The days of stopping into your local video game store are becoming more mythic than historic, as full games become completely avaliable on XBox Live and Playstation Store. And if you're EA Games, clearly the writing is on the wall as they're planning to become 100 percent digital over physical.
Speaking to Gameindustry.biz, EA Labels President Frank Gibeau told them the company's plan to transition from basic discs:
"It's in the near future. It's coming. We have a clear line of sight on it and we're excited about it. Retail is a great channel for us. We have great relationships with our partners there. At the same time, the ultimate relationship is the connection that we have with the gamer. If the gamer wants to get the game through a digital download and that's the best way for them to get it, that's what we're going to do. It has a lot of enhancements for our business. It allows us to keep more that we make. It allows us to do some really interesting things from a service level standpoint; we can be a lot more personalized with what we're doing."
The race to completley abandon physical media has been going on since 2007 and it's a terriyfing thought if you're a gamer that enjoys buying used. But even that side of the industry received a few bruises from the emerging "Day One DLC" strategy found in games like Arkham City and Call of Duty: Black Ops II.
As demand rises for the cloud, could it shut out the old-fashioned stores and idea of "used games"? Maybe we'll find out with the Next Generation consoles.
