While there have been quite a few rumors about disc based games going away in the very near future, one of the leading industry analysts in the world believes they will last for at least another 20 years. Michael Pachter recently sat down with MCV and backed up claims that were made by the GameStop CEO, Paul Raines. Raines made the comment that he believes physical game sales will never go away. Many in the industry were quick to dismiss those comments as self-serving but Pachter believes they’re pretty close to the truth.
“Music CD sales are down 80 per cent from their peak, but the salient point is that 18 years after Napster, Kazaa and Grokster almost destroyed physical media, the record labels are STILL MAKING CDs,” he told MCV. He also pointed to the decline to the sales in DVDs and the fact that those devices are also still going strong even as online media gets more popular. the analyst believes that there might eventually be a massive decline in physical sales but it could take as long as 20 years in order for a real dip to be seen.
It’s a safe bet that GameStop is a company that can weather the decline better than other retailers because it is so well known as also buying tradeins. This is why the company might be specially geared towards making sure it can survive, at least for quite a while longer. The firm has also been dealing in things like smartphones and tablets in order to better protect itself.