GameStop unconcerned by digital distribution
In denial?
With yesterday's news of the PS3 getting a disk upgrade up to 160Gb GameStop COO Dan DeMatteo was asked how this would affect his bricks and mortar-based business.
As broadband speeds increase and consumers warm to purchasing smaller games via services such as Xbox Live and PlayStation Network DeMatteo suggested that this works best for for movie and music downloads rather than full size AAA titles.
"I think the primary reason why Sony is introducing their 160MB hard drive is because they want consumers to use [the platforms] as a hub of their media system, with both movies and music. " He continued, "We do expect publishers will develop some revenue stream by adding on digitally-distributed content on select games, but the forecast for this total is pretty insignificant."
The Xbox platform has a similar setup to the PlayStation with a 120Gb disk and XBLA. Recently larger titles have had downloadable versions - most notably Burnout Paradise and Grand Turismo 5: Prologue. The PC has possibly the most advanced download systems with competition driving the innovation - EA Download Manager and Valve's Steam are the biggest.
