Assassin's Creed Creator Says Nobody Cares About Discs Anymore

[sirjeffofshort]

I feel like the implication in his statement is that he expects the industry to go completely digital, and maintain its current pricing structure, therein benefiting us in absolutely no way, but passing on the low overhead of digital distribution to the people behind the game... which is a really selfish way to think about it.

I also seem to notice a continuing trend of developers to be like "The industry is screwed, and if it wants to un-screw itself it needs to be doing exactly what we are doing on our games, because we are right. So there."

 

[CardinalPiggles]

So what he's saying is that publishers will be pocketing the cash saved from digital sales rather than the consumer seeing those savings come back to them?

Pretty much what I expected. We've been told countless times that games could be cheaper for us when they're sold digitally, but we've seen no evidence of this. I'm glad I never trusted the industry in this regard.

 

[ninjaRiv]

I hate the fact that he, and people like him, try to speak for everybody like this. "Hey, this isn't opinion, it's fact!" It's BS. I love discs. There's nothing like having a physical copy of a game. I'm still a bit pissed that people stopped putting thought into making interesting manuals. He's said this kinda stupid thing, as if his opinion is fact, and now people are proving him wrong. So, at least that's something, right?

 

[Baresark]

He is derping hard on this one. No one is fighting the digital future moron... well, most gamers aren't. They are fighting M$ horrible implementation of it and how it was used as a way to prohibit gamers instead of offering more choices like it does on the PC. Also, you are one of those morons who thinks that the people who pay the money are wrong and the people who take the money are right. It wouldn't be so bad if he didn't completely misconstrue the entire issue in reference to the XBox One.

Also, he is off base. The Triple A industry isn't struggling because there are game discs, they are struggling because they invest so much money that it's just wasteful, and they need to sell ridiculous numbers to break even.

 

[Abomination]

He's coming off as a total douche. There's a message he's trying to deliver but failing miserably.

Yes, discs are on the way out. But that doesn't mean that DRM needs to be on the way in.

I'm fine with requiring internet registration to install a game or something but requiring constant online connection to play is a stupid idea. My ability to play a game should never be dictated by the performance of a third party's service.

 

[Weaver]

My favourite part is when he said we all like shooters and space marines, then poised assassin's creed as some kind of shining beacon of hope for the industry. The AC series is just boring and samey to me.

You can put it in the Renaissance all you want, but when you make it a hilarious gong show where you're meeting like every fucking famous person from the era, your game feels more like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure than anything with a "cultural point of view".

 

[loc978]

This is just pathetic... some of these guys in the industry obviously spend too much time at the office with access to a giant backbone connection and $3000 worth of brand new hardware to use it with.

Discs still matter because the read speed of a DVD-ROM from 10 years ago still kicks the ever-loving shit out of a home internet connection's throughput. Until every single home in every first-world nation has access to the kind of speeds this douche gets at the office, the future is still pretty far off. If my game installation is 40GB, I'd rather copy if off of 10ish DVDs or a dual-layer blu-ray disc than let it download overnight.

 

[-Ezio-]

I like discs, they don't take 20 hours to download.

Oh, come on. The least you could do would be to go along with the joke. ^^;

As an assassin, I imagine he takes his individual right to own games quite seriously.

damn right. think about it. the camera, the online check in. how was that not a templar idea?

I'm on to you Adam orth

 

[William Ossiss]

I would like to no longer care. With internet not at it's best yet, though, I do care. Although Xbox's original idea of using game discs to install onto the hard drive was awesome, they wouldn't be able to do so if they made trading games possible. I'd rather be able to trade the games than install them and make the discs useless. If I can keep said disc but stash it away while not having to use it for startup and still be able to trade it in at a later date... Just allow me to check in that I still have the disc monthly (as in have me insert the disc to verify I still own it; also making this completely optional) and I'd be set...

I'd love to do away with game discs. I just don't see the point of it yet.

 

[San Martin]

My favourite part is when he said we all like shooters and space marines, then poised assassin's creed as some kind of shining beacon of hope for the industry. The AC series is just boring and samey to me.

You can put it in the Renaissance all you want, but when you make it a hilarious gong show where you're meeting like every fucking famous person from the era, your game feels more like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure than anything with a "cultural point of view".

Absolutely agree. I did quite enjoy Assassin's Creed 2, and the setting was nice, but just because you occasionally chat with or run an errand for a Medici, a Vespucci, a Da Vinci or a Maquiavelli doesn't mean the game is a profound cultural experience, and certainly doesn't make it "about" the Italian Renaissance. Morever, in Assassin's Creed 1, beyond the fact that Altair is from a Muslim family, in what way is the Islamic faith an important part of the game?

OT: I kinda get where the guy's coming from. There probably will come a time when physical copies are no longer necessary. However, as other people have pointed out, that time is not today and this is not a change that companies should be trying to force on the consumer.

 

[Itchi_da_killa]

Many of these developers are starting to wear their souls on their face. I Like owning a hard copy of my own purchase thank you.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

So here's a weird kind of really stupid thing I did guys. I bought Sonic Generations last Feb off of Xbox live just because well I really wanted it and couldn't find a physical copy of it anywhere except for walmart and for once it was actually cheaper on Xbox live. So I bought it, but later on in march I then found it for 19 bucks at Future Shack(joke) and guess what, I bought it. Stupid yes but hey I like to own physical copies of my games if I can!

Damn, and I liked this guy but boy does he ever sound exactly like the suits at Ubi and EA.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I care, I have a bandwidth limit. I've only just got into the Assassins Creed Games, currently playing the first. I know, I'm late to the game, but I've been playing other things. I just bought the first two for $20 NZ total, on disc for my PC. I do that when I can because that way it doesn't chew through mine and my flat mates internet, people like this seem to live in this world where everyone has unlimited net, or money, one of the two it seems.

 

[Itchi_da_killa]

My favourite part is when he said we all like shooters and space marines, then poised assassin's creed as some kind of shining beacon of hope for the industry. The AC series is just boring and samey to me.

You can put it in the Renaissance all you want, but when you make it a hilarious gong show where you're meeting like every fucking famous person from the era, your game feels more like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure than anything with a "cultural point of view".

Absolutely agree. I did quite enjoy Assassin's Creed 2, and the setting was nice, but just because you occasionally chat with or run an errand for a Medici, a Vespucci, a Da Vinci or a Maquiavelli doesn't mean the game is a profound cultural experience, and certainly doesn't make it "about" the Italian Renaissance. Morever, in Assassin's Creed 1, beyond the fact that Altair is from a Muslim family, in what way is the Islamic faith an important part of the game?

OT: I kinda get where the guy's coming from. There probably will come a time when physical copies are no longer necessary. However, as other people have pointed out, that time is not today and this is not a change that companies should be trying to force on the consumer.

I stopped at part two mainly because they were not challenging enough. I pretty much feel like AC is that friend that won't leave your house but thinks you need his company.

 

[Black Reaper]

How can developers say things like this?, do they truly believe all the crap they say?, are they so absorbed in their own ideals that they cannot see beyond them?

This is like parents who want to give kids the life they couldn't have, even if the kids don't want that shit, even if the parent is making his own wishes coming true in a way, they are(most likely) fucking up the kid in the process

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Well he's plain wrong and fuck him.

I care about discs, because discs are a sign that a game can be reliably resold, given away, played offline, and accessed at any time. Of course this isn't always the case, but generally that's what it means to have a game on a disc. They're also just nice to have and look at. It's no secret that we've been buying licenses and not actual games for years by now, but that doesn't mean we have to hand our rights over on a silver platter because it's inevitable. There will be someone supplying disc-based games as long as there are a large market for them, so all we need to do is keep disc-based games profitable by buying them and not digital copies for the same price. Although if you'd rather condone Steam's approach of you giving up your rights for essentially buying the thing for 5 dollars, that's fine too.

I find it funny when people use the argument that games now are cheaper through inflation than they ever have been. Yes, but you can do much less with them and you're going to be marketed to afterwards in most cases.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

i care.

Then obviously you and, I are nobodies.

---

Although now that I look deep, down into my non-existent heart (since I am a nobody after-all), I do see that I would really rather pay full price for an invisible cloud of zero's and one's. That's much better than having a physical thing that I can display with other physical things. I like giving away money and having nothing to show for it but I had to look deep within myself to truly see that.

 

[Mikeyfell]

Tell him he's wrong!!!

I would buy a disk even if the digital download cost less

 

[Abomination]

I care, I have a bandwidth limit. I've only just got into the Assassins Creed Games, currently playing the first. I know, I'm late to the game, but I've been playing other things. I just bought the first two for $20 NZ total, on disc for my PC. I do that when I can because that way it doesn't chew through mine and my flat mates internet, people like this seem to live in this world where everyone has unlimited net, or money, one of the two it seems.

See, I recently moved and had to downgrade to a 150 gig/month plan (myself and my girlfriend spend a lot of time on the internet) and some games take 11 gigs+. That's nearly 10% of my monthly limit on a game.

I'm probably going to upgrade again to the 500 gig limit as my finances have improved and this problem won't concern me as much but still... I won't be everyone.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Hrm. I could simply say you're wrong, because he completely is. Always online has never appealed to me, and neither has digital games. (Yes, they're convenient, however, doesn't mean I prefer it.) Though I suppose if a game is purely digital it's size wouldn't really have a limit, right?