Is digital distribution really the future?

[Null-Entity]

I think its obvious that DD will grow to a larger market share its simply cheaper and easie to roll out from the publisher and easier to cut off/control with systems like Steam.

I however don't think that the physical copy will ever die.

I for one love having the copy on the shelf and secondly I like my collectors editions.

Tell me how I'm going to get a statue/figure/card set ect through DD ? even if it comes to the novelty/more expensive editions I think there will always be a physical presence.

 

[basm321]

Yeah, definitely. I mean, really, what difference does it make?

I mean, I'm as sentimental as the next guy about physical copies, but when th next bunch of kids rolls through, they won't even care. We've already seen it happen to CDs, so why not everything else?

The only thing that will really stay as it is are books. You can NEVER kill books

I usually never comment past the 1st page but this one means a lot to me.

Disc will never die, or at least not anytime in the near future. It may become niche like CDs have. My friend is majoring in music, plays many instruments and buy ALOT of music CDs.

There is something about having a physical item that one can hold.

Disc copies of games may become more rare but they will not go away. I buy all my games on disc for a variety of reasons.

1. You can take it to a friends to show him it.

2. You can trade games with friends to play things you would otherwise not.

3. Discs allow you to display a collection (although I do not keep one).

4. Just as one can read books online or buy a kindle there is something about having a physical cope that you can hold in your hand, this one I can not really explain.

5. People forget the value of using used games as a test drive. I go to Gamestop and buy a few used games, which you can return for ANY reason within a 7 days, then return them and purchase new copies of the one's I enjoy and find to have enough value to merit a real purchase. That is not to say that I don't ever get lazy and just keep the used copy instead, but hey I can't afford new games ALL the time.

Number 2 and 5 are probably the biggest reasons because it allows one to try a much wider variety of games without being forced to purchase something you are not 100% sure you will like.

Given, this could be solved by some kind of digital rental service where you can get the whole game at a price per day or month and then purchase it digitally if you like it enough.

What I am getting at is that I don't believe people realize the value of a physical copy, but we all place a different value on things. That value is often something that can be difficult to articulate.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

The only thing that will really stay as it is are books. You can NEVER kill books

They will damn well try! But I will buy dozens of books just to spite them if they start an ad campaign to destroy them.

As for digital distribution? Not a fan. I'm too much of a physical copy guy.

 

[HardkorSB]

There's a lot of talk about how the market for buying/selling physical copies of games will dry up in the near future. While I'm not categorically saying that it will not happen, I have a hard time buying into the idea, and here's why...

Since the mid-to-late 90's, people have been able to download music off of the internet. It's been a decade (a relative eternity in the entertainment industry), and yet people still buy physical copies of CDs. While the market for physical albums has declined, there are some people (I'm one of them) who like having a physical copy for back-up and posterity.

In the film industry, rental services have been the norm for many years. Nowadays, paid rental services like Netflix allow rental via mail and unlimited streaming via the internet. Services like Redbox allow vending machine style rentals. These approaches have revolutionized renting, made it easier and cheaper. On top of this, people can pay to download movies on iTunes (if they want a copy to keep) and it's cheaper and more convenient than going to a retailer. You can argue that the DVD/Blu-Ray offers a higher quality experience than a digital copy, but in my experience only serious movie buffs care about that.

Despite digital distribution, there is a strong contingent of people who like to have a physical copy of an album/movie for the sake of back-up, posterity, and the fact that it looks nice sitting on a shelf. The same is true for video games.

While the market for physical copies of console games will, surely, go down in the future (we already seeing it on PC) there is still something to be said for physical copies. If we ever embrace a fully digital distribution age, I believe that it is a good ways off. To reach that point, all people like me will have to age themselves out of being the core buying age in the market, and I'm only 26.

Maybe I'm just being hopeful (I personally don't like the idea of all-digital), but I think there will always be a market, even if it gets really small, for physical copies of games. IF we were to reach a all-digital entertainment age, I would say that its at least 20-30 years out.

Agree? Disagree? What are your feelings/opinions on digital distribution as the future of gaming?

From a practical point of view, physical copies are just a waste of space. If you can have all those games/music/movies/whatever on a single hard drive that takes up less than a briefcase, what's the point of having entire rooms full of information stored on outdated formats? You can access the data on your hard drive just as easy as the data on CDs/DVDs/Blu Rays. Actually, you can access it easier since it's all in one place and not scattered around your whole house. The only reason to still cling to the old ways of data storing is nostalgia.
I can understand vinyls since turntables are pretty much a musical instrument ever since the 60's so that at least has a purpose (and you can argue that you can use the CD turntables but it's not the same, just as a keyboard is not the same as a piano).
In short, I think that the "all digital entertainment age" is a good thing.

 

[basm321]

Yeah, definitely. I mean, really, what difference does it make?

I mean, I'm as sentimental as the next guy about physical copies, but when th next bunch of kids rolls through, they won't even care. We've already seen it happen to CDs, so why not everything else?

The only thing that will really stay as it is are books. You can NEVER kill books

I'm not talking on a couple-of-decades basis - this will take a loooong time. But eventually, they will die out.

The future changes one hell of a lot of things, and this is just one of them. Even I find it hard to believe that they won't even be an option, but it's probably going to come true.

And yeah, I have the same reservations about having *just* digital copies. But that's really just DRM at work, and I'm fairly certain that'll die out too - maybe when the companies give up, maybe when the companies come up with a solution that works for everyone (including the customers this time round). But DD is far more convenient than Physical Copies, and that's where the world is headed right now.

Ok, but there is a great value that I (and hopefully many others) find in being able to go down and talk with people about the game(s) you are about to buy or ones you are browsing through. Yes you can go to the internet to find many of these things out, but I know everyone at my local game shop and I know their taste in games. The fact that physical copies merit a physical store is another huge plus. There are not many places that gamers congregate and converse in person (excluding a special events/trade shows ect.). Although it is becoming less common to find groups of actual gamers (not just moms/dads/grand parents) at these stores it is still the last place, I know of, that we may hang out and talk games in real life.

To me that is probably the biggest value, and it is something I want to hold onto. I don't want to see this go away, though it may be inevitable.

 

[Rblade]

I think physical copys will always stay if consoles still exist, at least untill consoles can get hard drives that can expand as much as PCs cn. I'm fairly certain the majority of console only owners will prefere having a disk due to the fact that PS3s and 360 don't have as expansive hard drives than PCs so I wouldn't beable to store 30 games on one console.

You could just have an account similar to steam or something, where they save the info on all the games you buy, and you can install the once you have room for. And if you get rid of it and want to play it again later you download and install it again. Sure downloading will take a while but if you start it before lunch you basicly don't loose any time over it or anything. All your games in the cloud and if you really want a collectors edition they can mail it to you. I really think the incredible convenience and ease of the entire thing will make it that soon stores will go into selling either obscure stuff and or used games next to their vynil and other specialist audiophile collection.

and if you worry about loosing the games if the service gets terminated or something. Mircrosoft, Sony and nintendo are not exactly at the top of my list of companies to go belly up