Capcom predicts 50% of revenue from digital sales in five years

Capcom Entertainment senior vice president Christian Svensson is backing the digital revolution heavily.

“I’d like to say that within five years, certainly well north of 50 percent of our revenue will be coming from digital, and significantly higher than [50 percent] of our operating profit will [come from digital],” Svensson told Gamasutra at GDC 2012.

The executive noted industry trends which reflect a growing reliance on digital sales over physical, retail releases.

“And certainly sometime before five years from now, every game will be digital and retail day and date [same release]. On some platforms that’s already the case," he said.

"It is on Vita. In Europe, the PlayStation 3 is already that way. I wish it were that way in the States as well. But I’d say that’s an inevitability. No one is really fighting that, but the question is when that will occur."

Like many other industry figures, Svensson doesn't see this as the end of the road for retail.

“Retail will always have a place in our future, but I think that five years down the road, the value proposition of retail and publishers will change," he said.

“I think that retail’s role will shift from planned purchase to impulse purchase, predominantly, and planned purchases will increasingly happen online, just for sheer convenience’s sake.”