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Games are often large enough that, for most of their history, they could not be efficiently distributed and stored via the Internet. Many games now require DVD's, while ebooks are a tiny fraction of that size, and are easy to distribute even via cell data connections or slow Internet connections. As mentioned previously, online game sales is slowly picking up steam -- WiiWare, Steam, XBox Live, to name a few.
Adding physical media just means more Stuff to manufacture, distribute and throw out and/or lose -- including the packaging. Plus, it re-introduces an issue that is mitigated by online distribution: excess inventory. In order to get a paper book to all the places it needs to be for a potential sale, you need to make significantly more copies than will actually sell. Unsold paper copies are sent back to the distributor or publisher (for full credit), where they are remaindered or destroyed (and rarely recycled). Digital eliminates all that waste.
In addition, making a physical component doesn't really lock down the content in a way that makes reselling the file viable. As long as you can make a copy of the file, you can sell the card and keep the file. You'd still need an Internet-connected moderately restrictive DRM system to keep track of it (like B&N's Nook loaning system), and if you've got that, why bother with a physical object?
Schemes like these will not save the brick & mortar bookstores; they're a step backwards. Most bookstores will be casualties of the transition to digital, in the exact same way that music stores have largely disappeared from the landscape, despite already being delivered in a small, convenient, digital format -- the CD.
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