Digital downloads have become a major part of gaming, especially among PC gamers, where services like Steam have made it to where physical copies of PC games are practically non-existent. You would think that this trend would carry over to consoles as well, but physical discs are still more popular than digital downloads, and according to GameStop CEO Paul Raines, this will always be the case.
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t purchased a physical game in quite some time. I don’t know if that’s because the convenience of digital distribution is a welcome change or because I am stuck in Japan and don’t wish to pay international shipping. Either way, it’s safe to say that digital distribution has overtaken my life when I originally thought it impossible. GameStop, however, does not think this will become the standard for the video game industry. CEO Paul Raines claims in an interview in Fortune that “disc-based games will be around forever.” “The market has seen physical music sales down 50% from its peak and physical movie sales down 60% from its peak, but even in a doomsday scenario, disc-based games will be around for a long time. I see a complimentary business where we sell discs plus download like the current console mode.”
