Former Atari manager brings firsthand insights of the “front lines”

For six months on end, W. Jayson Hill, a former Atari public relations manager and freelance writer, worked as a retailer at a Rhino Video Games outlet (acquired by GameStop) since September 2006. Hill wanted to keep exercising his mind and learn new things in the game industry to use later in sales.

Because he worked as a public relations officer for a big game company, he decided he could learn much from sales, marketing and consumer purchasing by witnessing and being part of the process firsthand. So he set off to the “frontlines” of the game industry: retail. What did he find out? We’ll point out most of them here:

1. Used games are essential to some consumers and even beneficial to the industry.
2. The ESRB is working.
3. Not all the parents are working as well as the ESRB is.
4. Console manufacturers need to move their launch windows.

We’d like to explain what he means by these lessons his experiences told him, but then it would be taking away his firsthand accounts. Instead, we’ll point you to his article via the “Read” link below and lead you off to his self-published article. But we can tell you this: if the world thinks that the online retail will soon replace the “brick” retailer, his experiences tell him that it’s not probably going to come soon.

For six months on end, W. Jayson Hill, a former Atari public relations manager and freelance writer, worked as a retailer at a Rhino Video Games outlet (acquired by GameStop) since September 2006. Hill wanted to keep exercising his mind and learn new things in the game industry to use later in sales.

Because he worked as a public relations officer for a big game company, he decided he could learn much from sales, marketing and consumer purchasing by witnessing and being part of the process firsthand. So he set off to the “frontlines” of the game industry: retail. What did he find out? We’ll point out most of them here:

1. Used games are essential to some consumers and even beneficial to the industry.
2. The ESRB is working.
3. Not all the parents are working as well as the ESRB is.
4. Console manufacturers need to move their launch windows.

We’d like to explain what he means by these lessons his experiences told him, but then it would be taking away his firsthand accounts. Instead, we’ll point you to his article via the “Read” link below and lead you off to his self-published article. But we can tell you this: if the world thinks that the online retail will soon replace the “brick” retailer, his experiences tell him that it’s not probably going to come soon.