Digital sales to overtake boxed sales by 2015 - survey
But there will always be a place for the high street.
Digital sales of video games will overtake boxed product sales by 2015, a new survey predicts.
Over 57 per cent of over 1000 industry executives surveyed by the London Games Conference said digital will overtake boxed by 2015.
16 per cent said it will take only a year. 39 per cent - the most - said during 2013.
The findings echo a growing trend towards digital sales and the apparent decline of the sale of boxed games.
Last week Dino Patti, boss of Limbo developer Playdead, told Eurogamer the retail video game model "has always been and still is broken".
"The retail model has always been and still is broken, from a developer's point of view," Patti told Eurogamer at the GameCity6 festival.
"Driving discs in a big van all over the world is really inefficient. I don't understand how anyone can make money out of this. Driving a truck to Japan just to get it delivered to people when they can get it from the net? Hopefully the new consoles will embrace the download space even more."
However, two thirds of respondents to the London Games Conference survey said there will always be a role for the high street retailer when it comes to video game sales.
While Microsoft has remained quiet on its next Xbox plans, Sony has indicated its next PlayStation will not be digital-only.
"We do business in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn't as robust as one would hope," former Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai said in August last year.
"There's always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium. To think everything will be downloaded in two years, three years or even ten years from now is taking it a little bit to the extreme."