Assassin's Creed Creator Says Nobody Cares About Discs Anymore

[Grabehn]

As a PC Gamer, I really don't care about discs.

Notably, as a PC Gamer, I really don't care about Ubisoft either considering how much they don't care about me.

It's a bit of mutual apathy. It's hard to appeal to the population that doesn't mind digital while simultaneously alienating them.

Mostly thi. While I do like game cases, having basically a mural wof those has always been really awesome imo, but as it is now, when game discs are basically an "already downloaded" Steam backup, there's not much to it.

Even less so when you think that over here PC game are always 60 bucks, no matter how old they are.

 

[jibjab963]

Well then call me "Nobody" for the rest of my life. Not having a disk can be a major turn off for me.

 

[2HF]

I care, so that statement is false and his opinions on the matter become irrelevant to me.

Now, that being sad, I'm not all opposed to the digital model. I just bought Portal 2 digitally on my PS3. Know why? Because I got it for right about $10 whereas the physical copy would have cost me over $30 at Gamestop. I also purchased Flower, Final Fantasy 7 and 8, Jak & Daxter, Psychonauts, and a variety of others. I also recently purchased the Thief trilogy from GOG. All at tremendous deals.

Purchasing digital for the same price as physical on consoles is a stupid decision. I don't care if you never sell your games because of this or that illogical reason. The upsides are far outweighed by the downsides of digital purchases at the same price as physical.

I can buy a brand new game at Gamestop for $60, if it's a game in high demand I can easily get $30 back for it at that same retailer. For a little bit of effort I can easily get $40 on craigslist or ebay. That means I got the full experience for anywhere from $20-$30.

I can buy the same game used from Gamestop with absolutely no loss of quality for $50 and get the same return I mentioned above meaning I can have the full experience for $10-$20.

I can go buy a shitty game for $20, play it for 2 days before I realize I hate it, and return it for the full price within 7 days at Gamestop. Try that shit with digital.

So to recap, I'm not opposed to digital if you make it worth my money. I'm willing to give up my right to sell my property if I can get that property at a price that makes sense. And yes, when I buy a game it becomes my property. Not the IP of course, but the physical disc itself which contains IP. If I buy a postcard with The Mona Lisa on it I own that card and do whatever I want with it. I don't own The Mona Lisa but I can still sell that card. Same logic applies to games.

 

[GAunderrated]

I think he got it backwards. I care about discs and I don't give two shits about how profitable the AAA market is.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I buy games and music digitally but movies on DVD. Why? Because I can rip and convert them.

 

[Strazdas]

i dont buy discs anymore, havent bought a disc in i dont know 4 years. however i do backup almost all my digital buys on discs. yes im paranoid and a bad example.

He is right that digital is the future, however as with all antequated traditions, peoplel iek to clinge on them, myself included, and it will take a change of a few generations to completely root it out.

I buy games and music digitally but movies on DVD. Why? Because I can rip and convert them.

you can rip digital movies too.

 

[sturryz]

It's like 2/3rds of the industry are trying to piss us off. The hits just keeping coming from these idiots.

 

[Sarge034]

"Yeah, games come on disc, and I get it guys, you were really pissed off," he said. "But, deep down, nobody cares about not having CDs any more...

Well, it's official guys... I'm nobody. And, wait a sec. If people are mad, doesn't that mean they care enough to GET mad?

...The future is digital, and there's nothing you can do about it."

So he is firmly in the "consumers have no rights" camp? Well, fuck you too Patrice Desilets. I guess the Xbone getting it's ass handed to it with 10-1 preorder figures and MS doing a 180 to please the dirty, dirty peasants know as consumers is us not doing anything about it...

 

[Callate]

"Nothing you can do about it?"

...Has he been paying any attention at all the last few weeks?

I also think the voices behind the "but we could make it work if you'd all just go digital" cry need to back that nonsense up with something other that petulance and ill-founded conjecture.

You're going to make AAA profitable again? By selling games with more restrictions, more microtransactions, more DLC, but sans boxes, disks, manuals, and the assurance that they can be played without the oversight of a server that requires frequent and costly maintenance, and at the same damn price you were charging for the version we could actually sell back on an open market?

Pretend I believe you. Pretend that everyone bowing down to whatever crap the publishers want to inflict on their long-suffering customer base is inevitable.

How is that going to stop the cost of developing for ever-more powerful hardware from spiraling out of control? How is that not only going to stop piracy, but turn all those pirates into the customers your attorneys have been implying were just a reach away with the ever-loving fiction of "lost sales"? How is that going to slow down the continued fragmentation of your market? How is it going to bring in new customers as the face of your industry grows ever more demanding and unfriendly to skeptics?

And if digital isn't the panacea of AAA, but merely a stopgap measure propping up the tottering giant- why should we be expected to accept the fiction that all the disadvantages the marketers are trying to shove down our throats in this version are acceptable, when the losses may be written into EULAs and TOSs for decades after the oh-so-precious AAA games industry has crumbled into dust?

The future may be digital- but it's even more likely that the future of games lies in teams of under twenty people who make tight experiences that can be downloaded in under an hour and sell their games for a price that makes people willing to take a risk.

That is not the AAA industry we see today. You can grow wings and turn into birds, ye dinosaurs, or you can sink into the tar pits. Just don't expect us to hold you up while you fumble.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

The future will be determined when the majority agree in favor of one way or another, and as the tally shows, the people are not ready to "go digital."

So you can cram it, Desilets.

Tell that to steam's upwards of 50 million users and gigantic revenue.

But who cares about facts huh? Something that was 5 times bigger than WOW in its hayday doesn't matter huh? Or anything roughly the size of XBL and PSN?

Before you say things like that, watch the Jimquisition video on why Steam and the Xbone are incomparable.

 

[rob_simple]

Tell you what, shitbrick, when you can make digital gaming as efficient and reliable as downloading songs to my iPod, then maybe I'll believe discs are surplus to our needs.

As it stands, next gen games are going to be about 50GB in size, there is no way on gods Earth most peoples' current internet set-up is going to be able to handle that in a swift manner, and if PS3 installs are anything to go by, I'm not crazy about the idea of waiting half an hour while my game installs and updates to it's digital throne.

Digital is the future, but it's certainly not the present.

 

[lunam-kardas]

I see he's going with the "If I say it enough times, it will have to come true" gambit.

Personally, I like having real physical disks so I don't have to store everything on my console or computer.

 

[Metalrocks]

i like to have a real disc because my amount is limited and not really fast. yes, i did buy many games digitally as long it was like over 15gb or so, but physical discs are still the best when they come with CE.

 

[SpAc3man]

This man speaks the truth. Embrace the future. Scrap the physical media.

What is the point of it anyway? You use it once and put it away and never use it again. Downloading is more convenient.

 

[Hazy]

The future will be determined when the majority agree in favor of one way or another, and as the tally shows, the people are not ready to "go digital."

So you can cram it, Desilets.

Tell that to steam's upwards of 50 million users and gigantic revenue.

But who cares about facts huh? Something that was 5 times bigger than WOW in its hayday doesn't matter huh? Or anything roughly the size of XBL and PSN?

I don't really like Jim Sterling, but he has a pretty good piece on w-

The future will be determined when the majority agree in favor of one way or another, and as the tally shows, the people are not ready to "go digital."

So you can cram it, Desilets.

Tell that to steam's upwards of 50 million users and gigantic revenue.

But who cares about facts huh? Something that was 5 times bigger than WOW in its hayday doesn't matter huh? Or anything roughly the size of XBL and PSN?

Before you say things like that, watch the Jimquisition video on why Steam and the Xbone are incomparable.

Yeah, what he said.

 

[lunavixen]

If i were a dedicated PC gamer, discs for my games wouldn't be as important, but seeing as consoles are my primary source of entertainment for games, I love having discs for them, yeah they take up a heap of room, but i can sit back and look at the collection of games that i've had growing for 16 years now and say "look at that!"

Also, Tiberius is right, digital is inevitable, but we don't have the proper infrastructure to keep it going permanently yet on a consistant scale everywhere.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

It definitely seems the wrong way around for someone from the industry to be telling the consumer what people care about. I agree that it's probably inevitable (and if I only played PC games I wouldn't mind so much), but not yet. Besides, I'm the kinda guy that has all his gig tickets blu-tacked to his wall, I like collecting stuff. I'm also worried that switching entirely to digital distribution is a very good way to take more rights away from the consumer, that's one of the very few reasons that would make me entirely abandon console gaming as I have slightly more faith in Steam.

 

[Teoes]

That looks to me like another statement that could've come across infinitely better if it weren't delivered in a dismissive manner that said "Deal with it.".

I'm a PC gamer, for the most part - I haven't bought a physical PC game in a few years and much prefer the way it is for me now with Steam, GOG and Humble Bundles. But I also play my 3DS and would much rather have the physical copies than buy them through the eShop (why the fuck are games there more expensive than their brick & mortar physical counterparts?!).

Regardless, people will be more inclined to go all-digital when the industry and their net connections can keep up, although obviously there'll always be people bucking that trend and good for them! Until then, sling your hook. Why shouldn't we have the choice?

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

I like it when industry insiders tell me how to feel. There's a comfort in being patronized.

 

[Mr. Q]

Wow! Someone in the games industry that's an arrogant prick AND a fucking moron to boot. Wonder if he and CliffyB tweet one another?

Patrice, you might be right about digital being the future. However, there is a major flaw in your logic... WE'RE NOT FUCKING THERE YET!!

Much like cloud computing and every home on planet Earth having high speed Internet, we still have a long way to go before these goals can be fully realized. Technology has a habit of failing, especially when it is rushed to meet a future that isn't ready for it. Learn some patience, Patrice, and try not to sound like a pompous asshole, OK?