Most people don't realize this but GameStop was actually very bad for console game developers. Games were often resold, with each time no revenue going to the developer. I worked on a popular Xbox / PS3 game that was resold like 7-9 times on average. Our marketing people figured that GameStop made a lot more money on the game than the developer.
Why is that bad? Big console games started to need to be really long, because if you could finish them in a week you would lose a ton of sales to retail. That's why you started to see games where you had to wander around, grind, play through a level backwards, chase achievements. It also caused an emphasis on in game purchases (in console games) and online play. It just got a lot harder to make a short single player game on console.
A lot of those problems go away as console games are sold in a digital store.
Why is that bad? Big console games started to need to be really long, because if you could finish them in a week you would lose a ton of sales to retail. That's why you started to see games where you had to wander around, grind, play through a level backwards, chase achievements. It also caused an emphasis on in game purchases (in console games) and online play. It just got a lot harder to make a short single player game on console.
A lot of those problems go away as console games are sold in a digital store.