Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore said digitally delivered video games may account for 50 percent of sales by 2015 as more players migrate to tablets and smartphones from consoles. (via Bloomberg). As more players are migrating to tablets and smartphones from PC and tablets, mobile seems to be the way to go which means digital downloads of games.
While this might be the future for EA, some hardcore PC fans are not as excited about it. ROTHC is download only but some gamers really like getting a boxed set. Our current home office is surrounded by shelves of boxed Collector’s Editions of various games that my husband and I have purchased and played over the past 10 years or so. We love getting boxed sets, expansions and collector’s editions of the games we loved because they usually contain extras such as music, figurines, posters and more.
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) is the largest video-game publisher in the U.S. (with EA being the second largest) and I love my boxed sets of WoW, Warcraft and Diablo. We also have boxed sets for Neverwinter Nights series, Guild Wars and Everquest and EQ2 plus many more.
Yet just like the music industry, games are going digital and it’s cheaper for both gamer and developer when the player prefers a digital copy. Still many of us prefer having an actual physical copy of our games with art and booklets and more.
“In two years we could be looking at the tipping point where digital becomes bigger than the traditional core,” Moore said.
What do you think? Are you happy to see games going more digital or would you prefer the traditional methods?
