A president working for a company that treats online like an afterthought at best thinks that digital distribution will never replace retail.

Shocking!

Much as I'd like it not to be (I prefer buying retail games, myself, as well as having the ability to buy and sell used games), I think Reggie (and by extension Nintendo) is naive if they think they can hold that off forever.  Every medium is slowly moving more and more towards digital download, and games will be no different.

I don't think games would move to digital distribution before movies will, but they are going to get there eventually. I think it is still going to be a while though, as that isn't the kind of switch which could happen overnight. I expect to first see games being offered at both retail and for download.

Reggie is right, digital distribution will never take over. At most it will complement sales, it will never replace retail (at least not anytime in the next 15 years). Digital sales are still almost nothing compare to retail.

Some of the biggest games this generation use peripherals.  Wii Fit, Guitar Hero, all the motion plus games, and the games with the bonuses like Mario Kart.  They are making a game with a baby and another with a monster that you shove the remote inside.  Videogames are very much a hardware as well as a software industry.  Consumers also need a reason to go with digital downloads.  They aren't cheaper and they give us less.  The convenience is pretty minor most of the time besides the fact that going digital leaves a lot consumers behind right now.

I don't think anyone's looking at this as something that will happen in the short term.  No, retail will remain a dominant force for probably another 15-20 years, probably around the time the number of people born in the digital age vastly out-number those born before that time.

A nice sized chunk of Nintendo's market probably doesn't even know what digital distrubtion is.  Of cousre they're not going to Apple it up.

That same chunk of Nintendo's market will also be dead (that older Wii demographic) by the time this becomes a real issue.  A rather blunt way of putting it, but true.

I agree as well. I do see more movement towards digital distribution, but people are still dependent on traditional retail for it to truly take over. As long as people keep buying stuff through retail it will be around for a while.

Even in the most technological countries, traditional retail will still be the main way people by games. There's something called a Digital Divide and smart business know how to manage it.

I think this is what's going to happen. It'll take a generation or two, but eventually it'll go to this because kids will grow up having spent their lives using digital media. Owning a "hard copy" will seem like an alien concept to them.

Retail is better, because that way you get a tangible and transferable copy of the game. With digital distribution you don't get that, and eventually your games are rendered useless when the hardware either dies or becomes obsolete.

Iwata pretty much said it, we have no idea what the world will be like in 20 years but it doesn't look like there'll be a complete shift to download-only within the next few years.

Personally, I'm still waiting for the magical convergence device.  Until then, I'll keep playing my 3DO.

Why ask the question then?  In 20 years Reggie will probably be retired.

I still stand by the perepheral comment.  In 20 years how games are controlled is a mystery.  Every game might come packed its own controller for all we know.  Games aren't like music or movies where the experience is essentially unchanged.  Every generation has usually involved a change in controls.