I'd rather have realistic expectations.

It's more of a question would you want to sell to a million at 25-30% profit or 500-750 thousand at 40-50% profit.

Reread that.

You still bought it in the store, and it was still a physical object which many people like, this change you would have to have a good internet connection, which people may or may not have,(I personally don't.) some people might not even have any.

I'm not sure if you are intentionally ignoring my point or not, but let me put it this way.

We have almost no way of knowing how many of those 1 billion with access are gamers or potential customers; the same goes for the other percentage without. Why limit yourself to shooting to only getting as many of the 'Internet' people when you have just as much potential, if not more, by shooting for both Internet and non Internet people alike?

@King_Boo It would still depend on the pricing a bit. One of the big complaints on the situation now involve that. We can't really guarantee their profit percentages would be increased or decreased if we don't know what they'd be doing to begin with.

Sorry for the slow responses, doing this through my phone at the moment.

here's a solution for the internet speed problem, use a smart phone as a hot spot, 4G is better than most home connections.
The embracing the future now thing, here's what I was thinking. I like the excite games but they don't sell all that well, so take the next excite truck or whatever and sell it like excite world rally, I think that's the wiiware name. Anyway, here's the real problem I have with retail, the added cost due to publishers like EA and all the percentage cuts. Take Dead Space 3, most people remember the sells needed for that to break even, around 5 million units? Game cost keeps going up, I'd rather not every game need to sell like call of duty to be profitable.

@Chriiis At some point, those people won't matter. When technology catches up and there are enough people who desire the convenience that downloadables bring, most companies won't want to go through the immense efforts that retail games require. As King Boo said, it'll come down to whether they want a large number of potential buyers at less profit, or (vastly) more profits with less customers. There are already companies making millions without ever putting out retail games. It's just too lucrative to ignore, and I think it's inevitable that those who cling to physical objects with have to be left behind. Innovation requires sacrifice.

Around here, 4G isn't exactly widespread...

@CanisWolfred In order to really take advantage of the convenience of downloads (and potentially consider it) you have to have good Internet right? Right now that isn't the case for much of the audience they are aiming at.

If I'm understanding your reference well, a lot of those you're talking about have Internet written all over them to begin with. Video game consoles are different in that you don't need Internet to still get the intended enjoyment out of them.

I don't mind all digital in the future when reliability and access is more widespread, I just don't see it doing as much good as intended at this time.

Another issue with digital only is payment. You generally need a credit card, which basically rules out anyone under... 16? 18? I don't remember the general age. Alternatively there are the points cards you can buy in stores, but that tends to negate the benefits of digital only. You'll still need to purchase the item from a store, and the store will still be taking a bit of profit of the card to want to stock them.

You seem to forget that it isn't availabe in some places, and people may not be able to pay the monthly fees either, or may not want it in the first place because they wouldn't use it much, and what wobee said, people might not have/want a credit card either.
"I don't mind all digital in the future when reliability and access is more widespread, I just don't see it doing as much good as intended at this time."
I agree with this too.

Does anyone have a problem with games that are already digitally exclusive, pushmo, Dillon's rolling western, mutant mudds and the like? Is it just that some games have always been retail so they should stay retail? I think that's a bad argument. That was the only option for all previous games in some series, but now with digital as an option, there's no need to have the risk. If a game like the next Battalion Wars is only expected to sell decently and have low profit margins, selling it as a digital game at a lower cost(to entice more potential buyers) with increase profit margins is the better option all around. Stuff like the touch generation game, could have been digital only game, the Wii series of games could have been.
If it's more of game X has this amount of content therefore it's a digital game and game Y has this much so it's retail is also a bad argument. Something like Pushmo is giving me plenty of content, more than some retail games. I guess it all comes down to perspective.
Would you guys even take retro retail games off the table as digital exclusives? A 2D Metroid, another DK country, or certain genres like mini game collections and light gun games.

And again I'll say I'm not talking about this happening all that soon, more of years down the line; 4G, internet speeds, access to debit or credit cards could all change.

I think certain game series will go digital instead of retail, I mean look at MM9 and 9, sonic 4, and ExciteBike WR, they were all franchises of titles originally retail only (I know they have more of the retro feel to them, but you can say that about any franchise after a certain amount of time has passed)

@King_Boo Except those games are pretty tiny in the amount of megabytes they take up, I don't remember how much, but its not too many, there have been titles this generation on HD consoles and PC which take up 8+ gigabytes of space.

"... I'm not talking about this happening all that soon ..."
Then why is your argument about how it would work now?_{or something like that.}
It may change later. But it also may not.

Because thing's need to be at least tried sooner than later to have costumers get use to it. Right now, it should be in everyone's minds' that retail games, regardless of file size are possible to be downloaded. The next step Nintendo needs to work on is the conversation I intended to have when I posted this topic. There is a slight, unlikely possibility that the next box rumors are true that it will be a digitally only system. My idea for certain retail games to become digital exclusive is just easing in, testing the water.
If it is an issue of file size, easy, as far as we all know the Wii U doesn't have a download limit. Something like the next Star Fox for example might not have a much bigger file than some 2 gig games you download of XBLA.

If you buy a crappy game digitally. you are stuck with it, I don't like that. Wiiware games aren't that big of a deal digitally. I expect some of them to be fun but they are not full sized titles and most are really cheap. as for VC, you can download them if you want but you can also just go out and buy a hard copy if you'd like( or if you don't already own it). it's not like they are the latest games and that is the only way to play them.

I do not believe that Nintendo is going to be going completely digital any time soon. Too many people do not have internet access and some people may just like to have a physical copy. I mostly just get the downloadable version because of the deals that Club Nintendo offers, (a free copy of Donkey Kong). However, downloadable games are most likely going to become how we get games.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/the-all-digi...