All-Digital Shift Coming Up Fast?

It's what Netflix did to Blockbuster. It's why GameStop is currently conducting an internal study to determine how to adapt to the new market condition when digital delivery begins to take over. Analysts have said it's a good ten years off but even if that's an accurate estimate, it's not very long...and look at what has already happened.

You know, when they first started dabbling in delivering full video games digitally on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live services, we started with the likes of Flow. That was about four years ago and now, full digital titles such as Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Blacklight: Tango Down prove just how far digital delivery has come; the latter isn't even very good, but the technical aspects are almost good enough to confuse it with a full $60 production. Of course, when I say "almost," it's still true that the remaining gap is noticeable. However, what they've managed to give us in a digital file over the Internet has increased drastically in terms of completeness and quality.

And that's not all. Has anyone noticed how much faster things are going? When I first got the PS3, it took about 50 minutes to download a 745MB demo for Resistance: Fall of Man. Now, I can download double that size in about 45 minutes. It's just getting faster and faster. It's why 2GB or more files don't bother me much; I remember the 1GB Heavenly Sword demo in 2007, which took 1 hour, 10 minutes; now, I can grab a gig in probably 30-35 minutes. I'm not sure if anyone has noticed this because they might not have been downloading anything off the PSN in 2006 or 2007 but trust me, I notice. I notice all the time. I know how we always say, "oh well, what about a 40GB game like MGS4." Yes, we're too far away from doing that realistically but not anywhere near as far as we once were...

I do have one question, though: as gaming gets better, won't the size of games also get bigger? Will it be a race to see how much faster we can ramp up Internet speeds before games have to take another step in size? Personally, and I've said this before, I'm very much against the digital shift because I like my physical, tangible game collection, and having a bunch of files on a screen is hardly the same thing. I also like the whole process of getting a shiny new game, box and manual and everything. Perhaps I'm a dinosaur, but whatever. The point is, I think a lot of people haven't really noticed how quickly things have advanced.

10/29/2010 Ben Dutka

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Comments (104 posts)

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Snaaaake
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 9:42:16 PM
Reply

Downloading speed is getting faster indeed but that's only in the US.
I hope publishers remember that there are gamers everywhere else aside from the US, Japan and Europe.
Even the Hot Pursuit demo took a couple of hours for me.

Last edited by Snaaaake on 10/29/2010 9:42:43 PM

4 up, 0 down

Akuma07
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 1:39:15 AM

Yes, exactly. Australia is one of the worst.

@Ben
Still, having to sit around and wait 30 minutes to download your game, isnt very convenient, when you could drive 10 minutes down the road and pick it up and be back home before that 30 minutes.

And yes, as games get better, they get bigger, and the bigger they get, the harder it would be to download them.

The internet isnt ready. The world isnt ready.

5 up, 1 down

JackC8
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 9:38:43 AM

I just started downloading the Undead Nightmare DLC for Red Dead Redemption. Says it's going to take 90 minutes, and that's on a 25 Mbps connection. Oh, I'd just LOVE to download the entire game.

1 up, 0 down

Beamboom
Monday, November 01, 2010 @ 12:05:39 PM

How fast you download a file is really a local question, and not directly related to psn but rather your net connection, network distance and capacity of the file server.

Here in Oslo, Norway a 1gb download on the psn is usually a matter of a few minutes (with one exception - borderlands expansions are always *incredibly* slow). I guess the psn fileserver for our region is close. Not more dramatic than that.

Last edited by Beamboom on 11/1/2010 12:07:51 PM

0 up, 0 down

NoSmokingBandit
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:02:13 PM
Reply

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Keep your DRM off my games!

5 up, 1 down

Lawless SXE
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:03:27 PM

Less 'O's please. We don't want anyone breaking the page again.

4 up, 0 down

frylock25
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:06:51 PM

well its seems he only broke his comment and not the page... call it borderline.

3 up, 0 down

Highlander
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 12:01:19 AM

Dude, the PS3 is bathed in DRM, it's nearly the most secure platform on record. The only way you can have a workable digital marketplace is to have DRM in place to protect publishers against piracy.

3 up, 0 down

NoSmokingBandit
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 10:11:57 AM

Obvious much?
Of course an online store has to have DRM, thats why i dont want every game to move to the store. I want to own my games, not some vaguely worded ability to play them as long as Sony feels like letting me. We are going to move into an era where the customer owns nothing and the corporations can dictate how everything can be used or they'll just take it back.

3 up, 1 down

Highlander
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 9:14:11 PM

Sorry, I didn't mean to be Captain Obvious...

There are ways to make it (Digital delivery) work for the customer, but the technology isn't there yet. When you and I can carry around a credit card sized device that contains several TB of storage that can be read and written and very high speed and is coded specifically to us to prevent someone else from using it. When that kind of technology is available at a reasonable cost, then I will be content with an all digital market place. I'd be content with it because I will be able to download my content to a physical thing I own that can be backed up. I suspect that content providers would be happy too since the storage devices would be encrypted and coded in such a way that only the owner can access them, so the games, movies, music and whatever else is protected against being copied.

I think that like truly high speed Internet, that is a long way off. I like the idea of a digital market place once the technology is there to support it properly.

0 up, 0 down

Lawless SXE
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:02:37 PM
Reply

Well, they've started rolling out the fibre-optic cable here in Australia, and that should offer a rather ridiculous boost in download speeds and hel pto push us that little bit further into a digital world. It could be a good thing, or it could be a bad thing.

But honestly, I want my games to stay in stores, like you Ben. I don't like the idea of just typing something into the internet and having it, but at the same not. It's the same for anything really. I don't like it not being there, if you know what I mean. Oh well, I suppose we must bow before inevitability or be snapped like twigs.
Peace.

1 up, 0 down

Killa Tequilla
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:10:08 PM

Feber Optic.
Verizon?

0 up, 0 down

Lawless SXE
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:18:20 PM

The government's NBN... I don't know if there is a provider attached to it or if it's open to all.
Peace.

0 up, 0 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:26:46 PM

Bend with the wind or snap like branches?

0 up, 0 down

Lawless SXE
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:35:54 PM

Precisely World.

0 up, 0 down

Underdog15
Tuesday, November 02, 2010 @ 3:24:50 PM

@Lawless
In canada they've started with Fiber Optics in new sub-divisions. There have not been any replacements of cable though.

0 up, 0 down

frylock25
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:05:43 PM
Reply

i like downloading things from the store but i still want my full games on an actual disc physical media. i like to have something physical i can know that i will have years down the road. play it where i want when i want. not locked by some copy-write crap.

2 up, 1 down

Geobaldi
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:07:56 PM
Reply

Download speeds have gotten faster. I remember the good old days of trying to download stuff on a 56k modem. Now that was painful lol. Seeing as how the last two years or so, I've bought more digital games than actual physical copies, I have embraced the technological shift to a more digital medium. Thanks primarily to Steam and Netflix.

0 up, 0 down

Killa Tequilla
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:08:45 PM
Reply

Same here, I like my shinny new Blu-Ray disks. I would never like to download.

1 up, 0 down

CH1N00K
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:14:44 PM
Reply

We're dangerously close to becoming the old guys in the gaming world....

Pretty soon we'll be sitting in the corner staring at our old flat screen 2d TV's saying things like,

" Kids these days, they don't know how easy they've got it! Back in my day we had to walk a entire block to get to a Gamestop and buy my games! In snow up to my knees, uphill both ways!"

5 up, 0 down

Geobaldi
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:23:00 PM

I still remember how cool it was to actually have a game delivered to my door in the mail for the first time lol.

5 up, 0 down

BikerSaint
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:41:07 PM

"Kids these days, they don't know how easy they've got it!

Back in my day.....we had to walk 5 miles, in giant shoe-shoes, through a land mine field, in a raging blizzard.....

.....just to get a shiny plastic cartridge.

Last edited by BikerSaint on 10/29/2010 10:47:31 PM

3 up, 0 down

Temjin001
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:18:10 PM
Reply

I think Sony will have to come up with a different solution for the mass distribution of digitally delivered content. They don't want the storage for their bigger games compromised just to accommodate bandwidth friendly customers.

Believe it, or not, I remember reading about a year ago, or so, when Sony was still on the drawing board about the PS3-slim, they had some plans cooking to release a PS3 without a HDD. Instead, it would use a network based storage device that would stream from servers.

Ultimately, this idea got scrapped. But I think this concept isn't too far away. And I wouldn't be surprised if we see the next round of video-game consoles with something like this as a foundation. The benefit to this is being able to ditch the HDD. The HDD, itself, is one of the most expensive components in a video-game console and a manufacturer would love to ditch that component in order to significantly drop it's price (see Arcade 360).

Google, recently, announced their up and coming Chrome OS. A network based operating system that is entirely HDD free. This whole Cloud networking idea is the buzz within the development community and I think this is where things are headed for all things digital.

1 up, 0 down

Geobaldi
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:28:12 PM

That's basically what On-Live is. Now that it's up and running you can stream and play games on most PC's without installing them and not having to worry about hardware requirements. Though the selection is very limited currently. I'm guessing it's only a matter of time before consoles start doing the same in some capacity or another.

0 up, 0 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:28:41 PM

There's OnLive, but it doesn't work for crap.

1 up, 0 down

Temjin001
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:37:59 PM

No, OnLIVE is actually different than what SOny had in mind and what I'm talking about.

There's a difference between running a game off of servers and accessing game data off a network drive. The processing in my example would still be happening from a piece of hardware in your living room.

OnLive streams EVERYTHING from the network to your display. This creates all kinds of latency concerns and I don't think something like this will be a reality for the majority of the public. It's just too unreliable.

But to have packets of data stream into the RAM while you play the game from a network is much more feasible and reliable. You may not know this, but many PS3 games tend to stream data from the BD-ROM while you play your game. This cuts down on loading screens. Some games do it so well there's virtually no loading.

Last edited by Temjin001 on 10/29/2010 10:39:06 PM

0 up, 0 down

Akuma07
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 1:48:06 AM

I won't, wouldn't and never will, store ANY of my data on ANY format, on ANYTHING other than my very own HDD sitting in my bedroom computer.

The End.

2 up, 1 down

Temjin001
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 10:39:22 AM

Akuma, the concept here is more about ROM data. Basically, what would normally be accessed off of a disk in realtime would instead be accessed from a network drive. It doesn't mean there wouldn't be some kind of on-board flash-memory for storing your save files and personal settings.

Maybe this sort of thing may be years, even decades away, but it does look like the direction things are headed.
I also don't think there'll be a hard division in this anytime soon. THat is, I would assume we'd see something similar to the PSP-3000/PSPgo setup. Imagine if there was an option for a disk based/network console, and just a disc-less network solution, but the latter is at half the console price. The consumer could choose if they'd like to pay less on the hardware just to have network streaming.

0 up, 0 down

Highlander
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 9:16:52 PM

@Akuma07

In that case, you better make sure that your HDDs are mirrored and backed up regularly because when that HDD in your room fails, you are totally screwed otherwise.

Having lost a big drive before, I can tell you from experience that it is not a good feeling to realize that your HDD is toast, and your backups are non existent at best.

2 up, 0 down

Beamboom
Monday, November 01, 2010 @ 12:15:04 PM

To say that the hdd is one of the most expensive components in a console is pure bs, sorry. Just look at the hd-prices and you can calculate the price drop without a hdd...

0 up, 0 down

Pandacastro
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:21:20 PM
Reply

I dont want this to happen.No physical copy means no collectors edition.

7 up, 1 down

SvenMD
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 6:18:12 AM

Which loses alot of money for publishers, another reason they shouldn't go all digital.

4 up, 0 down

BikerSaint
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:29:40 PM
Reply

I don't know well enough to talk about the change in speed from the PSN, just because I've downloaded anything from there 2 times, and both times it was for a "1-day only" timed event where they game Flow away free & Rag Doll Kung-Fu was free too

But
once the game's industry goes totally digital the serious gaming collectoers like myself, are screwd. And for me that's the end of any new gaming collections for me.

I'll just concentrate all my collection efforts on older used games from the SNEs, up to what the consoles are at the just before disc format go's totally extinct.

And all the games in my collection will forever stay as physical discs and carts.

"Just say No" to fugly flash drive collections.

"Retro gaming forever FTW"

2 up, 1 down

sirbob6
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:33:17 PM
Reply

I wouldn't really mind the download for most things. I find it easy and intuitive. However I would like a solid copy on some large single player games and such. Also I can't download anything really due to a slower connection and a 5GB cap.

0 up, 0 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:34:07 PM
Reply

It could be coming up fast but I'm glad we have blu ray in the mean time. The dummies over at MS still think Blu Ray is pointless because it will all be digital like tomorrow.

My three biggest problems are, first obviously I also need a physical collection. I like to own it for real, have a big ol bunch of boxes on my shelf, and I enjoy the art and manuals and stuff as part of my purchase. The trip to a store, cracking open a new case. Good times.

Second, the used game market dies. Sure Gamestop will die too, but it will allow the console makers to charge full price for every game FOREVER like they do with PSP downloads. I won't be able to hit up ebay to get a game cheap (And many of those aren't used but new, just cheap)

Third, this opens the door for console-specific hard drives (like the 360 already has) where you HAVE to buy a bunch of hard drives to play your game collection and they can charge whatever they want for them cuz you need em.

Ugh, the whole idea makes me sick.

5 up, 1 down

Gordo
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 4:40:06 AM

I remember fondly the days when you got a game home from the shops and it came in a massive box, with a fold out map and a 200 page user manual and novella...

I miss those days... I don't want to be looking up a manual electronic in the game. I want it sitting there next to me and reading it on the train thinking about the game...

Anticipation!

That's why the Demon's Souls BP edition with guide is such a good buy!

1 up, 0 down

Lawless SXE
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 6:08:52 AM

Haha... Demon's Souls Black Phantom Edition... as soon as I walked out of WOW with that sucker I ripped it open and put the soundtrack on in the car. Bloody brilliant.
Peace.

0 up, 0 down

StangMan80
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 10:49:37 PM
Reply

to respond on your last paragraph I really don't want to see all digital full games. I also like my game collection and enjoy going to pick up a case and opening it up when I get home. I like seeing my collection on the self and being able to keep them for years to come.
Games will take up more and more space and internet speeds will get faster but I do not want to see my physical games come to an end!

1 up, 0 down

BikerSaint
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 11:03:30 PM
Reply

Screw On-Live!
I'm one of it's first founding members day 1, and to this very day I still haven't been able to get in.

Seems my HP doesn't has a graphics card that supports "Pixel Shader 2.0" so the O-L exe set-up package keeps popping up with that as a error message & won't finish completing the set-up package D/L.
It seems that if they were so gung-ho to have everyone use it, they could certainly come up with some kind of work-around from all the millions of us who have our prehistoric Windows XP machine.

And when I contacted them by email(plus again another one of their surveys), I've got no response back from them.

So f*ck em, I'm not buying a new graphics card for a computer that seems to go obsolete as soon as you get it home from the store.
And I'm certainly in no mood to buy a new one just for On-Live.

1 up, 1 down

Geobaldi
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 11:15:09 PM

You don't have buy an actual new video card. Just about any video card made in 2002 and after is shader 2.0 compliant. A Radeon 9500 for example. You can grab those cards for under $10 now. But On-Live still has some work to do to be more user friendly.

Last edited by Geobaldi on 10/29/2010 11:17:16 PM

0 up, 0 down

Highlander
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 12:17:13 AM

On-live is nearly as bad as the appropriately named Phantom console.

0 up, 0 down

Milonakis
Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 11:12:22 PM
Reply

I'm with you Ben, I'd rather own my games on disk. To me it's still impractical with download speeds what they are, plus hard drives are being outmoded by solid state drives which cost more and have less storage space. I say give me a disk so I can play it at other people's houses or on multiple systems.

2 up, 0 down

Highlander
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 12:04:15 AM
Reply

The all digital future is still a ways off. Until it takes mere minutes to download a 50GB BluRay disc, people will find it more convenient to have discs. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of HDD required to store more than a trivial amount of HD video, plus games, plus music, plus digital pictures, etc...Don't even get me started on the consequences of losing a multi-TB HDD system that's full of downloaded content.

Nope, I'm happy to keep discs a while longer yet.

4 up, 0 down

Qubex
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 5:20:23 AM

It is always a good feeling to look at your collection isn't it?

I hope disks remain for the foreseeable future.

Q!

"play.experience.enjoy"

1 up, 0 down

Qubex
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 5:23:32 AM

One thing to note though Highlander... by mid next year... buying a 1T internal 2.5inch drive for your PS3 will be quite cheap.

Therefore, considering that multi-plats top 12 GB if you are lucky, with a handful of exclusives topping 35GB, I think one can get away with it if one can managing their data loads effectively on a 1T drive. You can also have more storage connected externally to the PS3.

Q!

"play.experience.enjoy"

0 up, 0 down

Highlander
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 9:19:48 PM

Qubex, sounds good I may have to upgrade.

The thing that stops me though is the ability (or not) to backup that amount of HDD space. I've had to reformat my PS3 once without being able to perform a backup and it took weeks to get everything to download and re-install. I think that there are still some things I haven't put back, and that doesn't include the locked save files I couldn't copy off to a USB drive.

I'd be much happier if the backup solutions available were as easy to use as the HDDs themselves.

1 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 12:06:36 AM
Reply

Ugh, I don't want everything to go all digital. But I fear it might be inevitable.

3 up, 0 down

Alienange
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 12:22:51 AM
Reply

Digital downloads are certainly here to stay, but "all digital?" Nah. Not likely. This is not music where a song is 0.99 or something. If you're forking out $30-$40 for a game, there had better be some physical proof that it's yours.

5 up, 1 down

SvenMD
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 6:22:57 AM

Another great point.

And the fact is, people buy digital music because we take our music on the go alot, or we only buy one or two songs - not the whole album. So it makes more sense.

It doesn't make sense with games. I want the WHOLE game and I want it sitting on my shelf.

1 up, 0 down

Alienange
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 10:53:26 AM

Me too. And I'm sure we're not the only ones.

0 up, 0 down

Scarecrow
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 12:28:29 AM
Reply

blu-ray > digital

0 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 12:34:54 AM

Yup, I think Sony will wait a while before going all digital. Their developers will probably wait the longest. Look how long they waited to discontinue the Walkman.

0 up, 0 down

A2K78
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 12:36:41 AM
Reply

No and you know why? the market still prefer a physical product. Why do you think despite the advent of the ipod and digital music CD is still performing well.

1 up, 2 down

Scarecrow
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 12:50:10 AM

Quality, CD quality > digital quality. Unless it's lossless audio (very rare in online music).

0 up, 0 down

Geobaldi
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 12:51:15 AM

Though it's true that CD album sales still leads the industry over digital sales, the actual numbers are really lopsided if you look at them. Haven't found numbers for this year, but last year CD sales equaled 373.9 million. Which was a 12.8% decrease from 2008. Digital song sales equaled 1.16 billion. Which increased 8.3% from 2008. CD sales have also declined for 8 of the last 9 years, and have dropped 52% since 2000. So to say that CD's are performing well is a bit of a stretch. Even the industry admits that CD sales are low. Granted most of the music blows nowadays, which isn't helping them. But digital music is doing really well and there are many people who prefer it that way. Me included seeing as it's been almost 6 years since I bought a CD.

1 up, 1 down

Jawknee
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 12:58:20 AM

I still buy CD's but I have noticed BestBuy's CD selection has gotten very small in that last year.

1 up, 0 down

Akuma07
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 1:40:34 AM

25% in 10 years is still impressive.

Especially how massive things like iTunes are.

0 up, 0 down

fluffer nutter
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 3:36:00 AM

Who buys CD's at Best Buy? LOL

0 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 11:52:47 AM

I bought The Dissent of Man for $6.99 at BestBuy Fluffer. :)

0 up, 0 down

A2K78
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 12:44:06 AM
Reply

"The all digital future is still a ways off."

We will only have an all-digital future when the market(not game developers) decide on so. Look at the PSP Go! and XBL classics program, thier failure have demonstrated that the market want a physical product over digital.

0 up, 1 down

___________
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 1:42:36 AM
Reply

fast coming, yea but its never going to take over!
it takes me normally 2 hours to download a 1.5GBs demo, so imagine how long it would take to download a ps3 game which are normally around the 12GB mark.
for the sake of it lets take out download limits, which is stupid because they will always be in place will never get unlimited rates.
spend 8 or so hours downloading 1 game, or spend 20 minutes driving to the shop and back to get 1 game.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, hard decision ill have to think about it for a while...............

tis exactly what is stopping me from buying a PSP go, now that its 250 bucks which is 50 bucks cheaper than a 3000 and it comes with 10 free downloadable games!
im extremely tempted, but, well, who is going to pay for my charges when i go over my limit?
10 games, roughly 1.5GBs each.........
yeah, talk about unpractical!

0 up, 1 down

Highlander
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 9:21:55 PM

Indeed. The technology just isn't there to support this. Until we have ubiquitous ultra fast Internet access and cheap, fast, easily backed up storage the digital market place can remain as it is.

0 up, 0 down

___________
Sunday, October 31, 2010 @ 7:26:44 AM

even when we do i wont be downloading games.
theres just to many negatives appose to the positives.
no trading games, no swapping with friends, no taking it to a friends house to play there, if your console breaks you have to re download it, if your HDD goes you have to re download it.
if people are going to change to something else, there needs to be more positives than negatives, more pros than cons.
if theres not, well most wont adopt it.
only thing that would make me switch is if all above cons disappeared and DL versions were much cheaper than disk based.
for a portable system its understandable, being able to carry a PSP a charger and thats all you need is handy.
but ps3 your always going to need cables, TV, power socket.
just not practical.

0 up, 0 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 1:44:32 AM
Reply

TheWorldEndsWithPhysicalMedia

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

3 up, 0 down

Lawless SXE
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 2:33:19 AM

WIN! But what's that a quote of?

0 up, 0 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 3:03:58 AM

OH C'MON that's the Planet of the Apes. Before my time, but a classic.

2 up, 0 down

Lawless SXE
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 6:06:02 AM

Of course... Classic movie, but I haven't seen it in about twelve years. Oh, Woe is me.
Peace.

0 up, 0 down

SvenMD
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 6:25:22 AM

I still have the Planet of the Apes Collection.....on VHS!!!!!!

Love those movies.

0 up, 0 down

Highlander
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 9:24:53 PM

@Sven - Upgrade! VHS deteriorates. Besides, it's getting difficult to buy players.

0 up, 0 down

Temjin001
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 1:48:33 AM
Reply

lol, but shouldn't' it be TheWorldEndsWithDigitalDistribution ?

Last edited by Temjin001 on 10/30/2010 1:48:52 AM

1 up, 1 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 3:04:53 AM

One would think. I thought it out and if the world ends with me, that sorta means that when I die, so does the world. As such, it should be attached to the death of a media, instead of the birth of it. Ya dig?

Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 10/30/2010 3:05:37 AM

0 up, 1 down

Temjin001
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 10:06:55 AM

Aye, I do =)

0 up, 0 down

Underdog15
Tuesday, November 02, 2010 @ 3:38:26 PM

You know, even if the world does not end with you, there is a neat little philosophical component to the concept, nonetheless! You could take many angles, but the most popular would be...

Does life truly go on if we die, or are we all pawns of alternate realities? Do the people in your life live and die depending upon your existence? Are we all even apart of the same timeline? When an event occurs in life, are there more than one possibility leaving you to follow one strand of reality, while the rest of us continue the one we are on? Perhaps you died in a car accident 5 years ago, but in YOUR reality, the cars narrowly missed one another and life went on.... for you.

0 up, 0 down

sobleck
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 3:27:06 AM
Reply

I remember burnout paradise being available in full on the PSN about a year and a half after the ps3 launched. Thats a full $60 title thats hasnt compromised quality.

1 up, 0 down

Ultimadream
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 4:32:30 AM
Reply

What i find interesting is that on the 360 you can download full games, any 360 you can download onto your console. I personally prefer haveing a psychical copy of a game, i have lost my PS3 account before, but i had no downloads so i was not bothered, if i lost my account and all my games, i would be livid!

0 up, 0 down

Alienange
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 11:07:04 AM

Exactly. If anything, these digital distributors protect themselves quite handsomely with their terms and conditions. There is little concern for the safety of the customer's media.

0 up, 1 down

Jawknee
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 11:55:27 AM

Meh, there are ways to retrieve your account info. I lost my Steam account info before and recovered it 5 years later, games and all.

1 up, 0 down

RobiinzZ
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 5:11:03 AM
Reply

Tbh, i think this is going to take a while for internet speeds to catch up, and it wont happen before the next ps and xbox.

Since if you can eventually down load 20 gigs in an hour next gen games will likley be 200 gigs so its going to take quite some time.

Also, some places may never have decent interent access, so there may have to be some physical format, even if its only for places where interent isn't a plausable option.

0 up, 0 down

SvenMD
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 6:31:40 AM
Reply

I hate hearing about a "switch to digital"

I don't mind getting little PSN games that are digital (they're small and fun). But for my REAL games, I still want a PHYSICAL disc. For me, it's like security...it's sitting there and I can play it when I want to.

What happens when SkyNet launches and the machines take over and remotely fry my HD and then decide that they don't want me to play my games anymore....and now I can't download MY game again....What happens then huh?

We have to think about these things.

It's also a matter of storage. I currently have enough games to fill well over a terabyte of HD space....That space isn't inexpensive.
So now you're talking $60 per game and $100 for STORAGE of your game.....no thanks.

And will games ever decrease in price to $15 if they're digital?? People reduce the price not only to increase sales, but also to get rid of inventory. So what happens when there is no inventory? They may shave some $$ off, but will it ever get to $15? or lower?

I hate this idea so much.

1 up, 1 down

Highlander
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 9:24:01 PM

I for one support our new Digital Overlords....

:P

1 up, 0 down

Deleted User
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 6:49:41 AM
Reply

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
don't kill my gamestop **** All Digital media developers are just lazy..............................

0 up, 1 down

JackC8
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 7:19:54 AM
Reply

We've talked about this a lot before. Even with a broadband internet connection, downloading a full game takes a really long time. And if your PS3 dies, it could easily take a month do re-download your entire game library. You're writing off entire continents worth of potential customers because they don't have broadband internet. You'd fill up hard drives fast if you started putting entire games on them, in addition to everything else that Sony would like us to purchase from the store, like hi-def movies. And does anybody think that these companies are going to invest the huge amounts of money necessary to accommodate a million people trying to download a AAA title simultaneously on release day? Maybe we can pay $10 extra to get on the preferred server list.

It's a terrible deal for consumers because the whole idea of thousands of retailers having thousands of sales goes right out the window. Bargain bin titles? Thing of the past. And as the PSP Go has taught us, you can pretty much forget about them making the full library of titles available for download. And you'll have to re-purchase the games you already own because this future console won't have a Blu ray drive. Can't be including expensive stuff like that with the market as competitive as it is. I guess you can re-purchase your Blu ray movie collection while you're at it.

And all this, for what? To save a foot of shelf space?

Last edited by JackC8 on 10/30/2010 7:29:53 AM

5 up, 1 down

Highlander
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 9:23:14 PM

Great post.

+1000

0 up, 0 down

frylock25
Sunday, October 31, 2010 @ 3:22:33 PM

more people need to read what you have written

Last edited by frylock25 on 10/31/2010 3:22:45 PM

0 up, 0 down

Ergi
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 7:37:52 AM
Reply

sigh, there is nothing like going to the store and buying a game you've been waiting to buy for a long time. In a few years you'll just download it? I remember reading the booklet in the car on the way home and stuff unable to wait. Only to find somebody using the tv, hehe.

I wonder if this is also against piracy(or is that hardly an issue these days, i know that the PS3 has no problems regarding this).

0 up, 1 down

Zorigo
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 8:03:16 AM
Reply

i know its a bit blase, but as long as ive got space and the games are good quality and the speeds are fast, i couldn't give a damn. all though buying games cheaply will be a thing of the past... which is definitely sh*t.

1 up, 0 down

Clamedeus
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 8:24:04 AM
Reply

I don't think I'm ready for All-Digital. I like my physical products. But who doesn't?

1 up, 0 down

Mamills
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 8:39:49 AM
Reply

oh its coming whether we like it or not, blockbuster is screwed because of netflix.

everyone up here in Canada is switching to it and in terms of the internet speed it is getting a lot faster.

i have unlimited DSL Connection and i just downloaded the nfs hot pursuit demo (1.5gb) in about 15 to 20 mins. my connection isn't even that fast.

at my old apartment i had a much faster connection that could have done it in 3 mins

my problem with digital distribution is the bandwidth caps that the major providers force onto ppl.

up here in Canada the major providers standard bandwidth cap is 60GB. which is nothing.
thats y i went with the unlimited option but the speed is greatly reduced

1 up, 1 down

tes37
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 10:24:37 AM
Reply

I don't mind digital distribution, but I still want my library to consist of discs too. Right now I'm about half and half, and that's as far as I'd like to go with it.

One day I'm sure I'll have no choice but to download if I want the newest games. I'm in no hurry for that day to arrive.

0 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 11:59:23 AM
Reply

Yea I don't think this will happen anytime soon. Well see more digital games but physical media will be with us for some time. Sony will continue to support Bluray until it takes minutes to download 100gb or more. As I said before, look how long Sony supported the Walkman. They barley discontinued it a few weeks ago.

Last edited by Jawknee on 10/30/2010 11:59:55 AM

1 up, 0 down

BigBoss4ever
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 12:01:16 PM
Reply

i will say again: the day the video gaming becomes completely digital is the day i stop purchasing games.

digital format has no appeal to me wutsoever.

Last edited by BigBoss4ever on 10/30/2010 12:02:13 PM

2 up, 2 down

Mamills
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 1:59:42 PM

ahh u know u will still purchase, digitally.
cmon, new metal gear or sumthing comes along and its dl only.

guaranteed u'll grab it

i think digitial distribution is the way of the future, plus anything digital will have to be transferred to the next console. (backwards compatibility) since its linked to an account.

as long as i dont lose the ability to play my digital games there is no problem with it.

(i know what you mean though, i myself prefer to have a nice plastic case, booklet and disc)

0 up, 1 down

AcHiLLiA
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 3:16:55 PM
Reply

It's all about the ISP's. FIOS is still expensive and I want there 50mbps packace.
Still hard copy's are the way to go.

0 up, 0 down

briangatsu
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 4:53:15 PM
Reply

It takes me about three hours to download one gigabyte, if I'm lucky. I don't know where you got your service, but obviously it's nice. And obviously not everybody is there yet.

0 up, 0 down

Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 7:09:27 PM

Oh, I'm sure it's different for everyone. But the rate of increase is the compelling factor, here.

It may be different for everyone but it's also getting faster for everyone.

0 up, 0 down

briangatsu
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 9:16:56 PM
Reply

Ok - allow me to change my earlier remark. It takes me about 6 hours to download one gigabyte! I sure do hope that my speeds increase. With my connection I have now, I wouldn't be playing many new games or watching many new movies.

0 up, 0 down

Underdog15
Tuesday, November 02, 2010 @ 3:27:59 PM

lol, you'd have to plan your purchases around your vacations!

0 up, 0 down

BikerSaint
Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 10:05:55 PM
Reply

Here's something else that really needs to be addressed too.

As it stands right now, almost all disc games is $60 new. And if any of those are also digital, then they're still charging us $60 for those too

There is exactly "NO" other reason for a DL title to be the same price as it's disc-mate, other than totally ripping you off.

That same DL version should NOT cost any more than 1/2 the price as the disc.

So, it they charge us $60 for a disc version, then we should only pay $30 cost for their same digital version.

Think about it...a D/L version has a much lower overhead, just because there's....

NO disc,

NO box,

NO cover

NO needed artwork,

NO paper manual,

NO working plants pressing game onto discs

NO warehouses

NO added electrical/other public utility expenses associated disc versions

No shipping

NO cardboard shipping cartons

NO shipping dept

NO trucks to ship it

NO fuel costs

NO tolls

NO federal interstate highway taxes

So, if your digital version isn't being sold at 1/2 the price of disc versions at all times, then.....

"JUST SAY NO"

5 up, 1 down

HazySun
Sunday, October 31, 2010 @ 6:09:39 PM
Reply

To me personally having to download the game itself is only half the problem. We also have to take the consoles hard drive into account as if you have games downloads of all sizes how long would it be before you have to replace the hard drive which would entail re-downloading all your games again equalling more used time, bandwidth & inconvenience. Please just leave our games as they are!

0 up, 0 down

AnonymousPoster
Sunday, October 31, 2010 @ 8:38:59 PM
Reply

"All-Digital" is not coming any time soon. Physical media is how the VAST majority of consumers consume their products.

Everybody likes to compare this to iTunes and NetFlix, but the last time I checked, every media store on every street corner and in every mall still has a huge video and music section. They haven't gone anywhere. The same will be true for games. Gamers are, admittedly, more on the cutting edge of technology, but not ALL gamers have high speed ISPs and a willingness to purchase things that way. Even in the US, if games went all digital, they would lose such a massive part of their consumer base that it would cripple the industry. That doesn't even begin to factor in other countries.

I don't want all digital, and I'll never support it. iTunes, NetFlix and all the rest have never gotten a cent out of me. I don't buy other products that way, and I won't buy games that way.

2 up, 0 down

Beamboom
Monday, November 01, 2010 @ 12:16:44 PM

I don't know where you live, but here in Norway there's been a significant drop in record stores. There's hardly any pure record stores left, at all.

0 up, 0 down

White_Mocha
Monday, November 01, 2010 @ 10:25:23 AM
Reply

I agree with Ben, that games are becoming bigger still. it's crazy because of these open worlds use up a lil bit of gigs (because of an unwritten rules that games on the PS3 and $%#&360 have to be the same) but still. I heard of a new CD that is being developed that is supposed to hold even more than the blu-ray disk?

0 up, 0 down

Geobaldi
Tuesday, November 02, 2010 @ 3:07:12 AM

Actually, there are three types of discs (that I know of) that are being discussed and/or developed. The top being a PCD that can hold up to 50 TB of data.

0 up, 0 down

Geobaldi
Tuesday, November 02, 2010 @ 9:35:41 PM
Reply

Gamestop now has an option to buy digital versions of games now on their website. It's only PC games for now though. So it looks like they'll be around even after the swap over occurs later down the road to all digital.

0 up, 0 down

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