The idea of providing content via the information highway has been seeing a steady rise in popularity over the past few years. Otherwise known as digital distribution, even big companies like Microsoft shifted paradigms and now patronizes the practice. However, a good few number of retailers have expressed their concern regarding the matter, hinting it would eventually render them useless.

The very exact thing was commented on by Microsoft Casual Games boss Kim Pallister during last week's Montreal International Games Summit. According to the executive, he has a number of reasons to believe why retailers won't actually suffer a great deal and that they need not worry. Or at least not yet, implied Pallister. "Number one, most of the digital distribution today, the vast majority of it is done in places like the casual games space where the download size is not so formidable as to limit that."

Every one who is remotely aware of the gaming industry recognizes the shift already. Microsoft has its own Marketplace while rival companies Sony and Nintendo are well poised to offer similar service through their online networks. Given these, Pallister said that more than shutting down the so-called "physical avenue," the new trend actually creates new opportunities. "It also grows the industry in different ways; it allows for titles that maybe couldn't do the volume for an individual retailer to justify the shelf space," reflected the Microsoft official.

Actually, as Pallister explained, everything boils down to giving consumers the power of choice by providing them different paths to their content. When asked regarding the possibility of full-sized titles being distributed digitally, he answered, "will we eventually get there one day? Possibly, but it's quite possible that the games grow in size and outsize the bandwidth growth or whatever."