Many of us have noticed that the amount of gamers purchasing their games digitally has increased tremendously in the past couple of years. With the rise of PC gaming and the increase of Steam Machines, it’s only going to increase. However some seem like physical media will not go away.
In a recent interview with Forbes, GameStop CEO Paul Raines that while digital media has grown, physical media will never die. Stating…
“Disc-based games will be around forever. The market has seen physical music sales down 50% from its peak and physical movie sales down 60% from its peak, but even in a doomsday scenario, disc-based games will be around for a long time. I see a complimentary business where we sell discs plus download like the current console mode. Virtual reality games will also likely follow this model.”
Of course digital media has been doing well for the company. In 2014 Gamestop did $948 million in digital sales and owns 42% of the downloadable games market last year.
Raines stated..
“We’re trying to drive an internal rate change that’s faster than the world around us. We have a pretty healthy digital business, which includes downloadable content (DLC) for PC and console games, full game downloads, Steam points cards and currencies, and casual games site Kongregate’s online and mobile games sales. We see that as a $1 billion business this year.”
