"I don't want Witcher to be sold by crappy stores which don't care about the consumers." That's what the impressively titled Marcin Iwinski - co-founder, Member of the Board and Business Development at CD Projekt Group - had to say at GDC last week.
The diversity of video game retailers is a contentious issue at the moment. UK retail chain GAME 's share prices are at an all-time low. If the cover of industry magazine, MCV is anything to go by, they're already dead. Marcin has been predicting the decline for years: "It's funny because I'm speaking at the conferences, lectures and whatnot for the last six years of saying 'digital, digital, digital' and nothing happened. Then... kaboom! We're at the tipping point and off we go."
"Look what [Steam] have done with Steamworks," he continued. "They've offered a lot of stuff and are forever linking the developers with the platform. All of their offering is free so... is there any better strategy? No. Give a lot of value."
Marcin says that other digital distribution platforms need to innovate, not immitate if they're to succeed: "Look what the other guys are doing 'Oh, we'll copy Steamworks.' GOG has a unique offering because we go a totally different way, we offer free downloads of free additional materials, and we sold over 40 000 copies of The Witcher 2 on GOG. It was the second biggest market for us."
Marcin also confirmed that The Witcher 2 will eventually end up on EA's rival distribution platform, Origin.
"It will be on Origin. I'm a big pilot of the user experience so I'm checking along the platforms; is it good, is it friendly?"
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