EA: Retailers Not Threatened by Digital Distribution, Games Too Large to Go Download-only

As some predict that digital sales and downloads of video games will soon render traditional retailers obsolete, Electronic Arts European publishing manager Jes Uwe Intat doesn't think that retailers will disappear across the next twenty years.

"I think there will still be a need for a physical distribution starter, and then services and additional content can be distributed online," he told GamesIndustry.biz.

That firm belief, Intat noted, comes from the ever-expanding size of games.

"We used to be below 1 GB, but we're now building games that have 8, 9, 10 GB--and if broadband distribution is going to allow 10 GB to be distributed in half an hour, we'll have games that are 100 GB," he said. "Our software developers eat up storage space so much quicker than telcos can build distribution."

Retailer GameStop, which relies upon on used game sales for roughly half of its profits, recently expressed a similar sentiment, telling stockholders that it was not concerned about the increasing digital download market.

In addition to PC, where digital distribution brought in $2 billion last year, download-only games have become increasingly popular on consoles, thanks to the online marketplaces of the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii.

Looming bandwidth caps represent another hurdle for digital distribution, as internet service providers in the United States are beginning to restrict how much bandwidth subscribers use per month--a practice that is relatively common elsewhere in the world.