The four months between now and Christmas is typically harvest season for the publishers of blockbuster (or so-called AAA) video games, as the biggest, boldest and most beautiful releases of the year battle for gamers' attention on shelves both physical and digital.

But at a time when the biggest game in the world is Fortnite — a free-to-play, download-only game you can play forever and won't find on store shelves — do Australians even go to retail stores to buy video games? Does JB Hi-Fi get any cash out of the Battle Royale craze? Are creators of $100, 20-hour experiences still making money?

The answer to all these questions is yes, and here's why.

Fortnite is reinforcing (and is emblematic of) a lot of industry trends, but it's also an anomaly. Like Wii Sports and Pokemon GO before it, it's a phenomenon that's burst outside of the usual video game bubble, ensnaring millions and stealing oxygen away from other video games in the mainstream media sphere, but not necessarily stealing gamers from other games.

In fact, as we've learned from past similar phenomena, the market for AAA games will likely be boosted, rather than diminished, as non-gamers who jumped on the bandwagon move on to other games. And despite the slow move of the entire industry towards an all-digital future, this absolutely means money for bricks and mortar.