Gamespot recently had an article about the future of digital distribution in gaming and how retail outlets would soon become obsolete. Ireject that idea and provide my own educated prediction of where the future of digital download media is headed. I won't argue that digital media is the way of gaming in the future. Gaming companies would be foolish to continue to manufacture cartridgesand discs with the proliferation of the Internet, wifi, and 3G. The cost savings is too great and over the next 5 to 10 years you won't be able to find too many households that don't have Internet access. Where I have a problem with the assertions made in the Gamespot article was that retail outlets would become irrelevant and obsolete.

In order for digital proliferation to really be effective you will need multiple sources of distribution. That's where retail outlets come in. You may not be able to run down to the local Best Buy or Walmart to pickup a copy of a game any more but all the major retail chains are already creating their own sources of digital distribution. Gamespot was making the assumption that companies like Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft would just sell the games directly to the consumer or that publishers would somehow take up this role. I don't think so. The console companies already have online distribution methods but they don't have nearly the capacity they would need to start selling every game made for their systems thru digital download. If you want to bring XBOX Live or the PSN to their knees then that would be a good way to do it. And do you honestly think that Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony wants to invest the capital needed to get these infrastructures beefed up to the level they would need for this to work? Why would they when someone else will do it for them?

They already have a digital distributioninfrastructure of this sort for movies and music. Why this notion that games won't follow in their footsteps? A good chunk of PC game sales already come from download sources like Steam so it's only a matter of time before console games follow. Don't expect that companies like Walmart, GameStop or Best Buy are just going to fade into the sunset when it comes to game sales. They're just going to change how they go about selling them. If the PS4 or the XBOX Next (or whatever they wind up calling it) were to come out with no disc slot or cartridge port and be download only then I guarantee you that Amazon, Target, and Toys'R'Us will still be right there selling you games. Ifthey stillhave a game section in store you will likely only be seeing info about the games or playing demos but purchaseswould just be for a download code you take back home to get access from the web. The only big difference I think you'll see is that the various retailers will have to offer some sort of incentive to buy your downloadfrom them over the competition as pricing will be relatively even. I expect to see rewards programs and order bonuses become more prevelant.