Digital Distribution - The future?

[ga5ket]

I've heard lots of reasons about why DD is the way forward, usually top of the list is 'It's so much easier just to download the game than visit the store to pick up a copy'. I recently bought Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty from PSN as Sony in their wisdom decided not to issue a UK bluray version. The download was 3.2GB and took me 4 hours. I can walk into town from where I live in 30 minutes. How is that easier? By that reckoning I could have been playing the game 3 hours earlier (and, with the length of the game, finished it) before my download had even completed. This isn't the first game I've downloaded, I picked up a couple for the Wii Virtual Console, and they rock. It beats connecting up the TG16/N64 to the main tv when I have friends over for some shmup goodness, but releasing a full size game like R&C:QfB just doesn't do it for me. I won't be downloading any more like that, and I'm even looking for a bluray version on import because I hate the thought of having to download again.

[Sirgin]

I recently bought Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty from PSN as Sony in their wisdom decided not to issue a UK bluray version.

What is Sony UK smoking

I saw that game in stores 2 days ago, and I live in Belgium! If they can go through the effort of getting it in stores here, why can't they do the same in the UK? (which is a much larger market than Belgium) They only need to make an English-only cover for the game and slap a BBFC rating on it...done.

Very strange.

[ga5ket]

Alread

I recently bought Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty from PSN as Sony in their wisdom decided not to issue a UK bluray version.

What is Sony UK smoking

I saw that game in stores 2 days ago, and I live in Belgium! If they can go through the effort of getting it in stores here, why can't they do the same in the UK? (which is a much larger market than Belgium) They only need to make an English-only cover for the game and slap a BBFC rating on it...done.

Very strange.

Already done, they released it for sale in Ireland!

[Sirgin]

Already done, they released it for sale in Ireland!

Well then that just doesn't make any sense to me 

[ga5ket]

I think it must have been the day they handed out complementary crack pipes at the Sony board meeting. I wouldn't mind, but the imports are selling for £30 on eBay, and there's no way I'm paying that much. I'll just have to wait until it's dropped in price

[phoenix1967]

I voted the 2nd option...for DD on the smaller/arcade download games, but disk copies of larger games.

I think that DD right now is good for what it is when it comes to titles with small file sizes. However, we're still some time off from downloads on major titles.

The important point that was brought up earlier was that if you don't buy the DD game when the console is "active" or "current gen", then you're likely to miss out on the title entirely, is a valid one. Think about the aftermarket. Since most consoles tie your downloaded content to your gamer tag, even though it's saved to your console, if you ever wanted to sell that console in the future, you'd get $0 for the games that you had downloaded on it.

This would mean that future consoles would need backward compatibility to your gamer tag as it's #1 feature. I mean, most PCs can play older software right? So then, future consoles should be able to play previously downloaded software that was originally on your gamertag from the older console. Makes sense.

It's also possible that software rarity will become a thing of the past, especially if smaller companies that make full titles (i.e. Atlus) will have games be readily accessible for anyone to download. The drawback of this is that we're less likely to see costdowns on software come as frequently as the do now.

Download speeds will improve...they have to, for this method of procurement to be viable in the long term.

This gen is the 1st to really take on DD. For future console generations, it'll be interesting to see whether larger games or movies become more in-demand when it comes to having their libraries stored on a console or in boxed retail copies.

My $.02 is that movies will be likely to be the first, due to the flexibility we're already seeing in On-Demand capabilities on our cable boxes and the ability to watch streaming movies downloaded directly to our PCs. That, plus the relatively lower cost per movie purchase to game purchase ($19.99 vs. $59.99 at retail upon initial release) would make it easier for John and Jane Q Public to make the transition.

We're not likely to see a console manufacturer 100% commit to DD for all games until it's determined that the public would prefer it to having hard copies. And that may take at least 5 or more years, imo.

We'll see.

[Reps911]

I'm greedy I need something to show for my purchase. i'll probably never buy a full game download.

[Chainclaw]

I don't think software rarity will be a thing of the past, it will just become very different with digital distribution.

Here are a few examples of rarity in digital-only software:

Mario Kart 64 on the Virtual Console : When this was first released, the emulator ran the game without all the slowdown on the original game. This meant the game played significantly faster than on the original cartridge. I believe Nintendo patched this, so anyone who downloads this now has a more faithful recreation of the original, but the "fast" version of Mario Kart 64 is now a rarity, and there's no way for anyone to get it that doesn't already have it.

Picture Channel on the Virtual Console : This one can be rolled back to, but there has been a patch for this, as well. The original version let you listen to MP3 files when in slideshow mode, the patched version no longer allows MP3s, but allows a different audio format.

Microsoft has talked about delisting some Live Arcade titles. If this is as drastic as it sounds, it means there might be Live accounts tied to games that no one else can purchase anymore.

The PS3 firmware updates have added, and removed features a couple times. For some reason I was Google searching Super Audio CDs one day, and found this on Wikipedia:

As of the 2.00 upgrade, PS3 is capable of SACD 5.1 playback via an optical cable. It achieves this by converting the audio to a 1.5 Mbit/s DTS format. The immediate revision after this removed the feature.

When Gran Turismo 5 Prologue was released in Japan, Sony removed the free Gran Turismo HD from the Japanese Playstation Network Store.

"Japanese demo (version 1.1) was removed from the local PlayStation Store on September 30, 2007[13]"

For PC games, there are usually a dozen sites that have every patched version of a piece of software up for download. So if you really liked Diablo 2 a few years back, but recent patches have made the game less enjoyable, you can always find the patch you need and play it. Console games, not so much.

When a physical release is recalled, a few copies slip through the cracks, and can be shared. Tengen Tetris for the NES is readily available for less than $50 for just the cart. The more rare games, like Kizuna Encounter's European release have fetched upwards of $10,000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kizuna_Encounter

While it's lame that games can hit the ten thousand dollar mark, at least the game can exchange hands reasonably. If you want a copy of fast Mario Kart 64 on the Virtual Console, you end up with two options: piracy, or buying someone's entire Wii. If Microsoft's Live Arcade delisting is as nasty as it sounds, and you want a game after it is delisted, you have to resort to piracy, or buy someone's Live account. Considering the amount of personal information tied to Live accounts, it's probably more illegal to sell a Live account than pirating software.

Again, I'm not saying digital distribution is the devil, I own tons of digital only games. Because this site caters to collectors, I'm pointing out some of the concerns that collectors should think about with digital games.

[Sirgin]

I don't think software rarity will be a thing of the past, it will just become very different with digital distribution.

You've got that right...it doesn't look like fun to me, not to mention unpracticle. Imagine having 5 Xbox 360s in 2023 because you want to get your hands on all the arcade games that were released. It won't be cheap either, people won't sell their 360 for $5 like they might sell a game of the system.

For PC games, there are usually a dozen sites that have every patched version of a piece of software up for download. So if you really liked Diablo 2 a few years back, but recent patches have made the game less enjoyable, you can always find the patch you need and play it. Console games, not so much.

I think we'll see that sort of community sites popping up for console games too, in the future; where you can download older/cracked patches and whatever...

It'll be the only practical way to play these "lost" games, really. 

[Rajaat the Warbringer]

I know I've said it before, but if it comes to this, I'll quit the hobby.

[Sirgin]

I know I've said it before, but if it comes to this, I'll quit the hobby.

Entirely? Or just restricting yourself to physical games of previous generations?

[Tondog]

I know I've said it before, but if it comes to this, I'll quit the hobby.

Seems like a silly reason to quit gaming.

[Rajaat the Warbringer]

I'm sorry, but paying money and not receiving any real product that I can decide when to use and where just ain't my thing.

When I buy a game today, I want to know I can play it 20 years from now, not just when the service that makes sure I paid for the game is still running.

[Rajaat the Warbringer]

I know I've said it before, but if it comes to this, I'll quit the hobby.

Entirely? Or just restricting yourself to physical games of previous generations?

I'd still keep playing older, physical games (I don't think I'll ever give that up). Heck, it'd give me a reason to start collecting even more classic games.

[Sirgin]

I'd still keep playing older, physical games (I don't think I'll ever give that up). Heck, it'd give me a reason to start collecting even more classic games.

Alright I asked because it sounded like you'd never play anything again.