Blockbuster exclusive games. I don't get it.

[MyTurnToPlay]

So I don't get the whole blockbuster exclusive games, for example Flintstones 2. Why the hell would a company go through all the work/hassle/production costs, to develop a game that you could only rent at Blockbuster? I mean...it's not like you could even buy the game...you had to freakin rent the damn thing. So what was in it for the companies? It can't be advertising...because I never saw a blockbuster commercial saying "Taito has a new game and you can only find it here at Blockbuster...so come rent it" And again...you still were only able to rent it...so there's no revenue for the game developers.

It doesn't make sense...and if i doesn't make sense...then it's usually wrong. What am I missing here fellas? Please help a brotha out.

thank you.

[Flashback2012]

No idea really. Some of the choices I've seen over the years on their part as exclusives kinda boggle my mind. I can only assume the publishers sweet talked them into paying for the translation/publishing costs for games that otherwise would have not been released or stayed on the other side of the ocean. Final Fight Guy made sense to me but the Freestyle soccer game, the Blitz and Clayfighter games, and a few others they locked down had me colored curious. :?

I managed to acquire Final Fight Guy back in the day but never got a hold of the Flintstones game or the one I really wanted, Hagane. :|

[Shulamana]

In regards to Surprise at Dinosaur Peak, it was pretty close to the dead end of the NES, providing an exclusive deal with Blockbuster would provide a guaranteed amount of sales with minimal risk, while a mass market release could have resulted with them producing a large number of expensive carts that might sit unsold.

I imagine it's a lot similar to why some current games have Gamestop exclusive releases, it's an easy way to get exposure to a certain amount of the consumer base with minimal effort, especially if you don't want to print a huge number of copies.

[theclaw]

My conjecture is Blockbuster pays for each unit of a game they take in. If no rentals happen, they're left holding the bag. Only the game company has profited thanks to all those copies they sold.

[madman77]

In the case of N64 BB exclusives it's probably because they wouldn't have sold any copies through regular channels since they were such piles of junk.

[o.pwuaioc]

My conjecture is Blockbuster pays for each unit of a game they take in. If no rentals happen, they're left holding the bag. Only the game company has profited thanks to all those copies they sold.

It's not just the price of a game, but Blockbuster paid (past tense, as Blockbuster is gone now) a premium for the ability to rent out the game. So if they had 10 copies of the game, that wasn't merely $700, but probably more like $2000. (Er, even though I actually worked for Blockbuster, I never did find out the exact prices, so my estimate could be way off.) Multiply that by the number of Blockbuster stores who want several copies of the game and voila, a small profit for a cheaply made game.

[wiggyx]

Also, rental-only games were often crap anyway. I can't imagine too much time was spent on them. The other thing that would keep costs down were titles that didn't take much effort to create in the first place. Final Fight Guy is a perfect example. It had already been released in Japan at retail, so it just needed to be localized (which it already was since it's just FF1), and it obviously took little effort to switch out Cody for Guy.

[Gameguy]

It's not just the price of a game, but Blockbuster paid (past tense, as Blockbuster is gone now) a premium for the ability to rent out the game.
It makes sense why they did it. They wanted to create a reason why people should rent games from them instead of renting games from somewhere else, if they have exclusive games not available anywhere else chances are people would sign up for an account with them just to play those games. Once they have an account, they'll most likely keep renting other games or movies from them too.

[jb143]

But then you have things like LucasArts making an exclusive agreement with Blockbuster as the only retail source for the N64 Infernal Machine. The only other source was ordering it directly from LucasArts(at least in the US. Not sure about other countries). Indiana Jones seems too big a franchise to do an exclusive deal like that, but according to this press release (http://web.archive.org/web/20001109210800/http://www.lucasarts.com/static/pr/indyblockbuster_pr.htm) both sides thought it was a good idea for some reason.

[j_factor]

But then you have things like LucasArts making an exclusive agreement with Blockbuster as the only retail source for the N64 Infernal Machine. The only other source was ordering it directly from LucasArts(at least in the US. Not sure about other countries). Indiana Jones seems too big a franchise to do an exclusive deal like that, but according to this press release (http://web.archive.org/web/20001109210800/http://www.lucasarts.com/static/pr/indyblockbuster_pr.htm) both sides thought it was a good idea for some reason.

It had been a PC game first, and the PC game wasn't exactly a huge hit. Plus N64 games weren't selling that well anymore.

[Rob2600]

In the case of N64 BB exclusives it's probably because they wouldn't have sold any copies through regular channels since they were such piles of junk.

You're wrong. Out of the eight N64 Blockbuster exclusives, five were quite good:

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
International Superstar Soccer 2000
International Track & Field 2000
NFL Blitz Special Edition
Stunt Racer 64


These three are junk:

Clayfighter 63 1/3: Sculptor's Cut
Razor Freestyle Scooter
Transformers Beast Wars - Transmetals

[treismac]

It makes sense why they did it. They wanted to create a reason why people should rent games from them instead of renting games from somewhere else, if they have exclusive games not available anywhere else chances are people would sign up for an account with them just to play those games. Once they have an account, they'll most likely keep renting other games or movies from them too.

Not that I've ever sat in on a Blockbuster board meeting, but this makes sense to me.

[jb143]

It had been a PC game first, and the PC game wasn't exactly a huge hit. Plus N64 games weren't selling that well anymore.

Maybe they were worried about sales or something but both versions did get decent reviews. It just doesn't seem like LucasArts would need any financial help from Blockbuster in developing or marketing the game...especially since it was ported from a finished PC game.

[MyTurnToPlay]

It makes sense why they did it. They wanted to create a reason why people should rent games from them instead of renting games from somewhere else, if they have exclusive games not available anywhere else chances are people would sign up for an account with them just to play those games. Once they have an account, they'll most likely keep renting other games or movies from them too.

No...this doesn't make sense at all. Again, I frequented Blockbusters back in the day...and I don't think I ever saw a single advertisement saying: "We have this game that no one else has...so come rent it here!" Maybe that happened later, like in the N64 days....but I'm talking about NES and SNES. They never did any advertisements. I guarantee you no one from the NES days ever thought Flintstones 2 was exclusive to Blockbuster. They never told us that...it was just on the rack along with all the other games. So no one knew a damn thing about any exclusivity nonsense.

So that argument is ridiculous. Clearly, there's something else we're all missing. Because every argument I've heard so far lacks substance. Blockbuster did not make deals for exclusive games and then sit on them and do nothing. That's not how businesses work. But then again, they are out of business now...so maybe that's why.

thank you.

[Buyatari]

No...this doesn't make sense at all. Again, I frequented Blockbusters back in the day...and I don't think I ever saw a single advertisement saying: "We have this game that no one else has...so come rent it here!" Maybe that happened later, like in the N64 days....but I'm talking about NES and SNES. They never did any advertisements. I guarantee you no one from the NES days ever thought Flintstones 2 was exclusive to Blockbuster. They never told us that...it was just on the rack along with all the other games. So no one knew a damn thing about any exclusivity nonsense.

So that argument is ridiculous. Clearly, there's something else we're all missing. Because every argument I've heard so far lacks substance. Blockbuster did not make deals for exclusive games and then sit on them and do nothing. That's not how businesses work. But then again, they are out of business now...so maybe that's why.

thank you.

I don't think F2 was a blockbuster exclusive. It might have been marketed mostly to rental stores but I'm not sure if even that has ever been proven. It was a late release and is very hard to find. Still a sealed copy was found and graded by VGA.

Also Indy Jones N64 was available on the Lucasarts website for sale.
Transformers had a Blockbuster exclusive box and a retail release box.

[o.pwuaioc]

No...this doesn't make sense at all. Again, I frequented Blockbusters back in the day...and I don't think I ever saw a single advertisement saying: "We have this game that no one else has...so come rent it here!" Maybe that happened later, like in the N64 days....but I'm talking about NES and SNES. They never did any advertisements. I guarantee you no one from the NES days ever thought Flintstones 2 was exclusive to Blockbuster. They never told us that...it was just on the rack along with all the other games. So no one knew a damn thing about any exclusivity nonsense.

So that argument is ridiculous. Clearly, there's something else we're all missing. Because every argument I've heard so far lacks substance. Blockbuster did not make deals for exclusive games and then sit on them and do nothing. That's not how businesses work. But then again, they are out of business now...so maybe that's why.

thank you.

I remember various ads about games that only Blockbuster had. Maybe you're too young to remember them? And Blockbuster went out of business from Netflix, not from a couple NES or N64 games.

[Gameguy]

I don't think F2 was a blockbuster exclusive. It might have been marketed mostly to rental stores but I'm not sure if even that has ever been proven. It was a late release and is very hard to find. Still a sealed copy was found and graded by VGA.
It wasn't a Blockbuster exclusive. I remember when that sealed copy was mentioned on the forums and it wasn't purchased at Blockbuster, it was from some other rental store clearing out some old stock. I haven't searched for the thread again but I remember it wasn't from a Blockbuster.

As for that Indiana Jones game, I don't think it was a big seller. It was supposed to be a Playstation game but that version was cancelled. It was supposed to be released on the N64 in Europe, but that also was cancelled. It was an action-adventure game, adventure games weren't big sellers for LucasArts at that time. It came out a year after Grim Fandango and a year before Escape from Monkey Island, those games weren't such big sellers so LucasArts moved away the genre. The next Indiana Jones game was a pure action game, no adventure elements at all. It's not surprising why it was allowed to be a rental exclusive, making it an exclusive would also make it sound more appealing from a marketing perspective.