Eric Yeager, Xbox Games on Demand's senior business manager, speaking at an MIT Games Business conference, has explained the delay in the release of digital games on the platform following boxed release and the importance of Microsoft's retail partners.
"We really strongly believe it's important to have these retail partnerships and the ability to sell our console is the most critical thing for us," Yeager said. "If you don't sell the console you can't sell anything else.
"We have a lot of strong partnerships. We really need them to do a lot for us. They're the ones out there selling the consoles, selling the peripherals and, in this time, we're trying to figure out how to fit that in to the whole digital landscape shift. We're just taking a bit of a measured pace with it," Yeager added.
He went on to say the Games on Demand service has already seen a significant reduction in the delay between retail and digital launches.
It's notable that Microsoft's competitors are becoming increasingly proactive in the digital space. Sony released the digital only PSP Go in 2009 and while the company never revealed sales figures the system is believed to have been a flop. Regardless, all PS Vita gams are available as downloads as well as at retail with it recently being revealed that a third of the system's software sales are downloads. Sony has also said all PS4 games will be available digitally though they will continue to support retail.
Nintendo meanwhile has moved heavily into the digital download space with Wii U offering many titles that previously would have been retail only.
Earlier this year Xbox asked whether people preferred digital or retail versions of games and respondents heavily favoured retail.
When the next Xbox is revealed Microsoft may adopt a new approach to game distribution but until then retailers remain important to Xbox and you can probably expect delays in digital releases for sometime to come.
Source: Joystiq
