From 2022, video games could exclusively be sold in digital format
Games in physical format may come to an end. This week's research carried out by investment bank Piper Jaffray showed that switching to exclusive digital video game distribution could be a good move for publishers whose revenue would double.
"We believe it is a certainty that video games will be ~100% digital in the coming years, and while exact timing is hard to pinpoint, we think 2022 is a realistic expectation," Piper Jaffray reports.
Although switching to digital format might put to an end simple exchange of games and resale, the main sources of additional earnings should be increased focus on streaming and (micro) transactions within the game.
Microsoft's Xbox Director, Phil Spencer, has already with his comments hinted that he sees the future in improving technology for game streaming, and not in developing gaming platforms. This would put to an end the need to have a special gaming machine and games alone would be more accessible to a wider circle of people.
This would, of course, be the first step that increasingly bigger emphasis to switch towards monetization within the game. Increased availability of games would mean a larger player base, and thus increased demand for additional content that would make players more prominent than others.
Piper Jaffrey's research shows that random loot boxes are the easiest way for publishers to utilize the psychology of a player and gain maximum profit. Regardless of whether they are functional or purely cosmetic, as long as they are random and vary in demand, they represent the direction in which video game publishers should move if they want to extend the life of a product more extensively.
Tagged with: Game as a Service, Streaming
