A Business Power

In a games industry that is increasingly shifting to digital, amplified by PlayStation phasing out physical game discs starting in 2028, where does a brick-and-mortar chain like GameStop fit into this future? GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen appears to have no concern for this monumental shift whatsoever. When asked by Bloomberg about how Sony's digital policy would affect GameStop's business, Cohen responded: "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all." While his answer appears flippant and preposterous on the surface (the word "game" is in the company's name, after all), the company's financial rep

Former BioWare veteran Mark Darrah has weighed in with his thoughts on what the AAA video game business can do to make more money and become more sustainable: sell product placement. In a video on his YouTube channel, Darrah said the fascination with live-service games and "over-reliance on microtransactions" is stopping other genres from flourishing. Development budgets keep going up and up, and without an increase to the current $70 going rate for new releases, developers could look to product placement to help make money, Darrah said. He said the live-action Smurfs movie "paid for itself en