"It's most successful game last year was Minecraft on Xbox Live Arcade, while titles such as Trials Evolution were big sellers"
Well Halo 4 outsold it by 2 million and with 4 months less on the market.
Retail games will not go away anytime soon. Heck, there are still a lot of CDs out there for music / audiobooks etc. I think the digital distribution will add another option for consumers. I really like my limited editions and BluRay cases, but games like Walking Dead would not exist without digital distribution. I think episodic content on XBLA and a retail release for the full package is actually a pretty good move. Instead of buying a game for $60.
Week one: Epdisode 1 for $10, multiplayer for $10.
Week two: Epdisode 2 for $10
Week three: Episode 3 for $10
Week four: Episode 4 for $10
Week five: Episode 5 for $10 and retail release as the total package for $60
Alan Wake 2 would be perfect for this kind of distribution. CoD not so much. So it really comes down to the game and how it works.
Imagine not having GamePass on your console...
