Will game retails stores be a thing of the past?

While, I do see this trend happening eventually, the gaming companies will not give up their console gravy train of $49-59 for new games. Those costs include many things like marketing, packaging, distribution, inventory, etc. Its a gigantic ecosystem that is benefiting a lot of people. So yes, maybe once the industry fully adopts digital downloads as a primary source of distribution, then we will see stores like GameStop go away. Until then, no way.

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/jagex-believes-retail-game-space-dead-in-10-years-time/