Digital Distribution vs Boxed Products.Your thoughts.

[krisc6]

So the biggest thing that will happen in gaming is the crossover from the traditional boxed product to digital distribution.Solid state media will become a thing of the past, as well as traditional gamestores but what are your thoughts on this.

 

Do you like owning solid state media or would rather by it from a place like steam?

 

When do you think this will become standard?

 

Are bandwidth caps prohibitive to wide scale digital distribution?

 

 

 

Personally i think that todays consoles arent built with this in mind.As mucha s microsoft touts that there console has the best online service it doesnt offer the scale of distribution of full games because they have a splintered market and not all there customers are optimzed with a hardrive.Surprisingly sony has come close to this with warhawk and the recent announcement of burnout paradise available for full on psn but the baseline hardrive space is way too low.Also those statistics that theres still a significant mergin of people in europe and america that arent broadband connected is worrying for game sales and revenue created because your narrowing your market if your going strictly DLC.

 

 

 

What are your thoughts

[Furah]

I like both, the solid state because of the preetey boxes and digital distributions because you can sometimes get it cheaper, and it only uses up as much of my time as starting to dl it takes, I just run it overnight because then it's off-peak and we get an extra 40GB during off-peak (20GB peak)

[limpbizkit]

Pc gaming yes im all for it .. Especialy steam.

 

Console gaming .. Errr ... no thanks.

[jjrox32]

^ Pretty much my thoughts. I personally love services like steam and gametap because they allow me to get games for a) a cheaper price, and B) I don't have to leave my house (it's almost always faster to download a game for me than to go an EB games). They can also let you get older games that are very hard to track down in stores such as the original Quakes.

 

 

 

On the other hand, the rush I get from ripping off the plastic on a new game box is something I really don't get from a dled game.

[warren211]

Digital Distribution helps save the trees that are involved with making the cardboard and paper whatever material boxes. Plus, we reduce car emission because we can sit at home instead of driving to the store to buy a game. :mrgreen:

 

 

 

I think Digital distribution is a good idea for the next gaming revolution. Already the Wii shop, steam, gametap, and other groups offer products straight through the net.

[OldJoe]

I like it.

 

Usually it's a tiny bit cheaper, goes much faster (i never buy games in town, always order online) and better for the environment.

 

Just gotta make a copy or transfer to a 2nd drive for backup.

[Nadril]

Digital for sure, so much easier. And with programs like steam it's easier than keeping a bunch of [bleep]ing CD keys and CD's.

[adam_ross0]

I dunno. I like the idea of buying a game online, but how would it be done? Would we still buy cards for 'points' to buy games with (think Microsoft Points/Wii points), or would we have to put in a credit/debit card to buy them?

 

 

 

Other than that, yeah, it sounds alright. Downloading a game sounds good. The only real downside I can think of is no rentals other than trial games maybe, and you couldn't let your friends borrow them. And no game would really be 'rare' after that...everybody could just get online and download a copy >.>

[Dizzle229]

Well al my PC games are DLed, so it's best for the PC. But on consoles, it's just so much better with boxed products. We learned from PC that once a file hits the web, it can be easily bought just once, then the file can be copied and distributed illegally. Since console games are more valuable, it could present a real problem. And the benefits would be gone anyway if online services don't allow modding.

[Zonorhc]

DD is fine if you're in a country that has a working internet infrastructure that won't cap after one or two games, and can give you what you want in a shorter time period than it would take to drive down to the shop and buy it.

 

 

 

So yeah, not Australia.

[ReapMe]

I would buy the disc.

[Lenin64]

As one of the few people left who genuinly enjoys reading the instruction manual before actually playing the game, I gotta say I would miss the real boxed game.

[Danqazmlp]

I agree with the guy above.

 

 

 

also, with downloading games, you don't get the 'new games smell' when you first open the packet and take the plastic wrapper off.

[PoorLepRecon]

Also what happens if your memory gets wiped on digitally distributed games? Atleast with boxed games you would still have the game to play, if you didnt you would have to buy the game again.

[Dizzle229]

Also what happens if your memory gets wiped on digitally distributed games? Atleast with boxed games you would still have the game to play, if you didnt you would have to buy the game again.

 

 

 

 

 

Not true, at least in most cases. For example, if my memory got wiped, I would lose about $50 USD worth of Steam games. However ,since I'm a registered user, it would recognise that I already bought them and let me download them again for free.

[Alg]

^

 

I'd prefer owning the physical item, that reason and others.

 

If I want a game, usually I see whatever else is at the store. There have been times where I went to get a game and came back with something different, because they were out. Can't really have that with digital media, can you?

[Kill_Thomas9]

How about this...

 

 

 

You buy a GameKey with the game when you download it, and you can't install the game without the GameKey. You can then burn the game onto a "CGD" or "Compact Game Disk" and back it up, or take it to a friend's house. Or even better, you could copy the game onto a flash drive (it would have to be like an 8 gig flash drive) and take that to a friend's house.

 

 

 

Now here is the tricky part.

 

 

 

Your friend can use the same GameKey to play the game, but he can't install the game as long as you have it installed on your HD. And only one copy of the game could be open at a time. Meaning your friend can't be playing the copy of the game with your key, while you're playing at home with the same key. This would create a foolproof way of making sure games aren't copied illegally. In fact, it is even safer than the current system, because people can't just make a hard copy of the game, and play it on another console.

[Furah]

As one of the few people left who genuinly enjoys reading the instruction manual before actually playing the game, I gotta say I would miss the real boxed game.

 

 

 

Dude, 3rd law of Manhood - if all else fails, read the instruction manual.

[Faux]

Boxed for sure. I like having a collection that you can put on a shelf.

[fatbill]

My view is abit weird.

 

 

 

I love to have the boxed copy on my shelf, but then I get really disappointed when I cant register it on Steam for example.

 

 

 

I want both a hard copy but then the ability to use it on Steam cause its so useful.

[krisc6]

I think as much as people like the feel of a physical product, the gaming industry very much wants games to go to strictly digital distribution.Especially on the pc with steam.The console market is sort of prohibitive because of these ridiculous bundles like the halo legendary edition where they can try and make a big fuss and make even more money at a risk of not making much of a product at all, and the halo 3 collectors editions is the standout example because they were touting the biggest ever media release, when the sales couldnt have been bigger than halo 2...and not even counting the biggest ever films.

 

 

 

Digital distribution can reduce the price of games to that of a dvd because it cuts out the middle man.If games suddenly become half the price they usually are or significantly cheaper, then isnt that better for everyone?

[Faux]

I think as much as people like the feel of a physical product, the gaming industry very much wants games to go to strictly digital distribution.Especially on the pc with steam.The console market is sort of prohibitive because of these ridiculous bundles like the halo legendary edition where they can try and make a big fuss and make even more money at a risk of not making much of a product at all, and the halo 3 collectors editions is the standout example because they were touting the biggest ever media release, when the sales couldnt have been bigger than halo 2...and not even counting the biggest ever films.

 

 

 

Digital distribution can reduce the price of games to that of a dvd because it cuts out the middle man.If games suddenly become half the price they usually are or significantly cheaper, then isnt that better for everyone?

 

 

 

Yeah, umm PC games come out with collector's editions all the time

[aquariusman]

I'm with limp on this. Until consoles can support 200GB+ harddrives, it is just impractical to digitally distribute games to consoles on a large scale.

[eggzs]

Definately boxed, with NZ's crappy internet infrastructure that sees me capped after a few hours of Youtube videos let alone a full game, I would prefer boxed.

 

 

 

Also the fact that I live less than 10 mins from a shopping centre with EB and The Warehouse etc. its not a big hassle.

 

 

 

I also like to have a hard copy of whatever I spend money on especially at $100 NZD a game and its also looks nice on a shelf.