Blizzard: "Retail is still important"

Blizzard has commented that bricks and mortar stores are still important for PC games, despite the growing interest in and presence of digital distribution platforms.

'We've only been in bricks and mortar stores until the launch of StarCraft 2,' said Blizzard's Greg Street in an interview with bit-tech yesterday about World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. World of Warcraft still regularly top the top 10 PC games chart, even six years after release.

'The retailers are still super important and are the reason we’re here in the UK, doing this launch event,' he added. 'The only way to get the Collector's Edition is to buy it in stores.'

Pressed for details about Blizzard's plans for the future, Greg said that there were no plans increase Blizzard's digital presence beyond where it is at the moment.

'I don’t think we have any plans to grow it,' he said. 'We’ll see how it goes. The PC market is changing rapidly and the scope of the internet is massive and it’s hard to predict where things will be in five or ten years.'

Check the full interview with Greg 'Ghostcrawler' Street and Dave Kosak for more info, but let us know your thoughts in the forums in the mean time.