at retail. Because the company wanted to develop a strong retail store presence, the decision was made originally to not compete with retailers by selling the product online.
At the time, computer games had become immensely popular, and were selling in many types of stores. Since it had just been purchased by Virgin Entertainment, the plan was to sell the software exclusively through the Virgin distribution network, which consisted of its own Virgin super stores along with Blockbuster Entertainment, Radio Shack, Egghead Software and Wal-Mart. When the plan was drawn up, the competition in the computer game industry was quite high, with more than 1,000 publishers creating games for retail sale. This meant that retailers were barraged with requests for shelf space, and a great selectivity must be made.
Regardless of the channel, Westwood Studios planned on selling the product to wholesalers and/or distributors at $36 US. Since the product cost more than $3 million to produce, it was essential to hold firm on the wholesale cost, since traditionally, computer CD-ROM games sold in the 300,000 to 500,000 range.
As is typical in the computer game industry (an estimated $6 billion annually) the advertising for the game began 12 months in advance of the 1996 release date. In April 1995, Strategy Plus magazine devoted several pages to the upcoming game. "Think about what Command & Conquer is. You look upon a battlefield from your computer monitor. You're fed vital information via an omniscient computer, but your mind is focused on what your enemy's going to do next" (Command & Conquer..., 1995, 24).
The hype text and the full color pictures of the weapons, the battlefields, and the villains generated the first "buzz" concerning the game. The "buzz" led to an unusual situation of retailers contacting Westwood and asking to place advance orders for the game.
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