Strategy Informer  

Microsoft has stated that it tries to avoid having day one digital releases of major retail games on the Xbox 360, a philosophy not shared by Sony with the PlayStation brand. According to the publisher, the primary focus should remain on retail releases.

According to Xbox Live UK product manager Pav Bhardwaj, "We don't do Games on Demand on day one, we focus on boxed retail for day one.That's where our focus has always been and will remain that way for the foreseeable future."

Microsoft's strategy has been successful to this point. "We release a game roughly six months after it arrives at retail at full ERP. That's our model and we'll be sticking to that. It's a successful model, so why change something you don't need to?" Bhardwaj asked.

Bhardwaj states that gamers will still have a choice in type of purchase. "The customer has the choice of going to retail on day one if they really want to buy a particular title, or to wait a couple of months and buy it full price from the Xbox Live marketplace. It's a successful part of our business, we're very pleased with the growth and it continues to do really well. Clearly there's an audience out there who are happy to purchase a product at full ERP six or so months after (its retail release)."

It also may be a concession to the brick-and-mortar videogame shops who would rather gamers purchase physical retail copies. This synergistic relationship undoubtedly strengths Microsoft's relationship with retailers.

Source: Games Industry BIZ

Related games: Xbox 360 Hardware (Xbox360)