I believe him. how is Gamestop going to survive in the long run by using their crap marketing anyway? Many of the family owned game stores are closing shop, so I wouldn't be surprised if gamestop took a huge hit by Steam and Origin in the next few years.
"U.S. retail sales of video-game hardware, software and accessories fell 20 percent in July to $548.4 million, researcher NPD Group Inc. said this month"
this is not a OMG Gamestop is doomed article, but judging by how many people are learning of Steam and their ridiculous sales, I wouldn't be surprised if more people transitioned to PC gaming.
You know, I have a pretty damn good gaming rig and I am a huge fan of PC gaming so I wouldn't mind that, HOWEVER, I simply just can't imagine that. Reason being; I can't imagine Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo leaving the console gaming business any time soon. And with that, I can't imagine people wanting to stop keeping physical copies of games as well.
It just isn't viable(as of now), and because of that gamestop will never go out of business until it is viable.
Sure DD just may be the future, however, that doesn't necessarily mean the future is anywhere close yet.
I would hope so. Game stop runs a horrible business model which is good for their pockets yet bad for the consumer. Trade is good as long as both parties are better off yet the consumer isn't.
Either retail will die or retail will have to change their ways in order to deal with the changes and I'm sure it will be the latter.
I embrace DD as all media is pushing towards going digital I can get all my media in one place and storage is so cheap that it just makes sense. It may not be in ten years but I can see in twenty years that retail stores have no reason to be up anymore.
If you don't want those games, you're better off. It's true they're not giving you much in the way of value, but unless you trade in a game and YOU owe THEM, then you've benefited.
That aside, GameStop is far from the only retailer of video games. Any of the bigger stores- Walmart, Target- sell them, and not everybody who deals in JUST games has been bought out yet.
And a digital-only future is the worst-possible outcome for gaming.
the first system i went full digital with was Vita. Because i had downloaded most of my psp games, and they didnt have a copy of UMVC3 when i went in. Other than that, bring on the discs and cartridges!
Ten years? Guess I know when I stop gaming then. Oh yeah EA how is the future since you clearly just came back from it, is Activision still charging 15 bucks for on disc dlc or dose call of duty still look like its from 2005? So many questions!
Sounds like wishful thinking on his part. He just wants to make 100% profit, instead of spreading it around. All digital would put a lot of people out of work.
They said the same thing over 10 years ago about physical music, and although its only around 50% of the sales right now, it still generates billions each year. There will always be a market for physical games. I just don't feel like I truly own a game if its not in physical form.
I kind of agree but not that retail games will be gone.
Retail will always be there, some people just prefer it. However, I'm sure that in 10 - 15 years digital gaming / sales will be the norm and have over 50% market share.
Google fiber is the future of internet. For $300 (or $25 for 12 months) you can get a 5Mbps download and a 1Mbps upload speeds and not have a monthly bill afterwards for 7 years. Or you can upgrade to Google Fiber with a 1GB download / upload speeds for $70 a month. This is a plan to make internet available to every household in the US. And with the 1GB speed you can seamlessly stream games via Gaikai. But this is at least 10 - 20 years off before it's available over the vast majority of the US.
So an incentive that's more current is PS Cross-Buy and more importantly buying one digital version of a game and having access to it on multiple devices. Retail cannot do this without a voucher code for the digital version which kind of defeats the purpose of Retail. Would you rather buy a PS360 retail game or buy the digital version that you can play on your PS360, laptop, desktop, tablet, handheld, cell phone, etc... It makes no sense in buying the retail version, and this kind of multi device cross play is beginning to see the light of day on PC / Android (where it's happening) and PlayStation (starting with Cross-Buy).
F2P games are becoming more popular and on par with traditional games, and it's highly unlikely that you'll see a F2P game being sold at retail. It defeats the purpose unless it wasn't intending on being F2P from the start (in the case of DC Universe Online).
DLC Subscriptions. It's happening now with COD, Battlefield, Gears of War, Uncharted, and soon to be more. Games will be selling for $150 where you get the game and a subscription service to all the DLC that releases with that game over a 2 year period. Again you can use a voucher code to imitate this at retail, but what's the point.
PS4 & Nextbox are the testing grounds for digital, and in 10 years the PS5 and Xbox? should be releasing which are sure to be ushering in digital only. It save devs time and money by not having to manufacture millions of retail disc, manuals, cases, and allows them to work on the game until the week before it's digital launch.
Digital is the future, and while retail will be there it won't be the dominating force that it currently is.
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this is not a OMG Gamestop is doomed article, but judging by how many people are learning of Steam and their ridiculous sales, I wouldn't be surprised if more people transitioned to PC gaming.
Reason being; I can't imagine Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo leaving the console gaming business any time soon. And with that, I can't imagine people wanting to stop keeping physical copies of games as well.
It just isn't viable(as of now), and because of that gamestop will never go out of business until it is viable.
Sure DD just may be the future, however, that doesn't necessarily mean the future is anywhere close yet.
Either retail will die or retail will have to change their ways in order to deal with the changes and I'm sure it will be the latter.
I embrace DD as all media is pushing towards going digital I can get all my media in one place and storage is so cheap that it just makes sense. It may not be in ten years but I can see in twenty years that retail stores have no reason to be up anymore.
That aside, GameStop is far from the only retailer of video games. Any of the bigger stores- Walmart, Target- sell them, and not everybody who deals in JUST games has been bought out yet.
And a digital-only future is the worst-possible outcome for gaming.
They said the same thing over 10 years ago about physical music, and although its only around 50% of the sales right now, it still generates billions each year. There will always be a market for physical games. I just don't feel like I truly own a game if its not in physical form.
Retail will always be there, some people just prefer it. However, I'm sure that in 10 - 15 years digital gaming / sales will be the norm and have over 50% market share.
Google fiber is the future of internet. For $300 (or $25 for 12 months) you can get a 5Mbps download and a 1Mbps upload speeds and not have a monthly bill afterwards for 7 years. Or you can upgrade to Google Fiber with a 1GB download / upload speeds for $70 a month. This is a plan to make internet available to every household in the US. And with the 1GB speed you can seamlessly stream games via Gaikai. But this is at least 10 - 20 years off before it's available over the vast majority of the US.
So an incentive that's more current is PS Cross-Buy and more importantly buying one digital version of a game and having access to it on multiple devices. Retail cannot do this without a voucher code for the digital version which kind of defeats the purpose of Retail. Would you rather buy a PS360 retail game or buy the digital version that you can play on your PS360, laptop, desktop, tablet, handheld, cell phone, etc... It makes no sense in buying the retail version, and this kind of multi device cross play is beginning to see the light of day on PC / Android (where it's happening) and PlayStation (starting with Cross-Buy).
F2P games are becoming more popular and on par with traditional games, and it's highly unlikely that you'll see a F2P game being sold at retail. It defeats the purpose unless it wasn't intending on being F2P from the start (in the case of DC Universe Online).
DLC Subscriptions. It's happening now with COD, Battlefield, Gears of War, Uncharted, and soon to be more. Games will be selling for $150 where you get the game and a subscription service to all the DLC that releases with that game over a 2 year period. Again you can use a voucher code to imitate this at retail, but what's the point.
PS4 & Nextbox are the testing grounds for digital, and in 10 years the PS5 and Xbox? should be releasing which are sure to be ushering in digital only. It save devs time and money by not having to manufacture millions of retail disc, manuals, cases, and allows them to work on the game until the week before it's digital launch.
Digital is the future, and while retail will be there it won't be the dominating force that it currently is.