Epic Games Boss Dreams of a Future Without Physical Retail

[Cognimancer]

Epic Games Boss Dreams of a Future Without Physical Retail

The digital future could be about more than just convenience.

Epic Games founder and CFO Tim Sweeney has a vision for the gaming world of tomorrow, and that vision doesn't include games sold in boxes. In an interview with Edge, the man behind the Unreal and Gears of War studio outlined the flaws he sees with the current gaming market, and how digitizing the products can help fix those problems.

"The market is inefficient now," Sweeney says. "You run ads on television so that people walk into a retail store, buy a piece of plastic and stick it into their digitally connected device. I think we have a lot of latitude - publishers and developers alike - to increase the efficiency of that. Once you have a game, it's available pervasively online, and your devices are all Internet-connected, do you really need to run television ads to get people to find it at the top of the App Store?"

Sweeney posits that, in addition to the added convenience for customers, digital sales could be a massive boon for many developers as well. "I'm looking forward to our digital future," he continued. "Development budgets are going to be the dominant cost in the industry, and [increasing] the efficiency of building games will directly improve profitability. As we move more sales of games out of retail, that creates a lot more flexibility for developers to make games at different scales and price them differently."

Notably, that kind of budgetary freedom could allow game designers to explore more degrees of scope and scale. With a new generation of gaming hardware on the horizon, developers could have a wide variety of ways to use this new power at their disposal.

"If you look at games that just encompass triple-A production values, there's a huge range of scales where games have been successful and profitable. You don't need $100 million to build a triple-A game. But if you want to spend that much, you can build one that looks absolutely insane."

As for the crew at Epic Games, Sweeney has mentioned that they're "more enthusiastic now than ever about the future of high-end platforms." Whatever they're currently putting together with Unreal Engine 4, it seems they're confident that you'll be impressed.

Source: Edge [http://www.edge-online.com/news/epic-on-the-industrys-giant-leap-to-next-gen/]

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[Full]

If physical sales were to go away, the price better get reduced by 10-20 bucks. 60 bucks is way too much to spend on a game in the first place, not to mention something that isn't physical. The only reason why we have 60 dollar games, I believe, is to mass produce physical copies. At least I think.

I for one do not necessarily look forward to that future. The only reason I play console games is to have physical boxes. He's got a point though, I presume developers will be able to have way more freedom.

 

[Abomination]

The risk and rewards of a non-physical system are intersting at best. I haven't purchased a physical copy of a game since Wrath of the Litch King and that was because I wanted to save on download bandwidth for when New Zealand internet charged like $100 a month for 10 gigs or something.

Now it's going for damn near 500 gigs for $100 so I'm all for digital distribution.

I believe prices should decrease because of this but we all know they won't for the same reason why games are so expensive in Australia and New Zealand - because they always have been.

So we'll have companies overcharging consumers with one hand and wiping tears out of their eyes due to piracy with the other.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

If that's the case why don't they make their games digital only? Fucking hypocrite.

Personally I buy most of my games through Steam anyway, but having the option to walk into a game shop and buy a physical copy, or buying a physical copy online is always nice.

Our Divided market at the moment is really amazing because there is something for everyone.

 

[VanQ]

There's also the bonus of never having to worry about needing to fit a game on a disc or some kind of storage media to ship. As long as people have the hard drive space, and let's face it, hard drive space is cheap as chips these days then there's no limit to the amount of content you could squeeze into the game.

And this is the biggest flaw of the Vita as well. In an age where Sony is pushing digital so hard, they have the idiocy to go and limit themselves to 4gb of space on all their games.

 

[Jfswift]

I don't mind really. Memory is cheap now and I love the idea of cloud backup systems, like what steam and psn use. The only thing I hope to see in the near future is a digital used game marketplace where I could sell my licensed copy online at say gamestop. As far as I know this doesn't exist yet.

 

[Tanis]

I've said this once and I'll say it again:
If I can't own a PHYSICAL COPY of a game, then I'm even LESS likely to buy it.

No demos.
No chance to replay the game after PSN/XBL/etc dies.
60USD for a DIGITAL COPY.
No used games.
Etc...etc...etc.

Gaming is a HOBBY.
If there comes a time where I'm unable to OWN my game, then I'm out.

Screw you Mr. Epic Games Boss.
Good for business does NOT mean good for consumers.
-Just ask Australian gamers.

 

[Bostur]

Will nobody think of the manuals. And the beautiful games that can be made with the help of long-winded hard bound tomes. And the cloth maps, and the short stories, and the galaxy charts, and the monster compendiums, and the keyboard overlays...

I predict a grim future of simplistic, photorealistic gaming.

Mechwarriors, Freelancers, Privateers, Ultimate Adventurers, fighter pilots and submarine captains unite!

/me hugs his MoM manual.

And now the unboxing of Ultima V:

 

[dragongit]

Well as magical as that sounds, someone still has to sell the hardware. What good are games when you need the console? And when then? Walmart and Target? Because we're already closing off enough jobs as it is, that we need to reduce the market even further.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

I've said this once and I'll say it again:
If I can't own a PHYSICAL COPY of a game, then I'm even LESS likely to buy it.

No demos.

Actually, digital only games still offer demos, such as trials on XBL or PSN.
But I agree with the rest of your statement. I like something concrete.

 

[Elvaril]

Will nobody think of the manuals. And the beautiful games that can be made with the help of long-winded hard bound tomes. And the cloth maps, and the short stories, and the galaxy charts, and the monster compendiums, and the keyboard overlays...

I predict a grim future of simplistic, photorealistic gaming.

Mechwarriors, Freelancers, Privateers, Ultimate Adventurers, fighter pilots and submarine captains unite!

/me hugs his MoM manual.

And now the unboxing of Ultima V:

This right here. I love getting physical copies because of all the goodies that come with them, plus I love having the case to put on my shelf. I was honestly disappointed when I opened Halo 4 and realized that there was no manual to go with the game.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

The reason Digital gaming will NEVER fully replace the physical is actually quite simple. (I'm posting this as a Canadian, so I AM from North America). Here is a (Debatable) list why:

#1: Bandwidth caps limit how many games a person may buy. Out in the country, we had a limit of 80GB a month ($20 for every extra 10GB if we went over our limit). And in town we have a limit of 200GB a month, but it stills gets used pretty fast by a family with 3 computers, a Xbox360, PS3, Netflix, and a seldom used Wii.

#2: Gaming machines simply don't have the space. My PS3 only holds 60GB of data (I still use mine that I bought in 2006), and games (Especially high-end graphic ones) take roughly 10-20GB per install on a PC. So I would only be able to have about 3 games on my console, and MAYBE enough space for my game saves.

#3: Constantly installing/un-installing games is a WASTE of time, and a hassle if you need the space to install a new game or play a old one.

#4: Even if new consoles come with Terabyte hardrives (Which would enable a good amount of games at once), it would increase the cost of consoles AND make things like trade-ins impossible.

#5: It would entirely remove the 'middle-man' such as private run game/hobby shops, and larger stores like EBgames (Which also removes the ability to trade-in games for credit towards a discount on new games.

#6: It creates a DEPENDANCE on the internet and owning a credit card. Which as we all know is stupid as at the age of 14 I never had a credit card, and I was the one buying all the games in my family. I saved my allowance for basically nothing but games. Plus there are times when you simply don't have internet access (especially if you grew up in a single-parent household that sometimes had to choose between Internet/TV vs Food/Shelter).

#7: It allows companies to create STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID security measures. Such as the HUGE failure that was Diablo III's "Always Online" policy. And adds the possibility of the companies adding 'Micro transactions' and advertising to their games like any other online game (Unlikely, but still a possibility due to the REALLY BAD decisions some companies make).



So say what you want, but physical games aren't going anywhere soon. Fully digital gaming would simply exclude a portion of the current market, and make other gamers unhappy. Plus it removes ANY social interaction you get from meeting people at game swaps (Usually a group of people or strangers get together and borrow or trade games while giving out some contact/gamer info for online/trade purposes), or at the stores themselves (Heck, I would've never met half my friends if it wasn't for game swapping or hanging out at the stores).

I CAN see a possibility of Digital gaming someday becoming the norm, but that will probably happen around the same time EVERYTHING gets hooked up to the internet.

 

[Milanezi]

I'd love that, with cloud storage, all the better

 

[Squilookle]

And I dream of a future where Gears of War is treated like the embarrasing mistake it always was, and Epic Games profusely apologises and goes back to twitch shooters like UT.

Guess we can't have everything.

 

[lapan]

Maybe if we finally get decent ownership laws on digital downloads i might be more interested in such a future. As long as DDL games are license-bound, you can be locked out of them by the publishers and there is no guarantee of keeping them forever i'll keep buying retail whereever possible.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

If physical sales were to go away, the price better get reduced by 10-20 bucks. 60 bucks is way too much to spend on a game in the first place, not to mention something that isn't physical. The only reason why we have 60 dollar games, I believe, is to mass produce physical copies. At least I think.

I for one do not necessarily look forward to that future. The only reason I play console games is to have physical boxes. He's got a point though, I presume developers will be able to have way more freedom.

The cost to mass produce games are virtually nothing. The price to print on a DVD costs around $0.20 and I can't imagine that blu-rays cost too much more. Hell, manufactures have been cutting costs in mass production for years by using less plastic in the game cases and even removing the game manuals, opting for an in-game version. No, the $60 price is an artificially inflated price by the publishers that is only justified by a few extremely costly AAA games.