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5 years from now: how will the video game aisle in retail stores look?

That Damn Kid

That Damn Kid

Member
Much smaller than now? About the same? What changes do you see?

Gaming-Final-16.jpg


At somewhere like Best Buy, I think it will be smaller as physical games may get less popular over time. Perhaps they will increase the amount of digital download cards.

Maybe they'll add an actual room or section dedicated to VR demos?
 
D

Dr. Black Jack

Member
That Target refresh was and is fucking terrible, really bad example for the OP.

It will look exactly the same as it does now with new hardware/games. No one goes to retail to buy a download code.
 
W

Wagram

Member
The same as it does now mostly. Until manufacturers can cut out retailers to sell consoles it isn't going away. Digital will rise for sure, but there will be co-existence and that's perfectly fine.
 
T

TI82

Banned
Little usb cable and a screen. You can buy everything "physically" there and it will load onto your handhelds/switch style system so you don't have to download massive games if you don't want to. Like a little local server farm on SSDs and usb c so it's fairly quick.
 
Stilton Disco

Stilton Disco

Member
PS5 and Switch 2 games on shelves, maybe Xbox Two if Scorpio turns the brands fortunes around.

The games themselves likely the same mix of big budget monster franchises and and the increasing number of indie and smaller games that seem to have found a mirror to the Vinyl collectors market and impulse purchases their smaller price tags warrent.
 
D

Dandruff5

Neo Member
Dr. Black Jack said:
That Target refresh was and is fucking terrible, really bad example for the OP.

It will look exactly the same as it does now with new hardware/games. No one goes to retail to buy a download code.
Click to expand...

As someone who worked in finance for a big publisher, you'd be surprised how much digital money flows through retail.

Kids and teenagers without a credit card but spending money from their parents, a still rather large portion of the US that doesn't have credit cards, gifting purposes, etc.
 
A

Aztechnology

Member
The same, maybe more robust end caps or displays with digital goods, but yea. Maybe more console will move away from disks and move to physical cards or flash storage of some kind (Probably longer than 5 for that). But besides that, the same I think.
 
F

family_guy

Member
No retail stock and replaced with pushy salesmen similar to DirectTV employees trying to get you to sign up for their streaming game services.
 
Patrick S.

Patrick S.

Banned
Many stores here except Mediamarkt have cut away the PC space almost completely. Most will have the top ten games, and a couple of budget line titles. And in my local Mediamarkt, I'd say the PS4 shelf space is almost double the Xbox space, while Nintendo space is about the same size as the Xbox one, half of it is 3ds, the other rest is split between Wii and WiiU games.
 
C

CambriaRising

Member
Qft2WNH.jpg


My local gamestop has one 4 times this size (Eliminating the Used PS3 game section completely) and added a huge cabinet for statues and action figures.
 
D

Dr. Black Jack

Member
S

SatoAilDarko

Member
New Physical Game Releases have been on the decrease for years:

714x-1

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-12-20-physical-releases-rising-with-over-300-games-launch-at-us-retail-in-2016

I mean 2014 and 2015 had less than half as many new physical releases as the peak year of 2010. The decline is due to the loss of the B-tier game as well as more casual games. 2010 was the year both the Kinect and Move launched.

What's interesting is the number of physical releases actually increasing last year. One reason is due to PS VR which like Kinect has its own slate of new games that launched. The other is the larger number of indie releases getting physical releases.
 
J

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
TankRizzo said:
the same as it did 5 years ago.
Click to expand...

Agree.

Digital on consoles isnt near the same as digital on PC's.

PC sections I have seen shrink dramatically in size.

SatoAilDarko said:
New Physical Game Releases have been on the decrease for years:

714x-1

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-12-20-physical-releases-rising-with-over-300-games-launch-at-us-retail-in-2016

I mean 2014 and 2015 had less than half as many new physical releases as the peak year of 2010. The decline is due to the loss of the B-tier game as well as more casual games. 2010 was the year both the Kinect and Move launched.

What's interesting is the number of physical releases actually increasing last year. One reason is due to PS VR which like Kinect has its own slate of new games that launched. The other is the larger number of indie releases getting physical releases.
Click to expand...

Bingo. That and just some PSN, XBLA games in general showing up on disc.

Seeing Terraria and Minecraft, Trails HD, Fusion get physical copies I was like whaaaaa?
 
H

-Horizon-

Member
There will still be dedicated game aisles. Its not gonna change unless sony and/or microsoft force people into a digital only library. And I don't see either of them making the jump unless they are both gonna do it. Nintendo is gonna nintendo.
 
O

Ossom

Member
SatoAilDarko said:
New Physical Game Releases have been on the decrease for years:

714x-1

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-12-20-physical-releases-rising-with-over-300-games-launch-at-us-retail-in-2016

I mean 2014 and 2015 had less than half as many new physical releases as the peak year of 2010. The decline is due to the loss of the B-tier game as well as more casual games. 2010 was the year both the Kinect and Move launched.

What's interesting is the number of physical releases actually increasing last year. One reason is due to PS VR which like Kinect has its own slate of new games that launched. The other is the larger number of indie releases getting physical releases.
Click to expand...

That seems crazy low to me, but the numbers are there. I perceive there to be soo many more releases than there actually are.
 
Freeman76

Freeman76

Member
In 5 years I doubt there will be much of a physical presence at all. Sony are killing it with their digital sales, at least in the EU, I see it going the way of PC eventually. Anyone saying consoles are miles behind PC in this regard are living in the past, it sure hasnt caught up yet but its getting there.
 
D

Deleted member 59090

Unconfirmed Member
Exactly the same: rows and rows of PC games and some console games too (I'm in Central Europe).
 
N

Nabbis

Member
They lost about 80% of the volume that they had during the PS2 days in Finland. It will only get worse. My only real problem with this is that it's a loss on local economy and small business.
 
chekhonte

chekhonte

Member
They'll look the same. If there will be a major change the only time that will occur is during a new generation of consoles which won't happen in 3 years. Given how badly the news that you couldn't share games hurt MS this generation I doubt either will be anxious to usher in the digital only future for consoles.
 
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