GamesBeat speaker highlight: GameStop’s Tony Bartel on evolving game retail

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Digital distribution and cloud gaming are here, but GameStop still has thousands of stores.

>evolving game retail
>implying it's going to be alive long enough

But in all seriousness, I doubt brick and mortar is going to be a big part of equation in the near future.

There is absolutely a demand for Release Events, Collector Editions and Collector items based on Games, and even just physical copies of the game... but with Digital Distribution and even Online Ordering taking back the profits from the middle man (which is already infamous among it's consumer base), dramtically increasing ease of access to a wider variety of games, and dramatically changing how much they can be sold for.... it doesn't paint a pretty picture for businesses like GameStop.

I would imagine Game Companies are thinking hard of some other way to meet all those demands for physical products and Promotional events without a dedicated retailer.