If you have the patience to sort through all the corporate-speak, GameStop earnings calls can be an interesting place to learn some things about the game industry. The latest call gave us a new tidbit about the NX and about a smart decision Activision made regarding Overwatch .
First GameStop’s CEO flat-out confirmed that the NX will have physical media. I mean, duh. I know there have been rumors, but did anybody seriously think Nintendo was going to go all-digital when the vast majority of its sales still come from physical media? What the caller really wanted to know was whether the NX would use discs or cartridges, and if GameStop knows that, it wasn’t talking. It did note that cartridges are historically easier to refurbish than discs (which are, of course, distressingly easy to scratch or crack), so that decision wouldn’t hurt its used game sales either way.
Perhaps more interesting for the game industry in the long term was news about Overwatch ‘s launch. You may have noticed that Activision-Blizzard allowed stores to sell physical copies of Overwatch a day before the game’s servers were turned on. This essentially allowed physical customers to install Overwatch and pre-load any available early patches, just as digital customers are able to pre-load the full game if they order it before launch. GameStop said that this greatly helped its launch sales of Overwatch , and I suspect the move might help increase day-one sales in general for companies. Considering that nearly all major releases come with hefty day-one patches nowadays, an early physical release only makes sense – especially if the game is online-only.
Source: Yahoo!