GameStop: Mass market gamers slow to adopt digital

Chris Petrovic, GM of GameStop Digital Ventures, has highlighted the gulf between the average gamer and early adopters when it comes to digital gaming.

"There's a huge delta between early adopters and the mass market. I think it's much larger than any of us are willing to acknowledge sometimes, because it just isn't a fun story," he told GamesBeat.

"You think about how much longer people hold on to their stuff that they've invested a lot of money in. You realise that folks are value-oriented, folks are not like us, necessarily, the ones waiting in line to get things on day one. They have kids at home, they don't want to spend as much money as a new product would cost."

He said trips to midwest and southeast America had opened his eyes to changes in pace between Silicon Valley and less progressive areas.

He also addressed the issue of digital's affect on GameStop's lucrative trade in pre-owned games, arguing that hardware and cash carrying customers will be key.

"Even though there may be an assumption that more games will be delivered digitally, you still need an endpoint device," he said.

"The other thing that we realise, too, is that 70 per cent of purchases of digital product that are made in our stores involve some other form of payment besides a credit card. So when you think about all of the other ways that you could pay for stuff, when the purely digital platforms are limited to a credit card as the primary means... We have an ecosystem that's very unique in terms of unlocking value that others can't, and we do that with and for our partners as well as for our own digital platforms."