how much you argue about games on this board. So no, of course something like this wouldn affect your purchase. However, the parent's out there that shop at stores like this could possibly be affected.
Teasy, when nintendo says this won't hurst them, they ar ebasically on damage control. They wouldn't say anything otherwise since it could drastically affect thier stock price. Anythime a store chain moves 20% of your product and you loose them, then it's bad, and btw, for what I've heard this did happen, and it wasn't a shock to anyone who's been trying to sell them product.
Of course sales/shelf space are the reason. The only other thing Dxons could not be happy with is the price of what they are paying. And since they sell such a large percentage of gamecubes for nintendo, I'm sure they are already getting a good price.
They are not happy with the sales teasy, that's all it really comes down too. If the product isn't selling well, then it's taking up shelf space that could be used for something that is selling better, or is in more of a demand. You've seen articles all over about this with even quotes from all over the net showing just what has been said... like this one.
http://gamesindustry.net/content_page.php?section_name=ret&aid=1337
Quoting the article from a newspaper, where a spoksperson from Dixon's group says "GameCube hasn't sold well, so for now we're concentrating on just Xbox and PS2. It's purely about shelf space."
I mean it sounds like it could change, but for now this is what they are doing. Anyway, I'm not going to get into a long drawn out argument on how you think this isn't that bad or a big deal since nintendo "says so". Nintendo won't admit it's a proballem, just like how Sony or MS wouldn't admit it either if it was happening to them.
Teasy, think about this for a second, what are the types of people that shop in stores like dixons? Parents, mothers? We all know that Nintendo will always target the younger demographic in some way, and parents that buy things for their kids still shop at stores like this instead of people like you or I. Having your product avaible in less stores has two effects.
1. The trickle down effect, where smaller stores could also stop carrying the gamecube if it "also" hasn't sold well for them.
2. Availability/mindshare. The more you see or hear about something in a store, the greater the chance of you purchasing it. It just like advertising.
The only way you'll get that 20 % hunting out gamecubes is if the demand is extremly high. At this point it's not very high.
Umm, dixons actually "is" selling the game cube for 99 and they are NOT stocking them anymore.
So how many of those other stores close by are a Curry's, or a PC World? Either way, you're not a casual gamer judging by how much you argue about games on this board. So no, of course something like this wouldn affect your purchase. However, the parent's out there that shop at stores like this could possibly be affected.
Teasy, when nintendo says this won't hurst them, they ar ebasically on damage control. They wouldn't say anything otherwise since it could drastically affect thier stock price. Anythime a store chain moves 20% of your product and you loose them, then it's bad, and btw, for what I've heard this did happen, and it wasn't a shock to anyone who's been trying to sell them product.
Of course sales/shelf space are the reason. The only other thing Dxons could not be happy with is the price of what they are paying. And since they sell such a large percentage of gamecubes for nintendo, I'm sure they are already getting a good price.
They are not happy with the sales teasy, that's all it really comes down too. If the product isn't selling well, then it's taking up shelf space that could be used for something that is selling better, or is in more of a demand. You've seen articles all over about this with even quotes from all over the net showing just what has been said... like this one.
http://gamesindustry.net/content_page.php?section_name=ret&aid=1337
Quoting the article from a newspaper, where a spoksperson from Dixon's group says "GameCube hasn't sold well, so for now we're concentrating on just Xbox and PS2. It's purely about shelf space."
I mean it sounds like it could change, but for now this is what they are doing. Anyway, I'm not going to get into a long drawn out argument on how you think this isn't that bad or a big deal since nintendo "says so". Nintendo won't admit it's a proballem, just like how Sony or MS wouldn't admit it either if it was happening to them.
overclocked
Veteran
Strange, the blockbuster titles (Metroid, zelda) is on the way and they do this move.
RaolinDarksbane
Newcomer
Are you sure that GC isn't doing so well? This report seems to contradict it... then again it is from spong.com
http://www.spong.com/index.asp?art=4580
If true, then it's likely that the post I made earlier had some truth in in and that this has been a pissing contest between Dixon and Nintendo.
http://www.spong.com/index.asp?art=4580
If true, then it's likely that the post I made earlier had some truth in in and that this has been a pissing contest between Dixon and Nintendo.
Doing a quick mental calculus, the Gc is losing approx. 1% of its worlwide retail support if those chains I do not know about represent 20% of the UK GC retailers.
Nintendo has always been bad in the UK since the NES. A strong UK launch may have make people think the opposite, but you can not make people forget about such a bad history.
I'm more concerned about sales in Germany and France, NOE headquarters are in Germany for good reasons. This country has always been strong (maybe because they forbid violent games). If Gc sales are getting bad in those two countries, we may feel worried, but UK was always a challenge.
Nintendo has always been bad in the UK since the NES. A strong UK launch may have make people think the opposite, but you can not make people forget about such a bad history.
I'm more concerned about sales in Germany and France, NOE headquarters are in Germany for good reasons. This country has always been strong (maybe because they forbid violent games). If Gc sales are getting bad in those two countries, we may feel worried, but UK was always a challenge.
CaptainHowdy
Regular
RaolinDarksbane said:
actually it seems nothing more than Dixon getting sick of it not selling, the sales didnt actually kick up until RE0 and PSO hit, which was after Dixons Decision was made, and honestly, thier huge price drop pushing the cube didnt hurt that sales increase..
*Edit* yup, just found out Nintendo have said that the Dixons Pricecut is what boosted hardware sales, and though Dixon did it to kill stock, its said to become a standard deal now..
"Last week there was a 21% uplift in Nintendo GameCube hardware sales, and this weekly success comes as a welcome respite. Nintendo is the first to admit the discounting from Dixons [ Before they announced they were not stocking gamecube they cut all of their software to £25 and offered gamecube and a game for £99 - this is now becoming the standard offer]has helped. A Nintendo spokesperson told us: "We're doing very well. Software sales are up 45% and we were number one earlier in the week, and hardware sales are up 21% week-on-week. Of course the discounting helped us - together with our own free game promotion - you get a game and a GameCube for 99 which is great. " Things could look even better next week as Comet and John Lewis are price-matching Dixons, for the moment.
Things look even rosier in the Nintendo garden come March 21 when it's primed for an even bigger week. This sees the UK launch of another GameCube exclusive game - the hotly tipped Metroid Prime.
Metroid Prime sold 250,000 during the first week of its US release, and Nintendo wouldn't mind a piece of that for the improved European version of Metroid Prime.
We shall keep you informed of all developments. Remember, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is still to arrive and there are over 80 third-party GameCube games scheduled for release this year. So Nintendo fans, don't slash your wrists just yet..."
RaolinDarksbane
Newcomer
This reminds of a similar situation with MS and the XBOX after the Euro launch when there was so many price fluctuation. Retailers were mad about the price differences which lead to some people making comments about not supporting the XBOX anymore. People made a big deal then, and now it seems to be happening to Nintendo.
Another Link:
http://www.gcube.hotlinks.co.uk/contents.php?id=97
Another Link:
http://www.gcube.hotlinks.co.uk/contents.php?id=97