Death of Retail. No future for the High Street and the Mall?

[walker]

Hi all

I refer you to the recent allusion by Marek about the decline in the number of PC Gaming outlets and that ArmA III's primary market is likely to be Digital Distribution; Sprocket, Steam, etc.
http://forums.bistudio.com/showthrea...=119218&page=5

The move to web based distribution meaning out of town shops would decline over the long term as a result, is something I pointed out in 1996 to the head of Tesco distribution for SE England, at the time he poopoohed it and the rest of the people there laughed and said customers will never buy their shopping that way; Tesco is now one the biggest Internet shopping site in the UK, and is rolling out the model in China, the Czech Republic and Poland and this year.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Bus...01009315737530

I buy the bulk of my shopping online from Tesco with visits to corner shops for essentials and then my local market for bits and pieces or deli counter type purchases.

I certainly buy all White Goods on line; as well as a recent electronic Piano, but I would buy a guitar or mechanical piano from a shop. TVs I went to see before buying. Computers I spec on line then buy in person.

But overall I am buying more and more online.

In the games market retail has been in decline for some time. The retail shops moved to the consoles in the vane hope of the physical security of the DVD/CD would reduce piracy but the reality is that the only long term security model is a dynamic one, which is why those that stuck with PC games like BIS release constant updates and DLC improvements. A security model that can react to piracy cracks and encourage users to constantly download new content, that stays ahead of the cracks, is the future.

A constant drip feed via subscribers is the most successful business model so far. Shown in the Eve Online/WWO/Steam business model.

That is why Sony and Microsoft and Nintendo have moved in that direction too.

It is not that the future is consoles. They were just a reaction by the developers to their constantly loosing Intellectual Property(IP) to an increasingly commercialised Piracy market.

Consequently I predict the death of the Retail Games Stores, Producers and the CURRENT wholesale business, with the last physical Retail outlets being unmanned kiosks, that pump out DVDs or USB files written at the time of purchase, and person who services it from a van filling it with writable DVDs, before it too disappears.

Surprisingly I think there will be a resurgence in the PC market, but with PCs that full fill a gaming standard. In fact I think the future is a black boxed virtual that sits in a PC or Linux or MAC or Android etc providing a standard game environment that developers can then slot their game into.

Anyway I throw this electronic missive in to the forum to start a debate.

I am sure some one will pop in to insult me soon.

Kind Regards walker

[Celery]

The future is obviously digital but I'm not happy with that kind of "progress". Same (or higher) prices with fewer consumer rights.

[MadDogX]

Buying groceries on the internet hasn't really hit Germany yet, unfortunately, but I buy almost everything else online. Amazon Prime is my friend.

I was actually against digital distribution of computer games until about two years ago, when I started using Steam more and more after having used it mainly (and begrudgingly) for Left 4 Dead. After a few months I got used to it, and finally found that it was quite useful, especially being able to install my games straight off the net, wherever I had access to a computer.

At this point, I wouldn't mind if BIS switched exclusively to digital distribution through Sprocket and Steam. More power to them, and screw the big publishers!

[11aTony]

I buy more and more online just becouse I have to. Buying something like grocieries online though is just... dont even know what to say about it. I wouldnt be surprised if kids 20 years from now wont even know how real food tastes like. But thats another story.
Im not happy about digital distribution. I love having games in a box. I remember that people here were not happy about DVD cases back in 2000 or so. Seeing my OPF GOTY box and all the manuals in it brings a smile to my face every time.

[froggyluv]

Pretty rare for me to actually encounter another PC Gamer and when it happens, we have a FreeMason like nod of one another.

Rarer still is meeting an actual Arma or Mount&Blade player.

"Ahh, your a gamer eh, ever heard of Arma 2?"

*shrugs* "Nah, is it good? Hey, you ever hear of COD 4?"

.........


The only retail PC games now seem to be COD 2-infinity and Civ/Sims. I remember a store here in the states Electronic Boutique used to have shelf upon shelf of them. *Sigh*

If digital keeps us alive, so be it.

[DM]

especially being able to install my games straight off the net, wherever I had access to a computer.

This, 1000 times this.

Not having to drag around a huge box of disks is a huge bonus. I can have almost all my new games installed simultaneously at home, work and on my laptop, with no need to faff around with disks in the drive or whatever.

[Deadfast]

Not having to drag around a huge box of disks is a huge bonus. I can have almost all my new games installed simultaneously at home, work and on my laptop, with no need to faff around with disks in the drive or whatever.

Blame obnoxious DRM schemes for that, not retail.

[])rStrangelove]

Online. Although i like game packages on my shelf. And posters, and handbooks, and maps of the game world.

Ah, the memories.

[Spooky Lynx]

I'd better not deal with digital distribution much, because due to Murphy's law connection may be lost at the moment of 99%-ready download or installation

[Krycek]

Most of my games I buy them online,I like to have the dvd,manual and all that crap.If pc games go 100% digital download I don't like it at all.With Steam you could loose your account and all those games you own if "big brother" wakes up pissed one day.Even though I don't like Steam much at least they have an offline mode unlike other dd services.
In fact I hate all this cloud shit that it seems to expand everywhere,movies,apps,games and how gladly some people accept this.