Are you guys serious right now? I was just asking a harmless question. lol
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Sony Won E3 (But That Doesnt Matter)
- Thread starter Poetic.Injustice
- Start date
Are you guys serious right now? I was just asking a harmless question. lol
"All those PS2 fans will just buy the PS3"
Thank you.
Why do people keep banging on that FUTURE PROOF drum? Sony can go "all digital" just as Microsoft, whenever they want to, since every single retail game on PS4 will also be available on the PSN store, but somehow some people are convinced that you're either in or out the digital realm, ok.
SolidSnakex
Member
Yep, if the PS2 to PS3 transition taught people anything it should've been that there's very little loyalty in this industry. Most gamers will go to what they feel offers them the best value and experience.
Warm Machine
Member
The problem with Sony and digital to this point has been that the person who established the infrastructure for the PS3 dash and PSN should have been fired.
I went to buy Last of Us via DD and I actually had to download the PSN store as an App! I go there so rarely I forgot what it was like. That on its own is regrettable. But to add insult to injury you have to essentially leave the dash to go to the store. Thankfully I didn't need to change credit card info otherwise I probably would have had to back all the way out to the main dash and account settings page like I had to do when I bought Joe Danger years ago.
MS has it totally integrated and I'm sure Sony will do the same thing this time around but they have a load of catchup to do on the services front. MS also has lots they need to do but they are not starting from such a deficit.
We take for granted services and delivery via DD when they are done well. On PS3 I've avoided ever going into the PSN store unless I absolutely have to. That isn't a good mindset to rely on when you are trying to sell digital games. I certainly hope Sony has it covered. My PS4 is preordered and prepaid and there is no way I'm buying a physical disc for it.
I went to buy Last of Us via DD and I actually had to download the PSN store as an App! I go there so rarely I forgot what it was like. That on its own is regrettable. But to add insult to injury you have to essentially leave the dash to go to the store. Thankfully I didn't need to change credit card info otherwise I probably would have had to back all the way out to the main dash and account settings page like I had to do when I bought Joe Danger years ago.
MS has it totally integrated and I'm sure Sony will do the same thing this time around but they have a load of catchup to do on the services front. MS also has lots they need to do but they are not starting from such a deficit.
We take for granted services and delivery via DD when they are done well. On PS3 I've avoided ever going into the PSN store unless I absolutely have to. That isn't a good mindset to rely on when you are trying to sell digital games. I certainly hope Sony has it covered. My PS4 is preordered and prepaid and there is no way I'm buying a physical disc for it.
FonkyByNature
Member
Kobun Heat
Member
Microsoft will have perfect knowledge of every one of its customers: it will know everything they own, what they spent on it, what they're likely to buy in the future. And since they know that person will be constantly connected to the internet they can put special deals in front of them, etc. The potential to make much more money off of each individual user.
FranXico
Member
Aah... yet another "t'is the future" opinion article.
As others have pointed out, Sony has pushed digital-only solutions before, and was met with massive failure. Offering both options (digital-only and physical medium) is the wisest course of action for them.
As for Microsoft, the XBone is deliberately designed to destroy the physical medium market. What apologists of digital only fail to realize, is that a DD-only future is not a pretty thing.
A future where every piece of content, every expression of culture and sub-culture, is locked to a proprietor, which is not the consumer.
A future where content delivery must be done through "the cloud", and services like Azure are intended to lock in not only consumers, but also publishers and developers.
Fortunately, most consumers are smarter than that.
THAT is how Sony "won" E3, and that is why it does matter.
As others have pointed out, Sony has pushed digital-only solutions before, and was met with massive failure. Offering both options (digital-only and physical medium) is the wisest course of action for them.
As for Microsoft, the XBone is deliberately designed to destroy the physical medium market. What apologists of digital only fail to realize, is that a DD-only future is not a pretty thing.
A future where every piece of content, every expression of culture and sub-culture, is locked to a proprietor, which is not the consumer.
A future where content delivery must be done through "the cloud", and services like Azure are intended to lock in not only consumers, but also publishers and developers.
Fortunately, most consumers are smarter than that.
THAT is how Sony "won" E3, and that is why it does matter.
FranXico
Member
You forgot the Zune.
CassidyIzABeast
Member
Sony put themselves into a corner. They have to continue to support drm free used games until physical media is pretty much 100% dead.
Sony has said the PS4 will feature and even predownload games for you based on your playing habits
This.
Qwell
Member
This is not necessarily a problem with PSN, this is a problem because you don't use your PS3 often. I'm not saying you have a problem because you don't use it often, but as someone who uses their PS3 regularly the updates are not an issue.
Also if you wanted to make it easier, you could have simply pre-purchased the game via the web store (which is great btw) and after purchase go into your downloads under account management. I believe you can actually do remote downloads now from the web store, I just haven't tried that yet.
Mr_Antimatter
Member
How so? As we see with the vita, people will switch just fine. By the end of the generation, i'd wager most of us will have majority digital titles, same as many do on the PC today.
Sony just isn't holding a gun to your head to make you change, like MS is.
Kobun Heat
Member
But first they have to learn those habits, which means you have to choose to opt in to being online.
I was kinda hoping it was going to be more about gameplay ideas, or just the fact that since everyone has to be online all the time you could go further with Dark Souls-esque gameplay and not really worry about if someone can or can't use all the functions.
Still, I think just for the marketing angle Sony can track ENOUGH. They'll see your store purchase history, what games you played and roughly how much time you put in, whether it actually tracks usage like Nintendo or just looks at trophies unlocked, etc. Microsoft is probably in a better position for that because of services like Bing too regardless of internet connectivity though I imagine Sony could strike a deal with Google, and at any rate this comes into some questionable territory for consumer privacy. I'd honestly prefer Google to TRY to show me stuff actually relevant to me, but most won't feel the same and even I probably won't in the long run.
I purchased some Free PS+ games using my iPad yesterday and there was a link that said "Download to PS3" so I think this might be live now
Felix Lighter
Member
That possibly gives them the potential to get as much money out of each customer as possible but how does that lessen the significance of their current PR troubles? How do they convince people to buy the box in the first place? At this point, it's very difficult to see the benefits of this more expensive console from a consumer's standpoint.
I'm not sure what prevents Sony from collecting much of this same data, other than the people who choose not to go online at all. Forcing online would just shut those consumers down completely anyway.
Kobun Heat
Member
Also possible, since developers can now make online-only games without having to worry about segmenting the market or dealing with customer service of people buying a game and not knowing what to do with it. So that's a different piece of it.
SonicColours
Banned
Sony may have won this years E3....but next years is going to be interesting to see how Microsoft fight back.
More to the point does anyone know what the background song is called in this Machinima PS4 video??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fKp-yft28k
Thanks
More to the point does anyone know what the background song is called in this Machinima PS4 video??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fKp-yft28k
Thanks
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Also the Kin.
... and gamers who do not want their habits tracked can purchase a PS4 and buy games they want thus leading to more money for Sony. Either way Sony is in the better position because they offer choice.
MS is reducing their market by cutting out certain consumers. Sony is offering a full online experience that rivals what MS has OR an offline experience like a traditional console. I do not see how this could possibly be a bad thing for Sony or consumers.
Confidence Man
Member
I would think that losing a large chunk of your users is a bigger problem than not being able to monitor what 100% of your users are buying.
Having an offline capability right now is delaying nothing when it comes to digital downloads. All it takes is a different pricing structure for retail and online down the road. So the sceptical consumer can see the advantages first hand. Which is EXACTLY what the no used game proponents want.
BruiserBear
Banned
I find it funny how many people think games are going all digital like really soon. Sure, it's going to happen, but in the next 5 years? No. It's going to slowly occur over the next decade+. The Xbox One is not brilliantly positioned to take advantage of the all digital future. By the time it truly arrives the console will be old news.
Interfectum
Member
I don't know where else to ask this but since I got you here.... did you hear whether or not MS is still planning to charge developers for patching their games? Seeing as how they are pushing online a lot (which leaves games much more open to uncaught bugs) I'm assuming no.
Felix Lighter
Member
That's the confusing part. Developers don't have to worry about a segmented audience for online only games on the Xbox One because MS just cuts the offline segment of the audience from their platform completely? How does alienating that segment on a platform level help the dev, MS or the consumer?
This isn't a completely unreasonable assessment. Despite the downsides, it does offer a lot of advantages that consumers may appreciate. Microsoft's just done a terrible job of communicating these advantages. They just keep saying "there are advantages", but they refuse to list them, possibly because their policies (e.g. family sharing) aren't set in stone yet.
Steam is a good platform to compare to. We do give up rights for Steamworks game, but the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, at least for many of us. I prefer a Steamworks title to a DRM-free title. That being said, price is definitely a huge factor and Microsoft has not shown that it's willing to offer large discounts on digital titles, so there goes one advantage out the window.
Steam is a good platform to compare to. We do give up rights for Steamworks game, but the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, at least for many of us. I prefer a Steamworks title to a DRM-free title. That being said, price is definitely a huge factor and Microsoft has not shown that it's willing to offer large discounts on digital titles, so there goes one advantage out the window.
Which is something 80% of PS3 owners have done. Does having perfect knowledge of only 8 out of 10 of its customers put sony at a material disadvantage? Are the other two even going to buy a console that requires an internet connection to function?
Kobun Heat
Member
That is the play, yes. Whether it works or not, we have no way of knowing.
The transition was very quick for PC games. 5 years seems reasonable to me.
PapaJustify
Member
I agree, however, it makes at least a lot more people think over their purchase that otherwise would have blindly bought the Xbone.
FranXico
Member
The main reason behind all those Microsoft stores is just Apple envy.
SolidSnakex
Member
That's because publishers went all in on the PC. They said screw retail and did what it took to get consumers to pay attention to digital purchases. That's not happening with the Xbox One, and the proof of that is that MS is already working out deals for certain retailers for used games. MS doesn't want to give up that retail relationship, which is something you're going to have to do if you're really serious about really going all digital.
Digitally purchased games tied to account. Physically purchased games tied to disc. I don't see how what's terrible about that. Gives incentives for both types of purchase, rather than ruining discs to promote digital.
The allure or purpose of a digitally stored library is a little hazy as well. This isn't like MP3s or movies, where people want and need the ability to access their media from anywhere. Console gaming is a pretty strictly homebound experience.
Felix Lighter
Member
This I think is the most important thing to consider when imagining the PC DD scenario on consoles. The retailer relationships have to be kept strong, so undercutting the retailers substantially with DD sales doesn't seem reasonable in the console market.
Syphon Filter
Member
This guy doesn't get it. I am a fan of downloads but options aren't a bad thing. Also it's the 24 hour drm that is the issue. They basically half baked the concept of digital download.
I see some clinging to their discs with much more fervor than you are thinking of; we will see.
Sony will have the same knowledge through the Trophy System and usage statistics. They won't know anything about customers that do not connect to the internet, but those people can be marketed to in other more traditional ways.
Microsoft on the other hand, will not be able to have customers that do not connect to the internet. And no amount of traditional marketing is going to fix the problem.
How are they taking the leap first when they are behind?
Haven't the past few years clearly shown in every other entertainment industry that consumers like choice? They are willing to switch platforms to buy DRM free music or invest in in decentralized platforms to get the content they want the way they want.
It's like MS is living in 2006, and people are bending backwards to rewrite history for MS
It does.
You don't think they are taking a leap first when it comes to this model of a console? How aren't they?
bigdaddygamebot
Member
You need to give a list there sir...because I'm not seeing it.
Personally, I think Sony has struck a good balance with appeasing digital and retail distribution.
My own personal case is this: I buy retail 98% of the time. I prefer to have game discs, and a nice collection taking up space on my entertainment system. I like looking at it. I refused to go digital. I hated it.
And then PS+ happened.
Games that I would have normally bought on disc, I'm downloading on PS+ because of either some great deal (ie, 50%-75% off, or because of it being free with the Instant Game Collection).
Steam is like that for me as well. Games I'd have bought disc, are now in my Steam library. I have, literally, hundreds of digital games between PS + and Steam.
My own personal case is this: I buy retail 98% of the time. I prefer to have game discs, and a nice collection taking up space on my entertainment system. I like looking at it. I refused to go digital. I hated it.
And then PS+ happened.
Games that I would have normally bought on disc, I'm downloading on PS+ because of either some great deal (ie, 50%-75% off, or because of it being free with the Instant Game Collection).
Steam is like that for me as well. Games I'd have bought disc, are now in my Steam library. I have, literally, hundreds of digital games between PS + and Steam.