There has been a lot written lately about the impact digital content is having on the gaming industry, but the question that is up for debate seems to be when will digital selling completely rule the industry, therefore, making the retail business obsolete?

It is no secret and there is no denying the impact digital gaming has had on the industry.

When THQ reported their financial results from this past quarter, they reported that over 35% of their total net sales were from the digital market.

THQ is not alone in this as Activision Blizzard's total digital revenue checked-in at $343 million, which equated to a 32% portion of the company's total revenue for the last quarter.

Next, EA's last quarter was no different from the aforementioned THQ and Activision Blizzard, asEA turned in a report that featured a digital revenue increase of 37%. The company also showed they generated over $1.3 billion in digital revenue over the past twelve months.

So what does all of this mean?

It means the digital portion of gaming has not only emerged, but it has cemented itself into the foundation of the industry and is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Michael Pachter, industry analyst for Wedbush Securities, was nice enough to take a moment to share his thoughts on one of the hottest trends in the industry.

He said he does not believe a digital takeover is imminent and that it will be years before we see that happen to the industry.

"Digital migration will be gradual, and won't get to 100% until broadband Internet has penetrated 90% of households," Pachter said. "That's at least 10 years away."

Link

Deceptive bait title...

Biiiiiig difference between "100% digital 10 years away" and "That's at least 10 years away."

EDIT: I see that title is a copy/paste from the Examiner. Shame on them. 

'At least 10 years away' is a more accurate title. And he's correct, but everybody knows that....

The misleading thing in ALL of these "digital sales" reports and articles is that they're not really talking about full game downloads. They're only talking about "revenue". There is a BIG difference in revenue and full digital game sales. EA is quick to brag about how much digital revenue they make, but they never come out and compare full digital copies to retail. Do you know why that is? Because it's not close enough to even warrant a discussion. When a company talks about digital revenue, they are talking about DLC and in game purchases as well as full game downloads. Almost ALL of that revenue they tout comes via DLC and in game purchases.

Until we see head to head sales between full digital and physical copies meeting somewhere at a 50/50 raitio (and we are far, far away from that people), there is no need to keep talking about this garbage. All it is is sensationalism for the masses.

Sherlock saves the day. What is he trying to prove he's not a tool by stating some of the most obvious?

Anyways, it will never be 100%, people will always love their jewel cases and collectibles, so I say 80% digital in about 6 years, the rest is mostly for marketing/retail exposure and collecting.

This is a prediction I don't think is that far off ...

The Wii U, PS4 and 'XBox 720' will all be primarily disc based systems with growing digital distribution. The generation after that will deliver games on disc but games will be bought primarily in a digital format; and the generation after that the systems will include a disc drive for backwards compatibility only. Depending on how the next generations go, we could see the following generation between 2017 and 2020 and the generation after that starting between 2022 and 2028.

I agree, for once. We'll have one more generation of dedicated consoles (after the Wii U/Orbis/Durango) after this, then it will converge with other technologies at last.

Not if the Internet is still so bloody slow by then, it's took me 5 to 6 hours to download Infamous off PSN, when we got the PSN back. That's way too long. I could of spent the day in London and bought it while there, and that would of been way quicker!!

But, recent increases in internet speeds are slowly moving that way unfortunately, digital games can be good but i still prefer physical media (i only download small games or DLC)

PC services like steam are the among our future

Also, as this digital future happens, it wouldn't suprise me if cloud gaming became huge as well as PC gaming (again!), alongside smartphones, tablets and download services

Well even music albums who are about two orders of magnitude smaller on data size still aren't completely digital.

I'd say... mmm... 15 years until physical media is relegated to the same status CDs or Vinyls are today.

I could have said the same thing, but you know, no one would have written an article about it.