Would this work?

[Booze Zombie]

Simple idea, seeing as "the games industry" or some elements of it are moaning about used games:

How about all games go downloadable on all systems and game stores sell blank system-specific disks for storing games on physically?
Each copy of the game is locked into a specific account and will simply not work on any other account, though accounts can be moved in cases where the machines break, the game would be downloaded straight to the disk.

Now, the way this might help "the games industry" is that you cut down on the price they can honestly charge you for the product, they get the money directly into their accounts and you can simply replace your copy of the game if it gets broken by using another blank disk to hold it.

What do you guys think?

 

[DazZ.]

all game stores sell are points and blank system-specific disks for storing bought games on physically?

Well that bit wouldn't.
Game stores would certainly go out of business if they only stock one item that could be bought anywhere else.

Also, that is pretty much exactly what Steam does.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

1) You wanna lug the case around each time you go to a friend's house, Just to play a certain game? You will never be able to lend your friend a game or evern RENT one. Video rental stores depend on games AND movies. You're hurting another industry

2) So you want us to download the game (takes up data transfer, which costs money, unless on a plan with you internet, which costs money) which will take time depending on your internet connection (assuming you have internet, the people who don't are shit outta luck) and then we have to spend the time burning them to disks ourseelves.

The system is too complicated, costly, and constrained to people who have a good internet connection

 

[akapellah21]

This may cause a monopoly

 

[No_Remainders]

The system is too complicated, costly, and constrained to people who have a good internet connection

Pretty much this; and nothing else.

The system relies on having internet; which many people don't.
/thread; methinks?

 

[Booze Zombie]

all game stores sell are points and blank system-specific disks for storing bought games on physically?

Well that bit wouldn't.
Game stores would certainly go out of business if they only stock one item that could be bought anywhere else.

Also, that is pretty much exactly what Steam does.

I meant console-locked blank disks.

1) You wanna lug the case around each time you go to a friend's house, Just to play a certain game? You will never be able to lend your friend a game or evern RENT one. Video rental stores depend on games AND movies. You're hurting another industry

2) So you want us to download the game (takes up data transfer, which costs money, unless on a plan with you internet, which costs money) which will take time depending on your internet connection (assuming you have internet, the people who don't are shit outta luck) and then we have to spend the time burning them to disks ourseelves.

The system is too complicated, costly, and constrained to people who have a good internet connection

With the 360 you can just transfer your account onto a memory stick, I don't see the issue.

Also, I meant downloading it straight to the disk.

Pretty much this; and nothing else.

The system relies on having internet; which many people don't.
/thread; methinks?

The idea of someone not having the internet in this day and age boggles my mind.

 

[Heart of Darkness]

No, it wouldn't work. Your idea fails to take into consideration monopolies that would invariably occur in individual console stores, the viability of everyone having a fast-enough and reliable Internet connection through which to download the games, and the downsizing and loss of jobs that would occur in the used games business.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

With the 360 you can just transfer your account onto a memory stick, I don't see the issue.

Also, I meant downloading it straight to the disk.

And the PS3? You want us to pull out our hard drive Every. Single. Time. We go to a friend's house? Sure it sounds great the first few times, but it becomes tedious after 10-20... Besides, take my other factors into consideration as well

The idea of someone not having the internet in this day and age boggles my mind.

THink having a GOOD internet. Not everyone can get a great connection, and just cause it boggles your mind don't mean it's a fact

 

[Booze Zombie]

And the PS3? You want us to pull out our hard drive Every. Single. Time. We go to a friend's house? Sure it sounds great the first few times, but it becomes tedious after 10-20... Besides, take my other factors into consideration as well

I wasn't aware the PS3 had that issue with portability.
Still, it's good that I chuck my ideas into the shark tank and watch what happens.

 

[Monshroud]

Simple idea, seeing as "the games industry" or some elements of it are moaning about used games:

How about all games go downloadable on all systems and all game stores sell are points and blank system-specific disks for storing bought games on physically?
Each copy of the game is locked into a specific account and will simply not work on any other account, though accounts can be moved in cases where the machines break.

Now, the way this might help "the games industry" is that you cut down on the price they can honestly charge you for the product, they get the money directly into their accounts and you can simply replace your copy of the game if it gets broken by using another blank disk to hold it.

What do you guys think?

I think you need to look at a broader picture here. For instance in the United States, a vast majority do not have what we would now call "High-Speed" Internet. So what do you do for those people who want that 8GB game download. Tell them that they have to wait 5 days after they purchase to play? That's not fair to those consumers.

The game locking you are referring to is somewhat similar to what Steam does. I can install Steam on multiple machines, but it will not let me play a game on multiple machines at the same time.

 

[DazZ.]

Game stores would certainly go out of business if they only stock one item that could be bought anywhere else.

I meant console-locked blank disks.

So all they sell is console specific disks? That wouldn't take up much room to store in another shop so they would just as easily be bought elsewhere, likely cheaper if that's not all the shop sells.

Games stores would very quickly be put out of business, I don't see why having the disk "console-locked" would stop that.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I think you need to look at a broader picture here. For instance in the United States, a vast majority do not have what we would now call "High-Speed" Internet. So what do you do for those people who want that 8GB game download. Tell them that they have to wait 5 days after they purchase to play? That's not fair to those consumers.

The game locking you are referring to is somewhat similar to what Steam does. I can install Steam on multiple machines, but it will not let me play a game on multiple machines at the same time.

They could sell the games still physically in the store, but people with high-speed internet connections could simply buy the games online and copy them onto one of the disks.

I think it'd make a bigger dent in the "used-games problem" than project 10 dollar.

 

[Booze Zombie]

So all they sell is console specific disks? That wouldn't take up much room to store in another shop so they would just as easily be bought elsewhere, likely cheaper if that's not all the shop sells.

Games stores would very quickly be put out of business, I don't see why having the disk "console-locked" would stop that.

Yeah, I think it might work better if they keep physical copies for people with bad connections, thinking about it some more.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

And the PS3? You want us to pull out our hard drive Every. Single. Time. We go to a friend's house? Sure it sounds great the first few times, but it becomes tedious after 10-20... Besides, take my other factors into consideration as well

I wasn't aware the PS3 had that issue with portability.
Still, it's good that I chuck my ideas into the shark tank and watch what happens.

Pretty much... it's decent, but having to do all that, plus pay for the data transfer, plus wait for the game to download...

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

I think you need to look at a broader picture here. For instance in the United States, a vast majority do not have what we would now call "High-Speed" Internet. So what do you do for those people who want that 8GB game download. Tell them that they have to wait 5 days after they purchase to play? That's not fair to those consumers.

The game locking you are referring to is somewhat similar to what Steam does. I can install Steam on multiple machines, but it will not let me play a game on multiple machines at the same time.

They could sell the games still physically in the store, but people with high-speed internet connections could simply buy the games online and copy them onto one of the disks.

I think it'd make a bigger dent in the "used-games problem" than project 10 dollar.

I thinkyou'd need Ultra high speed to make it worth while I have highspeed and it still takes a while. This is a very niche market idea. THe onlyproblem witht he niche market idea is that people would simply continue to buy used, if not from the store then from kijiji.com or ebay.com

 

[Booze Zombie]

Pretty much... it's decent, but having to do all that, plus pay for the data transfer, plus wait for the game to download...

Could be more viable in 5 years; it might be easier than what happens when you're copying a disk to a hard drive.
Think of it like transferring data to a thin portable hard drive.

I do see the issue with people having bad connections, though.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Pretty much... it's decent, but having to do all that, plus pay for the data transfer, plus wait for the game to download...

Could be more viable in 5 years; it might be easier than what happens when you're copying a disk to a hard drive.
Think of it like transferring data to a thin portable hard drive.

I do see the issue with people having bad connections, though.

I still don't know. See with the PS3, you have to install a small portion of the game to the hard drive. ususall about 3 GB. The only issue is that this uses up alot of space after a while. The 360 tends to not rely on Copy disk information to the drive and only uses it's memory for save files, to trying to copy a whole game to a 360 simply won't work. They'll need much larger memory cards or much larger internal drives. That's why you see 250GB PS3 hard drives and like... 16GB 360 Hard drives.

Now you can get a 500GB storage unit, but since a small portion of a game takes up 3 GB, you can imagine what a full game would take up, and yuou'd need a few of these drives. A terrabyte drive (1000GB) is nothing small. About 2-3 inches tall, up to 10-12 inches in lenth, and 4-6 inches wide

 

[Danzaivar]

I feel we're kind of heading this sort of direction, as downloadable games for consoles get more and more advanced. Only they sell you more hard drive space rather than blank discs.

If it leads to cheaper games (as they can cut out distribution markup) then yay I guess.

 

[Booze Zombie]

Now you can get a 500GB storage unit, but since a small portion of a game takes up 3 GB, you can imagine what a full game would take up, and yuou'd need a few of these drives. A terrabyte drive (1000GB) is nothing small. About 2-3 inches tall, up to 10-12 inches in lenth, and 4-6 inches wide

Think of a disk like a thin hard drive for the purposes of downloading games, I meant, sorry.
So, a blank console-specific disk is like having a portable piece of a hard drive, only you can just use your hard drive for videos and music and blank disks for your games.

 

[Broady Brio]

Nope. For reasons above me, such as everyone without internet will have nothing at all.