Remedy: The Sooner We Go Digital the Better
- Thread starter John Funk
- Start date
In the end, even though there is no cost to create, ship, distribute and stock the physical product, they'll still be charging $60 per game and $15 4 map pack one month later.
You very well could be right. However, I guess when I think of online market places I guess I picture most of the money going to the actual developers and publishers as opposed to Sony or Microsoft. While I no doubt imagine they get some sort of benefit from selling the game on their store I couldn't imagine them getting that much in terms of revenue. However, this playstation hack could very well be costly for sony. I am also assuming that we are going to see a rise in hacking/identity crimes occurring more frequently as more people turn to online shopping. Thus, if these sorts of attacks happen more frequently it could become quite costly if Microsoft and Sony have to constantly be vigilant and be prepared to compensate their customers. OR they might simply make a clause saying they are not responsible for stolen identity which would make people wary about DD.thepyrethatburns said:
more money for artists
i disagree. This is more money to the artists, as opposed to more money to large corporations that only care about profits. As a developer he is more likely to want to make a good game, as opposed to the corporation, which doesnt give two shits about the gamerNerf Ninja said:
Here's what's going to happen. You drive people to get their games online and they will do just that but I urge these companies to please not be the least bit surprised when they start looking at much cheaper (read free) routes of getting those games online.
I work with a guy that's a perfect example of this. We've had numerous conversations revolving around him being unable to purchase a certain PC title anywhere local and upon telling him to get it off Steam or GoG etc his reply is "If I'm going to have to hassle with downloading it I may as well just get it for free".
The moral? People see value in a physical copy of a game. Never doubt that. That box and book and disc are tangible objects that allow them to better justify the purchase. You will be hard pressed to convince a good portion of gamers to see that same value is a simple download. The less tech savvy will simply not make the purchase and the more tech savvy will find less legal routes.
I work with a guy that's a perfect example of this. We've had numerous conversations revolving around him being unable to purchase a certain PC title anywhere local and upon telling him to get it off Steam or GoG etc his reply is "If I'm going to have to hassle with downloading it I may as well just get it for free".
The moral? People see value in a physical copy of a game. Never doubt that. That box and book and disc are tangible objects that allow them to better justify the purchase. You will be hard pressed to convince a good portion of gamers to see that same value is a simple download. The less tech savvy will simply not make the purchase and the more tech savvy will find less legal routes.
The retail industry hinders credit card theft. It is true that a store can lose personal information but if the recent PSN mess tells us any thing it is that digital distribution is a long way off.
People in the industry want DD because it will benifit the industry. It does not benifit the consumer.
The moment gaming goes purely digital is the day I stop buying game consoles, unless they come from the era before digital downloading.
Why are so many so stubbornly clinging to digital technology?
Yeah it's nice, but it's stupid to completely rely on it. The hacking of PSN, and now SOE, surely prove that.
Personally, I think the reason people are flocking to digital distribution and streaming is because it's "new technology." However, as Coca-Cola showed us, new doesn't equal good.
Physical copies have one thing that digital copies will never have. The advantage of being real. I like my virtual worlds, but I'm also like to acknowledge the real world. That's why I'd rather go out and buy a physical copy than just download it.
I rather not live in a world were everyone's a isolationist hermit who only "friends" are polygonal avatars, faceless tweets, and a download button.
Yeah it's nice, but it's stupid to completely rely on it. The hacking of PSN, and now SOE, surely prove that.
Personally, I think the reason people are flocking to digital distribution and streaming is because it's "new technology." However, as Coca-Cola showed us, new doesn't equal good.
Physical copies have one thing that digital copies will never have. The advantage of being real. I like my virtual worlds, but I'm also like to acknowledge the real world. That's why I'd rather go out and buy a physical copy than just download it.
I rather not live in a world were everyone's a isolationist hermit who only "friends" are polygonal avatars, faceless tweets, and a download button.
I'm all for digital, but in light of what the PSN is currently going through, there is something to be said for having a place to buy games. If we had a place to buy digital games, and didn't need them attached to DRM, which is likely to stick around for awhile, then that would be fine, I suppose. But the attack on Sony does bring up a striking advantage in the disc's favor.
Anyone who uses steam (and i'm talking modern steam, no 'zomg it was crap [in 2005]' bollocks) will attest to how good digital is with steam. Once you're authenticated once you don't need be online to play games [argument #1 'wanna play offline but can't' - dead], the credit card details and your account on steam are as secure as they'll ever be [Look up steam guard for account based security - valve use tech licensed from intel which is essentially unhackable for server side, argument #2 'not secure' - dead]. Steam =/= console networks, it is infinitely more secure, unsurprisingly.
Plus you don't 'own' retail copies either, a game company can stop letting you authenticate a game whenever they want. You never 'own' a multi-million dollar game, you bought a license to play it, one that can be revoked at any time. It's a stupid argument brought up by people who need to pay attention to copyright laws
Still, retail or digital, it doesn't matter how you buy it really, as long as you're happy However, i'm just debunking some ridiculous myths ^^
Plus you don't 'own' retail copies either, a game company can stop letting you authenticate a game whenever they want. You never 'own' a multi-million dollar game, you bought a license to play it, one that can be revoked at any time. It's a stupid argument brought up by people who need to pay attention to copyright laws
Still, retail or digital, it doesn't matter how you buy it really, as long as you're happy
However, i'm just debunking some ridiculous myths ^^
I love it when failed developers in the market dispense such pearls of wisdom and every site and gaming jarnalist hurries to present it as worthwhile news. No Remedy, sorry. Retail isn't going anywhere. You don't like used games? Make good games that don't want people to give them away when they're done with it, like toilet paper.
Not to mention what others have said, that many people don't have access to either good and stable internet speeds, the need of a credit card to purchase and the fact that you don't purchase a product. Just a bunch of bytes. No game box, no manuals, no cool cover images, no magic of unboxing a game. This kind of talk just reeks of laziness and I hate it.
Not to mention what others have said, that many people don't have access to either good and stable internet speeds, the need of a credit card to purchase and the fact that you don't purchase a product. Just a bunch of bytes. No game box, no manuals, no cool cover images, no magic of unboxing a game. This kind of talk just reeks of laziness and I hate it.
Yes, options for direct engagement with your audience include having direct control over how they handle their digital properties. No thanks, i like my brick and mortar stores and boxes.
Pretty sure Aksys is attempting to put a retail game on a digital distribution only basis for the PS3 in the US. Or at least, they would have done if PSN wasn't down. But yeah: it's happening.Jake Martinez said:
To the people citing PSPgo's failure, please note that the reason it failed was because it was slightly more expansive than the vanilla PSP, and had removed features compared to said PSP. If it was a good 60 dollars less, it would have been a mad success.
I hope you don?t really believe that. Like many industries, the gaming industry is held up by a mass of artists that make money for the people at the top but don?t make very much themselves. The people who actually work on the games must do it for the love of games because they certainly don?t do it for the cash. Making sure the company makes more money will not necessarily mean the artists will make more. At least not with most of them; there?s got to be a couple that treat their workers right.eljawa said:
And I also don?t believe for a second that it would lead to cheaper games either, just lower values. I often lend out my games to my friends when I?m done with them and back when I didn?t have much money, I would sometimes sell them on ebay.
I think this has worked for something like Steam because they do have some really good sales (that are actually competitive with used prices sometimes) and PC gaming is more solitary. Console gaming is something you do on the couch with friends who bring games of their own and you can swap with them.
I totally see it happening because gamers are notoriously foolish consumers and will totally roll over for it but I don?t think it will lead to anything good for the gamers or the devs.
I will go ahead and say this right now: digitial distribution is the future. There, I said it.
With that said, the future is not now, especially after the fiasco with the PSN. As one person said on here, it's fine with the PC (I myself prefer buying my games from Steam as opposed to going down to my local GameStop and buying them), but consoles are a completely different matter. I don't see pure digital distribution for consoles until maybe 2 or 3 console generations from now (and that's counting when the new Nintendo console comes out, since by then, we'll have entered into the next console generation).
With that said, the future is not now, especially after the fiasco with the PSN. As one person said on here, it's fine with the PC (I myself prefer buying my games from Steam as opposed to going down to my local GameStop and buying them), but consoles are a completely different matter. I don't see pure digital distribution for consoles until maybe 2 or 3 console generations from now (and that's counting when the new Nintendo console comes out, since by then, we'll have entered into the next console generation).