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Will 8th generation consoles reverse the optical media trend?
Buttcleft
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Registered User regular
We saw it years ago, how cartridge based games,despite superior load times, were phased out in favor of optical mediums due to increased storage capacity
First CDs, theen DVDs, and now Blu-Ray media being used to ship our precious games to us.
But with the falling prices of non-volatile memory at ever increasing capacities, Will we see a return to high access speed cartridge based gaming in thee 8th generation of console gaming?
Granted, even as cheap as flash memory is, its probably still cheaper to stamp out optical discs, but if they went back to cartridge games wouldn't the economy of scale help narrow that gap?
In the next console generation, What, if anything, is stopping a return to the classic cartridge, considering that the next console generation is still quite a ways away and allows enough room for them to work on any potential issues with using flash memory or a similar non-volatile storage medium?
First CDs, theen DVDs, and now Blu-Ray media being used to ship our precious games to us.
But with the falling prices of non-volatile memory at ever increasing capacities, Will we see a return to high access speed cartridge based gaming in thee 8th generation of console gaming?
Granted, even as cheap as flash memory is, its probably still cheaper to stamp out optical discs, but if they went back to cartridge games wouldn't the economy of scale help narrow that gap?
In the next console generation, What, if anything, is stopping a return to the classic cartridge, considering that the next console generation is still quite a ways away and allows enough room for them to work on any potential issues with using flash memory or a similar non-volatile storage medium?
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I haven't seen any big hollywood studios doing it yet, but some porn producers are selling flash drives with videos pre-loaded on them.
You can't scratch a cartridge, but would we go back to blowing our games like in the NES days?
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Home consoles dont need carts as much for things like load times because they can just install discs onto hard drives while keeping games on cheaper disc media. Would it be better than carts, I dont know, but it wont be worth the trouble to them so we wont find out.
That was a problem with the 72pin connector in the NES, not with the game itself.
I get a sense of nostalgia everytime I do this with a DS game, and come on it is not as bad as a scratched disk...
Retailers hate that sort of shit.
I can't imagine we'll see a move away from optical media either. At least not for Microsoft and Sony's offering. Excluding backwards compatibility both the PS3 and 360 have been touted for their media functionality, I imagine this will continue in to the next gen.
As for using flash memory? I guess it's a possibility. I just can't imagine they'll drop an optical drive.
Nintendo's next console though? Maybe.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Digital distribution is the way it's going to go, from every perspective that is not GameStop or Walmart (and the former has been preparing for this for years). In fact, I'd say a large reason we haven't seen the 8th generation yet has more to do with the uncomfortable choice of cutting the retailer out entirely, or continuing to support a storage medium whose purpose has been all but negated at this point.
Of course I'm sure all parties involved are scared shitless of how the consumer might respond if buying physical copies of a game in stores suddenly went away, and rightly so.
Most people (at present anyway) in the UK have a pretty standard broadband connection with a fair usage cap. This likely doesn't extend much beyond 20gb, sometimes less. 3 games and you could be over your months limit. Not to mention Australia, don't they have ridiculous bandwidth limits?
I don't think things will improve by the time the next run of consoles come out, even if that is 5 years or so.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Honestly, fuck them.
Yes. They are so terrible for making to want money.
Fuckin' businesses. Tryin' to make money. Makes me fucking sick.
Anyway I won't give a shit about Digital Distribution until they lower the price of the games involved. You're not selling through the retailers anymore. There's no reason that a new completely digital release should cost as much as a physical copy.
Besides greed.
I can (usually) find physical copies of a game considerably cheaper than I can get them digitally (360 + PS3, Steam is amazing).
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
After the ordeal I went through trying to find a disc copy of DCUO in store, only to find out that neither of the Wal-Marts or Target around me even stocked it a week after release, I'm inclined to agree with this statement. Retailers can go to hell.
That said, I don't think that DD adoption is quite up to where it needs to be for it to be the sole offering of how to get games. I could possibly see flash storage being used as a retail alternative. Basically, you can buy your game online through DD if you choose, or you can go to the store, and pick up a thumb drive preloaded with said game from your local Gamestop/Walmart/Fry's/etc. Then you just bring it home and install it to your console, same as what the person who bought it digitally did.
In the process of installing it, it also removes it from the flash drive. Upon first boot-up, it locks it to the console so you can't pull it back off again, thus removing the used game market. Sure, this could pose a problem to rental places, but if you really think about it, PC gaming has dealt with this problem since its inception.
I don't think any console manufacturer would want to stop selling games physically any time soon either.
Hard to imagine Sony not wanting to continue pushing blu ray (specifically 3D blu ray) with its next console.
Not a clue what MS or Nintendo will do. Stick with DVDs probably.
I could see, perhaps, a move to make it so all games are available digitally, not just select few.
This is all I heard
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Publishers love selling games to people. Including people without the internet connections to efficiently download increasingly larger games.
EDIT: In other words, what Rakai said.
Right now game prices drop because game sales slow and retailers want to empty their warehouses. Retailers compete with each other selling the same games, and they have to buy stock in advance (not knowing how many copies they'll sell). All of these things will be eliminated in a digital distribution future.
So yea, expect games to cost $60+ years after release in the future.
The only reason we probably won't get digital distribution-only systems next gen is there's a lot of people that still don't buy games digitally. They'd be cutting their market share short.
But yea, the cost of manufacture of cartridge systems will probably be far too inefficient to ever catch on again.
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That is also a concern.
Doesn't that depend on how the DD model works on a console? When I buy Mass Effect 2 via PSN EA is still the publisher so, in theory, they have a say in how much their game costs. As long as there are multiple consoles and development houses that aren't owned by those consoles' manufacturers we _should_ still be able to see competition in regards to pricing.
But until the majority of consumers have access to fast reliable internet service (with reasonable/no download limits) it won't replace retail. Simple as that.
Yes, if you have an awesome unlimited download-high speed connection you are in the minority.
Well it has seemed to me so far that the console maker has much more power over how these games are ultimately distributed than the publishers. Take the free content certain developers have wanted to release on the platforms, or the uniform pricing on games on these services.
I do think publishers might be able to get some kind of deals going on with the platform holder, but the platform holder wouldn't want to piss off other publishers. If EA wanted to sell their games for $30 each, Activision might have a harder time selling their games for $60.
I think the only hope would be Sony, MS, and Nintendo competing on the prices of games on their service, and it wouldn't serve any of them to get into a price war.
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Except that isn't true now with digital distribution, even in closed systems like PSN and XBLA.
Digital download games go on sale all the time without a surplus of physical inventory to spur those sales.
Just ask the Steam thread.
Much as they don't want to admit the console companies are still too reliant on physical distribution and the high street to make the jump so quickly
Steam has competition (both other online services AND retail) and isn't comparable to the services on a future console that would have no alternative. Remember, I'm talking about a NO GAMES IN RETAIL future. The sales on services like XBLA aren't really impressive in comparison. Plants vs Zombies was on sale on XBLA recently for $10, but look how much cheaper it's been on Steam.
I won't say it would be impossible for game prices to drop if a game maker thinks they'll get more sales by reducing the price later on or having a temporary sale, but I'm afraid that won't necessarily happen in most cases. It won't be anything like today where many games drop in price by 1/6th after a year.
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That, and retailers like Amazon.com not only match (and frequently beat) Steam's sales (sometimes by ridiculous amounts, like Mass Effect 2's price). Of course, they have to compete with being 2 or 3 days from delivery, versus waiting through a download.
They have the added advantage of having a large selection that Steam doesn't (though the reverse is true as well), though that's a gap that could shrink on Steam's part (or maybe not). But this only on the PC side of the equation.
The first three shopping results from Google show me that I can get it for $20 on 360, $15 on PS3, or $24 on PC. When I lose the ability to sell the game back, the ability to lend the game to a friend, and an honest-to-God instruction manual, there is no reason for the price to be double what an Internet browser and a few keystrokes can get me.
Just for the sake of example--Steam wants $29.99 for Assassin's Creed 2. Of course, that could go down on a sale, but...it just as easily go down in price online too. So it's a 50% rise or more, with resell being made a non-issue because of (I assume) things like keys and limited installations.
While it varies from game to game, Steam will still have to consistently lower their prices a bit more to completely supplant retailers, I suspect. For the sake of example, Amazon.com has it for $27.48. And that's still on the more expensive side (Amazon merchants are selling it for $21).
Other sellers seem pretty comfortable beating Steam price-wise. And I don't think Steam's anywhere near knocking out Amazon.com (or other things) from PC gaming, from what I can tell.
Maybe the generation after this next wave, but that would be the soonest.
Download limits are for backwards countries. I mean, I hear about this all the time from Brits and Aussies but this not an impediment for GAMERS in the US.
If any future consoles shift to a primarily digital distribution method of game sales, then I'm pretty sure prices won't drop as quickly as they do now.
That's a far cry from claiming that under such a scenario that games would remain full price for years after release. Because there are a whole lot of incentives for publishers to gradually lower the price of digital downloads that have nothing to do with used copies or inventory concerns.
Console sellers have no intention of just "swearing off" potential customers because they have slow or irregular internet service. Same goes for publishers. Hell, even PC game publishers aren't jumping on board for that at the moment.
And while services might be getting better--not necessarily though (in the South US, there are lots of gamers, but ISP services frequently have monopolies or near-monopolies, even where people own their homes), games are certainly getting larger.
Internet support in different countries is so weird. Half the time you hear your country has it the worst, then other times you hear that other people are getting the short end of the stick.
I want that to be true. I really do. But DD shops need to stop touting "convenience" as a factor. I already drive by and to shops that sell games. It is not inconvenient to pick up a game from the electronics section of Target when I'm already there to buy socks, bread, Vanilla Coke, and a LEGO kit. They want people to bite on DD? They're going to have to lower their prices.
Until DD is dominant - then I think we won't see prices lower hardly at all. They'll look at that 10 year old build of ME2 and say "you know what, that's still a good game - $60!" And if XBLM is my only choice since the next Xbox is pure DD then I'm either paying 4800 moonbux or I'm not playing the game.
Is it different in the northern US? I honestly had no idea. I'd always assumed the whole country was screwed over this way, with the cable companies clearly dividing up the residential areas to avoid competition, and likewise basically only one choice for DSL.
ISPs are almost always a near-monopoly. I can either pay $50/month to Comcast for 6mbps or $50/month to Qwest for 7mbps. And you can't get either of those prices unless you bundle so to switch from Comcast to Qwest I'd have to drop cable for satellite, Vonage for Qwest landline, and (clearly) Comcast cable internet for Qwest DSL. I have no desire to ever have a landline phone again and I don't want satellite TV so my only real choice for halfway affordable Internet access is Comcast.
I could see consoles using a Steam like system where the discs are purely for installation and all games require registration as a step before going download only. Publishers get to kill used games sales and stores get to keep selling games.