Let's not rush the death of physical video games | Opinion

gamesindustry.biz:

There's a regular joke in our household whenever anyone mentions eggs.

It stems from a UK TV ad from 12 years ago. In it, a man comes back from the shop and his partner says: "Good, you're back with the eggs." He looks mortified and replies: "Oh, you said eggs." The partner (played by Aisling Bea, for fans of British comedy) looks confused: "Yeah." He opens his shopping bag to reveal a video game. "I thought you said Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3."

To this day, whenever anyone in our house talks about eating eggs, someone will reply: Why would you want to eat Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3? We are nothing if not hilarious.

The ad in question was not by Activision. It was created by the UK supermarket chain Tesco. Back then Tesco was a giant in the world of video games retail. With thousands of shops across the UK that were open 24 hours a day, it made sure it was the first to sell the latest big release. In 2009, I visited the firm's HQ in Welwyn Garden City, and the head of entertainment proudly told me the company wanted to be the second biggest retailer of video games in the country behind GAME.

Tesco had the finances, store portfolio, and buying power to get the best deals from suppliers. Because it was a business built on selling food, and wasn't reliant on games to make a profit, it would often cut prices to extremely low levels. On more than one occasion, it was cheaper for rival retailers to buy their games from Tesco than it was from official distributors. Tesco would 'loss lead' (where they lost money on the games they sold) to win over customers. Indie shops didn't stand a chance.

But Tesco had one competitor it couldn't beat: itself. As physical game sales started to fall, other departments in Tesco,