In a strangely counterintuitive decision, Gamestop has started to sell digital download games at its retail stores. The company will now offer "Deus Ex: Human Revolution" as a digital download at its retail stores, marking the first of what the company plans to be many digital-retail releases.
Customers will be able to pre-purchase the upcoming Deus Ex: Human Revolution for Gamestop's Impulse game service, paying for the game at a physical retail store, then downloading it at home.
While this system seems to miss the point of a digital distribution system (the convenience of not having to go to a store to buy a game), it serves as a natural extension of Gamestop's previous digital content distribution and adds a convenience factor to customers who might not use a credit card or wish to trade in their games to pay for new ones.
Gamestop and other retail stores have offered downloadable game content for a variety of platforms in the form of cards with codes on them for some time; Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Nintendo's WiiWare and eStore all sell point or cash cards at Gamestop, along with most MMO companies and social networks. Xbox Live takes it further, offering entire, specific DLC packages in card form at Gamestop and other retail stores.
While PC game services like Valve's Steam, EA's Origin, and GOG.com have yet to offer games or credit in physical stores, Gamestop's decision to do this through Impulse could spur some newcomers to hit the card racks of various stores. Deus Ex: Human Revolution comes out August 23 and is the first game Gamestop will sell on Impulse at retail stores, but it plans to sell many other titles in the future, with the eventual goal of offering the entire Impulse library in stores, accessible as download codes printed on receipts. The other PC game services have yet to offer games in a similar manner.