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Barron’s Next reports claims made by US investment bank and asset management firm Piper Jaffray on the future of the video games industry, and they’re naturally divisive in nature.

“It is a certainty that videogames will be approximately 100% digital in the coming years, […] While exact timing is hard to pinpoint, we think 2022 is a realistic expectation,” the report states.

Barron’s Next claim this could mean companies such as Activision Blizzard and EA could see “gross and operating margins widen by more than 10%, meaning a substantial boost to profits within 5 years.”

Piper Jaffray also mentioned that developers would look toward more streaming games and cloud gaming.

“Our expectation is that major publishers will increasingly test and commercially develop streaming game offerings over the next 3-5 years, […]Streaming games from the cloud, without need for dedicated hardware or massive downloads, would materially grow the total addressable market for high end console-style titles.”

How do you feel about video games eventually becoming all digital? What are the implications of games no longer having physical media? Sound off in the comments below!