Remedy: The Sooner We Go Digital the Better

[Laser Priest]

Basically, "It'll be good for all of the consumers! The ones who pay full price for our games that is. The rest can go die."

He's looking at what makes him the most money, not's what best for the industry. I think we can write this off as another idiot who needs to stop talking.

 

[Craorach]

Until I can buy anything online without any form of DRM, download and burn it and take it to an offline machine to play, I will not buy exclusively online. Until there are no bandwidth caps and download speeds are much faster for every customer, everywhere, in the entire world then it is morally bankrupt of companies to promote downloading as a good way to provide content to customers.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

So having a smaller market to sell to is better?
=0_o=

 

[Veldel]

No i like having booklets and discs and cases they look pretty in my collection and i dont want all digital

 

[thepyrethatburns]

Speaking of PSN, in light of what happened to Sony I think Microsoft and Sony will try and get out of this online store business. I couldn't imagine maintaining said store generates much revenue compared to the costs of operating it and the risk/responsibility in maintaining customer privacy. I think the risks in having peoples information lost and suffering repercussions will cause the console companies to move away from maintaining a store in order to protect themselves.

Playing Devil's Advocate, I'm going to say that I doubt this. There is simply too much profit in digital downloads. For Sony, Everquest alone has probably made billions. (I have no idea what the actual profit has been but, given that Everquest in 2004 made more than the GDP of Jamaica, it has to be vast.) Presuming Sony survives this, they aren't going to drop the chance to sell us Horse Armor at a huge profit margin. Microsoft is probably already internally shaking up it's IT security to make sure that their DD cash cow will continue to generate profitable items such as hats for our avatars much less in-game content.

All the PSN thing will lead to (Other than Sony having really shaky fiscal quarters for awhile) is that the DD networks are going to beef up security and try to minimize the chance of credit card loss if and when they get hacked.

 

[The Rookie Gamer]

Remedy: The Sooner We Go Digital the Better


He admits there is one group it won't be all that great for, however - the brick-and-mortar retailers. "Maybe [it's] not so good for retail ... but then again if you're selling our games as used copies and incentivizing people to do that, then I don't really feel sorry for you."

So, the real reason is just because he's angry about not getting more money for a product that was already sold. Waahh.

 

[Meggiepants]

Digital is better for the consumer? Does he mean the almost 40% of people in the U.S. who still don't have broadband? Because I think they would beg to differ.

I prefer the ease of just getting it in the mail from Amazon. It's no hassle, I don't even have to go to a brick and mortar, and they charge less than XBL does for the same product. I'm still trying to see how digital is better for me.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Sorry, I don't feel like waiting weeks to download games when I can just go out, buy the things, then install them in about an hour. At the latest.

Or just go out, buy, and play with the consoles.

Essentially this. My internet is fucking terrible. Downloading a game takes days, or more. And from where the console is set up, I can't even smell the internet.

When I buy a physical copy, it takes me about ten minutes before I can play it. So yeah, I much prefer that.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

He doesn't care about making gaming better for gamers he cares about making money for himself.

Exactly the attitude that's making gaming worse.

Thumbs up for the Enlightened One ! seriously, it's a bad idea what they're doing...

 

[Gaiseric]

I'm not looking forward to the idea of all digital distribution.

-My internet isn't very fast so downloads would take ages(took me 15+ hours to download Stalker).

-The amount of space necessary for all the games would eat up all of my hard drive and then some.

-I like having a physical copy and having a shelf with all my games.

-I like being able to trade my games in towards a new game.

-As of now I don't have my own credit card and have to use gift cards for any online purchases.

-I've had issues with Steam and my downloads from the PSN are typically slow.

-And I can tell you I wouldn't have played a lot of games if I wasn't able to pick them up used.

 

[WanderingFool]

alot of people dont like using there credit cards thats why alot of my friends hate steam

Thats why I wont go completely digital. I hate using my credit card period.

 

[DJ_DEnM]

Im sorry, I just wanted to say that reading the title reminded me of a scene from Digimon the movie x3

 

[camazotz]

I love myself some online downloads. I've got a metric ton of games through Steam, Direct2drive, Gamersgate and GOG.Com....and a few through the Xbox Live store. I had some games from PSN as well, but these days the likelihood I'll go back there are slim. That said, this quote:

--He admits there is one group it won't be all that great for, however - the brick-and-mortar retailers. "Maybe [it's] not so good for retail ... but then again if you're selling our games as used copies and incentivizing people to do that, then I don't really feel sorry for you."--

...really rankles me. This is the kind of guy who sees those discs as his own property, something he's generously allowing us all to "borrow" for $60, and how dare we thieves sell that product back to a retailer when we are done with it. Makes me sorry I just went out and bought Alan Wake on disc, actually. Maybe I'll take it back and get a game from a publisher who understands that their customers aren't thieves, and the secondary market has its purpose. If they want to reach out to that market, sell the games cheaper. Simple as that. People don't buy used because they want to "screw the man," they buy used because games are frickin' expensive, or because they believe in recycling, and nothing says recycling like a used game or book.

Grrrrr. This guy really rankles me.

 

[Feriluce]

alot of people dont like using there credit cards

Me neither, that's what Paysafe exists for (its pretty much the same as Microsoft Points cards and PSN Prepaid cards). Give it a try!

The problem here is that you would then need to find a way to sell consoles without having to resort to retailers. They don't get a lot of money from console sales (I'd say 10% at the absolute most, probably more like 2-3%) but from games (~ 15-30%). Why would any retailer sell a system he knows he won't get any money from in the long run?
PC hardware should still work, though, as this is not exclusively made for gaming...

Why would a retailer sell a fridge or a tv? I fail to see how thats different than selling consoles.

 

[RatRace123]

I disagree. Fully digital distribution would suck. As I keep saying, it's only as secure as the service that provides it. And I doubt such a service will ever be completely secure.
Beyond that, there's still the tactile pleasure of owning a hard copy of something.

 

[Balmong7]

I feel like going to only digital distribution will make games cheaper to produce and sell, probably putting games at around $30 for the full game, however it might cause a loot of unforeseen problems. Like parents who don't give their kids internets for their new "gametoy"

 

[Feriluce]

Start selling huge hard drives for $5 and I'm all for it.

What is all this talk about huge hd's have to do with digital distribution? The games take up the exact same amount of space no matter if you got the data from a disk or from the interwebs.