Id's Carmack Positive Digital Distribution Will Destroy Retail
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
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guys like this should shut their mouths: it's not because they have a good position in a gaming company that they hold the vision of the future ! (i was going to say the crystal ball but that's a little "too much").
certainly it will be a possibility, but it's like with 3D techs, they said it would revolutionize the public, it only revolutionized the manufacturing side of the industry...
certainly it will be a possibility, but it's like with 3D techs, they said it would revolutionize the public, it only revolutionized the manufacturing side of the industry...
bahumat42 said:
Again, Digital Distribution will never completely overtake Physical Media. Only compliment it. I'm confident enough to bet money on it, and I don't bet money, so I guess I won't bet on it.poiumty said:
I don't care if new infrastructure and interconnectivity leaps to 10GB per milisecond, you've got Physical media disks like this beauty here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc] holding up to 1 Terabyte of information within only a few years. I don't think anyone would be partial to downloading, not to mention the possibility of redownloading multiple times due to errors, a whole friggin' Terabyte of info, and that's only in the more recent future (just wait till we get Yottabyte [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yottabyte] fo'). And that's only if most people have standardized 10GB/ms, that'd be expensive shit yo', many people are still on dial-up.
Your internet download might have jumped up hugely in quality, but Physical Media has done the same thing.
There are plenty of problems with Digital Distribution, as well as Physical Media, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have it's place or that it can't improve. I'm excited as anyone to see what the future holds with technology, but if that involves the eradication of an entire medium and I have to settle for waiting 2 1/2 hours to download a game while leaving my PC on (it turns to 6 1/2 hours if I need to use it while it downloads, that's just annoying), instead of just buying a physical game and maybe waiting for a 30 minute install, then I'm not hopeful for the future.
- Apr 1, 2009
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those are probably pc games and you can only count on no taxes for so long, eventually you will see themAssassin Xaero said:
I think the big worry about digital distribution should be what happens when every publisher decides it should have its own steam type service and tries to link its games exclusively with that service, if they get weird enough then you could end up having to run multiple invasive programs in the background to just play a game
From the point of a lowly PC gamer, I think that Carmack is (Sadly) right.
I don't think it's digital distribution that's doing it, though, I believe retail is killing itself. I rarely buy games and things from stores now because it's too expensive. I bought a wired 360 controller for my PC yesterday, and it cost me £25 (Yes, I know I could have gone online and got one for a bit cheaper). I bought the recent Wolfenstein too, but only 'cos it was 99p. But I can go into HMV and Batman: Arkham Asylum is £35, go to Game and Force Unleashed 2 is a mind boggling £40. But it's also a case of retail stores reduced the size of the PC department, and as such there's a tiny selection, usually comprised of new releases or overpriced older games. Unless you want, say, Starcraft 2 or Black Ops, you're lucky to find the game you want these days. Retail is falling behind because it lets itself. It doesn't do anything to stop it. I think that retail needs to get its act together and combat the digital era if it's to stay in business.
And on the "flip side", why does digital win? Games rarely, if ever, go out of stock, there's a bigger choice, pricing is more fluid (And often more "fair" due to that) and you often only have a short wait until you can play your game. I think it's great for indie games and smaller companies, but it's really bad for the bigger players - at least with regards to the PC.
I don't think it's digital distribution that's doing it, though, I believe retail is killing itself. I rarely buy games and things from stores now because it's too expensive. I bought a wired 360 controller for my PC yesterday, and it cost me £25 (Yes, I know I could have gone online and got one for a bit cheaper). I bought the recent Wolfenstein too, but only 'cos it was 99p. But I can go into HMV and Batman: Arkham Asylum is £35, go to Game and Force Unleashed 2 is a mind boggling £40. But it's also a case of retail stores reduced the size of the PC department, and as such there's a tiny selection, usually comprised of new releases or overpriced older games. Unless you want, say, Starcraft 2 or Black Ops, you're lucky to find the game you want these days. Retail is falling behind because it lets itself. It doesn't do anything to stop it. I think that retail needs to get its act together and combat the digital era if it's to stay in business.
And on the "flip side", why does digital win? Games rarely, if ever, go out of stock, there's a bigger choice, pricing is more fluid (And often more "fair" due to that) and you often only have a short wait until you can play your game. I think it's great for indie games and smaller companies, but it's really bad for the bigger players - at least with regards to the PC.
seems interesting at the least. i for one welcome this change depending on how its implemented.
there should REALLY be a method of transferring the digital thing onto physical disk/flash-drive/etc because some people (like me) like to have physical copies of games.
other than a few obstacles like the above and hoe exactly Special Edition games will work unless they only supply digital extras. Cutting out the retailers can only strengthen the developers and allow lower costs of games which means more risks can be taken when it comes to game design. A lot of the issues people have i think are just minor ones that will become less important or just not exist as technology improves in internet connections and peoples knowledge of technology.
....of course, if we are talking extremely LOOOOONG term, once we invent teleporting technology that allows us to instantly 'beam' in stuff we buy online than not just the gaming industry but retail in general will be completely and utterly destroyed! So go future Sci-fi technology =p
there should REALLY be a method of transferring the digital thing onto physical disk/flash-drive/etc because some people (like me) like to have physical copies of games.
other than a few obstacles like the above and hoe exactly Special Edition games will work unless they only supply digital extras. Cutting out the retailers can only strengthen the developers and allow lower costs of games which means more risks can be taken when it comes to game design. A lot of the issues people have i think are just minor ones that will become less important or just not exist as technology improves in internet connections and peoples knowledge of technology.
....of course, if we are talking extremely LOOOOONG term, once we invent teleporting technology that allows us to instantly 'beam' in stuff we buy online than not just the gaming industry but retail in general will be completely and utterly destroyed! So go future Sci-fi technology =p
I'd be all for it if the prices reflect the elimination of distributors and retail. For $60 you're damn right I want a disc, box, receipt and entirely unnecessary booklet, but for $30 I'll cheerfully accept a download. I'd be even more happy to jump on the digital bandwagon if purchasing said download comes with the right to download it to my profile as many times as I require. DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs are fragile things, and if you lose or damage one you're screwed - at least with digital distribution you're guaranteed to have access to whatever you paid for as long as you're capable of downloading it again.
60$ for a digital MW2 on steam ... like hell am i paying full price for a game i dont get to own.
Should this every come to pass, then I guess I'm done playing video games. As many have already said, I like having a physical copy that I own. Looks cool on my shelf to have the entire Suikoden, Final Fantays, Xenosage, etc. collections. I think it'd be closer to say that this will become like I-Tunes. Extremely popular, but you can still buy CDs in stores.
I agree with this.
Though I hope there's many more digital distribution companies around cuz' Steam will jack up their prices eventually.
Though I hope there's many more digital distribution companies around cuz' Steam will jack up their prices eventually.