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How Much Longer Will Physical Game Distribution Survive?
GamesIndustry is running an interview with Theodore Bergquist, CEO of GamersGate, in which he forecasts the death of physical game distribution in favor of digital methods, perhaps in only a few years. He says, "Look at the music industry, look at 2006 when iTunes went from not being in the top six of sellers — in the same year in December it was top three, and the following year number one. I think digital distribution is absolutely the biggest threat [traditional retailers] can ever have." Rock, Paper, Shotgun spoke with Capcom's Christian Svensson, who insists that developing digital distribution is one of their top priorities, saying Capcom will already "probably do as much digital selling as retail in the current climate." How many of the games you acquire come on physical media these days? At what point will the ease of immediate downloads outweigh a manual and a box to stick on your shelf (if it doesn't already)?
IT WON'T!
This guy lost all credibility.
This change won't happen for a god damn long time.
1) The internet CANNOT support that many people downloading games at once!
It is already buckled as it is right now.
You will give even more ammo to the people attacking net neutrality.
2) Connection, heh, yeah, get back to me on that one when most gamers even HAVE a connection.
No company is stupid enough to cut out a large amount of their consumers.
And then we get to the fact that it will take a while for the download.
I sure don't want to wait hours when i could have bought the game 3 separate times...
Also, i won't even mention the fact that there are bandwidth caps on quite a large amount of ISPs packages
3) Hard drive space, yes, we have that, enjoy being ripped off by MS as usual in that area, and i wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo did so too since they were refusing it now with Wii.
4) Most people like tangible things.
Apparently some idiots still don't realize just how hard it is to set-up and manage things like this.
Outright Digital Distribution will NOT happen in a few years
Anyone who says such nonsense are laughable, just like the idiots who think they can require regular people to keep logs of Wi-Fi for 2 years.
Oh, man.
I can't lend it to a friend.
I can. And neither of us worries about ever returning it.
I can't sell it
I'd have a hard time to find a sucker who would buy the physical copy as well.
on or even give it away when I'm done with it.
I can give it away whether I'm done with it or not.
This sucks.
NO U
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But they also don't have to worry about losing their home if their wife or kid gets sick.
That doesn't sound like "bullshit" to me.
Right. They only have to worry about losing their wife or kid...
Hyperboles work both ways, don't they?