1c: All PC Games Digital By 2011

1c's international publishing director Darryl Still has claimed that retail is to blame for the decline in PC software sales. Talking to industry trade publication MCV UK, he predicted that PC software will vanish entirely from retail by 2011.

“There is still demand, but retail is forcing PC games out. Digital is fantastic, and we’re very pleased with it. But it is not us as the developers and publishers driving products to digital – it is because the options for the PC at retail are so limited... Q1 2011 is my estimate as to when PC games will be sold completely via digital. I have seen the predictions that by 2013 more than 50 per cent of our revenues will be earned digitally. But if the PC games market has to wait until 2013 then we are all in trouble.”

Still says that there are challenges ahead for digital distribution, not least because of the number of outlets now available. "We have contracts with 25 of them at the moment, and of that amount six or seven are producing decent revenue numbers."