First, let's look at the reasons why EA is making this statement. I could go over the fact that it's cheaper to distribute a game digitally than it is to released a packaged product, and things of that nature, but there's even a bigger reason. That reason is used games. The way the set up works right now, is that EA makes the game and after production they sell it to a retailer. Traditionally, a 60 dollar game retail is sold to the retailer at about 45 bucks, which is, for you math majors out there, a mark up of 15 bucks, or a 25% mark-up. This is standard to all retailers, and while a bigger retailer, like Wal-mart, might get a better deal by 50 cents than a smaller retailer, a 20%-25% mark-up is pretty standard. Where the problem comes in is when a company accept trade-ins on used products. It can be rewarding to the customer, if managed properly, but let's look at this business model. A company accepting trade-ins will traditionally give anywhere between $15-$25 dollars per new release trade-in. That company will turn around and sell the pre-owned game for $50-$55. Math majors, that's a $35 mark-up, or a 63% mark-up. That's more than double than what the new packaged game would gain the retailer. Sounds like a great deal right? The customer gets $15 bucks they didn't have, the retailer makes twice as much money off of the sale of that game, and everyone is happy, right? Well, no. Since the companies that produce the game gain no profit off of the sale of a pre-owned game. 
Now to be fair, let's look at it from the retailer point of view (because I am and equal opportunity hater here.) $15 per game isn't exactly a lot of money. In fact, most games at $15 bucks in profit aren't exactly going to pay the rent and employees to perform customer service. Furthermore, retailers make a net of zero dollars (that's 0) on hardware. So when you walk into Best Buy and get that $300 X-Box, and nothing else, you didn't do much of anything to help the company. They need games sales to stay afloat, and when they a have to sell over two new games to equal the same amount than they would on a new game, it just makes sense to look for new ways to turn a bigger profit. A specialty retailer, that sells nothing but electronics, has to have new revenue to help push that bottom line and stay profitable. What the publishers/developers hate is when you walk into said specialty retailer to get a copy of Lollipop Chainsaw, and they shove the pre-owned copy down your throat, like it or not. While I'm begin fair, let's remember that the "shoving down the throat" is not the fault of the people actually doing the shoving. No, these people are, for the most part, hardworking and friendly people. Behind closed doors, they really don't care which you buy. However, there is almost always someone from the company's middle management, who usually knows as much about the gaming industry as I do speaking Latin, forcing a draconian dogma upon the employees of that store. So if you think the employees of your local specialty retailer are too push in their sales, it's really not their fault. It's the fault of their boss.
Where do we go from here? We know that the specialty retailers need the publishers to have products to sell, but do the publishers need the retailers? I would say yes, because there are smaller games out there that publishers count on retail talking up for sales. However, we're seeing a shifting of the guard lately, where more publishers are focusing on Triple A products. Both THQ and Sega recently announced they are going to move away from the more niche games, and head more towards mainstream their portfolio. That tells me that publishers are going to focus a lot more on marketing their own products in the future, rather than just worry about word of mouth at the store. But, I am certainly not Nostradamus, so only the future will tell.
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