Honestly, I don't think the average GameStop customer is the most savvy gamer ist a lot of tweens and moms...and people with missing teeth. Some of these folks have unreliable internet and I bet GameStop is who hears form these people when they get home with a bundle that has no physical game.

For you an me, we might say, "Damn, now I have to wait 45 min." For some people it is just one more technical thing they have to do right when they have only a shaky idea of how it all works. A physical game is faster for them and it less stressful.

@wraithtek: Hope you also get a 'Legendary Needle' with that...

I wanted a white XBone last year but could've cared less about Sunset Overdrive, so I got stuck with a digital game I didn't want but it was at the price point and aesthetic I did. NBD.

Where the physical becomes the better value for consumers is in areas where high speed internet isn't available or is cost-prohibitive. While I live in a metro area, my brother does not and HSI isn't offered outside of crazy-expensive (and high-latency) satellite internet. He couldn't redeem his digital copy for Halo: Master Chief Collection even though he wanted to. He would have been much better served by a physical copy.

I know GS's reason's aren't altruistic, but there is a greater need for physical bundles in the market than what might be evident at the surface and that's why this isn't terrible news IMO. Maybe the real solution is an agreement between retailers and publishers to allow consumers to swap their digital copy for a physical copy (or vice-versa) within the store at time of purchase. I dunno, I'm just spitballing here.

I imagine for people who live in a major metropolitan area like San Francisco with its ridiculously fast Internet, 40+ GB downloads are nothing to worry about. Go watch an episode of Friends or whatever it is those who high-falutin', gentrifying, low income relocating tech people do and it'll be done. For everyone else either A) in the rest of the western world or B) in a rural part of the world, it's not such a rosy picture.

I live in the middle of nowhere. My nearest neighbour is five miles away. My house is surrounded by a lot of green and a lot of wildlife, and I love it here. I don't think I ever want to leave, but if there is absolutely one downside to being here it's that due to my remote location the only Internet speed available is DSL. 760Kb/s is the max I can get on a good connection. Try downloading a 40+ GB game on that (let alone some patches which are 4-5 GB) and tell me if the prospect of an all digital future is good.

The problem with digital for those of us who don't live in a major city is that we, on this (North American) continent, do not have the infrastructure in place to make these things convenient. Music only went digital because of the tiny file sizes and the absolute freedom that file sharing programs like Napster provided. Consumers demanded this kind of freedom (this time, legally) and the music industry was forced to comply, being dragged into the future kicking and screaming along the way. Books work the same way, although I've yet to meet a voracious reader who doesn't prefer cracking open real paper to read; ebooks are a matter of convenience and again, due to tiny file sizes that won't kill your bandwidth, it's convenient. Movies and television are a bit of a strange beast, but considering the wizardry behind Netflix that allows me to stream from them in mostly HD, they too are going to reap the benefits of convenience.

Computer games are not there yet. They won't be there for, probably, a decade. And that's a positive estimation. It's going to take a company like Google to ignore the status quo and just start laying fibre cable all across the continent before we see the big telecom companies budge on this issue. Until computer games can be just as convenient as streaming/downloading music, movies, or books, for everyone, the all digital future isn't going to happen any time soon. It's not so much a complicated problem as it is trying to push the lethargic, slovenly beast that is big telecom companies into doing something for their customers for a change. That's not complicated, just damn near impossible.

So are GameStop bad guys for doing this? Not in my mind. It's probably one of the rarer instances of GameStop looking out for their consumer base, even if the reasoning isn't altruistic in the slightest (and let's be honest here; where corporations and money are involved, it never is).

I can side with Gamestop as well. Talking to people that work there, every time one of these bundles w/ digital games gets released, they get a lot of returns where the tokens have most likely been redeemed or the customer is too dumb to know that internet is required for the download so they do the return and the whole console is taken as a loss and sent back to the warehouse.

Will GameStop become the next BlockBuster Video... time will tell.

Well I actually think thats a good idea I have nothing against physical copies of games in fact I do prefer them

A lot of people are looking negatively towards this, and even though Gamestop is a big corporation, they still employ thousands of human beings who would lose their jobs if the trade in program stopped. You could look at this as Gamestop protecting their bread and butter, but at the same time when you purchase a game digitally you're making people who work in those stores irrelevant.

I mean, the experience of "shopping" at a Gamespot can be shitty, but those people are gamers too, and without those jobs, they aren't buying games either. Don't want to get on a rant here about social responsibility but I walked into a McDonalds a couple weeks ago and they replaced the cashiers with a couple giant kiosks. The kiosks were pretty nice, but a lot of kids and some adults rely of these kinds of jobs to help support themselves in high school or college.

@oldirtybearon: You nailed it. "Flyover country" never gets taken into account.

When I worked at Gamestop a few years ago used games made up well more than 50% of their gross profit with accessories next. Outside the fact I am glad I don't work there anymore it amazing how in just several years their used market has shrunk. I figured it would be some but not that much. New games and systems were the lowest as everyone could have guessed.

Putting aside all the kind of sleezy aspects about Gamestop's trade in business model, this is truly just delaying the inevitable. It might take another twenty years but physical media will eventually disappear. Whether that's a good or bad thing isn't really relevant; this is not a trend that will reverse. Just like how we're no longer riding horses to work, putting all the guys making horseshoes out of business. Technological progress inevitably creates some casualties.

Unfortunately, I don't see how a company of this size can pivot to survive this change. Gamestop is a dinosaur and the meteor is comin.

Do they still sell Steam wallet codes? I wonder what makes that worth it for them but not selling games with digital codes.

Good read Austin.

The fact that the Xbox One has a bunch of console+game bundles at the same price as the console is actually the main reason I never bought one, I'm still waiting for a bundled game I think I want to play. There's other games on the Xbox One that I think I'd play, but not so urgently I want to buy a bundle that's a bad value to me.

If they already reached an agreement with Microsoft, Sony & Nintendo, why do they even mention what would happen if that agreement wasn't reached?

The deal reached was only for Madden, everything else is up in the air. That quote is from the COO who says that they'll turn to third parties if they can't get further agreements with Sony and MS.

Fuck brick and mortar retail; Adapt or Die.

WTF do I want a plastic disk for? I just want to play the damn game, keep your plastic garbage and give me a digital download code.

I have never shopped at Game Stop. But I have never rued a physical copy of a game either, except for the sometimes extra moves for downloads, and space. And many times it feels key to have a particular game (say limited edition) physical. Digital is the way I mostly go for PC, but I am very aware I am at the mercy of the provider, mostly Steam. For consoles I tend to go disc. So this article, bare bones to the point, doesn't affect any viewpoint of my own. Game Stop can do as it wishes, and as long as I feel I have a choice of digital or disc, so will I.

@noah_n_bridger: You can order physical games direct to your door though, and good luck wiping your botty with digital bog roll.

The all digital future simply isn't practical when so much of the globe doesn't have high speed internet access.

A lot of people have already written a lot of great and informative things about this topic in the comments so all I have to say is that if anything this is going to be a good thing for the consumer.

My experience with buying a "full-retail" digital game on PSN was poor to put it mildly. I live in a large metropolitan area and have fast internet, but it still took quite literally two entire days to download AC: Unity off PSN.

Until Sony (I don't have any experience with XB1 this generation) get their head out of the sand and finally upgrade their PSN servers then the all digital future will suck regardless if you live in downtown SF or on a farm in Minnesota.

the digital only future will be a long time coming, and thankfully so! Even in the most developed cities(internet infrastructure wise), there are things such as bandwith caps and sluggish internet speeds, weird pre-loading issues, and service downtime on the ISP and entertainment provider side.

But consumer rights are also, way worse when it comes to digital, especially in the states. And it can't be that long till it spreads to the eu aswell with things similar to ACTA, or maybe TTIP.

Another point is the growing middle class in developing parts of the world, im sure there are still many ripe markets for ye ole bricks and mortar stores to harvest, even if it isn't gamestop.

Send a message: Go into your local Gamestop and make an employee's day by asking to buy a console bundle; right when you're supposed to pay, "realize" that it's a physical copy and cancel the whole transaction.

I like this idea. I don't have a ps4 yet but now I know that gamestop is going this direction I'll be looking at them. I never found the digital copy to be that big of a plus. It's no fair the games are too big to be doing this, it just feels like a rental because of this.

@counterclockwork87:

For the Gamestop Madden bundles, you actually end up getting less. The digital bundles at other retailers include a year of EA Access.

For some reason the Giant Bombcast Square Space ad where Dave Lang plays a web-designing intern who declares "I'll not participate in my own obsolescence!" springs to mind reading this...

I like this idea. I don't have a ps4 yet but now I know that gamestop is going this direction I'll be looking at them. I never found the digital copy to be that big of a plus. It's no fair the games are too big to be doing this, it just feels like a rental because of this.

I wish they never started doing this digital package in in the first place it just feels cheap. Physical copy all the way!! Especially when the game is 30+ gbs.

My bad experiences with Gamestop are numerous, but I still do business there out of necessity sometimes. With digital games honestly being less of a headache than the roulette wheel of a gamestop experience, I can imagine a world without them fairly easily.

I bought a game at GameStop recently. They asked if I wanted "Game Protection" and without thinking I accidentally replied "No thanks, I'm an adult"... It just flew out of me.

It was a bit rude. The guy there was just doing his job and he has to ask, so I laughed it off and apologized.

I stopped going to my local Gamespot a good while ago (actually found I could get the same deal at Target ya know the bastion of quality service) without the annoyance of their mandatory pre-order speil.

Having recently gotten a PS4 I like the idea of the all digital future and my speeds aren't that bad actually but I can buy the game cheaper off amazon and shipped to my house then digitally. O if only the big two digital stores were like steam a bit more.

Fantastic! I will continue to not shop at Gamestop!

@kftgr: so, be a dick to the lowly peon who's only doing his job for a pittance?

You are still totally free to go sell and buy your used games completely independently, and reap the cost saving. If you don't value the ability to drive a few miles down to your local strip mall and pay for the convenience of offloading your games immediately, possibly in exchange for other games, then that's fine dude. That doesn't make the practice of "buy low, sell high" inherently shitty though.

Also, the work they've been putting into their retro game sale stuff is exceptional, especially for a place like Gamestop http://mashable.com/2015/07/16/vintage-video-games-restoration/#gGN7DKxeukkA

I like boxes!... Not saying I'm ok with this though, as you have pointed out, they´re really fighting the inevitable here.

@ripelivejam: unfortunately, yes. The point is that with enough of these occurances, managers will take notice and move it up the chain.

I hate game stop so fuck them and there overpriced and horrible business practices. Cant see why anyone would trade games in nowadays considering just how little they actually give you.

Its a shame because i would love to have a cool games store to go check out but usually the employees are assholes and there prices suck, plus every gamestop i was ever in was a overcrowded unorganized mess of a place where they didn't even have the room to stock what they were selling.

It's interesting that this is becoming a big deal now. Just looking at EA stating 20% of sales are digital, that doesn't seem like a lot. Sure it lowers GameStop's profit margins with that many less physical games. I thought we'd get to a "flailing in the face of inevitability" moment when digital sales were around 50% and up. I'm not a business man but it seems like this is the time for GameStop to look at the trends and maybe downsize? They can see what's happening and if the right people are in place in their corporate offices nothing should come as a shock to them when profits shrink more and more over time.

I like having a physical copy for the sole fact that once I'm done with the game (If I initially buy it when it first released) I can usually recoup some of my money back with trade in, either at EB, (I'm in Canada) Microplay, or Best Buy. Or I sell it locally on Kijiji to someone else who wouldn't mind having a used copy of the game. So typically I'm out like $30 or so instead of the full $80.

@lunnington: I'm speculating here but I would imagine the difference between steam wallet cards and digital games as a bundle(or in general I suppose) is two part. First as others in the topic have theorized I imagine there is probably a decent number of people who come back to return the system due to realizing it was a digital game, maybe even some people using the codes before returning it and they have to send it back to the warehouse and go through a whole ordeal. Second there is the whole fact that they sell physical console games that is in the companies best interest to keep selling as opposed to digital games.This isn't an issue with steam wallet cards as physical PC copies are a rarity and no one is coming into the store asking for a steam card and coming to return it because they didn't know what they were getting. The real question is if they still sell wallet cards to PSN/Xbox, I imagine they do but it's been 2 years since I've gotten one from them so I can't say for certain.

Lots of interesting points in the comments, most of what I think has already been said multiple times

-internet data caps and bandwidth are not there yet even in decent sized cities

-lots of disadvantages to digital and of course some advantages(can't lend/resell a game, potentially extremely long download times...advantages being not having to swap a disc, can get a game in the middle of the night, when you don't have a ride/have been drinking)

I think as it stands the best case scenario is what we currently have the freedom of both options, personally I prefer a physical game but am glad that I can get a digital copy if the need arises(game being sold out,an impulse buy or whatever reason)

I'm a-ok w/ this, I HATE the idea of buying a bundle and getting a digital copy instead of a physical, it'd put me off from buying the bundle in the first move. That + having to take the time to DL the full gam takes a hell've a lot longer than just popping in the game.

EDIT: It'd be great if they sold both types of bundles though.

i didn't know that was a thing console makers were even doing tbh.

This is coming from someone that has NEVER sold / traded a game to Gamestop, but I will shop there from time to time.

I like that GameStop is making this move, I hate buying / getting digital games because in the long run when you get a code for a game you are placing a bet that the platform holder is going to make sure that you will be able to play your game until the end of time. So I only buy digital if it's an Indy title like Shovel knight that I can't have on disk, if the game is only $15 or less it feels like less of a gamble.

I also have a large game shelf and I love having that be a part of my house. I also like knowing that if something happens to me or my wife that if I had to come up with money fast I could sell off all of those games *not to GameStop, they pay crap and we all know it* and come up with a fast few thousand dollars if need be. No one is going to buy my PSN account

And as one last point. Just last week I bought a Wii U for my family it came with Super Mario World and NintendoLand. If something happens to my Wii U *say it gets damaged or stolen* those games aren't even tied to an account they are tied to the damn Wii U, which means I'm just SOL on getting those games back. If GameStop would have sold me the same bundle with disk copies of the games I wouldn't have even given a second thought and looked for a better deal online.

Always felt like Gamestop was grasping for straws at this point. I do however will admit that when Gamestop introduced their legacy program where they started selling refurbished old console systems and games I got pretty excited.

No doubt this was not done by Gamestop out of the kindness of their heart but I'm actually okay with this. Over the last few years I got out of the whole mindset of trading in games (I buy a lot less games on release in general now) so going digital is something I'm edging towards. My internet is okay enough to handle it but the service can still be a slow experience, especially on PSN. However my main deal is, Microsoft and Sony need to be more competitive on sales for their digital stuff, I have more experience with Xbox on this so Sony might be doing better on that regard.

But a lot of Xbox weekly sales are not that great. There is either a lot of repeated products (GTAV on both 360 and One marketplaces is on sale again this week for the umpteenth time and the price cut isn't all that fantastic) and why would I pay fifty dollars for a digital only copy of Dying Light when I could go down to a retail store that is selling it for twenty less? So far, digital only seems useful for the games that only get released digitally giving you no choice in the matter or if I intend to buy a game on release day.

Otherwise by the time I finally get around to buying a certain game, the price difference between a digital and new disc copy of a game could be wide enough that convenience of buying it digitally is just not enough. Even for someone in my position who can totally do digital without much of a hitch, it just doesn't seem to be there yet as consoles are concerned. Even with my decent enough internet, downloading a 48 GB sized game is still a fairly slow process.

Hey guys remember Blockbuster and Tower Records?

I certainly don't love Gamestop, but I do love my physical discs. I will always choose a physical disc over buying digitally, but I still think this is a scummy move of them to pull.

Also, for people saying space is a reason to go digital, can't you just get a big old CD book and store hundreds of discs in that? It really doesn't take up much space. Now convenience is a reason to go all digital if you don't care about the physical media.

I'd be all about an all digital gaming front if devs all had their acts together and there weren't these monstrous, bug filled, day one patches that still failed to fix the issues. We aren't there. I want a disc so that I am not wasting bandwidth on full games.

If we are going full digital, then why do we still have preorders from the physical era where the consumer had to make sure a copy of a game was waiting for them at the brick and mortar they frequented? There is no lack of supply in an all digital world. Yet we still have these companies tryna fleece us. It's asinine. I really wish you'd call attention to that, @austin_walker.

I get all my games from Amazon, new and used. When I trade them in, they go to Amazon as well. That gives me continuity with my gift cards.

I always find "game code" pack ins on console purchases kind of lame. I just bought your system just let me play something not wait another 6 hours. I have good enough internet to go digital but I'm still buying discs for most big titles, waiting on an impulse purchase 45 gig download no thanks. Also EA is practically begging you to buy a disc version if you have EA Access. The $7 digital discount isn't enough for me when I can still probably sell the disc for $20 when that title hit's the vault.

It does seem desperate, so did their shtick with GameStop exclusive preorder boni, in form of in-game items or boosters or whatnot.

I 100% agree with this. I want physical copies and hated that my Wii and Xbox came with digital copies....
i got a Wii U with a digital download of a game, and i would like to give it to my niece now, at least let her borrow it... And i cant. i have to buy her a new copy of a game i will never play again. That's dumb. until they unlock digital game libraries you can trade, plain and simple digital sucks. Ive learned this with all my unplayed PS3 digital games i cant sell or transfer to my PS4...

Its like Bruce Willis a few years back had the huge itunes library and wanted to leave it to his kids, only to be told they couldn't get it (he could leave the password I guess), but they said its his and his alone. I give away my CDs all the time. Digital needs to catch up. You need to let me sell my rights to my digital content.

Way #2 that digital bundles suck - when I bought my 6 yr old niece her own Wii U, she also got a different digital game with hers ( i didn't know it was digital before we opened it). And we opened it, but I didn't know her Mom's WiFi password. So we couldn't download the game she had for her new system until her Mom got home and we could go online. So all day long the poor excited kid played old Wii games on her new Wii U instead, again, what a pain.