Cutting the Middle Man: Impending Death in the Game Industry

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Downloadable content is one of the biggest additions to consoles this generation. I'm sure there's many gamers out there that envision a gaming future without the need for a disc format to store their favorite games. However, when considering the entire industry, one huge factor becomes evident.

What will happen to the retailers?

PC games have definitely been heading in that direction with publishers cutting out the middle man with their own, online, store fronts, like Valve's Steam. The change in consoles would be much quicker since each console has an online store open to all its publishers. It's just a matter of consoles having enough hard drive space to hold the average gamer's library, right out of the box.

Will, then, Gamestop go the way of Tower Records?

Gamestops and stores like it sell mainly console games. If console games become downloadable only, then video game retailers would have to rely on just console sales. At the very least, these retailers will have to downsize tremendously.

The day of disc-free console gaming is still in the unforeseeable future, but I can't imagine a way in which Gamestop could transform itself so that it is saved come such a day. Perhaps, if the big three allowed Gamestop to host the online stores in their respective online services, but that is as ridiculously unlikely as capitalim's "invisible hand" allowing for anything more than an illusion of freedom. It's not all fun and games, though.

Downsizing means these retail employees, many of them gamers themselves, would lose their jobs due in part to their demand for progress in the industry -- the irony.

What can you do? [Although, you probably don't want to do anything about it.]

Well, you can try and stop technological progress -- but that would make you a ludditte. You'd have to be some crazy, self-righteous conservative. I bet your also a delusional, religious extremist . . . you bastard. I'm only joking. I may not believe what you say, but Voltaire would have died for your right to do so. And I respect him for that.