The slow death of the retail game store, and everything else
When I was a kid, buying video games was an incredibly stressful process. In the late '80s, I was too young to buy magazines to find out what games deserved my hard-earned pocket-money. So, in an experience all too familiar to many millennial gamers, I used my (poor) intuition to look at the box art to decide what to bring home... More here.
I don't the death will be slow, and in particular with gaming stores. We have reached the point where the trinity is in place to kill the physical media completely.The games are huge, but the storage is also huge in the newest machines and add-ons are available at costs that make it completely feasible to download new titles.
On the subject of downloading, we have speed available to make the wait less of a hassle than physically visiting a store and keeping a disk on the shelf. And the big players offer regular discounts in their stores and subscription services that bundle the latest games.
It won't be a slow death, it will be quick and the tipping point has been reached. And if we are going to mourn gaming stores we may as well add a variety of other stores as well and potentially almost all stores. This is only moving one way and I'm not convinced it's as negative a development as many feel it is.