Analyst Predicts GTA V Will Be Digital Only

[thethingthatlurks]

Having for the first time in my life experienced what being without reliable internet is like (first world problem, I know...), I would not want the game to be download only. I certainly don't mind having the option of downloading it, but having a disc is nice for all those times when you are limited to 1gb per day. Oh, speaking of not having reliable interwebs, R*, please don't try this whole social club bullshit again. Some of us just want to play in peace. kthx

 

[Rad Party God]

It's been a long while since the last time I ever purchased something on retail.

Digital all the way, baby.

 

[magnuslion]

No disc= no purchase. sorry Rockstar, I am not buying an imaginary or theoretical product.

 

[Macrobstar]

No disc= no purchase. sorry Rockstar, I am not buying an imaginary or theoretical product.

Agreed, I think DD will never completely take over, that would make the industry far to foreboding for newcomers and completely alienate casuals

 

[zelda2fanboy]

No way in hell. LA Noire took three discs on Xbox 360. Three. That's 19 gigs of hard drives space. Let's say it's not going to be that big, but only equivalent to GTA 4. That's about 6.6 gigs. At a certain point, the amount of bandwidth required for a game of that size, negates the savings of not releasing a disc. Either this guy really doesn't know what he's talking about, or someone fed him false info as a joke.

 

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

I'm gonna come out and say it. This guy is a fucking dub ass, and IF it is digital only, I'll eat my left nut.

 

[Raven's Nest]

200kb/s download speed

Wow...that's...wow. I'm sorry, man.

OT: Not everyone has internet, or some people (like Jack, here) have shitty connections. This is a bad move on Rockstar's part. Why not offer it as a download on XBL and PSN, while still making retail versions? The cost for disks and boxes can't be THAT high, can it? Hell, they're planning on having a box with a tiny slip of paper for a download code. That's just unnecessary spending, in my opinion.

You think that's bad, I've got a whopping 0.5 megabit connection giving me an record breaking 50kb/s download speed... Talk about living in the fucking stone age. Between that and having about 700mb of space on the 360 HDD, I'd be pretty annoyed with rockstar or anyone who ever tried to pull this...

 

[liveslowdiefast]

I think we all know this isn't going to happen. I mean what would be the point, risking millions of sales to save the cost of producing a DVD disk ( which is what 30 cents per copy?) or blu ray ($1.35 roughly). so no that ain't happening.

 

[Qitz]

That would be interesting to see.

It can easily be done with PC copies but with Xbox / PS3 it may be a bit of a hassle to try and do that.

Would be an interesting experiment. Maybe they're trying to get into Cloud Gaming?

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

Where will the disc be in my new Collector's Edition GTAV!?!


Also....Im not sure about it yet....We shall see...tomorrow!

 

[TheLastSamurai14]

200kb/s download speed

Wow...that's...wow. I'm sorry, man.

OT: Not everyone has internet, or some people (like Jack, here) have shitty connections. This is a bad move on Rockstar's part. Why not offer it as a download on XBL and PSN, while still making retail versions? The cost for disks and boxes can't be THAT high, can it? Hell, they're planning on having a box with a tiny slip of paper for a download code. That's just unnecessary spending, in my opinion.

You think that's bad, I've got a whopping 0.5 megabit connection giving me an record breaking 50kb/s download speed... Talk about living in the fucking stone age. Between that and having about 700mb of space on the 360 HDD, I'd be pretty annoyed with rockstar or anyone who ever tried to pull this...

Just a thought that a friend of mine has: How much do you even have to pay with that kind of speed?

 

[putowtin]

no disk, no purchase.

If I'm paying 50 quid for a day of release I want a disk!

 

[Wonderland]

Won't this hurt the game rental industry?

 

[Stormz]

And when this future happens, and I can't play games without a constant internet connection. I'll stop gaming. I'm not buying an empty box and a game I don't own.

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

OT: As if, as mentioned above, consoles needs way more built in storage then when you buy the console. And games get bigger, so won't be enough with a 20GB harddrive.

20GB harddrive...

20GB harddrive...

The cheapest PS3s come with 60GB inbuilt hard drives. Either you're deliberately exaggerating, or really need to get with the times. I still agree with your sentiment though, console hard-drives aren't big enough to cope with full-game downloads, selling digitally only would seriously harm sales.

 

[Andy Chalk]

The zing about Pachter was made entirely because it's always Pachter. It's nice to throw somebody else under the bus for once.

Speaking of The Man, he made a very good point on Twitter [http://twitter.com/#!/michaelpachter/status/131453173532602368] just now: 40 percent of Xbox 360s sold have a 20GB hard drive or smaller. "ZERO probability" of it happening, he said.

 

[Aprilgold]

Won't matter, you'll just be playing REALISTIC CRIME SIMULATOR 37! Unless they head back to their roots, this will just be a drama game.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

I'd be somewhat surprised if it happened now, but I very much doubt this isn't in store for the fairly near future.

 

[HardkorSB]

Analyst Predicts GTA V Will Be Digital Only

A research and consultancy firm predicts that the boxed retail version of Grand Theft Auto V will not include a disc.

Surprise! It's not Michael Pachter! No, this one comes from Newzoo [http://www.newzoo.com/ENG/1494-About_Newzoo.html], "an international full service market research and consulting firm completely focused on the games industry," and it's so out-of-left-field that even Mr. Pach Attack himself probably wouldn't go near it.

"There are a lot of reasons why publishers are pushing towards digital distribution of triple-A games. Speaking out loud might harm the relationship with retail partners, but the benefits have become too large to remain silent about the desire to go completely digital," Newzoo CEO Peter Warman said in a recent report on DLC. "The ultimate objective being to launch games faster, create continuous revenues on a title and simply to make more money. Will retail disappear from the picture? Of course not. Retail will always remain an important channel to promote and distribute games. Retail has a strong hand to play when it comes to eyeballs and... boxes make a nice gift."

And then he gets to the interesting bit. "Boxed games will not disappear, but what is in the box will," he continued. "That is why the boxed GTA V [http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Theft-Auto-V-Playstation-3/dp/B0050SXKU4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320168002&sr=8-1] version will contain a collectible piece of merchandise and a download code. No disc."

No disc? That's a bold prediction. I'm not an expert [or even an analyst] but I think it's a bit premature; as hard as it is for some people to believe, a significant portion of the population still lives in areas where high-volume digital distribution is impractical at best. It's one thing to activate a game online or connection to a DRM server, but another thing entirely to download a multi-gigabyte game in its entirety over a connection that may be throttled, capped or just plain crappy.

Those most reliant on retail channels for their games, in other words, tend to be the same people who can't just take home a code and download them, while most of those who can will just order them from home. That leaves a very narrow slice of gamers who are dedicated enough to their title of choice to cruise to the mall and lay down their money for some extra room-cluttering junk, just so they can turn around and drive home to actually get their game. Maybe someday, for some titles, but today? I just don't see it happening.

Source: IndustryGamers [http://www.industrygamers.com/news/gta-v-to-launch-as-digital-only-release/]


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Analyst, eh? Isn't that someone who takes it up the ass?
I predict that from next year, all food will be sold as cream because who, in this day and age, would want to do all that chewing?

 

[Petromir]

It depends on your location then. Here in the US, Steam has sales literally, every week. The entire damn catalog goes on sale during the holidays, no joke.

I can't say the prices for other countries (obviously), but a brand new game sells (in the US) for the same price as a retail one does. Every time, without question.

We have steam sales over here in England, and game prices are often insanely cheap. The sales are probably the only reason that I own steam. But day of release prices are usually the same, or a little higher.

Steam prices (and most DD service I beleive, including e-books) are set by the publisher. Most major reltailers essential hold the DD industry to ransom by refusing to stock a product or in many gaming cases cases the publishers entire retail range if the DD copy is cheaper at launch.

A range of competive online DD stores and the PC and consoles going DD exsclusive would likely result in a noticiable price drop for all systems, but only with viable competiton.