Seeing all the opinion of this post, i realize that iam not the only one with the feeling torwars physical media, the issues are the following:
1.- You own it , its yours, you can resell it ,you can lend it, you can do whatever you want with it, with digital media no because of the legal rights.
2.-You dont have to worry about the lifedate of the console you can always keep the games and play them, digital media cannot assure this, as soon as a the server for a new console is created, the old one is abandon then you not longer have the game.
3.-You buy the game simply as that, you dont have to wait for countless hours to download it or if anything wrong happens to the internet connection during the process of downloading, you dont loose the time, the effort and possibly the money if something critical happens with the internet connection.
4.-Lets say you have all the games in your console memory if the console dies all the games die with it, with physical media you only buy a new console and whala, with Digital media you have to bought it all over again alongside with the console.
5.-Most Impostantly with physical media nobody can mess with the game, and by this i mean no Hacker, imagine one day some smart ass had deleted all your games, or worst you pay the game and the download goes to this person. ouch
And iam sure theres plenty of things besides the before mentioned, that we cannot imagine right now but it could affect the digital distribution, for that Physical media RULES....
And of course i love my collection of boxes and smell the inside of the box when you open it for the first time....ahhhh... priceless
I'd love to say "great! That' a relief!" but I've already missed some Sony games because they were download only - even ones like Echochrome that had Japanese and Asian releases, but nothing over here.
I can understand that for projected low-sales games they would want to use a cheaper method of publishing it, but it's also within arm's reach now, so they're going to make more use of that option. :/
So I guess what he means is that for the next while, there will at least be SOME physical games available.
Good because I love my physical copies.
Call me old fashioned or paranoid, but I fear that my virtual copy will never really be there after a couple of years and I love keeping my stuff with me.
Good to show the youngins in the future what a "box art" was.
@Slagathorian:
Maybe if people accept that people won't download a 50Gb game. But that games could be distributed extremely cheaply in digital only, if they only were 200Mb. And actually published professionally to a wide audience, even if they were very small games.
Then all of this could just be over and done with a "hm, nice, we all win, and indy developers would actually get money, instead of being stuck with making flash-games for free".
Instead of the entire "Omgzes, physical media rules, I love Activision and all publishing houses forever!!!1elevenses11!".
Luke, you took his statement out of context. The full statement was: "...the packaged media business is not going away any time soon? Not if Sony has anything to say about it!"
@mintycrys is HOT for Bayonetta:
Oh, for the gods' sakes. You're not going to download a 60Gb game off the internet any time soon. Has nothing to do with Sony. Obviously, if Sony HQ had their way, we would be buying "SONY DISC" in the specific "SONY STORES", for playing on "SONY PLAYERS".
But the reality is that they know it doesn't sell. So they've had to invent themselves. And they've done that with having downloads for smaller things where that makes economical sense - where actual launches of full games would not pay off. And of course full releases for the rest. Even the fact that the vast majority of games come out nowadays either as multiplatform, or else as exclusive only when there's a real reason for it technologically, is just reflecting the reality that the old kind of platform exclusivity doesn't work any longer.
I think the real statement should be 'Physical games not going anywhere... Until the internet gets so fast you can download a whole 50GB Game in under 5 minutes'
Because really, thats what it'll come to eventually, not any time soon, but in 10-20 year I can see it (when we're all living underground hiding from teh machineeeeeeeeeeeees!!!)
@DiGiC: Try "When the used games market goes away", allot of gamers are dependent on this market to not only play games, but to buy new ones with the money they got from games they sold. I buy new releases and I'm dependent (especially now in the current economy) upon selling certain titles to get games I want. I don't sell them all, but I do come across games I don't play anymore or I don't like and end up selling. I can buy in such a carefree way because of used games market. Without it the risk increases and I'll buy less as a result.
You also have services like Game Fly which I see a few gamers get into because they get tremendous savings that way (didn't work for me). Which btw developers do see money off of.
As long as DD is disruptive to those established markets I don't think gamers are going to take it laying down.
@Bubbleman!: They didn't learn any lessons fast. There is just a constant bs message being airred by the media in particular, that downloads are now the only viable way of distributing games and in particular movies (Blu-ray has taken one hell of a pounding over downloads making it irrelivant lately).
Both are and always were expected by anybody with common sense to co-exist for the best part of a decade. However digital distribution will likely become increasingly relevant in the marketplace as the years progress and for that, the infrastructure needs laying down now.
@-MasterDex-: Ah, yes... Steam... WHich magically lets you lend out single games while you still have access to the rest of your... OH WAIT, THAT'S RIGHT, IT DOESN'T.
No Lending = major limitation. Of course, this is the case with PC games in general, so in the case of PC games, Steam is simply the least of the Evils. At least you can play your games on other computers if your account is logged on there.
@bobtheduck in Korea: How does lending games factor into the practicality of whole games being digital downloads?
There's no impracticality involved in getting a full game off Steam, in fact, it could be considered more practical than going to a store because you don't have to move anywhere and if you pre-order a game, it can be preloaded and ready to be played the minute it gets released.
@-MasterDex-: There are impracticalities in owning the game. Those being you can neither lend nor sell. As such there are missing aspects of ownership. As I said, however, those aspects are missing in all PC games, so Steam is just the least evil.
@bobtheduck in Korea: Except emerald dragon said that downloading full games was impractical.
Not downloads overall.
Though in the case of the PS3, he does have a point, 25/50GB games aren't going to be fun to download.
@deanbmmv: Full games are more likely to be things you'd want to share. I don't feel a sense of loss not being able to share 10 dollar games with friends, but 40+ dollar games, like Siren or Warhawk? Yes. I feel a lot of loss. Bigger downloads are very impractical. You're limited in what you can do, and being bigger usually makes that a bigger issue.
@bobtheduck in Korea: I was just kinda pointing out you drastically changed the subject from the impracticality of downloading full games, to the impracticality of lending them.
Post hijacking was something I thought Id only see on Engadget.
@deanbmmv: He said "DOWNLOADS" are impractical, not "DOWNLOADING"
And DOWNLOADS are impractical because you lose things in it. Things like lending. And selling. Impractical. You don't actually own them.
Also, the DOWNLOADING itself is impractical. I hate downloading large files. DVD size downloads are NOT PRACTICAL. Anything bigger than that is REALLY not practical.
@bobtheduck in Korea: You know, Blu-Rays being impractical file sized, you'd have a point.
But DVD sizes? that's nothing. Unless you buy a ton of games each week.
Not like most demos roll in at around 1.5GB average these days ¬_¬
If 'large' size files is an issue then its not an issue with the DD service but your ISP.
Oh n when it comes to Steam, PC doesn't have a trade-in market anyway, so you're not losing anything going with them.
I don't really mind if they want to continue releasing physical media. It'd just be nice if they were at all able to mirror those on the digital front, which currently is a major down side for those who invested in a PSP Go.
@Toothball: As far as I'm aware, every new retail release gets a digital release in the next Playstation Store update so until they change how they update the store, it won't change.
It's worth mentioning though that if someone doesn't mind throwing down $250 for the PSPGo then they really shouldn't mind waiting a few days for a download to be available.
I wouldn't mind waiting a few days for new releases if that was all it was. My main concern at the moment is all the existing UMD releases that aren't appearing. There are some UMD games I own and am prepared to buy again for the privilege of being able to carry around on my Go, but I don't even have that option. Last week's update was better than previous ones, but unless they keep it going it's not looking terribly encouraging on the whole.
So far the only game that there has been any word on is Lumines, and the reports on that indicate that a digital release is unlikely due to the track licensing issues. Although this isn't terribly good news, it's better than no news at all.
And on top of that there still seem to be many PS1 releases that they've not brought over to the European store for whatever reason. Some games I've been waiting to see for years. Given that production and shipping aren't really a concern with digital formats, the apparent lack of progress on this is really quite disappointing.
Before its release I had seen the release of the PSP Go as a sign that Sony were very interested in increasing their digital offerings. Evidently there has been some backlash toward this approach which has led to announcements like this reaffirming their commitment to physical media. There hasn't really been anything similarly supportive regarding digital sales, so now it feels like the early adopters are just being punished for deciding to take those first steps.
@Toothball: You can't blame Sony for all the missing games on PSN. They have to get the rights to put them up on the store from the developers/publishers so that's probably where many of the missing games come in.
As a fellow European, I do feel your pain with the lackluster PAL store though. They really need to improve things this side of the map.
@Toothball: I sympathize with ya. I don't see anything changing too drastically if Go sales don't pick up and that's unlikely to happen unless it get's dropped in price (which I'd suspect could happen around Spring/Summer).
11/26/09
1.- You own it , its yours, you can resell it ,you can lend it, you can do whatever you want with it, with digital media no because of the legal rights.
2.-You dont have to worry about the lifedate of the console you can always keep the games and play them, digital media cannot assure this, as soon as a the server for a new console is created, the old one is abandon then you not longer have the game.
3.-You buy the game simply as that, you dont have to wait for countless hours to download it or if anything wrong happens to the internet connection during the process of downloading, you dont loose the time, the effort and possibly the money if something critical happens with the internet connection.
4.-Lets say you have all the games in your console memory if the console dies all the games die with it, with physical media you only buy a new console and whala, with Digital media you have to bought it all over again alongside with the console.
5.-Most Impostantly with physical media nobody can mess with the game, and by this i mean no Hacker, imagine one day some smart ass had deleted all your games, or worst you pay the game and the download goes to this person. ouch
And iam sure theres plenty of things besides the before mentioned, that we cannot imagine right now but it could affect the digital distribution, for that Physical media RULES....
And of course i love my collection of boxes and smell the inside of the box when you open it for the first time....ahhhh... priceless
11/26/09
I can understand that for projected low-sales games they would want to use a cheaper method of publishing it, but it's also within arm's reach now, so they're going to make more use of that option. :/
So I guess what he means is that for the next while, there will at least be SOME physical games available.
11/26/09
11/26/09
Call me old fashioned or paranoid, but I fear that my virtual copy will never really be there after a couple of years and I love keeping my stuff with me.
Good to show the youngins in the future what a "box art" was.
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
Same price as their physical counterparts (please)
Late to the party compared to their physical counterpart (LBP psp)
The only ones who are screwing DD are the people who push it.
11/26/09
Maybe if people accept that people won't download a 50Gb game. But that games could be distributed extremely cheaply in digital only, if they only were 200Mb. And actually published professionally to a wide audience, even if they were very small games.
Then all of this could just be over and done with a "hm, nice, we all win, and indy developers would actually get money, instead of being stuck with making flash-games for free".
Instead of the entire "Omgzes, physical media rules, I love Activision and all publishing houses forever!!!1elevenses11!".
11/26/09
11/26/09
Oh, for the gods' sakes. You're not going to download a 60Gb game off the internet any time soon. Has nothing to do with Sony. Obviously, if Sony HQ had their way, we would be buying "SONY DISC" in the specific "SONY STORES", for playing on "SONY PLAYERS".
But the reality is that they know it doesn't sell. So they've had to invent themselves. And they've done that with having downloads for smaller things where that makes economical sense - where actual launches of full games would not pay off. And of course full releases for the rest. Even the fact that the vast majority of games come out nowadays either as multiplatform, or else as exclusive only when there's a real reason for it technologically, is just reflecting the reality that the old kind of platform exclusivity doesn't work any longer.
Unless, of course, the fanboys can help it..
11/26/09
Because really, thats what it'll come to eventually, not any time soon, but in 10-20 year I can see it (when we're all living underground hiding from teh machineeeeeeeeeeeees!!!)
11/26/09
11/26/09
You also have services like Game Fly which I see a few gamers get into because they get tremendous savings that way (didn't work for me). Which btw developers do see money off of.
As long as DD is disruptive to those established markets I don't think gamers are going to take it laying down.
11/26/09
11/26/09
[www.youtube.com]
11/26/09
11/26/09
Both are and always were expected by anybody with common sense to co-exist for the best part of a decade. However digital distribution will likely become increasingly relevant in the marketplace as the years progress and for that, the infrastructure needs laying down now.
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
No Lending = major limitation. Of course, this is the case with PC games in general, so in the case of PC games, Steam is simply the least of the Evils. At least you can play your games on other computers if your account is logged on there.
11/26/09
There's no impracticality involved in getting a full game off Steam, in fact, it could be considered more practical than going to a store because you don't have to move anywhere and if you pre-order a game, it can be preloaded and ready to be played the minute it gets released.
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
Not downloads overall.
Though in the case of the PS3, he does have a point, 25/50GB games aren't going to be fun to download.
11/26/09
11/26/09
Post hijacking was something I thought Id only see on Engadget.
11/27/09
And DOWNLOADS are impractical because you lose things in it. Things like lending. And selling. Impractical. You don't actually own them.
Also, the DOWNLOADING itself is impractical. I hate downloading large files. DVD size downloads are NOT PRACTICAL. Anything bigger than that is REALLY not practical.
11/27/09
But DVD sizes? that's nothing. Unless you buy a ton of games each week.
Not like most demos roll in at around 1.5GB average these days ¬_¬
If 'large' size files is an issue then its not an issue with the DD service but your ISP.
Oh n when it comes to Steam, PC doesn't have a trade-in market anyway, so you're not losing anything going with them.
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
It's worth mentioning though that if someone doesn't mind throwing down $250 for the PSPGo then they really shouldn't mind waiting a few days for a download to be available.
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
I wouldn't mind waiting a few days for new releases if that was all it was. My main concern at the moment is all the existing UMD releases that aren't appearing. There are some UMD games I own and am prepared to buy again for the privilege of being able to carry around on my Go, but I don't even have that option. Last week's update was better than previous ones, but unless they keep it going it's not looking terribly encouraging on the whole.
So far the only game that there has been any word on is Lumines, and the reports on that indicate that a digital release is unlikely due to the track licensing issues. Although this isn't terribly good news, it's better than no news at all.
And on top of that there still seem to be many PS1 releases that they've not brought over to the European store for whatever reason. Some games I've been waiting to see for years. Given that production and shipping aren't really a concern with digital formats, the apparent lack of progress on this is really quite disappointing.
Before its release I had seen the release of the PSP Go as a sign that Sony were very interested in increasing their digital offerings. Evidently there has been some backlash toward this approach which has led to announcements like this reaffirming their commitment to physical media. There hasn't really been anything similarly supportive regarding digital sales, so now it feels like the early adopters are just being punished for deciding to take those first steps.
11/26/09
As a fellow European, I do feel your pain with the lackluster PAL store though. They really need to improve things this side of the map.
11/26/09
Yeah, I'm sure there are reasons involved. They just aren't putting out any press releases about that. I think that part annoyed me a bit.
11/26/09
11/26/09