As store closures mount up, is there hope left for physical games outlets?

[The_Liquid_Laser]

yvanjean said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:
Not sure how quickly game shops will disappear, if ever. All I know is that if they do, then it is basically the end of the game industry. Expect another crash like the one in '83 if they manage to eliminate the physical shops. The current model very much relies on having enough physical media so that shops will sell hardware too.

What kind of I'll informed statement is this?!? How does the brick and mortar bring any value to the game industry if any thing it make the cost of game higher and cut in developers profit. If these store shut down there are plenty of avenues to sell the hardware, groceries outlet, Big retailers (Costco,Walmart,Target), pharmacies & this little known online retailer called Amazon.

Just look at today announcement from Epic games, This will increase the revenues for developers and lower the amount of games that must be sold in order to turn a profit. This should increase the amount of developers that can make a niche game for smaller audiences and without having to worry if the game will make or break them.

Brick and Mortar allows hardware to be cheap, because brick and mortar makes their profits on software.  That means they are ok selling hardware at roughly cost.  Without brick and mortar, then hardware will need to be sold at costs similar to a PC.

Also brick and mortar specialty stores like Gamestop provide very effective and efficient marketing.  That cannot be underestimated.

DreadPirateRoberts said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:
Not sure how quickly game shops will disappear, if ever. All I know is that if they do, then it is basically the end of the game industry. Expect another crash like the one in '83 if they manage to eliminate the physical shops. The current model very much relies on having enough physical media so that shops will sell hardware too.

The crash of 83 was largely brought about by the overabundance of low quality games and hardware rapidly eroding consumer confidence.   If the consumer increasingly chooses digital over physical, then you won't see the critical reason for the failure 35 years ago.   In fact, the industry today seems almost immune to the primary causes of the 1983 crash since storefronts - especially Steam, but also the consoles - are littered with low quality crap.  The gold can still shine through, however.  Though, perhaps you could consider the Fallout 76 disaster to be a rough equivalent to the Atari 2600 Pac Man port fiasco.  The consumer loses confidence when even trusted and popular names release horribly awful products.  

And, much as I despise it, an all-digital era is coming.  PC gaming is practically all digital already, and with Microsoft about to offer a disc-less option, I think there is a real chance they choose to go all digital for the XBox gen 4.  It'll be only a matter of time until Sony (PS6?) and Nintendo (Switch successor) follow.  The latter two perhaps only staying physical longer because of their strong positions in Japan. 

There's just too much pure profit for the devs and the console makers in the digital landscape for them not to be pushing hard for it.  Especially since first sale doctrine goes out the window.

It's very possible for a second crash to be caused by a completely different reason.