EA will "be a 100% digital company, period"

Matster said: Completely agree with him but the repercussions for retail stores is massive, best buy, GameStop and Walmart in the states will have something to say about it.
EB, Jb etc here would struggle big time if companies went 100% digital. They've already taken a missive hit in profits from the introduction of iTunes.

iamtom said: This will go well.

iamtom said: This will go well.

Pact said:

iamtom said: This will go well.

8 years for now; Thats not gone well!
From memory their last sale was a "Get 500000 likes on facebook and BF3 will be 30% off. GG EA. Go **** yourself.

BBking said:
I'm thinking about costs. Let's say the average game title's life span is 5 years. To manufacture plastic, mainly in the first 2 years would be peanuts to the server maintainence for thousands and thousands of Terabytes. And then over 5 years would cost more than plastic.
But then you save money in shipping, packaging and such. I still think online would be more expensive to provide?
Then again, Steam seam to be on the right track and that's something I don't use. I could be very wrong?
I also reckon DD only will have more to do with what console companies decide to do in the future, if there is one. Maybe the Wii U will be the only last surviving physical media format system?

Pact said: Skyrim on the PC was a 6-7GB download. It is indeed possible.

Guyver said: In the position I'm in now where I have quick internet and large monthly download limit I'm not fussed if this is the direction that the industry is going. I'm already download most of my games now anyway through Steam or Origin. It's also convenient having all my games just a click away from starting up, also good having an account with all these games on so if you ever build a new computer all your games are there and can be re-downloaded over and over.
Having said that my tune might change if I end up somewhere with a crap connection and limited monthly quota. Digital download is where the industry is heading but not everyone is setup for it, and it's not always a case of money some areas just don't have good internet and probably wont get it for a while.

punk said: more margins to be had in digital distribution. No wonder they've been trying to cut out the retail stores but personally its going to backfire on them.

stublu said:

punk said: more margins to be had in digital distribution. No wonder they've been trying to cut out the retail stores but personally its going to backfire on them.

Not only that, but remove the competition and there is no longer any need to drop prices. Everything will be sold at RRP.

IAMColonel said:

stublu said:

punk said: more margins to be had in digital distribution. No wonder they've been trying to cut out the retail stores but personally its going to backfire on them.

Not only that, but remove the competition and there is no longer any need to drop prices. Everything will be sold at RRP.

If RRP was reasonable there wouldn't be a problem. $110 for a game is ridiculous. Try $60 flat rate and you've got me sold. As if they couldn't do it, look how much cheaper iTunes is, $15 for an album, used to pay up to $40 in stores. They could always have online retailers also.

Heller said: I'm all for digital distribution, and love it or hate it, it is the future. However