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Is Digital Distribution the future?
Zerokku
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Looking around at gaming currently, and what it seems to be trending towards, I have to wonder if digital distribution is the future. We see all kind of downloadable content in the form of mini-games, arcade games, even retro classics on all kinds of different consoles. But I almost see it trending towards full games as well. Many PC games are now available just by paying a fee online and downloading straight to your computer, no need to worry about CD's or the like.
What I'm wondering is if this will make it's way to our consoles or not. Looking at some of the TGS news about the PSP -
I get the feeling that this may just be the case. Digital distribution as the standard may be what we're headed towards. Maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit here, but I'm just going with my impressions =P
So what do you guys think of it? Would you prefer to just be able to download whatever games you wanted to your consoles, or do you like having a hard copy? What do you think the pros and cons of both are?
What I'm wondering is if this will make it's way to our consoles or not. Looking at some of the TGS news about the PSP -
There were a few interesting pieces of Sony news announced.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/31980/TGS-All-PSP-games-to-be-downloadableSony has confirmed that all of its future UMD PSP titles will be released simultaneously for download on the upcoming PSP Store – which, incidentally, has been given a Japanese launch date of October 15th.
CVG reports that SCEJ’s Destroy All Heroes 2 will be the first title to be made available for download in conjunction with its retail release on October 15th. Other titles already confirmed for the dual policy include Secret Agent Clank, LocoRoco 2 and Resistance: Retribution.
However, despite the ongoing criticism levelled at UMD, and recent moves from third party publishers to bypass the UMD market, Sony has so far remained committed to the format.
In other PSP news, Pocket Gamer reports that Sony has also stated that it plans to introduce Dualshock 3 support for the PSP, meaning gamers will be able to wirelessly link up their PS3 joypad to the machine. The first title to support the feature will be Resistance: Retribution – which is, unsurprisingly, a first person shooter.
I get the feeling that this may just be the case. Digital distribution as the standard may be what we're headed towards. Maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit here, but I'm just going with my impressions =P
So what do you guys think of it? Would you prefer to just be able to download whatever games you wanted to your consoles, or do you like having a hard copy? What do you think the pros and cons of both are?
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It may be awhile, thanks to telecoms and Gamestop, but it will take over eventually.
Ironically I don't want to buy any of these games till I know I can remove the drm. (Was the same way about the music on the apple store)
(I found a tool that is supposed to remove the drm from psp games, I've been meaning to try it on beats which I bought for this very purpose but haven't yet, but seems like it should work)
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
I disagree that It's a minority, I would say it's a majority of people that want a physical media not that Digital Distribution will not get bigger but it's not the minority like your saying.
It's gonna take a long time for Digital Distribution to take over anyway especially because of telecoms but It will eventually take over but I wouldn't say it will take over anytime in the next 5-10 years though each year it will get bigger and bigger but there will always be a place for physical media.
Internet connection speed - If you're going to be filling a bluray disc with content, that's 25 or 50GB, which is a pretty big download investment. People are going to have to be able to download those games FAST for instant gratification. Who wants to wait around for a day to download that stuff when you can go to the store and get it now?
Hard Drive space: at 250GB, you can only store 10 games until you run out of space. Sure, you can redownload, but that takes hours when you want to just play it now.
DRM: There is a segment of the market that wants DRM removal to be proven before they jump into digital distribution. So far we have seen that when a company decides they don't want to support a DRM scheme any more (e.g. Plays for Sure) the people who bought that content get fucked. We have to see a proven instance of companies unlocking their games when the go out of business before that segment will trust it. You can still put your NES games in the machine and play them. Will this be true for downloadable games on current systems 25 years from now?
Next topic?
Phew. Dodged the bullet there.
The children want digital distribution.
Yes it is (as long as everyone can get broadband).
I've bought a few PSP games from the PSN store, and the way it works is that the games are linked to an online account, so you can redownload/reinstall as many times as you want, and I would think on as many of your PSPs as you want. I haven't really tried it on multiple PSPs, though.
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
give them a sense of pride
maybe in G&T, but if you asked your average game player if he could buy Madden from the comfort of his couch with the guarantee that he can download it anytime he wants, I bet the results would surprise you.
I use to love opening up manuals and going over them. All the little backstorys for the enemies and weapons was always a nice touch.
Next question. I'm hammering these out tonight, give me something like finding a cure for cancer to really challenge my totemic intellect.
Also remember that large chunks of the world have pretty restrictive bandwidth caps, making downloading any number of games digitally not feasible.
And when you tell the average Madden player that he can't trade in his digital copy for credit on next year's Madden, what do you think he says?
Wipeout HD, Castle Crashers, Penny Arcade Adventures, Mega Man 9, , perfect for download. For the most part, anything under 10gb, I'd go with a download, given the choice.
As a rule, the less *stuff* taking up space in my place, the better. I own a small home, so everything that takes up extra space here has to earn its keep. Digitally distributed games take up effectively zero space, so they have a HUGE advantage right there.
And since decent game designers build in a great tutorial/prologue level in their games these days (except you, MGS4), I've barely touched a manual this console generation.
At least for me, and many people I know, not having to drive to the store and pick up a disc plus never having to swap the disc is worth the $10 tradeoff :P
While it might happen in the future I don't forsee it happening anytime soon at all. I like my physical copies. Besides, half of my daily exercise is getting up to change discs.
I love digital distribution because, living in Canda, stores like to fuck me on the exchange rate.
Steam, however, loves me.
Knows how to treat a gamer.
Knows how to please a gamer.
Storage is cheap now, and there's no reason to keep 25 games store on a hard drive when you can download them any time you want.
Agreed. Storage isn't an issue at all, but bandwidth is. I wouldn't want to wait 2 days to download Metal Gear Solid 4. I wouldn't mind a couple hours to download a game like Fable II.
Storage is cheap, until you look at the cost of the 360 HDD, or how stupid nintendo is with the internet. And I don't want to have to download a 10GB game if I decide I want to play it 3 months later.
Well in some ways, the expected 'diminishing returns' that we're going to start seeing could be a good thing. We've all heard the stories about how games now require so much more time, money and effort to produce the same length and depth that we've come to expect, so I would guess that unless we get any major breakthroughs in game production, the actual amount of data required isn't going to keep rising as much as it has been. Assuming storage and bandwidth increases over the next few years, it should be more feasible for full titles to be released as downloads.
This obviously takes a lot of assumptions and throws it together with some speculation.
meh, I download and delete 7-8GB games on STEAM fairly often, and it's not really a pain. Some thinking ahead is required, but it's much more convenient than spending time with the unwashed masses in Gamestop or swapping discs :P
The sticking point is availability of bandwidth, but it's hard to deny that we're much better getting data off a hard drive than we are a plastic disc and I think even with download times taken into account, people will prefer to deal with that than retarded long load times.
You also need to consider that a lot of ( Most? ) company DD schemes place limits on how long or how many times you can "re-download" your purchase. At which point backing up becomes quite an important issue as well, and it's going to take a while before Blu-Ray burners become sufficiently ubiquitous to make that feasible.
You've then also got to consider that even companies like Nintendo have been saying that DD schemes won't be replacing retail in importance, at least not any time soon.
I think DD is progressing, but there are still plenty of limiting factors. I definitely can't see it becoming the dominant force next generation. Maybe a generation or two later when there's better connectivity and companies are more flexible with their DD schemes (assuming they decide to go that way, goodness knows they've refused to take the opportunity so far). Otherwise in general, retail still holds quite a few advantages over DD right now.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sanyo-blu-ray-laser,6456.html
Keep in mind that the PS3 is only a 2X.
This is Nintendo you're talking about, the company with the least functional online play and digital distribution systems out of the three of them, of course they don't want to encourage it.
you're surprised a company who still doesn't really understand online functions isn't going to replace brick and mortar with digital distribution?
I wouldnt say Nintendo is incapable of doing online, I mean they could just throw a billion dollars at someone to do it for them, its that they have such diametrically different purposes for their stuff than the rest that it is often perceived as broken.
Smash brothers works fine. It really does. I can play online and stuff. It could be better, a lot better. But its their first online system, while most other manufacturers were doing it years ago.
Like Sega.
With the Dreamcast.
With cross platform multiplayer in like 2001.
Irrespective of how you feel about their online connectivity, they're still arguably an incredibly important player in the console market. Considering how important they are, them saying they don't want to go that path is also another slowdown to the adoption of DD in general.
Or to put it another way, if Nintendo were pushing DD in a big way, I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see it overtaking retail the very next generation.
Still hurts?
I'd love to hear that argument