Digital distribution: The Future of Games?

[Million]

I think the people behind the "Phantom" console had this idea...and I admit to being one of those who laughed at the idea of games that were acquired through purely digital means, with no physical form like carts or discs. However, the convenience of Live on 360 has changed my mind. I know these are much smaller downloads than current/next gen games are...but could this be the future of how we get the games(not just ol' school/classic/virtual console type stuff...I mean the normal current generation games)? Really, I'm loving the fact that I don't even have to leave the apartment to get something like Geometry Wars or Smash TV(I will probably get that today), etc....and Sony and Nintendo will apparently have the same or similar options. So, will the easily scratched discs(the reason I've hated disc format for years) simply become a thing of the past?

Discuss.

[io]

i think it's great except for one cruicial flaw: no physical materials. when you download, there's no sense of owning anything(i.e., you can't put it on your shelf and call your own). maybe they could mail you out a case and manual later. i do like downloading the small arcade games on xbl, but for big games, i'd rather have the full buying experience

[Mr Mort]

i think it's great except for one cruicial flaw: no physical materials. when you download, there's no sense of owning anything(i.e., you can't put it on your shelf and call your own). maybe they could mail you out a case and manual later. i do like downloading the small arcade games on xbl, but for big games, i'd rather have the full buying experience


I agree. If I'm paying $50+ for a game, I want a physical copy of it. What if your HD/Console dies? You're screwed. I know Live keeps track of what games you've purchased, and lets you download them again if the game is deleted from your console, but what if you get another console? Do they charge you again to install the game on another console? If I have a physical copy of the game, I can bring it over to a friend's house and play it there without having to lug around my console/HD.

Also, digital distribution would single-handedly kill a precious hobby; video game collecting. What is there to collect? Data on your HD? No case, no manual, no disk/cartridge. The entire hobby would go up in smoke. Some collectors have hundreds of games for just one console. It is very unlikely that a collector would be able to download and store hundreds of games on one console HD. Not that console manufacturers would care about the video game-collecting minority, but it is a legit concern IMHO.

It would also kill the used game market. No more trading in your old games for money or store credit towards another game.

As already stated, digital distribution is great for smaller games and retro games, but for full-fledged console releases, I want the game on a physical medium. Not only does it give me a more solid sense of ownership, but more flexibility with what I choose to do with the game. If I'm paying a decent amount of money, I want to do whatever I want with the game, bring it to a friend's house, trade it in, etc.

[Mr_Punkus]

You guys seem to forgotten this little thing that businesses like to consider; It's called a profit margin. The reason software studios and console manufacturers like digital distribution (hereafter called dd) is becuas it cuts out a huge cost to them- the retailer, the disc manufacturer, the publisher. All of these would take a slice of the revenue, which will now be split between the studio and console company.
Why do you think M$ pushed Xbox live so hard? Not only do you pay them when you buy a game, now you pay them WHILE you play a game (and they get almost ALL the cash, rather than a percentage). I predict within 10 years the breakdown of brand new games sales will be 80% dd, 20% physical purchases.
However there will be considerable resistance by game retailers, who will not want to see thier main source of revenue being pulled out from underneath them. Microtransactions are already here: Want brand armor or quests or weapons for Obilvion? d/l them from xbox live. Gran Turismo 5 will only have 30 cars and a dozen tracks available; the rest will have to be d/l'ed from sony's xbox live equivalent.
The future of gaming is here, and it involves spending money to unlock content in games you already have paid for. :wasted:

[YellowS4]

Much more fun if you have a DL cap and can't buy it anywhere else but online streams. Good shit hahaha.

[SaBrE]

everyone has great points. i think much like how the music industry is nowadays, that physical copies and digital distribution can co-exist together. its really nice to have convenience of a new title to grab at home. it can suck going to the store to find out said games are sold out everywhere. plus digital distro can be used as a cheaper means for business and consumer. costs the publisher radically less money, hence, can release to the masses at a cheaper price.

but physical media cannot go away. lots of good reasons that were stated already, hobbyists, hard drive failure, having to lug around a whole console to play at friends house.

they need to co-exist

edit: retailers lose a ton of money due to software. its hard for a retailer to make good money off software alone. its only really gonna affect software only stores (eb, gamestop, etc...)

[HeaT]

so lets say that the hard drive does crash, you dont have to pay for the games again right??? that would redonculous, the only downside is redownloading them again...but that is like whatever to me...

im outi

Roberth

[Septimus Prime]

Micro-payment is the scariest "new" distribution method yet. It encourages content providers to lock you out of content that you need/want until you pay. I'm not big on slippery slope arguments, but I can definitely see this leading into the distribution of incomplete games, for which you'll be required to pay for patches and shit.

[GalzPanic]

Micro-payment is the scariest "new" distribution method yet. It encourages content providers to lock you out of content that you need/want until you pay. I'm not big on slippery slope arguments, but I can definitely see this leading into the distribution of incomplete games, for which you'll be required to pay for patches and shit.

No one should pay for patches that fix a buggy game. But would you pay random small amounts of money for new content in a game that you downloaded for free?

[Mavric]

I agree. If I'm paying $50+ for a game, I want a physical copy of it. What if your HD/Console dies? You're screwed. I know Live keeps track of what games you've purchased, and lets you download them again if the game is deleted from your console, but what if you get another console? Do they charge you again to install the game on another console? If I have a physical copy of the game, I can bring it over to a friend's house and play it there without having to lug around my console/HD.

Also, digital distribution would single-handedly kill a precious hobby; video game collecting. What is there to collect? Data on your HD? No case, no manual, no disk/cartridge. The entire hobby would go up in smoke. Some collectors have hundreds of games for just one console. It is very unlikely that a collector would be able to download and store hundreds of games on one console HD. Not that console manufacturers would care about the video game-collecting minority, but it is a legit concern IMHO.

It would also kill the used game market. No more trading in your old games for money or store credit towards another game.

As already stated, digital distribution is great for smaller games and retro games, but for full-fledged console releases, I want the game on a physical medium. Not only does it give me a more solid sense of ownership, but more flexibility with what I choose to do with the game. If I'm paying a decent amount of money, I want to do whatever I want with the game, bring it to a friend's house, trade it in, etc.

Hopefully with the increase in digital distibution the price of games will fall. I know that's being naive but without a physical product I'd hope they would be able to bring it down maybe even 10$ but I doubt it.

Digital will kill collecting of actual CDs/cartriges but that kind of stuff really is a thing of the past. In 100 years collecting anythig solid like that I bet will be forgotten about. But thas just how the future is going to move, I like it personally as I never was one for collecting papers and boxes.

As far as after market used games and the like. Companies hate them anyway as they mine as well be selling roms since they never see any of the profits. These stores will eventually be gone the way of an antuiqe shop in the future. Sad that you won't be able to get things cheaper, but like I said 1st parties won't care and their the ones making it in the first place.

Also no ones saying you can't then burn the game onto your own phyiscal medium, but I'm sure they will work on stoping that too. Once massive hard drives are small, portable, and afordible to everyone I reckon CDs and the like will be a thing of the past. I'd rather have everything on one single device then shelves and shelves of discs.

[xX_Deus_Xx]

"Phantom"

whatever happened to that console?

[Joseph-ijji]

Hopefully with the increase in digital distibution the price of games will fall. I know that's being naive but without a physical product I'd hope they would be able to bring it down maybe even 10$ but I doubt it.


Highly doubt as well.


Digital will kill collecting of actual CDs/cartriges but that kind of stuff really is a thing of the past. In 100 years collecting anythig solid like that I bet will be forgotten about. But thas just how the future is going to move, I like it personally as I never was one for collecting papers and boxes.

As far as after market used games and the like. Companies hate them anyway as they mine as well be selling roms since they never see any of the profits. These stores will eventually be gone the way of an antuiqe shop in the future. Sad that you won't be able to get things cheaper, but like I said 1st parties won't care and their the ones making it in the first place.

Also no ones saying you can't then burn the game onto your own phyiscal medium, but I'm sure they will work on stoping that too. Once massive hard drives are small, portable, and afordible to everyone I reckon CDs and the like will be a thing of the past. I'd rather have everything on one single device then shelves and shelves of discs.

I hate the whole anti-renting/used selling that companies are trying to do. If they really want people to buy the games, make better games or sell them for less.

The "all games on 1 tiny device" sounds pretty cool. The "license to play" is so weaksauce.

[Mr.Noodle]

whatever happened to that console?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_%28game_system%29

[Etcetera]

I hate the idea of digital distribution for the following reasons.
1) No physical media. I hate the physical distribution as it is now with pc games. No cases, just cheap white sleeves, no instruction manual, just a pdf on the disc, and to think they wnat to remove more. It just fells so cheap to not have that tangible products, with something official that will last as time goes by, I would have just got the pirated version.

2) Cost. The price of the game will be no different and even worst, it will stay like that. With a B&M store, after a certain amount of time, they will lower the price to make some room for other stuff or whatever. There will be no need for any price cuts with digital distribution. Buying Half Life 2 through Steam is always going to be more expensive than picking it up at a store and if everyone did it, it would just be more of the same.

3) Lifespan. If a company closes it doors, that would mean that game is almost lost forever except for those that bought it before. That is assuming nothing goes wrong and none of the information and/or data is lost for them to play.

I like the feeling of "owning" something that I paid for. The same reason I will never download an mp3 off itunes or pay for a pron subscription online is the same reason I don't support digital distribution. It would take a lot of convincing for me to pay full price for chucks of information that took nothing more to get to me more than copying data.

[Joseph-ijji]

I hate the idea of digital distribution for the following reasons.
1) No physical media. I hate the physical distribution as it is now with pc games. No cases, just cheap white sleeves, no instruction manual, just a pdf on the disc, and to think they wnat to remove more. It just fells so cheap to not have that tangible products, with something official that will last as time goes by, I would have just got the pirated version.

2) Cost. The price of the game will be no different and even worst, it will stay like that. With a B&M store, after a certain amount of time, they will lower the price to make some room for other stuff or whatever. There will be no need for any price cuts with digital distribution. Buying Half Life 2 through Steam is always going to be more expensive than picking it up at a store and if everyone did it, it would just be more of the same.

3) Lifespan. If a company closes it doors, that would mean that game is almost lost forever except for those that bought it before. That is assuming nothing goes wrong and none of the information and/or data is lost for them to play.

I like the feeling of "owning" something that I paid for. The same reason I will never download an mp3 off itunes or pay for a pron subscription online is the same reason I don't support digital distribution. It would take a lot of convincing for me to pay full price for chucks of information that took nothing more to get to me more than copying data.

Yeah, I generally agree, although all my games on one little box that I could carry around sounds cool. I'm all for doing what I want with what I paid for, minus making copies that I could share, of course.

[Darkstalker]

Micro-payment is the scariest "new" distribution method yet. It encourages content providers to lock you out of content that you need/want until you pay. I'm not big on slippery slope arguments, but I can definitely see this leading into the distribution of incomplete games, for which you'll be required to pay for patches and shit.

Isn't Oblivion doing something like this as far as modding goes?

[Scorpio_G]

I agree. If I'm paying $50+ for a game, I want a physical copy of it. What if your HD/Console dies? You're screwed. I know Live keeps track of what games you've purchased, and lets you download them again if the game is deleted from your console, but what if you get another console? Do they charge you again to install the game on another console? If I have a physical copy of the game, I can bring it over to a friend's house and play it there without having to lug around my console/HD.

Also, digital distribution would single-handedly kill a precious hobby; video game collecting. What is there to collect? Data on your HD? No case, no manual, no disk/cartridge. The entire hobby would go up in smoke. Some collectors have hundreds of games for just one console. It is very unlikely that a collector would be able to download and store hundreds of games on one console HD. Not that console manufacturers would care about the video game-collecting minority, but it is a legit concern IMHO.

It would also kill the used game market. No more trading in your old games for money or store credit towards another game.

As already stated, digital distribution is great for smaller games and retro games, but for full-fledged console releases, I want the game on a physical medium. Not only does it give me a more solid sense of ownership, but more flexibility with what I choose to do with the game. If I'm paying a decent amount of money, I want to do whatever I want with the game, bring it to a friend's house, trade it in, etc.

I havent read the full thread but I will in a moment. But if you go to Zone.com or Shockwave.com you'll see a lot of the questions you have have been answered. :)

There's a lot of downloadable games, mostly puzzle/action games that you can download. You play on a limited trial run and you can get the game when you pay 19.95. You'l recieve a code in your E-mail that you can print and keep for your records.

IMO I think this could be a way for independent gamers to create fun, interesting games that would have not survived if they were competing in the mainstream market. Like Dinner Dash II and Puzzle Pirates which has over a hundred thousand people who bought the full version of both games, not to mention it's a good, balanced, game.

[Obkb]

Well, enter: The new generation.

The generation of our children shall look upon us as primitive barbarians running around with our bulky cds as we curse the world for their new digital media while struggling to comprehend the new hand-ball keypad controller that appears to hook up to nothing at all.

We shall gather late at nights reminiscing about the days when things made sense.

If only we could get our parents to understand computers and DVD players.

[Joseph-ijji]

Yeah, the bottom line might be the fact that things change. But they don't always change for the better sheeyitt

[Septimus Prime]

Well, enter: The new generation.

The generation of our children shall look upon us as primitive barbarians running around with our bulky cds as we curse the world for their new digital media while struggling to comprehend the new hand-ball keypad controller that appears to hook up to nothing at all.

We shall gather late at nights reminiscing about the days when things made sense.

If only we could get our parents to understand computers and DVD players.
Thanks to DRM, our kids won't have shit come their time.