GameStop Wants to End Digital Bundles in Its Stores

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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AgentCooper said:
I have everything connected to what is amounts to a switch system. So turning on a certain console is tons easier and less hassle. It also helps mitigate a fire risk. That and I go to swamp meets to trade game with fellow collectors. I live in a rural area that is lucky to get even a 4mb download. I purchased the PC version of Dark Soul II: Collectors Edition and it came with a metal case with a steam voucher inside. That was so disappointing to me.

I don't see the cds out of rotation to any degree just yet. We are still seeing countries with better internet than the United States favor cds over digital. I assume this has to do with the countries laws or rather attitude to it. I do think digital music gives a outlet for smaller bands to gain traction in the music market. All I ask for is a choice and its understandable that smaller bands can't put out some kind of cd package. I wish some bands had the marketing team that did Slayer's new album recently.
Well thats additional specialized equipment added onto it. Also can you have them all on at the same time? because thats what basically my PC does when it comes to retro gaming. it can play them all, many at once because the retro games power requirements are so low i could run hundreds at once (of course no way to play hundreds at once obviously so thats pointless).

Is that 4MB or 4mb. the difference is eight-fold. Regardless however that is still very much downloadable speeds. its not like you download 30 GB GTA5[footnote]GTA5 used as example due to it being one of the largest games around. most games actually download within 10 gb[/footnote] daily.

I think that has more to do with licensing than attitudes. Music indistry just like movie industry but to a bit lower degree now suffers from region locking. when digital version isnt available in your country that leaves two options, CDs or piracy. its funny how digital download expansion is the reason we see piracy decline for the first time in history. its almost as if people want things digital and they are going to chose digital over legal.

Choice is fine and all, but we are talking about trends, not personal preferences here. like i said before, me hating streaming does not stop it from gobbling up the market.

Uhuru N said:
it's perfectly possible to release a digital only game with no publisher involved.
CD Projekt Red did this and many smaller devs can do the same, but with the Disc release CDPR had to use a Publisher as a distributor, even though no actual "publisher" was involved in making the game at all.
Not entirely true. CD Project had both digital publishers (GOG, Amazon, Steam) and physical publishers. They did their own publishing for GoG and for eastern europe (since they basically started as physical publisher, they knew their own market) and hired others for other regions. There were even a scandal about unlicensed reseller selling keys as opposed to licensed publishers. So while yes it is perfectly possible, Witcher 3 is not an example of that. You want an example of that - Minecraft. They actually did self-publishing long before it even got to places that we traditionally know as publishers.
 

AgentCooper

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Strazdas said:
AgentCooper said:
I have everything connected to what is amounts to a switch system. So turning on a certain console is tons easier and less hassle. It also helps mitigate a fire risk. That and I go to swamp meets to trade game with fellow collectors. I live in a rural area that is lucky to get even a 4mb download. I purchased the PC version of Dark Soul II: Collectors Edition and it came with a metal case with a steam voucher inside. That was so disappointing to me.

I don't see the cds out of rotation to any degree just yet. We are still seeing countries with better internet than the United States favor cds over digital. I assume this has to do with the countries laws or rather attitude to it. I do think digital music gives a outlet for smaller bands to gain traction in the music market. All I ask for is a choice and its understandable that smaller bands can't put out some kind of cd package. I wish some bands had the marketing team that did Slayer's new album recently.
Well thats additional specialized equipment added onto it. Also can you have them all on at the same time? because thats what basically my PC does when it comes to retro gaming. it can play them all, many at once because the retro games power requirements are so low i could run hundreds at once (of course no way to play hundreds at once obviously so thats pointless).

Is that 4MB or 4mb. the difference is eight-fold. Regardless however that is still very much downloadable speeds. its not like you download 30 GB GTA5[footnote]GTA5 used as example due to it being one of the largest games around. most games actually download within 10 gb[/footnote] daily.

I think that has more to do with licensing than attitudes. Music indistry just like movie industry but to a bit lower degree now suffers from region locking. when digital version isnt available in your country that leaves two options, CDs or piracy. its funny how digital download expansion is the reason we see piracy decline for the first time in history. its almost as if people want things digital and they are going to chose digital over legal.

Choice is fine and all, but we are talking about trends, not personal preferences here. like i said before, me hating streaming does not stop it from gobbling up the market.

Uhuru N said:
it's perfectly possible to release a digital only game with no publisher involved.
CD Projekt Red did this and many smaller devs can do the same, but with the Disc release CDPR had to use a Publisher as a distributor, even though no actual "publisher" was involved in making the game at all.
Not entirely true. CD Project had both digital publishers (GOG, Amazon, Steam) and physical publishers. They did their own publishing for GoG and for eastern europe (since they basically started as physical publisher, they knew their own market) and hired others for other regions. There were even a scandal about unlicensed reseller selling keys as opposed to licensed publishers. So while yes it is perfectly possible, Witcher 3 is not an example of that. You want an example of that - Minecraft. They actually did self-publishing long before it even got to places that we traditionally know as publishers.
There not all hot when I switch to use one. Problems arise when you deal with end of cycle Sega CD based systems. Everything works fine.

It's not really a problem with the speed and more with the PS4 servers capping the download for patches and game downloading. I've also hit my monthly cap last month with four games. I'm really waiting for another provider to come in.

The decline is happening and I'm not denying that. Companies are offering alternatives and I support that. Warner Brothers implemented a way to buy catalog titles from there library with pay to burn. You pay a fee and they print you a physical copy of preferred show and mail it to you.

It was great talking with you.
 

Uhuru N'Uru

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Strazdas said:
Uhuru N said:
it's perfectly possible to release a digital only game with no publisher involved.
CD Projekt Red did this and many smaller devs can do the same, but with the Disc release CDPR had to use a Publisher as a distributor, even though no actual "publisher" was involved in making the game at all.
Not entirely true. CD Project had both digital publishers (GOG, Amazon, Steam) and physical publishers. They did their own publishing for GoG and for eastern europe (since they basically started as physical publisher, they knew their own market) and hired others for other regions. There were even a scandal about unlicensed reseller selling keys as opposed to licensed publishers. So while yes it is perfectly possible, Witcher 3 is not an example of that. You want an example of that - Minecraft. They actually did self-publishing long before it even got to places that we traditionally know as publishers.
No, you are mistaking retailers (GOG, Amazon, Steam) for publishers and though technically the Witcher 3 Discs were "Published" by Namco Bandai, that was not the usual role Game Publishing invoves.

Publishers of games, pay for the developement and in return hold all the legal rights to that game or franchise, even if it is a new one.
I know of no precedent to what CDPR has done here, but I'm no expert.

Digital Distribution has no publisher involved at all, CDPR is a developement studio and released the game digitally direct to their chosen retailers.
Retailers they made deals with specifying no key reselling was allowed, certainly for pre-orders at least.
Which was why they slammed GMG when they were selling Steam keys.
Keys that were illegally obtained, either through breach of that contract or stripping keys from Nvidia GPU card bundles.
GMG soon stopped selling the discounted games and could only sell direct for Steam after that, at the same price as on Steam.

Disc distribution is soley that and nothing else is done by Namco Bandai at all, which is why I called them a distributor and not a publisher.

Also I never claimed CDPR was the first self publisher, digitally they are certainly not.
Though Minecraft is a huge success now, it's not a AAA game and Mojang was a tiny indie dev when they released Minecraft.
CDPR are definitely the first AAA game self-publisher, that I know about.

If CDPR can't get the main high street game retailers to take self published discs, no-one can.
I'm certain CDPR would have done so if they could.
 

Bad Jim

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AgentCooper said:
Digital music downloads did not kill CD's and vinyl of all things made a come back.
Over the last couple of years all the music shops in my area have closed down. I could order CDs over the internet if I wanted, and supermarkets often have a stand or two with CD music for sale, so the market isn't strictly dead, but it's been savagely wounded and will never recover. Same for DVDs.
 

AgentCooper

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Bad Jim said:
AgentCooper said:
Digital music downloads did not kill CD's and vinyl of all things made a come back.
Over the last couple of years all the music shops in my area have closed down. I could order CDs over the internet if I wanted, and supermarkets often have a stand or two with CD music for sale, so the market isn't strictly dead, but it's been savagely wounded and will never recover. Same for DVDs.
It depends on the area. I still have a Suncoast where I live and it operates pretty well. Blu-Ray Vs. DVD is a different beast in its own right. I can only speak on my own buying habits.
 

Bad Jim

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AgentCooper said:
Blu-Ray Vs. DVD is a different beast in its own right. I can only speak on my own buying habits.
Where I live, DVD hasn't been nearly killed by Blu-Ray. DVD and Blu-Ray have both been nearly killed by the likes of Netflix.
 

hermes

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To be fair, this is the first time I hear this to be a thing. When I buy new hardware, I want the content of the box to work with as little hassle as possible. Configuring the Internet access, registering to the online services and such are relatively low in the list of things I would like to try on a new console. If I had bought a new console to discover the games in the box are nothing but card numbers I have to redeem and then wait several hours to play, I would have felt ripped off.

Then again, this still looks like a desperate attempt of a company that don't like the writing in the wall and its doing its best to prevent the world to play catch up.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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Uhuru N said:
No, you are mistaking retailers (GOG, Amazon, Steam) for publishers and though technically the Witcher 3 Discs were "Published" by Namco Bandai, that was not the usual role Game Publishing invoves.

Publishers of games, pay for the developement and in return hold all the legal rights to that game or franchise, even if it is a new one.
I know of no precedent to what CDPR has done here, but I'm no expert.

Digital Distribution has no publisher involved at all, CDPR is a developement studio and released the game digitally direct to their chosen retailers.
Retailers they made deals with specifying no key reselling was allowed, certainly for pre-orders at least.
Which was why they slammed GMG when they were selling Steam keys.
Keys that were illegally obtained, either through breach of that contract or stripping keys from Nvidia GPU card bundles.
GMG soon stopped selling the discounted games and could only sell direct for Steam after that, at the same price as on Steam.
Publishers are distributors. thats their job, to take a game and distribute them. the fact that video game industry has a twisted insanity where publishers actually own the companies notwithstanding. Digital distribution has a publisher - the distributor. the only examples of avoiding a publisher is those where studios released them games on their own, whether on the internet or through their own distribution system in retail.
 

Uhuru N'Uru

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Strazdas said:
see post above
We are only discussing games, so it doesn't matter what happens in other industries, it doesn't apply to games.
If they made movies, EA would be called Publisher and Producer, as those roles are usually separate.
All that nitpicking over dictionary definitions is irrelevant and changes nothing I wrote. When talking about Game Publishers, I use the common definition all Gamers use.

Humans are lazy and tend to contract these labels (Dev and Pub).

Game publishers have never, to my knowledge simply distributed any AAA game, before Witcher 3. They publish what they own.
 

Strazdas

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May 28, 2011
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Uhuru N said:
Strazdas said:
see post above
We are only discussing games, so it doesn't matter what happens in other industries, it doesn't apply to games.
If they made movies, EA would be called Publisher and Producer, as those roles are usually separate.
All that nitpicking over dictionary definitions is irrelevant and changes nothing I wrote. When talking about Game Publishers, I use the common definition all Gamers use.

Humans are lazy and tend to contract these labels (Dev and Pub).

Game publishers have never, to my knowledge simply distributed any AAA game, before Witcher 3. They publish what they own.
Warner Bros and Square and quite a few other publishers actually do a lot of distributing for independent studios.
 

Lil devils x_v1legacy

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May 17, 2011
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I am boycotting digital downloads and demanding physical copies for everything I own currently after having repeated issues trying to get my content back and authorization keys not working properly after reformatting my PC's and switching computers. The whole " you can only have this installed on this many computers.." BS and trying to change drives going through hell for each and every digital game/ software I own making things excessively tedious has burnt me out on Digital copies for the foreseeable future. It is easier to call and order a physical copy of the disc from the company than deal with them reissuing your keys to someone else or them punishing you for owning too many computers telling you that you have to repurchase it again. When you own a physical copy, it proves you own it. Not only do you own it, you can trade, loan or sell it as well. Software should be like anything else you own, when you no longer want a car you can sell it, loan it to a fried for trade it in for something else. The same should be the case for your software.