There are terrible, terrible flaws in the retail model for game companies, especially independent studios who have to compete for shelf space against the likes of Sony and EA and their massive marketing powers. Stardock, one of those smaller studios, has decided to skip the whole affair and go directly to digital sales with its upcoming games. The Political Machine 2012 and Elemental: Fallen Enchantress will be coming to gamers straight from online channels, without a single box in stores. The Verge has the story.
Putting product on store shelves is hard and expensive. Running product through a download service is easy and cheap. That’s going to be the story of a lot of games going forward, but retailers do rely on physical copies for their business, and used games are a big deal for anyone who wants to play a game older than two years.
There are no good solutions here, the whole world is still coming to grips with this digital revolution thing.