Schappert: The Age Of The "Shiny Disc" Is Far From Over

[Greg Tito]

Schappert: The Age Of The "Shiny Disc" Is Far From Over

John Schappert believes that the digital model is great for extending game life but that it will be a long time before the age of "shiny disc" is over.

At this year's GDC, the chief operating officer of EA, John Schappert, sat down with Alex Pham from the Los Angeles Times to discuss the changing games industry. There's so much going on with social gaming, the Wii, and iPhone/iPad apps, but Schappert doesn't think that the end of the traditional model of selling discs to consumers is coming any time soon.

"The PS3 and the Xbox 360 are connected consoles," Schappert said. "It's almost akin to thinking of a PC without an internet connection; people don't even know what to do with a computer that doesn't have an internet connection these days. The same is very much true of the PS3 and the Xbox."

EA is tapping into that by offering more and more digital content with their "Project Ten Dollar." Schappert points out that although digital content is extending the life of games, they still needs to sell the game to their consumers.

"We have a more educated [customer] base than ever before. The days of folks walking into a store, picking up a game based on what the box looked like, turning it over and saying ok I'll buy this, I don't think that happens anymore. Instead folks are reading reviews, reading previews, they're watching videos up on YouTube, they're a very well educated bunch," Schappert said.

That means that gamers are being more selective with the games that they want to buy. Customers are also more cost-conscious because of the global economic downturn and are therefore buying less games as a whole.

Therefore: "If you're not making a title that cracks the top 30%, you're probably not making money. You're probably losing money," Schappert said.

EA's strategy to continue to profit from games in this landscape is to offer more digital content to extend the life of the company's hits. For that to work though, customers still have to buy that hard copy of a console title.

"Online is great, it extends the consumers experience, but it all starts with the shiny disc," said Schappert.


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[rembrandtqeinstein]

If you are stuck in a hellhole where your only option is dialup or some wretched dsl connection or if you are on a high speed but metered connection then disks have some value. But as broadband gets more ubiquitous it becomes harder and harder to justify the trip to the store.

If game companies want to keep boxed games relevant they need to add value outside of a bunch of bits on a piece of plastic. Think back to the olden days of cloth maps, bound, letter sized manuals with real art, not just screenshots, tshirts, poster and tchotchkes. In all the boxes not just suckers collectors editions that cost twice as much as the game by itself.

Check this out as an example of what should come in a game box:

[link]http://cgi.ebay.com/Ultima-V-Warriors-of-Destiny-PC-Big-Box-Coin-Cloth-Map_W0QQitemZ390159871342QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Vintage_Video_Games?hash=item5ad7572d6e[/link]

 

[Jeronus]

I remember the old days when the only way to figure out which game to get was to look at the box art and hope the game was half as cool. Now we have the internet with all its previews, reviews, and demos. The thought of buying a game with out a good review or playable demo has become a considerable turnoff.

 

[General Vagueness]

*they still need to
What's with all the spelling and grammar errors in articles lately? You can call me pedantic but the Escapist calls itself a magazine so I'll hold it to the same standard as any publication.

 

[MR T3D]

If you are stuck in a hellhole where your only option is dialup or some wretched dsl connection or if you are on a high speed but metered connection then disks have some value. But as broadband gets more ubiquitous it becomes harder and harder to justify the trip to the store.

If game companies want to keep boxed games relevant they need to add value outside of a bunch of bits on a piece of plastic. Think back to the olden days of cloth maps, bound, letter sized manuals with real art, not just screenshots, tshirts, poster and tchotchkes. In all the boxes not just suckers collectors editions that cost twice as much as the game by itself.

to go outside and meet like-minded indviduals?
having a physical copy instead of an online licence is reason enough to keep discs?
TO ACTUAL OWN THE GAME.
those are reasons enough.

 

[Therumancer]

Simply put I think games should exist on discs and those discs should run without requiring anything but the disc and a computer (none of this internet verification crud).

I can give online downloads points for being conveinent to an extent, but you become dependant on the eternal existance of those providers (and frankly if they go bankrupt finding a way to ensure everyone gets all the games and can run them without the service is going to hardly be top on their mind). Not to mention it requires always having access to the internet, and other issues.

Lower prices could be a powerful advantage for going totally digital, but really the game industry is not trustworthy. They have shown quite clearly that all the money they save by getting rid of physical media is money they want to stuff into their own pockets. Even if they did suddenly all lower their prices (rather than just seeing it with say Steam sales) right now the gaming industry has shown itself to be so greedy that anyone with half a brain would be suspicious that they would pull a "Wal Mart" and simply jack the prices back up when the competition of physical media was gone.

Otherwise, I also miss it when games used to come packed with goodies besides the game itself without having to pay a ton of extra money for a special edition.

 

[lacktheknack]

It all starts with the shiny disc... or Steam.

Sorry.

 

[Salonista]

Getting burnt from stupid DRM implementations is a huge reason why I *have* to research games before I buy. I used to buy whatever struck my fancy back in the day. Y'know, like four, five years ago?

I am glad to hear someone say physical media will be around for a while. Guess it's the ownership thing. But I won't buy any more if it won't run right out of the box, not even a one-time authorization. I haz drawn my line.

 

[Nurb]

yea, I'm glad to hear this too. I like to have game libraries that dont disappear when a company does.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

I personally think they need to get away from this archaic disc technology. What is this, the 90's?

USB drives are getting larger and larger and smaller ins physical size every year.
I really hope in the next console generation we start seeing games, movies, music, etc, on read only drives like that. Then we don't have to worry about all this disc scratching nonsense.
People could also download games on demand onto these drives so they don't have to worry about their hardrives crapping out or what not.

But I'm sure the next fad will be "Red Ray Special Ultra High Definition Discs" or something.

 

[theultimateend]

I'll stop buying games when they become digital only.

I've already seen what happens when other people have control of my property.

I don't want anything I buy vanishing legally from my ownership.

 

[AceDiamond]

If you are stuck in a hellhole where your only option is dialup or some wretched dsl connection or if you are on a high speed but metered connection then disks have some value. But as broadband gets more ubiquitous it becomes harder and harder to justify the trip to the store.

If game companies want to keep boxed games relevant they need to add value outside of a bunch of bits on a piece of plastic. Think back to the olden days of cloth maps, bound, letter sized manuals with real art, not just screenshots, tshirts, poster and tchotchkes. In all the boxes not just suckers collectors editions that cost twice as much as the game by itself.

to go outside and meet like-minded indviduals?
having a physical copy instead of an online licence is reason enough to keep discs?
TO ACTUAL OWN THE GAME.
those are reasons enough.

Actually you just own a license on a disc. Think about it.

 

[Cousin_IT]

I like discs, & since it's going to be a loooong time before highspeed unlimited broadband becomes ubiquitous enough, & the consumer base "educated" enough to take advantage of that, discs should be around for some time yet as he says.

 

[Gladion]

snip

You could do a lot of shit with the data on a small USB-drive you can download extras onto.

But I'm sure the next fad will be "Red Ray Special Ultra High Definition Discs" or something.

aka the HD-DVD

Nah, Sony paid a lot of money to get blu-ray the next big medium and they won't allow any other competition (together with the other inventors) any time soon.

 

[mrx19869]

"We have a more educated [customer] base than ever before. The days of folks walking into a store, picking up a game based on what the box looked like, turning it over and saying ok I'll buy this, I don't think that happens anymore. Instead folks are reading reviews, reading previews, they're watching videos up on YouTube, they're a very well educated bunch," Schappert said.

I remember the days, well nights or whatever.. going into blockbuster to rent a ps2 game. making my choice with my brother, only looking at the back cover of the game. It was fun you never knew if your were gonna get a goodie or something else..

 

[Jared]

"We have a more educated [customer] base than ever before. The days of folks walking into a store, picking up a game based on what the box looked like, turning it over and saying ok I'll buy this, I don't think that happens anymore. Instead folks are reading reviews, reading previews, they're watching videos up on YouTube, they're a very well educated bunch," Schappert said.

I remember the days, well nights or whatever.. going into blockbuster to rent a ps2 game. making my choice with my brother, only looking at the back cover of the game. It was fun you never knew if your were gonna get a goodie or something else..

Same here...I never used to read reviews, and nor did I put alot of faith in what was said around me. These days though I will be checking trailers, gameplay footage on youtube, read various reviews. Buying games as changed alot

 

[Sixties Spidey]

I am absolutely surprised that this guy works at EA. He makes sense, and seems to know his shit.

Discs aren't going anywhere anytime soon because gamers in general tend to be very fond of physical media. We like to hold purchases in our hands, and we love the hardcopy backup. Steam is but a fad, and Ubisoft is (unintentionally) driving home the realization that "online" is not always reliable. Add to that, the inability to package decent "extras" with a digital copy, you lose the avid collectors if you stop selling box-retail. No, CD and DVD will eventually fade, and some other physical media will replace it, but digital will never be 100% of the market. I'd even hazard to say that it would never get as high as 50%.

$10 says the next media is solid-state USB drives where the game is a pre-installed run-from-the-disc contraption. Plug-n-play gaming, all the convenience of consoles, none of the limitations.

Pretty much this. But the real challenge of your USB drive ownership idea is having to secure the actual game from being pirated.