Wii is now least for million sellers

[Ail]

ClaudeLv250 said:

Ail said:

They won't stop selling at retailers but they clearly rather sell digital copies. You can read the writing on the wall when in every quarterly report the focus is on digital sales and how much they have grown compared to previous years. Go check the latest EA and Activision press releases...( and every new retailer program to cash on used game sales is only speeding up that process).

Music has gone digital, books are going digital, games are doing the same. Yet all those medium still have physical copies too but you can see the impact on physical retailers when only 10% of sales move from physical to digital...( been to your local Borders lately or checked the PC shelf at your local Best Buy ?).

 

As for your CoD example, it's not really convincing me. CoD is one game where Activision clearly has the edge over retailers because retailers can not afford not to have those games on sales.  No matter what CoD fans will get their copies( there's a reason it's was the most preordered game this gen). If retailers can put some pressure, it's on the small publishers, not on companies like EA or Activision...

It's a silly argument. Digital won't become anywhere near dominant around the world for another 10, maybe 20 years for this to even matter. On top of that, EA's digital movements are more concerned with getting a foothold against the competition (Origin vs. Steam) than phasing out retail.  If Activision's current strategy is anything to go by, they're more focused on squeezing more money after the initial purchase, hence CoD Elite and the Skylanders figurines.

Packaged games going digital aren't comparable to books and music because games are HUGE. We've got PS3/4 using blu-ray, Wii U using the blu-ray equivalent, and there's no way 720 won't be there too. That's games that are potentially 25+ GB in size, when there are still major areas that don't have decent internet. Nobody's going to suicide their business if they don't have to.

But this discussion is moot because it doesn't even apply to Wii U. Its internal storage won't be any more of a "problem" than it was for 360 or PS3, so even if digital sales took over 50% of packaged retail next gen, it wouldn't stop these games from being available on Wii U's eshop.

Well let me make a little prediction then.

By 2020 ( 8 years from now).

Digital sales will represent more than 30% of games sales in the US for consoles and Gamestop won't exist anymore...

The majority of games will be available as digital on day one and preordered games will automatically start uploading at midnight the day of their release and will be ready on the device of your choice when you wake up...