GameStop not concerned about digital distribution

by Alexander Sliwinski on Aug 22nd 2008 2:30PM

Following another (inter)stellar quarter of sales, GameStop's COO Dan DeMatteo says the company is unconcerned about digital distribution, which caused us to instantly "Journeyman" back to 2007 to relive the Penny Arcade strip above. Gamasutra reports that during a post-results analyst call the executive said the revenue stream for digital distribution is "pretty insignificant."

DeMatteo explains that the company doesn't expect digital distribution to be a threat due to current disc-based game sizes and the barrier of long download times. He also believes that the Wii shortage we've seen the last two holiday seasons will shift to Wii Fit this holiday. The planet Earth concurs with that possibility.

Source

Tags: digital-distribution, gamestop, shortage, wii-fit

Reader Comments (53)

3 things will keep digi distro down, 1. price sorry I do not pay full price for a game without its display box, never have never will.

2.Online only protections are lulzy at best.

3.Portability I can't take it on rips or to a place thats daiup only.

Steam still has issues with a true offline mode, also I hate it when a boxed game is drowned in so much DRM I normally buy the on 50$ discount(used or wholesale) game and stick the steamles version in the box.

ISPs have already begun to cap or slow down bandwidth for heavy users. In the future most ISPs will sell tiered service based not only on speed but bandwidth as well. Time Warner is testing this idea as we speak. Digital distribution of games and movies will take several years to occur on a wide basis.

Then what does that make people who sell their games on Ebay when they're done? Are they pirates, too? What about people who give games to their friends once they're done, or let them borrow them? And what about video rental stores, which rent games to people so they don't have to drop 50-60 dollars on them? Are they pirates?

Gamestop is well within their right to buy and sell however they want. Anyone who trades games in there is usually not looking to go through the Ebay hassle, and Gamestop takes advantage. And ironically, them keeping the used prices so close to the new prices is actually a deterrent to buying used in many instances. Why buy used when you can buy new for a couple of bucks more?

They're not the greatest retailer in the world, but some people are not quite thinking things through here. And digital distribution is crap for people like me, who are lucky to have finally found a service that allows me to get 100KB/s tops. And chaining content to a machine should NOT be considered the future of the industry.

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