During the keynote speech at Microsoft’s UK Gamesfest, Xbox Europe’s Vice President of strategic marking David Gosen revealed his belief that videogame digital distribution will become a bigger seller than physical media.
There’s no question digital will overtake physical. It happened in music and will happen to our industry.
Gosen’s belief comes from his analysis of the rate consumers are actively choosing to download content for games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. He also uses the amount of XBLA games sold to verify his point that “digital will be the dominant force in [the] future.” Towards the end of his talk, he hinted that Microsoft will have some hefty announcements in the near future regarding digital downloads. No word yet if that announcement will consist of the words “lower-priced hard drives.”
Honestly, I’m afraid of this change. I know we will all be happily downloading games in a few years from now, but I just really like discs. Plus, a disc actually has value outside of my living room. I don’t like Gosen’s assumption that downloading songs and 300 MB XBLA games is the equivalent of an industry wide change, but that seems to be the consensus with most. What do you guys think?
[via MCV]
