Gamestop SVP/GM of Digital, Shawn Freeman to Ars Technica:
“By providing an opportunity for our sales associate to sell the games themselves to consumers, we can drive more of those sales,” he said. He then gave what he calls the “classic example,” where a customer comes in for the newest Call of Duty game and GameStop can sell the map pack or add-on content as a part of the same purchase. The person selling the game can talk up the digital content, and Freeman says this removes some of the “friction” of buying the content. You don’t have to go home, buy points, and then buy the content; you just add a digital download it to your existing purchase.
How about the “friction” of having to get in your car and driving to a GameStop location as opposed to 2 minutes of typing and clicking on your computer?
How about the “friction” of having to deal with a snotty GameStop employee who tries to bludgeon you into preordering games a year in advance when all you want to do is buy something and leave the store?
Snarkiness aside, getting customers to set up a link between their console profile and GameStop’s retail system isn’t going to be any easier than simply educating them how to purchase DLC from their own console. If they’re smart enough to connect their console to the internet, they’re smart enough to figure out how to use the online marketplace.
The biggest problem with downloadable content sales is educating the masses of ignorant people on the availability of downloadable content and how to purchase it. These are the people that are going to GameStop and buying point cards. Adding another middleman connection between them and the content isn’t helping anyone except GameStop’s profit margins
Read: Link Xbox Live to… GameStop? Buy in store, it’s waiting at home.
