LGC: 2m people buy digital content from GAME

GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs has revealed the role he believes the specialist retailer can have in a digital world.

On stage at London Games Conference 2014, the retail veteran said that 2m individual people have bought digital content from the High Street chain.

He told attendees that video games is complicated and dismissed comparisons to music’s move to digital. He said "Music by comparison is simple. There’s no real complexity to what has happened. That is not what is happening here."

He added: "The launch of Steam Box, PS4 and Xbox One, the diverse access points to all digital experiences is going to grow and get more and more confusing."

Gibbs said that the number of platforms and options to buy – including digital add-ons, digital downloads, physical, subscription, mobile, free-to-play is confusing costumers.

He said: "Getting people comfortable with digital content is key, the awareness of digital and how people understand it, how they are using that digital purchase, and what and how do we get that future purchase intention up."

He said a specialist retailer needs to have every piece of gaming content available to every customer – both digital and physical. He also revealed some of the firm’s customer insight, revealing that 70 per cent of the firm’s top customers bought their games across multiple platforms.

And that over 75 per cent of gamers who bought digital content from GAME (including digital points cards and more) did not use a credit card of debit card to buy their content. "These gamers are expensive to get to," he said.

"They are not in the usual online worlds we can reach."