Poll: Would you embrace a shift to purely digital distribution of games?

[Ragnarok185]

I don't even have a cellphone and I doubt that I am alone.

And I thought I was the last person in the "developed" world without a cell phone - without any intention to ever get one. Cheers!

now there are three of us

 

[Bostur]

I might embrace it if I get a guarantee that I control what I purchase. One way to do that could be to give the buyers the 'key' to the DRM system a few years after the purchase. In this way publishers would have some protection in the first few critical years, and the customers would keep their games even if the company happens to go out of business.

Currently I don't embrace it, but I cautiosly use it knowing that there is a risk involved. I'm not comfortable with the idea that many games released now, may not be playable in the future.

It's a tricky situation that needs to be tackled somehow.

 

[Roxor]

Already there. I haven't bought any games on disc in years.

 

[blind_dead_mcjones]

nah, i prefer having a physical copy, it gives me piece of mind and nothing anyone can say in favour of digital distribution can change that

 

[Fishyash]

You can...Steams offline mode once you turn it on, only requires you to be online when you install games or play online..thats IT. I fail to see how thats a big deal, once you turn your comp on after having it installed and set offline mode on you can start steam up in offline and play the game offline.

Personally thats a tiny tiny sacrifice to pay for the deals you can get on the Steam sales and the other advantages ie friends list, screenshots,wishlists, ingame browser, downloading whenever you want and whereever you want at REALLY fast speeds, far faster than GOG offers. And game wise Ive saved about $800USd on games from that store.

I kind of dont understand how 15-20 minutes of being online while you install the game is that much of a deal breaker consdiering how often people are online nowadays.

Okay, then it must be a problem on my end.

I have had a couple of periods where I had no internet connection. I had no possible way of running my steam games during those times. Whenever I clicked "start in offline mode" I got an error saying I could not run steam in offline mode. Fortunately I still had quite a few games that could be played offline.

That was what she meant by "offline mode". Obviously there was probably a way around it, but when I don't have the internet, I should be able to play these games offline.

 

[Do4600]

It's getting to the point where even if I buy a hard copy I have to register it on steam to play anyway. The only reason I use hard copies is to make installing faster.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Hell no. I like my hard copies. Technology could fail and all your data or all the steam databases could be wiped and everyone could lose everything they ever spent their money on. I want my guaranteed, fast, easy and physical copy of the game. I can just throw it in the system and play. And without having to worry about DRM bullshit.

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

Hell no. I like my hard copies. Technology could fail and all your data or all the steam databases could be wiped and everyone could lose everything they ever spent their money on. I want my guaranteed, fast, easy and physical copy of the game. I can just throw it in the system and play. And without having to worry about DRM bullshit.

I think if that happened we'd have alot more to worry about then games.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Hell no. I like my hard copies. Technology could fail and all your data or all the steam databases could be wiped and everyone could lose everything they ever spent their money on. I want my guaranteed, fast, easy and physical copy of the game. I can just throw it in the system and play. And without having to worry about DRM bullshit.

I think if that happened we'd have alot more to worry about then games.

A lot* Than* And my comment is well within the context of this discussion. If you could, please do not come after me with something that is not.

 

[rob_simple]

The prices on Xbox live and PSN are actually pretty decent, not any worse than in traditional stores, certainly.

Not in my experience.For example I recently picked up a brand new copy of Metro 2033 for ?12.It's price on XBL - ?20.?8 mightn't seem like a huge difference but it's still significant.I've bought games(all brand new I should add)and then checked them on XBL and in some cases there's been a difference of ?15-?20 between the retail price and the XBL price.If that's pretty decent then I'd hate to see your idea of bad prices

Thing is retail prices are driven by popularity and shelf space.Stores will often heavily discount older/less popular titles to make room for new/best selling titles.With DD that reasoning doesn't exist so there is no reason or incentive to discount titles as much

Well, buy the games cheaper in store, then.

The point is that if all games were purchased online and they were too expensive, people would stop buying them. No matter what medium it's delivered on, the market is still largely consumer-driven.

Your example is purely specific to you, the bigger picture is that I can pick up games on Xbox Live for under a tenner and get hours of fun out of them (much more than I would out of a full-price title like CoD,) and that's value for me. On PSN, I can pick up games like Assassin's Creed 2 for about fifteen quid, which is more or less what a new copy would retail at now.

At the end of the day, you --and I don't mean you, specifically-- can either look at it as a purely DD service would cause all developers to charge whatever they want on products because you can't get them anywhere else, but that logic is flawed purely on the basis that people will only pay up to a certain point.

Gaming is probably my number one hobby, but if for whatever reason they started charging £80 per game I'd give it up, straight away, as I imagine most people would. Then developers either have the choice of dropping prices or watching the entire industry collapse.

What do you think they'd choose?

 

[LilithSlave]

I cut out the middle man. Since I own the stuff, I keep it safely in my hands and not in the hands of some corporation who could easily bungle security. I've own plenty of games (physical copies) and never had an issue with someone stealing them.

Unless you live in a nice place with a nice security system, and keep the games in a lock-box inside bubble-wrap, I don't think you can say you have it in better security than digital distribution providers. Or rather, even that would be quite as secure. In reality, you'd need to simulate what the digital distributes do and put the games on a home network that is ultra secure and ultra backed up with RAID arrays and different things. In terms of PlayStation Network type content, you'd need to partake in emulation, and have, again, your network filled with .isos of those games you own. That you could send to yourself from anywhere and play via a group of emulators and maybe EmuControlCenter. And I believe that's technically piracy.

And if you take the game somewhere else, on the go, you can pretty much throw that out the window.

And that's the thing, with physical media, it's your job to take care of the malleable and delicate item. And you're not supposed to go making copies of it, even just for yourself. With physical media, you have the duty to keep that the only copy that exists. A constantly deteriorating copy, but you still can't copy it and preserve it. With digital distribution, companies have the duty to supply you with a pristine copy of the game. Because you have the right to download it to your hardware.

Besides, if their income is low, how are they going to afford the purchase of the game, the cost of bandwith, the cost of storing the game on virtual HDs (and don't be fooled, we are going to pay for online storage, even if we aren't already).

That's like asking how people on low income and food stamps afford a cell phone or a phone line at all. An internet connection today is pretty much a must. And there are also free ways to get it. Pretty much everyone has and needs and internet connection, just like a phone connection of some sort, whether cellular or not, and pretty much everyone needs a computer of some sort. Being without a computer and an internet connection is like being without a car. Poor people may be poor, but they certainly strive to have the basic things everyone is supposed to have, like a phone, a means of transportation, a computer, and an internet connection. Some places with rent as low as 500 dollars a month provide internet, even.

People can afford to go without games. People can't afford to go without internet. The internet is an important tool in modern society. Furthermore, hard drives are cheap, powerful computers are cheap. You can get a laptop that runs all the games for $400 right now. And a desktop for even cheaper. Not to mention, something like a computer and an internet connection, again, is much more important than a few games.

Hard drive space? Computers are cheap, and hard drives are even cheaper. A 2TB external or internal HDD costs about $100 right now, sometimes less if you get a bargain. A new boxed game, not used or anything, usually runs about $50. So for the price of two games, you get a 2TB hard drive that stores hundreds of games. And with digital distribution services, you can always delete the game and redownload it. Again, you have the right to download it. Not just download it once, but also again.

 

[ranger19]

Oh man, I can see I'm jumping into a huge thread, so I'll try to be short and just speak my opinion.

I used to be against going completely digital - I love my boxes and physical copies as much as the next guy - but I've recently started to understand the appeal of digital. It's amazingly convenient to be able to just select your game off a digital menu. It's a nice bonus to not have to bring game cases around if you don't have to - speaking from personal experience of moving/finding places to keep things.

But recently, I've seen more practical benefits. With Mass Effect 2, I have to switch discs within the game. And while it's not a huge deal at all, but it does break immersion and when I'm relatively indifferent between physical and digital. Secondly, a few of my friends have been noticing their copies of Halo Reach have cracks in the disc from use, and it's actually meant one of my friends won't be able to play consistently unless he re-buys the game. This would never be a problem if he had bought the game digitally. And finally, games run faster from the hard drive compared to the disc.

All of this makes me want to go digital, but I would want a little more: I would want cheaper games - even if only by a few dollars - since the publisher isn't paying for the physical game box/shipping fees/the retailer isn't getting a cut. Moreover, I'm essentially giving up my ability to resell the game, so I'd want cheaper for that too. Finally, I'd want to know that I wouldn't have to spend lengthy times redownloading games - essentially, that my hard drive was big enough that I'd be able to have a ton of games on my HD.

As is, I have my two most played 360 games at the moment (Halo: Reach and Skyrim) installed on my hard drive.

 

[luckshot]

i would not be happy with the shift, and this is coming from someone that buys most of his games via digital distribution.

several other people have pointed out my reasons already, however your assumptions about the future are far to high and hopeful:

-most companies are taking our ability to be online as an excuse to ram a probe up our ass as we play (DRM) not stay farther away...origin and ubisoft im looking at you
-assuming a high speed internet connection for everyone is just a silly way to plan...unless you're planning on taking over the world and implement it
-yes cost would be down...for the companies, i somehow doubt they would pass on any saving to us plebians
-then there is the fact that game companies or at least the distribution companies have to decide 'do we expand servers or pick and choose to delete some old games'
-until your stormtroopers come and blast my old game discs i can probably get them working, a company/distribution system goes belly up...i can forget about playing any of the games i didnt have installed

again, i have most of my games through steam, i may be a hypocrite but one thing i am not sir is looking forward to your dictatorship

 

[TheLoveableMuffin]

Perhaps. I mean, I like OnLive (which is cloud gaming but the same area) but something about looking at a shelf at not seeing a library of games to flick through doesn't seem right.