”It’ll be a while before the trend (toward microtransaction-based games) hits the console space,” Capps said in an interview with Gamasutra. “As long as we’re stuck with the initial $60 retail purchase, it’ll be tough. I don’t know about most gamers, but as soon as I spend $60, I don’t want to spend five times that on additional sales for the game – I feel like I should get a good solid experience for that money.”
The strength of the console business, especially over PC gaming, will keep retail in the game for a long time. ”We love GameStop and Best Buy, that’s how we get people excited about our games. I love to see people lined up the night before,” Capps stated. “I like having those games stores and I don’t want to lose them.”
However, Capps believes that at some point as online tech improves and gets more widespread, digital purchases will begin to overwhelm. ”I certainly think the industry is moving in a direction toward downloadable and free-to-play games, but I don’t think it’s going to be moving quite as quickly as everyone thinks.
In the end, Capps thinks that big budget, quality titles will keep full priced games on the map.
”We’re still betting on quality,” he said. ”We’d rather make one giant Gears of War 3 with more content than we’ve ever made, hoping that will attract people, as opposed to having made Gears of War 3 alongside another game at the same time… and I’m hoping people respond to that.”
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