Gamazavr: Year in Review

Summarizing the year's results is not the easiest task, if only because the significance of certain events can only be evaluated after a significant amount of time has passed. What seemed important may become a fleeting memory, while some minor details always have the chance to transform into the main event.

Talking about the past 12 months is difficult, at least because they have been defining for us. The industry, as you know, operates in "seasons" - from February-March to November-December. And this was the first full season of Gamazavr - it’s hard to underestimate its importance.

What are the criteria for success in our business? Which of them are more important, and which should we not pay attention to? Where have we made progress, and where have we not stepped back? There are too many questions, the answers to which are not easy to find. But we will try.

Game of the Year: Diablo 3

We will not talk about the "value for the genre", the legacy of the third part, the dynamics of gameplay, and the beauty of trailers. After all, you’ve read about all of this more than once or twice. Let’s talk about something else - what this game has meant for digital distribution in Russia.

As a reminder, D3 had 2 releases: European (American) and Russian. The first occurred on May 15, and the second on June 7. The army of devoted fans of the series, for obvious reasons, did not want to wait and purchased the EU version (digitally). And then the most interesting part began. This very "army" obviously has friends, acquaintances, relatives, girlfriends, grandmothers, etc. So it was this segment of the gaming audience, used to buying games on discs at the nearest hypermarket, that found itself needing to obtain a product unavailable in their familiar format. And they went to digital stores. And bought Diablo 3 for themselves. This particular part of the gaming community, which had never heard of "digital", got acquainted with it. And it doesn’t matter how many copies of the game we or our colleagues sold. What matters is that the market itself has grown.

Event of the Year: Guild Wars 2

If we slightly step away from the current season and include the end of the last year, we can confidently say - it was a period of disappointment in MMO games. With a small but important caveat. In the 4 months since the launch of GW2, it still remains in the top-5 best-selling games in our store. But strangely enough, that’s not the main point.

Against the backdrop of disappointment in Star Wars: The Old Republic, in light of the failure of The Secret World, Guild Wars 2 became the main hope for MMO players. There was only one small problem - many didn’t understand how to purchase the game. After all, the official website required credit card information, which (surprisingly) not everyone has. Therefore, the wave of "not everyone" rushed to search for stores where they could pay by other means. And they found them. And bought. And even played for a while. And then, a kind uncle inquisitor with a big, big banhammer came and showed the amazed public what a real slaughter is like. It turned out that the vast majority of sellers of GW2 activation keys were giving their customers codes purchased with stolen credit cards. Malice intent? No. A desire for profit. After all, keys obtained in this way cost significantly less (talking about purchase price).

The story is behind us - an official agreement with NCsoft, the opportunity to start selling game currency on time, and the grinding sound coming from somewhere nearby - 3 factors that made Guild Wars 2 a real celebration.

Trend of the Year: Communication with Publishers

Russian publishers are often criticized. Western ones are praised. No matter how you spin it - it's not the most pleasant trend. You can say a lot about "our" publishers - about the frankly poor collectible editions, about months-long delays in releasing DLC, about not-so-spotless practices regarding partners. But they are "ours", let’s not touch them in this post at least. Let’s talk about our Western friends instead.

The past year was defining at least because we tried to move away from the format of a regular store. And to become publishers of digital versions of games for foreign companies. It's not the most common practice in our country, but it has an obvious advantage. In addition to boxed versions of games, you also get an official "digital" with all sorts of "bonuses". This year, among the publishers we work directly with, NAMCO Bandai, Paradox Interactive, and Atari have joined. This glorious company joined the ranks of those who have been with us for a long time - Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, NCsoft Europe, Funcom, CCP Games.

Let’s be honest, translating an entire catalog of games from just one publisher is a serious task. And we are sincerely grateful that our friends - the Sensorium commune clan - helped us in this challenging endeavor.

We believe and know for sure - the future lies in digital distribution. We have all the opportunities and chances to become not just another store. And that is perhaps the most important thing.

Sadness of the Year: Copywriting

There is a common misconception that a buyer coming into a store already knows what they want to purchase. For this reason, many do not strive to make the descriptions of their games original. Alas, the texts provided by domestic publishers are rarely close to ideal. But striving for better is a great way to grow.

Game of the Year, if memory serves, was chosen by the visitors of Gamer.ru as Dishonored. The hype around this product was insane, and speculation regarding "from the creators of Skyrim" only fueled the "topic".

We understood that this release was special. At least because the sales of Bethesda games have always been something remarkable for us.

On the day of the pre-order launch, we decided that we needed to create a description of the game that would differ from the text provided by the publishers. We asked one of the users of Gamer.ru - a person familiar with the setting and the style of Dishonored - for help.

What followed was fun. Digital stores associated with major publishers and well-known media platforms simply took our text. Word for word. Letter for letter. Whoever finds 3 such stores and publishes links to these descriptions in the comments first will receive any game from us (but not worth more than 499 rub :).

The sadness isn’t that something was stolen from us. It’s disappointing for those colleagues who do not strive to be better. They do not try to grow. They just parasite.

In Summary:

We make mistakes, stumble, and trip over the little things.

But.

We are the only company that has visited Gamer.ru for 503 consecutive days.

We are the largest digital distribution store in Russia.

We are a team of people who know how to work.

And we love you.

Happy Holidays :)