valkillmore
Member
I'm ready for the all-digital future. I'm pretty much all digital on PS4 now. Let's go.
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Robbie Bach: Next generation will be a whole new game
- Thread starter ZhugeEX
- Start date
I prefer owning games physical but Steam's awesome prices are good enough to overcome that. Looking at the PS store, games are usually cheaper to buy physically than digitally. I don't want to get locked into a closed system where the platform holder and publishers are free to milk me as much as they want.
As someone who buys lots of games, yet is stuck with an ISP that upholds its 250GB per month data cap: I agree!
Between my family's Netflix and PBS Kids usage, and the average PS4 game clocking in at 20-30GB, there's no way that game publishers would make nearly the same amount of money from me if there's no physical releases.
Also, it's still infrequent that console owners receive discounts for buying digital (...and when they do, it's pretty lousy amounts), so they're not exactly being offered incentives to look towards all-digital as an option.
Right now, the whole notion of "all-digital consoles" is nearly as bass-ackwards as SONY's pricing of the Vita memory sticks.
This will be the barrier to a digital-only platform. Even if we limit it to developed countries, it's a fucking mess, especially in America.
Vincent Grayson
Member
We had no choice in the PC and mobile landscape being digital only (or mostly digital, on PC), but also, it's worth mentioning that on PC and within the same family of products on mobile, you have basically infinite BC. You buy a game on Steam in 2006? It works on your PC you build today. You grab a random app for $5 on iOS years ago? Still works on your 6+ today.
Whereas with consoles (at least, this generation), that just isn't/wasn't (with MS adding BC) the case.
And frankly, digital sucks in so many ways compared to physical that I totally get not wanting to jump on board if you don't have to. Not being able to rent, sell, or lend my games out is a pain in the ass, especially with kids (though this is only an issue on 3DS so far).
Either way, the digital-only future is inevitable, but not happening anytime soon.
Neuromancer
Member
1- Most physical games retail for $60 initially, which is more than other media that has been decimated by digital tends to cost.
2- PC gamers gave up their right to resell discs in large part because PC games tend to see insane deals.
3- I don't think you can always look at trends in other areas and then automatically apply them to video games. Console gamers have never been thrilled at the prospect of losing their ability to sell, trade and buy used games (a huge component of the Xbox One backfire.) If Sony/MS/Nintendo etc plan on taking those rights away from us they better be giving us something amazing in return and I don't know what that is.
Honestly, with the Xbone and PS4 now requiring that games be installed to the harddrive, physical copies have actually lost one of their biggest appealing factors.
At least before, there was a reasonable argument that buying a disc copy of a game meant that you weren't having to worry about deleting things off your harddrive to make space for your new game. Meanwhile, I've largely stuck with disc copies of games with the Xbone I've had since July, and I'm still already having to debate whether to start deleting things or buy a portable harddrive because I'm only a couple retail games away from filling the damn thing.
Who remembers The Phantom?
10 years later and consoles are still playing discs.
Consoles but not PC...
Plinko
Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
An all-digital future where I can:
1) Quickly max out my ISP's data cap
2) Deal with games losing licenses and being removed from the service forever
3) Throw away my consumer rights to re-sell a game I don't want any more
Forgive me, industry, for dragging my feet on ever wanting this future.
1) Quickly max out my ISP's data cap
2) Deal with games losing licenses and being removed from the service forever
3) Throw away my consumer rights to re-sell a game I don't want any more
Forgive me, industry, for dragging my feet on ever wanting this future.
nekkid
It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
But as one of those who actually has a great internet connection, I welcome a download-only console.
HarryKS
Member
They keep talking about shit gamers don't care about. It will be an afterthought whether they get rid of physical media or not. What people want to know, and always will about future generations is how things are gonna improve on a technical level.
They keep selling this idea that matters most to their business line rather than selling a dream/vision of tomorrow. Truly, there is a disconnect, or at least an attempt to change the market by feeding it with info that is inconsequential in nature.
Graphics, graphics, graphics.
They keep selling this idea that matters most to their business line rather than selling a dream/vision of tomorrow. Truly, there is a disconnect, or at least an attempt to change the market by feeding it with info that is inconsequential in nature.
Graphics, graphics, graphics.
I really don't understand how someone can be eager for this.
Blackstarhat
Member
If next gen is digital only i'm done with gaming. I'm a collector and i like having ownership over my games.
SneakyStephan
Banned
The only reason they want an all digital console is to kill the second hand market and take away your ownership rights.
don't let them take it from you.
don't let them take it from you.
kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
I'm ready for an all-digital future but I'm not the consumer they're trying to win over. Video games have a hard time making it to a bigger audience than it has already got. This line of thinking, if Microsoft is still on this train of thought, is exactly what cost them this generation. 20/20 hindsight but if they're going down this route they've basicly just lost the next generation too. Video games are niche, I don't know what's going to expand the market in a sustainable way but my guess is that it's the audience developing games for itself.
nekkid
It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
I think it might have more to do with how well the new Apple TV does than the NX.
Those are definitely problems worth considering, but all digital does have its own conveniences. For one, digital collections are much easier to manage, especially once they get bigger.
At the least, an all digital future would almost certainly mean that we'd see a much stronger movement towards combating those problems.
I realized yesterday that I have only bought one physical Xbox One game.
I think digital can catch on when people get used to having a digital library. I think its an easier to sell to the casual consumer who are already buying music, movies, TV shows, and apps to go digital with their games. Unfortunately, gaming is unique in that you can't play a game on any console. Would be nice if I could buy a digital game directly from the developer and get a key for all consoles/PC the game is available on.
It's more of a trend as game development cycles attempt to shorten and games move to a service model rather than a static game model.
Of course when purely looking at day 1 patches that's something that will depend on the game. I would expect to see them stay for the majority of games but they'll vary in size. Ultimately all pubs/devs will take advantage of a day 1 patch in order to meet deadlines if they need to.
What we will see more of is more content patches, bug fixes and other patches becoming more frequent to enable access to new content, fix current content or enable the game to play differently.
Trail Guide
Member
Gamers Club Unlocked has spoiled me on console prices though. It allows me to get all the big AAA games for $40. Getting rid of physical media will mean having to pay full price for console games again. I know physical media will be phased out one day but as long as retail stores are offering up such great deals in an attempt to get me to shop there I don't want the next systems to get rid of physical discs.
Exploratory
Banned
It wasn't the actual plan. The PR and marketing was garbage. They were arrogant and they weren't understanding.
You can already benefit from those conveniences today - with digital being optional. Why impose further restrictions on this and kill the physical option?
StereoVsn
Gold Member
I have to think that next gen (maybe even late this gen) MS, Sony and maybe Nintendo will have a model without disk media. However, they (well, at least Sony) will have a model with next gen Blu-Ray simply because of the worldwide audience.
Microsoft might shoot for fully diskless system again but that means they give up the rest of the world for good and not even go through the motions. I find it somehow unlikely but who knows, it may not be worth for them to keep those customers.
Microsoft might shoot for fully diskless system again but that means they give up the rest of the world for good and not even go through the motions. I find it somehow unlikely but who knows, it may not be worth for them to keep those customers.
Simply Sami
Member
Doesn't somebody say this before every next gen now? I swear I heard it the last two gens that we will leave discs behind.
I don't see it happening.
I don't see it happening.
The best way is to include both a disc drive and HDD for digital media as the consoles have now.
The key is managing the digital ecosystem effectively and not doing what Microsoft planned to do.
It will be whole new game, where we take your money in brand new ways, where you dont even own what you buy!
What? New game experiences? Oh no no, were all still going to be crapping out the same shit weve been regurgitating for the past decade, I was talking about the box. Its gonna be new!
What? New game experiences? Oh no no, were all still going to be crapping out the same shit weve been regurgitating for the past decade, I was talking about the box. Its gonna be new!
StudioTan
Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?
Why couldn't stores start selling download codes?
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Those guys also like trading their physical games in towards the purchase of new ones.
Digital having zero retail value means a lot less $60 purchases.
xDUMPWEEDx
Banned
Agreed. These devs and such will continue to try and convince everyone that the age of digital only is now. The ONLY reason they are trying to push this idea on the consumer is so they can get higher profit margins.
To that I say...
I'd agree broadly but I'm not sure it's going to be that clear cut, particularly globally. This gen MS struggled by pushing to hard with new models/approaches when all the market wanted (particularly globally) was a reasonably priced box to play games with a traditional controller. Sony by comparison are printing money in games by delivering exactly what the bulk of the global market wanted.
Looking at game sales I really don't actually see that changing hugely next gen.
In this area I think MS are going to have to balance their push to new models vs the fact the global market is very fragmented in terms of maturity for that model.
No doubt digital will grow, but trying to run before the market's ready for it could easily lead to another stumble.
Agree on his comments on spin off. That doesn't make sense anymore IMHO. Since Nadella took over I see Xbox/Games fitting in but in a different manner entirely. TBH if I was MS I would be less concerned about Sony/Nintendo and a lot more focused on PC / home device cross over, steam machines and delivering strong cross device (and potentially device agnostic) message.
Looking at game sales I really don't actually see that changing hugely next gen.
In this area I think MS are going to have to balance their push to new models vs the fact the global market is very fragmented in terms of maturity for that model.
No doubt digital will grow, but trying to run before the market's ready for it could easily lead to another stumble.
Agree on his comments on spin off. That doesn't make sense anymore IMHO. Since Nadella took over I see Xbox/Games fitting in but in a different manner entirely. TBH if I was MS I would be less concerned about Sony/Nintendo and a lot more focused on PC / home device cross over, steam machines and delivering strong cross device (and potentially device agnostic) message.
If next gen is supposed to be digital, they should be combating those problems now to convince people like me. They haven't been doing that and this is why I don't trust them.
I know what you try to say but look at what happened to MGSV on pc. You get a disc with an installer that downloads your game. In 2015.
Yes, it's an exception currently but the internet is still evolving fast, bandwidth is also still increasing. It's inevitable, in my opinion, and we already see how much current console gaming relies on having a good internet access.
Suzushiiro
Banned
It's possible that the next wave of consoles won't have blu-ray drives, but if they don't they'll be using SD cards for physical games instead, not forgoing physical media entirely. That would depend entirely on how the cost of that stuff scales over time, though.
CyberPunked
Member
The push to all digital gamds will eventually happen, in the same way that it's happening to music and films/TV with Spotify and NetFlix etc.
Alx
Member
Hm, no. The PS2/Xbox generation was all about DVD (movie playback for PS2 was a major selling point when it launched). And NGC minidisc tech was supposed to be a major anti-piracy thing.
PS3/360 launch was very focused on the HD-DVD vs Bluray fight (which everybody has forgotten by now). The 360 even launched with the HDD being optional, there was no way they would be pushing it as a digital console at launch. And the Wii barely had enough storage to support a digital market.
The current generation is the first one where home consoles seem clearly designed for digital market.
Jawmuncher
Member
The only thing I really see happening next gen is the offering of digital only systems. For an example I could easily see something like
2TB Digital Only System 300
2TB Physical System 400
Not realistic pricing or anything but I can easily see it happening.
2TB Digital Only System 300
2TB Physical System 400
Not realistic pricing or anything but I can easily see it happening.
Plinko
Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
One reason given to me was, "I don't have to get up out of my seat!"
It's like Wall-E come to life.
LordBaztion
Member
I can imagine MS opening the hardware business to third party manufacturers to release W10 set-top boxes to use the Xbox services with or without disc drive. I guess MS will still be manufacturing consoles with disc drive.
Suzushiiro
Banned
Yeah, but you need significantly more bandwidth for going digital on games to be viable vs. music or video content. Data caps aside, you can have enough bandwidth to stream Netflix no problem and still take over a day to download a modern AAA game.
HanShotFirst
Member
im not sure if physical will go away completely or if there will be a portion of the market dedicated to physical releases. for example, people may want to buy movies and games they really want to own on disc but most everything else they will buy or stream digitally. I guess it all depends an manufacturers removing disc drives or not.
SolidSnakex
Member
Sony's wings are spread much wider in terms of their appeal around the world. Going digital only would shut out some territories that they've spent years buildings all so they could push something that really isn't going to grow their userbase in any way. And if this is accurate the the average internet speed is 3.9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Internet_connection_speeds
There are some places like Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong that are obviously very fast, but they're exceptions rather than the rule. Most places are pretty damn slow. Of course over the years that'll change. But I wouldn't expect it to change so greatly that companies would be willing to release consoles where downloading games is the only way to play them.
Then you have the whole issue of losing tradeins. Back when the DRM rumors were floating around we heard Gamestop's president said this
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/175305/
They'd be throwing that all away.
MilkyJoe
Member
Just about everything you listed for the online future is subscription based. There is a big difference between paying a few quid a month for unlimited movies and TV, and charging full whack for a single game, that you don't get to keep forever. A lot of people will not entertain that.
soul creator
Member
You're concerned about DRM and "online-only" games then, not "physical games". Physical games are often still sold with Steam DRM (and have been for like 10 years now). A physical copy of Everquest for PS2 is worthless now as well, for example.
If preservation and control is your primary concern, then "having a physical disc" doesn't really address that on its own.