Xbox Gaming in South Africa

EA's CEO John Riccitiello told IndustryGamers in a recent interview that 2011 will see game digital downloads overtaking retail sales. But before you panic and chuck out your collection of discs at the risk of seeming a monstrous luddite, Riccitiello also says that physical media will be around for a while yet.

"Do I believe longer term that the disc will go away? Not any time soon," he says, in the second part of the interview. "I think the disc can actually be a great starting point for a digital business, like an MMO, World of Warcraft, for instance."

He also talks about streaming media services like OnLive, saying, "I don’t think people want a streaming game service." He adds that, "Sometimes you’re not going to play because your internet connection is down and sometimes delivering a game by streaming is a really inefficient way to do it."