作者：Steve Peterson

在谷歌Nexus 7 Android平板电脑发布后，GameStop首席执行官Paul Raines针对这一新型Android平板电脑是否能够面对当今激烈的竞争，是否能够从主机手中争取更多市场份额，以及即将到来的假期游戏销售前景等问题发表了自己的看法。

paul-raines(from theverge.com)

你对谷歌Nexus 7平板电脑的发布有何看法？

在过去一年多时间里我们一直就这一新设备的发布与谷歌保持密切协商。他们希望创造出与在手机领域一样的行业标准设备（对他们来说三星Nexus产品便是Android在手机领域的一大开者）。这一平板电脑获得了广泛的期待，并且因为其强大的游戏功能让我们认为它将发挥变革性影响力。用户可以将这一平板电脑安装在自己的显示器上，并且能够使用其中的各种蓝牙控制器。现在我们正与各大游戏开发商进行洽谈，大多数人正面向Tegra 3平板电脑（游戏邦注：运行Jellybean，即Android 4.1操作系统）开发游戏。我们认这一设备具有强大的发展潜力。对此我们整个团队都非常欣慰。

你已经在许多商店中推出平板电脑，而你是否还打算进一步扩展？

是的。在去年12月份我们率先在2百家商店推出自有品牌的游戏平板电脑，并取得了不错的销量。随后我们继续扩展市场并最终在美国超过1600家商店以及欧洲、澳大利亚的几百家商店中展出我们的平板电脑。过去我们的用户总是希望在购买时听取（了解产品的）解说员进行描述，如此便需要耗费我们多余的时间，但是现在的平板电脑已经清楚地配备了这些教程，因此省去了我们的解说时间了。

面向旧硬件的以旧换新抵价是GameStop销售掌机硬件的重要方式。而现在你们也接受了智能手机和平板电脑的以旧换新，这是否还是一种有效的方式呢？

的确，这正是GameStop获得交易价值的重要方式。所以我们也会在平板电脑交易中使用这种模式。就在本周新型平板电脑发布的同时我们还宣布将接受42台Android平板电脑回收。我们收回了多数Android平板电脑类型，包括三星，索尼，华硕或东芝的设备，将其送到我们的翻新设备厂中。这与我们针对主机设备的升级循环类似。我们也在翻修过程中进一步了解了苹果产品和iPhone产品，Android平板电脑的翻新与此相似。我们能够让用户以较低价格换取新设备，这一方法在今天仍然大受用户欢迎。

不论是平板电脑还是智能手机的升级都很迅速，甚至每一年都会出现新技术（而不是像主机那样每隔5至7年才升级一次），所以用户希望更频繁地以旧换新。

你说得没错，我们也是这么想的。就像我们家中总是堆积着一些技术和小工具，而有些人也只是不断地累积各种工具而已。人们希望找个地方去处理这些“没用的”东西让其回归生态系统中。而我们的模式也正适合这种升级循环。

针对Nexus 7你们只提供了16 GB设备，这是为什么呢？

谷歌目前只为我们提供这一版本，如果有其他版本出现了，我们也会出售。

你们是否会在Nexus 7预先安装一些游戏？

在这次的设备我们并不打算这么做。在之前的Android设备中我们都预先安装了一些游戏，但是在这次的设备我们决定采用不同的营销方法，凡购买该平板电脑便赠送可在Google Play中消费的25美元credit以及一部免费电影。Google Play是一个新商店并且谷歌也在极力推广这一应用商店。而如果你是“PowerUp Rewards”（游戏邦注：GameStop去年开展“会员忠诚计划”的一部分）中的一员我们将提供更多好处。在今后几个月中我们将提供更多不同的方式推动用户购买新游戏以及GameStop中的其它内容。

关于怎样才能成为Google Play store中游戏专家以及如何推动这些内容的销售等还有许多值得讨论之处。这是我们投入了15年的时间在主机世界中所研究的结果，所以我们向平板电脑的过度也是再自然不过的事了。

google-nexus-7-tablet(from gamesindustry)

平板电脑的销售是否会吞噬主机市场？或者你是否认为这是影响主机游戏过去几年缓慢发展的重要原因?

这个问题问得好。并没有任何数据表明平板电脑游戏正在抢占主机游戏的市场份额。我们真正从数据中看到的是玩家在手机游戏中所花费的时间影响掌机游戏的发展。从主机领域的情况来看，当我们到达这一代设备的尾声时，我们会发现设备的创新逐渐衰弱而用户则将期待下一代设备出现。我想平板电脑应该有能力赶上主机设备，但我不能确定这个时代是否已经到来。我们所能够做的便是尽可能地满足用户的需求。我们知道的是用户喜欢在主机，手机以及平板电脑上玩游戏。对于我们来说用户是一种混合群体，他们并不完全是仅支持实体盒装游戏或数字游戏，或者说他们是这两种特性的结合体。所以我们将根据这个特点去匹配他们的需求。

单从美国市场来看我们的“PowerUp Rewards”便拥有1800万名成员，这些人代表在美国35%的消费量，并且我们在世界各地都获得了类似的统计数据。我们始终坚持的理念是，如果你是一名游戏玩家，我们便不只想要成为你的最佳主机游戏源，同时我们也希望成为你的游戏顾问，也就是如果你想转移到其它平台上我们也希望能够给予最佳建议。

你认为2012年下半年的发展前景是怎样的？今年是否是迄今为止你们所面临的最艰难的一年？是因为新型平板电脑的发行吗？还是有其它原因？

上半年的NPD调查数据并不是很理想，我想部分原因是较少（相对往年来说）的游戏供应量以及近来缓慢的主机更新速度。而我认为后半年将会出现好转；根据我们的预测后半年将有可能出现快速的发展。Wii U的出现便是一大转机。尽管任天堂的表现还不甚优秀（未像我们期待的那样），但是我们却非常喜欢它的游戏玩法。对于Wii U，我们整个团队最欣赏的还是游戏玩法，并且也正是因为它的出现让我们对接下来的假期销售再次充满了信心。

也许任天堂的设备不是最优秀的，但是他们却总能利用一些出色的游戏绕开这一缺陷。

这一点毋庸置疑。你可以站在我们的角度进行思考，自从雅达利时代以来，我们的团队已经见证了许多大型主机的发布，所以我们团队算是严谨的评审员了。经过这么多年的发展，人们从未想过淘汰任天堂它。

你看过《皮克敏》（游戏邦注：一款即时策略类游戏系列，最新一款游戏发行于Wii U上）的演示版本吗？虽然其游戏玩法看来不怎么样，但是当我在Wii U尝试这款游戏时我却发现它异常的有趣。首先它拥有非常华丽的图像，如3D一般，其次游戏玩法也非常吸引人。我在Wii U设备上拥有一张地图，并且我可以在游戏中四处搜寻皮克敏的下落，并使用双节棍（游戏机操控器的装置）和控制器攻击大蠕虫。不对称的游戏玩法（我将其成为“附着于平板电脑上”的游戏玩法）将成为一种全新的规格，但是我却不敢保证人们是否能够接受它。或许给予人们一些时间他们便会慢慢适应。

这有点像3D；但是其显示效果却还不是很到位，所以你们便需要亲自进行体验。

我想这将带给游戏产业积极的影响，而我们也正在为即将到来的假期作准备。

你是否考虑了PS3或360有降价的可能性？

尽管出现了许多谣传，但是我们却未将其作为考虑因素。这是件棘手的事，因为我们都知道主机制造商总是希望在发行新产品前能将库存中的旧货都销售出去。而很多结果又只有在最后一刻才会浮出水面，所以我们也不好猜测——因为这很大程度取决于人们的财政情况等元素。而如果你着眼于一些早前的行为你便会认为是时候以降价手段提升产品需求。

我想在任天堂最终宣布价格点前微软和索尼将始终保持低调。你能否猜测下任天堂何时会公布售价？

我们都知道这几家公司非常相近。我并不清楚任天堂为何不在E3上公布最终售价，而我们也未接收到任何其它数据。关于主机循环中将会出现的一大不同点便是：当我们着眼于GameStop系统中那1800百万的“PowerUp Rewards”成员时，我们也是在面向大约2400万的主机。我们共有数十亿美元的trade credit能够用于支助Wii U的发布。与此同时微软和索尼也在积极升级设备。市场中从未出现过如此巨额的资金能够用于购买新型主机。

这些主机将与一些从未公开的数字包共同发行。而我们现在也在创造一些新的数字包。选择在商店中出售可下载内容与trade credit能让我们从竞争者中脱颖而出。同时现在的消费者也比早前承受着更大的压力。所以我们必须努力在主机循环中采取任何可用的方法。

nintendo-wii-u-black(from gamesindustry)

似乎这次的假期比以往更加“难熬”，不仅将出现更多竞争平台，可下载内容也将扮演更重要的角色。

但是让我欣慰的是这个假期同时也将呈现出这几年来最大的创造性，因为我们不仅将迎来Wii U，也将看到更多数字内容以及具有开创性的平板电脑产品。一方面我们所面临的处境是艰难的，另一方面我们也将从更大的创造性中受益——因为越来越多人将向我们靠拢并共同解决问题。

你是否认为《黑衣人II》将成为最出色的游戏？

我认为作为市场营销引擎的动视和作为市场营销机器的GameStop将相互协调而共同推动《黑衣人II》的发展。我们将拥有trade credits，午夜首发策略以及数字内容。并且很早以前我们便学会不再执拗于创造《使命召唤》般的游戏。我在GameStop工作了4年，而我的第一款《使命召唤》式游戏《世界大战》便是因此夭折的。更不用说这几年来有多少复制游戏断送于此。而《黑衣人II》便是摆脱了《使命召唤》的束缚，所以它极有可能发展成一款真正出色的游戏。

它的发展是否会受到《光晕4》的影响？

这个问题值得深思！如果你是一个用户，在10月份的零花钱只有80美元，你便可能面临艰难的抉择（可选择的优秀游戏太多了）。除此之外我们还需要提防《刺客教条》这一系列游戏的竞争。

去年好像就是所有游戏挤在一起发行的。

的确是这样的，我一直祈祷着各大游戏能够错开时间与用户见面，但是似乎所有发行商都喜欢赶在秋天推出游戏。但是Take-Two例外，他们能够很好地分布各大游戏的发行时间。就像《荒野大镖客：救赎》出现在5月份，而《侠盗猎车手》则发行于春天。除此之外大多发行商都选择扎堆发行游戏。

Take-Two是不是有意识地采用这种分散游戏发行时间的决策？

没错。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

GameStop CEO: Google’s tablet is a “gamechanger”

By Steve Peterson

Following the launch of Google’s Nexus 7 Android tablet, GamesIndustry International spoke with GameStop CEO Paul Raines about how this new Android tablet stacks up to the competition, whether tablets will take market share from consoles, and the prospects for game sales this holiday.

Q: What’s your reaction to Google’s Nexus 7 tablet?

Paul Raines: We’ve been engaged with Google for about a year on the launch of this device. They had a desire to create an industry standard device similar to what they did with the handsets; the Samsung Nexus phone has been a real groundbreaker for them. We’ve got a lot of expectations around this tablet; we think it’s a gamechanger because it will have tremendous gaming capabilities. You’ll be able to wire this tablet to your monitor, you’ll be able to use all kind of Bluetooth controllers on it. We’re talking to a lot of game developers right now, and everybody’s developing right now for the Tegra 3 tablets that are running on Jellybean [Android 4.1]. I think the quality of what you’re going to see is going to be pretty hot and this tablet’s going to go a long way. Our team’s excited about it.

Q: You’ve been rolling out tablets to more stores – have you expanded that?

Paul Raines: We have. We started with 200 in December; that went very well. We slowly built our capacity and we’re over 1600 stores now in the United States and a few hundred in Europe and Australia. There’s a lot of education in selling a tablet. Our customers are used to having real knowledgeable associates, and it took us a while to educate our people around tablets, but tablets are now starting to get into our wheelhouse on associate knowledge and education.

Q: Getting trade-in value for old hardware has been an important way for GameStop to get sales of console hardware. Now you’re accepting smartphones and tablets for trade-in; has that been working well for you?

Paul Raines: Yes, you know GameStop’s the best place to get value for your trades. We of course are heavily into the buy/sell trade model with tablets. We announced this week as part of this release that we’re accepting 42 SKUs of Android tablets in our stores. We take back – well, I won’t say almost anything, because you never know what people have – most Android tablet SKUs; Samsung, Sony, Asus, Toshiba, we’re taking all of those back in trade and we’re bringing them back to our refurbishment facility. In a lot of ways, it’s kind of the same upgrade cycle we’ve lived through in consoles for a long time. We’ve learned a lot with the Apple products and the iPhone products that we’ve been refurbishing. The Android tablets are following along the same cycle. We have the ability to make the purchase much less expensive for the consumer as they want to upgrade. That’s been very positively received today with our customers.

Q: With both tablets and smartphones the upgrade cycle is so much faster, with new technology every year, instead of every five to seven years with consoles, so there’s a much greater desire to trade up more frequently.

Paul Raines: You’re right, we’re seeing that. We have a lot of technology and gadgets in our homes, and a lot of people are just accumulating gadgets. People are looking for a place to responsibly dispose of them and put it back into the ecosystem. Our model fits well with that upgrade cycle.

Q: You’re only offering the 16GB version of the Nexus 7, is there a reason for that?

Paul Raines: Google did not make the other version available to us. We’re offering what’s available, and we’ll sell it well. At the point that the other SKU’s available, we’ll offer that as well.

Q: Will you be pre-installing some games on the Nexus 7?

Paul Raines: On this SKU we are not. On the rest of the Android SKUs we have been pre-installing games. On this SKU we’re going to market with a different approach; we’ll have $25 of credit in the Google Play store as well as a free movie. That Play store is new and Google is trying to promote it. You’ll see us do some interesting things for you if you’re a PowerUp Rewards member. We’ll reach out over the course of the next few months and offer you different ways to buy and purchase new games and some exclusive GameStop content.

We’ve actually had lots of conversations around how we can be the expert for games for the Google Play store and help promote those in-store. That’s what we’ve been doing for 15 years in the console world, and for us it’s a very natural transition to tablets.

Q: Do you see tablets eating into console sales? Do you think this is part of what’s been slowing sales of console games over the past few years?

Paul Raines: That’s a good question. The data doesn’t support that tablet gaming is stealing a lot of dollars from console gaming. What the data does support is that time spent with phones gaming is probably impacting handheld consoles. On the full size console side, I think what’s happening is more a function of the end of this console cycle. As we reach the end, we’ve seen innovation slow down and consumers are waiting for the next cycle. I think tablets have the potential to take some of that time but I’m not sure we’ve seen that yet. What we’re trying to do is match consumer demand whichever way it goes. What we know about customers is, customers like to play their console, they like to play on their phone, they like to play on their tablet. Consumers for us are really hybrid people; they’re not all physical or all digital, they’re a little bit of both. We’re trying to match that as they migrate.

We have 18 million members of PowerUp Rewards in the US, and they represent some 35% of consumption in the US, and around the world we have similar statistics in the countries we’re in. The idea we have is that if you’re a game player, we don’t just want to be your best source for console games. We want to be your game advisor, so if you migrate into other platforms we think we’re the best to advise you on that.

Q: What do you think the prospects are for the back half of 2012? It’s been a tough year so far, do think that’s because of the releases or some other factors?

Paul Raines: For the first half the NPD data has certainly not been tremendously positive. I think part of that is that title count is much lower than previous years, and the late console innovation levels are slowed. I think the back half is pretty encouraging; we’re in the midst of looking at our forecast and we feel like it will be a decent back half. I think the Wii U is a big piece of that. In spite of not a great presentation from Nintendo – it was not as well received as we would have hoped – we like the gameplay. Nintendo has been downstairs here today showing off some new content, and there’s nothing I can really discuss but our team is pretty excited about the gameplay coming on the Wii U. That has me pretty optimistic about the holiday.

Q: Nintendo may not have the greatest presentations in the world, but they have a way of getting around that with good games.

Paul Raines: No doubt about it. You can imagine at our place, o
ur team has seen every major console launch in history going back to Atari, so our team is a pretty tough judge. People here never count out Nintendo; we’ve learned that through the years. So I wouldn’t count them out on this one either.

Did you see the Pikmin demo up on stage? The gameplay didn’t look great on stage, but I went upstairs with Nintendo later and was playing Pikmin and that’s fabulous. First of all, the graphics are fabulous, almost 3D-like, and then the gameplay is very cool. I had a map on my Wii U tablet, and I could run around and find the Pikmins where they were, and I was actually attacking the big worm with my nunchuk and my controller. The asymmetric gameplay – I call it the ‘tethered tablet’ gameplay’ – that’s going to be a whole new dimension and I’m not sure people get that yet. But give them time, they will.

Q: It’s kind of like 3D; it’s not something that shows well in a presentation, and you kind of have to experience it for yourself.

Paul Raines: We think that’s going to be a very positive event for the industry, and we’re preparing ourselves for what we think will be a pretty rockin’ holiday.

Q: Are you factoring in possible price cuts for the PS3 or the 360?

Paul Raines: We’ve not factored them in, although they are rumored. That’s a tough one, because you know console makers want to make sure they sell through the old inventory before they launch the new. So a lot of that stuff gets revealed really last-minute, so we really don’t like counting on that, because it depends on people’s fiscal years, etc. Clearly, if you look at previous behavior, you would say it’s about time to drive demand with some price reductions.

Q: My guess is that Microsoft and Sony will keep their powder dry until Nintendo announces their price point. Do you have any idea when that will happen?

Paul Raines: Right, right. You know, they’re very close. I’m not sure why Nintendo didn’t announce it at E3, but we have not received any other data. One of the things that’s going to be different on this console cycle that’s never existed before is if you think about the 18 million PowerUp Rewards members that GameStop has in our system, if you look at them they collectively about 24 million consoles. There’s billions of dollars of trade credits that can subsidize the launch of the Wii U. We’re busy working with them and Microsoft and Sony on the upgrade cycle. There’s never been this amount of currency in the market to buy new consoles.

These consoles will launch with digital bundles that have never been seen before. We’re in the midst of trying to create some now. Our ability to merchandise and sell DLC in stores coupled with the trade credit gives us a unique position that our traditional competitors are really going to have a hard time matching. At the same time the consumer is under more pressure than they’ve ever been. It’s really important to bring to bear every weapon we can in this console cycle.

Q: It seems like it’s going to be a more complicated holiday than ever before, with more platforms than ever and DLC taking a larger role than ever before.

Paul Raines: What I’m happiest about this holiday is the level of innovation is going to be the best it’s been in a few years, because you’re going to have a Wii U, you’re going to have more digital content than ever, you’re going to have tablet offerings that are going to be groundbreaking. On the one hand it’s complicated, on the other hand it means more innovation which is good for us, because people come to us to figure out all the complication.

Q: Do you think Black Ops II is going to be the biggest game of all time?

Paul Raines: I think the marketing engine that is Activision and the marketing machine that is GameStop will be tuned to all-time levels for Black Ops II. So that’s gonna work. We’ll have trade credits, we’ll have midnight launches, we’ll have digital content. I learned long ago not to bet against Call of Duty. I’ve been at GameStop 4 years, and my first Call of Duty was World at War, and people told me that was the end of the series. And how many millions of copies was that ago? I wouldn’t bet against it, it’ll be a huge title.

Q: Do you think it’s going to cut into Halo 4?

Paul Raines: That’s a good question. If you’re a guy or a gal who only has 80 bucks to spend in the month of October, you’re going to have some tough choices. Look out for Assassin’s Creed, that’s going to take some business this year.

Q: Part of the problem last year was that all the titles seemed to hit around the same time.

Paul Raines: I beg people all the time, please spread the titles out. But our publishers really like that fall window. Except Take-Two, they do a pretty good job of spreading them out. We got Red Dead Redemption in May, and who knows when we’ll get GTA but it will probably be spring. The rest of the publishers like to pack them in on us.

Q: I’m not sure Take-Two’s spreading out of their release schedule is deliberate, though.

Paul Raines: Right, right.(source:gamesindustry.biz)