Sony to Launch Day 1 Digital Initiative

[The Wooster]

Sony to Launch Day 1 Digital Initiative

Sony attempts to make its digital catalog more timely.

There's good money in digital distribution, just ask Valve. No, really. Call their solid gold telephones and ask. You might have to let it ring a few times, sometimes they can't hear you over all the money. While PC publishers seem to have digital distribution down pat, the consoles are still struggling with it. Digital versions of games often come out long after their retail counterparts, and rather bizarrely, they cost just as much. Sony is at least trying to fix one of those problems.

The PSN Day 1 Digital initiative is an attempt to get digital games out on the same day as their retail counterparts. The initiative starts on October 2nd with the launch of NBA 2K13 and Resident Evil 6, with other select PS3 titles to follow. For the most part, the prices are exactly the same as retail, but PlayStation Plus members can snag the odd discount here and there, provided they pre-order a game.

The first batch of games included in the initiative:
Resident Evil 6 (Available for download on October 2 - $59.99)
NBA 2K13 (Available for download on October 2 - $59.99/$53.99 for Plus members, with pre-order)
Dishonored (Available for download on October 9 - $59.99/$53.99 for Plus members, with pre-order)
DOOM 3: BFG Edition (Available for download on October 16 - $39.99/$35.99 for Plus members, with pre-order)
007: Legends (Available for download on October 16 - $59.99)
Medal Of Honor: Warfighter (Available for download on October 23 - $59.99)
Need For Speed: Most Wanted (Available for download on October 30 - $59.99/$53.99 for Plus members, with pre-order)
Assassin's Creed III (Available for download on October 30 - $59.99)

The big three's hesitant, ham-fisted attempts at digital distribution have always struck me as odd, especially given the, at best, parasitic and, at worst, adversarial relationship they have with retailers like GameStop. Apple and Valve have made a fortune by cutting out the middle man, yet only Sony shows any real signs of following suit.

Source: Destructoid [http://www.destructoid.com/psn-day-1-digital-initiative-includes-dishonored-and-more-235648.phtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Destructoid+%28Destructoid%29]


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[A Satanic Panda]

Maybe they'll still be in business at the end of the decade after all...

 

[gigastar]

Maybe they'll still be in business at the end of the decade after all...

Who knows? Something else could go horribly wrong.

 

[gardian06]

what does a slow-bro have to do with this couldn't have been like the sony waiting bar?

the funniest part of this is that trying to get rid of like Gamestop also gets rid of market-share, and in turn lowers overall sales of games, and systems.

captcha: wicked witch, interesting I didn't know that Sony was located in Oz

 

[gigastar]

yet only Sony shows any real signs of following suit.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS was available in the e-Shop at midnight on release day. Just saying.

And how many 3DS games that are also sold in retail are available in Nintendo's e-Shop?

 

[SilverUchiha]

I was wondering why Sony and Microsoft hadn't started this sooner. Don't get me wrong, physical copies are still needed to some degree, but I know plenty of people who'd rather just get digital and keep it that way. This is probably a smart move, just with some poor implementation.

Namely, Sony and Microsoft charge for online. Microsoft charges for just online entirely, while Sony is only for PS+ members that need to pay, and even then the special deals they get aren't all that impressive. Steam and Origin are at least free because they know they'll make enough money selling their massive libraries of games to cover the cost of running the service. If MS and Sony can gear themselves in that direction, that would be really impressive.

Then there's Nintendo. I'm not sure what the WiiU will do, but the fact they already said third parties can use their own online service for their products gives me high hopes they'll have free online for the most part. Plus their digital distribution may not be for current games, but that is the strength of Nintendo's REALLY REALLY MASSIVE back catalog of games going all the way back to the 80's. Seriously, being able to buy the old NES or SNES games that won't work due to old cartridges or fault devices is amazing, and it's something that neither competitor is capable of yet.

I'm looking forward to what the next couple years hold as WiiU enters the fray and Sony and Microsoft try more ideas from other publishers to keep in the business (not a shot at them, but that's literally been their strategy in the past couple years).

 

[Little Gray]

what does a slow-bro have to do with this couldn't have been like the sony waiting bar?

the funniest part of this is that trying to get rid of like Gamestop also gets rid of market-share, and in turn lowers overall sales of games, and systems.

captcha: wicked witch, interesting I didn't know that Sony was located in Oz

This is why the big three are not pushing full on digital distribution. They are intelligent enough to know that places like gamestop are extremely important for gaming. Without them the gaming industry crashes.

Sadly this is something that a lot of ignorant developers are pretend journalists dont understand.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Wait what? Does that mean that Sony didn't have Day 1 digital distribution?
Does that mean that Nintendo has better digital distribution than Sony? That Nintendo with the worst online support of the big 3?

EDIT: And just to add a bit more to the discussion.
Nintendo said that they won't force developer to sell their games digitally. They made the infrastructure and if the publisher wants, they can sell their games digitally from day 1.

 

[GenGenners]

I would have thought Borderlands 2 was the one that started it off, as that was Day 1 on PSN too.

Anyway, yeah, as far as I'm aware, the somewhat ridiculous prices are the publisher's fault more than Sony's. For an example, Activision put Prototype 1 up on there for slightly HIGHER than the full, brand new retail price.........almost 2 years after it was realeased. They do similar pricing with CoD games.
Again, publishers are dicks. Sony can only pull their price strings so far. If Sony wants it for cheaper, the publisher can just say no and take their business elsewhere.

 

[Sylveria]

Hey Sony, why should I buy digital, have no rights over my product, and have to spend hours downloading when you aren't even going to offer it at a lower price than the physical counterpart? You're asking me to buy an inferior product at the same price.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Look like they've missed the point of digital distribution...When you sell a game in a purely digital state, you save money on box art, manuals (heh), discs, etc. That should be reflected in the price. If they really want to entice people to buy floating bits of information they should price the products...oh I'm sorry, 'service' accordingly. Better than Nintendo though...didn't they want $45 for New Super Mario Bros 2 digital?

 

[windlenot]

I for one think it's great. I love that they're actually pulling through with it. No, I probably won't buy anything from it since I don't use PS3 that much anymore, but I'm glad they're offering day 1 digital distribution at the same price for new. I dunno where you guys are getting games, but for me, it's 60 bucks new. And the reason it'll sell is because convenience. People are lazy.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

what does a slow-bro have to do with this couldn't have been like the sony waiting bar?

I guess you aren't familiar with the Slowpoke (Slowbro was the evolved form)meme? Basically, you post a picture of Slowpoke with text referring to some event that happened a while ago (usually within a half year so that the ADD-addled internet can still get the joke). For example, sometime this December, there's probably gonna be a pic of the Slowpoke complaining about that bullshit call from last night's football game.

*Ahem* Anyway, the relevance is that he's making fun of how the console market is taking forever to catch-up with something that the PC market has been doing for at least half a decade.

Digital versions of games often come out long after their retail counterparts, and rather bizarrely, they cost just as much. Sony is at least trying to fix one of those problems.

Are people seriously still butt-hurt over this? Do we really need to take the time to explain that bandwidth isn't free? Here's a little news flash: You're paying for the convenience of not having to get in your car, drive to the store, buy a physical copy, and then drive all the way back home (not to mention the extra steps of having to install it, which digital downloads do automatically); as well as covering the bandwidth and power costs of having to keep those download servers running 24/7.

So... yeah. Do you want convenience, or physical product? Because at the end of the day you're still getting basically the same product at the same cost.

 

[Evil Smurf]

That is way too expensive, try $45 dollars max