MTZehvor said:
State it all you want; it doesn't change that numerous articles published by sources such as Forbes, Game Sync, and Huffington Post all cite studies showing that developers are becoming more and more hesitant to produce large scale copies of physical games. NPD physical sales have been down by significant amounts (17% in 2014) over the past two years, while digital sales have been rising dramatically (23% over the same time span). The problem with your assertion is that the majority of gamers (and Americans who would be capable of affording video games) do have internet capable of downloading 50GB games. And as time passes and higher quality internet becomes more affordable, that number will only continue to rise. And, honestly, it doesn't even need to be a majority of gamers. As soon as enough people have high speed internet to the point where the loss in sales from the physical only crowd are overtaken by the costs for physical publishing (or splitting revenue with a publisher if you don't publish yourself), then digital gaming will be here to stay, with physical largely reduced to special editions and the likes. We're already seeing this with some small yet relatively well established titles like Ace Attorney and Elite Dangerous. And PC gaming has already largely become this with large distributors like Steam. |
America is not the world though. Digital only can stifle the growth of the industry by limiting not only current but potential audiences.
Will there be a majority digital future, most likely evenyually, but i imagine not as soon as you'd think. the pro digital crowd who are already sold on it often forget about everyone else because it works for them.
