American McGee Predicts Real-World Retailers' Demise
- Thread starter vansau
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If I can, I will buy a physical copy of a game over digital one. If physical copies were to go away I would stop being a gamer. There is just a sense of ownership that is impossible to get from digital copy of a game. Plus how do I lend a game to a friend? When I was younger, borrowing games from a friend was part of what got me into some games.
Being a PC player I haven't purchased a game at a physical retailer in easily over 6 years. The fact that more and more stores are choosing to not shelve PC games I just stick to Steam and really I haven't had a problem with it. I think its a little to early to predict the end of retailers but its not impossible. I used to have serious issues with not being able to physically hold the game I buy, but with time it has become less of an problem. Who knows maybe in 10-20 years physical retailers of all kinds will slowly fade out and used stores become more dominate because the only place to buy things new is only online, crazier things have happened.
So does this mean he's gonna restock the Alice Madness Returns online store with the Hysteria t-shirt? I had ordered it but then for no reason they canceled my order, said they flagged my card or something but my card was perfectly fine....fucking assholes
I will be one sad panda if i cant get a physical copy of the game. Its not for resale either i dont think ive ever resold one of my games, i just prefer a physical copy for being able to uninstall reinstall etc at will. Sorry buy downloading 4+gb everytime i want to install a game thats nuts, especially with talks of having to pay for bandwidth in this country i live in. Also i can dig out that old game and play it again, who knows if that server will still be up or company still around. Have i bought digital games, sure braid and if i wasnt as cash strapped id look at more of the smaller steam indie games but a AAA title I dread the possibility of it costing me 4$ to download each time in the future.
Call me old-fashioned if you will, but i like having a hard copy of my games.
I can see that PC gaming will vanish from retailers in the near future, but i really don't want to see Nintendo and Sony's titles vanishing from stores as well.
There's just something more satisfying to me about having a shelf/drawer full of video games than have a list of clickable game titles at the side of my screen.
I can see that PC gaming will vanish from retailers in the near future, but i really don't want to see Nintendo and Sony's titles vanishing from stores as well.
There's just something more satisfying to me about having a shelf/drawer full of video games than have a list of clickable game titles at the side of my screen.
He's saying you'll go to a site and order a physical copy of the game that will then be delivered to your home. You know, like Amazon did and does with books.kurokenshi said:
This should even bring prices down (centralized depots, less rent/personnel expenses, etc.).
Its been heading that way for years, so he isnt saying anything new or astounding. I personally dread the time when all games are digital release only, and more so for full price titles than cheaper xbox arcade games. They will market them cheaper to download, and then once download is the only option left then the price will rise back up to what they are now. Eventhough they no longer have to pay for distribution, packaging etc. The future will be a rip off.
I think The Escapist missed a bit of news:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-09-13-online-sales-to-surpass-physical-sales-by-2013
Online Retail(Amazon.com/Gamestop.com/Walmart.com) have been outselling brick and mortar sales since 2008.
Anyone who thinks it can't happen or won't happen should ask Circuit City or Borders Books.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-09-13-online-sales-to-surpass-physical-sales-by-2013
Online Retail(Amazon.com/Gamestop.com/Walmart.com) have been outselling brick and mortar sales since 2008.
Anyone who thinks it can't happen or won't happen should ask Circuit City or Borders Books.
In this same correspondence, shouldn't cubicles then become digital? When can i work from the beach? If i can't have an office affair, then there is no point in being there physcially let alone mentally. I am glad i am retiring before 30 with my 90% savings rate, and my investments in stocks, business, and real estate. Now i can live in a castle and get everthing delivered to me via online. If retails store are falling, better invest in digital retailers and shipping 
I'm surprised anyone really debates this anymore. For video games, it IS coming and it IS inevitable.
>>>>Only being able to purchase games online will never work for multiple reasons and near the top is Gamestop just makes to much money to give up their brick and mortar stores.
Yeah! I was in Musicland the other day and....Oh wait, those all folded as did most other music stores. Or haven't you noticed that the only music stores left are the dwindling number of second-hand independent stores? Even retail chains like Best Buy are cutting back their music sections as online takes over in sales.
Well, at least, movie rental stores like Blockbuster or Hollywood Video will never go awa----Wait a minute.....
Believe me, the end of the road for Gamestop is coming.
>>>>First off, if retail chains like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Target go under--or simply switch to online only--like he says, the U.S. jobs market is going to take a bullet to the head and probably never recover.
That's already happened several times. Not just in the aforementioned examples but in other more diversified chains such as Media Play and Circuit City. This has had a bad effect on the jobs market, not just in jobs lost but with the age group that this hits. A lot of the stores that close are where *adopts old man pose*, in my day, a lot of teens who didn't want to do food service got their jobs. Without the work experience of these jobs, this makes the kids less likely to get jobs out of colleges because they not only have nothing on their resume but they haven't learned the more subtle lessons that these first-time jobs brought (punctuality, dealing with the public, etc.)
>>>>I also love how developers all see a future where games are purely digital. Yeah, they sure don't want you buying used, so of course that's the future they envision. It's just adorable that they actually think it's going to happen.
Look at sites such as Penny Arcade that have been long advocating the demise of the physical as a good thing. Hell, just look at this site. There are so many escapists who have been suckered by the corporations into thinking that this would be a good thing that, even when a company like Quantic Dream make the ridiculous claim that used games cost them a million sales, they leap up to defend these claims. It will happen and a large portion of gamers will help it happen.
I mean, not to invoke Godwin's Law but, on this site, people are increasingly acting like buying used games is on par with running a concentration camp.
>>>>I wouldn't be surprised, what with digital distribution, but it'll be a helluva long time before it happens.
Sooner than you think. When the PS3 started and got those patents for Digital-Only distribution, gamers/gaming sites had a cow villifying them for it. Now people think nothing of buying PSN/XBLA games and both are doing increasing sales figures for selling full games now. The gap between selling at retail and selling the digital copy is dwindling to nothing for Sony and Microsoft. On the PC front, buying a retail game is now considered a quaint practice when you can buy from Steam (or Direct2Drive/Stardock/other such services).
>>>> If physical copies were to go away I would stop being a gamer.
People talk big whenever the industry makes a move like this but, in reality, people rarely follow through.
>>>>Only being able to purchase games online will never work for multiple reasons and near the top is Gamestop just makes to much money to give up their brick and mortar stores.
Yeah! I was in Musicland the other day and....Oh wait, those all folded as did most other music stores. Or haven't you noticed that the only music stores left are the dwindling number of second-hand independent stores? Even retail chains like Best Buy are cutting back their music sections as online takes over in sales.
Well, at least, movie rental stores like Blockbuster or Hollywood Video will never go awa----Wait a minute.....
Believe me, the end of the road for Gamestop is coming.
>>>>First off, if retail chains like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Target go under--or simply switch to online only--like he says, the U.S. jobs market is going to take a bullet to the head and probably never recover.
That's already happened several times. Not just in the aforementioned examples but in other more diversified chains such as Media Play and Circuit City. This has had a bad effect on the jobs market, not just in jobs lost but with the age group that this hits. A lot of the stores that close are where *adopts old man pose*, in my day, a lot of teens who didn't want to do food service got their jobs. Without the work experience of these jobs, this makes the kids less likely to get jobs out of colleges because they not only have nothing on their resume but they haven't learned the more subtle lessons that these first-time jobs brought (punctuality, dealing with the public, etc.)
>>>>I also love how developers all see a future where games are purely digital. Yeah, they sure don't want you buying used, so of course that's the future they envision. It's just adorable that they actually think it's going to happen.
Look at sites such as Penny Arcade that have been long advocating the demise of the physical as a good thing. Hell, just look at this site. There are so many escapists who have been suckered by the corporations into thinking that this would be a good thing that, even when a company like Quantic Dream make the ridiculous claim that used games cost them a million sales, they leap up to defend these claims. It will happen and a large portion of gamers will help it happen.
I mean, not to invoke Godwin's Law but, on this site, people are increasingly acting like buying used games is on par with running a concentration camp.
>>>>I wouldn't be surprised, what with digital distribution, but it'll be a helluva long time before it happens.
Sooner than you think. When the PS3 started and got those patents for Digital-Only distribution, gamers/gaming sites had a cow villifying them for it. Now people think nothing of buying PSN/XBLA games and both are doing increasing sales figures for selling full games now. The gap between selling at retail and selling the digital copy is dwindling to nothing for Sony and Microsoft. On the PC front, buying a retail game is now considered a quaint practice when you can buy from Steam (or Direct2Drive/Stardock/other such services).
>>>> If physical copies were to go away I would stop being a gamer.
People talk big whenever the industry makes a move like this but, in reality, people rarely follow through.
The only way I see this happening is if something like his happens.
You buy your game from an online distributor (Steam, Origin) from which you can download your purchase right away and for an optonal nominal price of 5 or 10 dollars more they also ship to you a physical box and disc or evan just a disc. Well ok maybe 5 bucks gets you just a disc and 10 bucks gets you a pretty box with the disc in it. Thats about the only way that would totally remove physcal games in a store that I can see a this particular point in time and keep us old farts happy who like having something tangable for our hard earned and also get around problems like ristricted internet service or poor internet conections.
hmmm whats Gabes phone number I might be onto something here I wonder if he would pay me for the idea.
You buy your game from an online distributor (Steam, Origin) from which you can download your purchase right away and for an optonal nominal price of 5 or 10 dollars more they also ship to you a physical box and disc or evan just a disc. Well ok maybe 5 bucks gets you just a disc and 10 bucks gets you a pretty box with the disc in it. Thats about the only way that would totally remove physcal games in a store that I can see a this particular point in time and keep us old farts happy who like having something tangable for our hard earned and also get around problems like ristricted internet service or poor internet conections.
hmmm whats Gabes phone number I might be onto something here I wonder if he would pay me for the idea.
My Best Buy has been reduced to one small rack with a bunch of games from 2008 and Portal 2. I don't buy from them anymore.Xan Krieger said: