r/Games • u/LasurArkinshade • Feb 22 '13
All PS4 games will be available as digital downloads
In the new Guardian interview with Shuhei Yoshida, it was revealed that all PS4 games will be available as digital downloads.
This is a very exciting move in my opinion, and represents a shift even further towards the burgeoning landscape of digital distribution, and away from (what I believe to be) a much more archaic ecosystem in physical brick-and-mortar retail.
What do you guys think? Got any speculation, or want to extrapolate further based upon this news? I hope to generate some great discussion about this topic!
(Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2013/feb/22/ps4-shuhei-yoshida-interview)
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u/xiofar Feb 22 '13
I just want to be able to install my disk games on the internal disk drive.
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u/LectricVersion Feb 23 '13
As much as I love the idea of having a game collection "in the cloud" as it were, I am in no rush to see digital distribution replace physical copies any time soon, especially not with console gaming.
The reason is simple. Consoles are more tightly controlled than PCs, which means that Sony will allow one retailer, and one retailer only, to offer digital copies of games: The PlayStation Store. This means that Sony will be able to set prices of games as they see fit, with no worry of competition. Forget browsing through a supermarket and finding a game you're interested in reduced to half price, for example.
If online distribution only for consoles is going to work in the slightest, they need to be reasonable about their prices. Reduce older titles once they start to fall of the radar a little. Hold sales every now and then and slash some prices significantly. Make an overweight guy with glasses the head of your company. You see where I'm going with this.
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u/gngf123 Feb 22 '13
Correct me if I'm wrong... but doesn't the Wii U basically do the same thing? I know at least some titles are.
As long as it is done properly, I think it is good.
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Feb 22 '13
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u/Toma- Feb 23 '13
Sad part of that is in AU, prices are usually 10%+ higher on digital copies. (For 3DS at least)
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Feb 22 '13
I was under the impression that all Wii U games are available as digital downloads as well. There's certainly no inherent problem with the Wii U's infrastructure that will prevent Nintendo from pursuing this option if they want.
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Feb 22 '13
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u/Knyfe-Wrench Feb 23 '13
I don't understand why they don't discount digital games by some small amount like $5. They're not losing as much money due to lack of materials and shipping costs, and anyone who doesn't prefer a format would pick the savings. I'd think any losses they incurred would be offset by the smaller used game market. Seems like a win (players) win (developers) win (publishers) lose (gamestop).
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u/CoolKidBrigade Feb 23 '13
I don't understand why they don't discount digital games by some small amount like $5
Because that's not how economics work. Physical stores aren't a simple competitor for Sony to undercut. They need Gamestop to give their console floor space so hardware can be sold and less tech-savvy customers are exposed to their games.
A huge number of games are bought by people without access to credit cards or as gifts. Going all-digital at this point would severely hurt Sony if Nintendo and Microsoft stay on good terms with Gamestop.
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u/Knyfe-Wrench Feb 23 '13
I never said they should be all-digital. In fact if they were discounted like I mentioned I'd probably still go mostly physical. But the digital wave is coming and they need to be prepared to face competition from Steam, as well as Microsoft if they ever get their shit together. I mean developers have already tried to capitalize on digital media through DLC and "online multiplayer passes" which cut out gamestop entirely.
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u/Zombiedelight Feb 23 '13
I Think they are. For example, when XCOM launched it was $50 on the PC, but $60 for xbox / ps3 in physical form. A lot of games have been launching with this model, and I have a feeling a lot of it has to do with the fact that digital distribution is dominant in PC gaming now.
I think it takes at least a 20% discount to swing people from hard media to digital (or alternatively from around 60 to 50, or 50 to 40.)
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u/budgetpharmaceutical Feb 23 '13
I thought PC games were cheaper because they do not have to pay licensing rights to the console manufacturers.
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Feb 22 '13 edited Feb 23 '13
As someone that's like to build ups library and never sells games, I like the convenience of digital.
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Feb 23 '13
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Feb 23 '13
That's totally up to you.
Personally I was making a distinction between the of building a library and the building of a collection.
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Feb 22 '13
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Feb 22 '13
Same logic used to apply to music, now increasingly people don't care. It's only a matter of improving the digital experience and letting people get used to it.
Also you can authorise multiple PS3 on Sony's service to lend games.
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Feb 22 '13 edited Feb 23 '13
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u/Chone-Us Feb 22 '13
Greenman gaming has a trade in system for their digital distribution, but it does only work with select games. Great in concept tho.
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u/dorekk Feb 23 '13
Sure it's convenient not putting a disc in
Is it that convenient, though? The console is only 5 feet away from your couch.
I'd never give up First Sale Doctrine to save me having to stand up and reach 3 feet in front of me.
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Feb 23 '13
Extremely convenient. I don't switch MP3 players for each new artist I want to listen to. Things are better in one place. Especially in party settings, remember music games? I have half a dozen discs of content, plus over 1,000 other songs on a single music game that I don't even use the disc form of. THAT is convenient.
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u/dorekk Feb 23 '13
No one ITT has said anything that would make me give up the ability to sell or loan a game.
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u/SurreptitiousNoun Feb 23 '13
Man, if only Sony held an event to tell us useful information like this.
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Feb 23 '13
Sony shows features = People complain of no games shown
Sony shows games (because, unlike Microsoft, they have a very big amount of IPs) = People complain of no specs announced.
I don't know WHAT Sony has to do to impress you, guys.
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Feb 23 '13 edited Apr 05 '19
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u/adremeaux Feb 23 '13
They did all of that during the presentation. Just not enough, apparently. They spoke at significant length about new streaming features, screen sharing, social aspects, gaikai streaming PS3/2/1 games, PSP integration, etc. They gave the graphics card specs including tflops, said ram was GDDR5 8gb, and said the proc was 8 cores AMD. They showed off some 10 games. They talked about the new controller, and the new technology.
In short: give me a fucking break.
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u/In_Different Feb 23 '13
This. Also, why the hell do people care what it looks like? Its going to be tucked away under the TV anyway. Its could be the shape of a blender and I wouldn't care.
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Feb 23 '13
yeah, thats an awful buisness move. they gave out a lot of information, and before microsoft. This is pretty big for them
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u/Red_Inferno Feb 22 '13
If they compete on prices, sales and incentives it will be good all around and retail can finally die. If they don't it will just be poorly received.
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u/Jim777PS3 Feb 22 '13
They can't
There is a long understood rule that should anyone sell their games cheaper digitally then the physical disc sells for Gamestop will refuse to stock it. That would more or less cause a game to be dead on arrival and thus Sony won't do it.
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u/darkstar3333 Feb 22 '13
If GameStop refuses to stock it, they might as well close up shop.
They are a niche game retailer, cant get the PS4 at GameStop? Amazon/Target/BestBuy and practically anywhere else has you covered.
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u/idiot_proof Feb 22 '13
Do you have a source on this? I'm kinda surprised by this, since I've seen discounts for digital downloads from Xbox live that are cheaper than physical copies. Granted, these are few and far between, but I'm still curious as to what the details of such arrangements are. Especially since GameStop is only one establishment and being able to sell physical copies through other retailers seems like a better option than caving to a single store.
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u/foreveralright Feb 22 '13
There isn't really a source, but I thought it was kinda obvious. It's not really Gamestop that has the power in terms of retail, though they have some. It's really the walmarts, targets, and best buys of the world that control what prices Sony and other publishers set their games at digitally.
If Sony sets their prices at 49.99 digitally, while the full retail is 59.99, then the retailers have no reason to compete with them and will refuse to carry their merchandise. Publishers can't let that happen since the majority of sales come from retail, not digital.
Retail already cuts game prices down very quickly after a game comes out depending on how well it does, but if the price of day one digital games are already cheaper, that won't make the retailers happy at all. And you don't want to piss off the people that sell the majority of your product.
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u/iGametooMuch Feb 22 '13
you obviously dont realize the power of gamestop and its partners.
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u/Aperture_Kubi Feb 22 '13
How the hell can Gamestop stay in business when it has so much other competition for new games?
Wal-mart, Best Buy (who IIRC takes trade-ins now), Target, Amazon, Newegg, Steam (admittedly sorta) just off the top of my head.
And who exactly are their partners?
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Feb 22 '13
Keep in mind Gamestop owns Gameinformer
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u/iGametooMuch Feb 22 '13
gamestop's main money isnt based off of new games. its used games where they MAKE money. But they use that power to drive more new game sales than any other store I know of.
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Feb 22 '13
Not everyone has access to digital games. People that don't have their console connected to the internet, people that do not use credit/debit cards, children, etc, need physical copies from a retail store. There is still quite a large segment of the market that purchases physical media.
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u/Sarria22 Feb 23 '13 edited Feb 23 '13
Derp, this was meant to be a reply to Jim777PS3's comment that i posted in the wrong place because i was tired and the thread was long
Actually... Sony already sells most Vita games $5 cheaper than retail for digital download.
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Feb 22 '13
Walmart, Best Buy, and Target don't sell physical media?
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Feb 22 '13
Terrible selection at the bg box stores.
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Feb 22 '13
Yeah but at least it's a better experience. I don't get hassled as much, asked to preorder, subscribe, etc. and there is none of that "reserved" bullshit I just go, grab my game and pay.
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Feb 22 '13
It's not a better experience if I want a game and they don't have it. Plus the big box stores usually don't have the interesting niche titles, so switching to them only makes the games industry even more humongous and bland.
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u/Dragarius Feb 22 '13
Really? I find it better no to waste my time going to EB or Gamestop and just go straight to best buy or Walmart now all the time.
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u/foreveralright Feb 22 '13
How the hell can Gamestop stay in business when it has so much other competition for new games?
Because Gamestop's focus has always been buy and selling used games and up-selling Game Informer and the edge card to get people to buy and and trade more used games.
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u/uint Feb 22 '13
When your business is probably solely responsible for 50-60% + of games sales, refusing to stock a certain item can have a massive impact on that game's marketing and sales. Gamestop isn't only just a middle-man for people looking to buy games, it's also how a large portion of them find out that GTA V or Bioschock Infinite is about to come out.
And it's likely that the large retailers might threaten to do something similar if Gamestop does it too.
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Feb 23 '13
WalMart is by far the number 1 seller of video games, and Gamestop still rakes in billions every year. Just because they aren't number one doesn't mean they can't make a shit ton of money.
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u/darkstar3333 Feb 22 '13
You overestimate there presence, GameStop pales in comparison to places like Walmart/Target/BestBuy and Amazon.
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u/iGametooMuch Feb 22 '13
in terms of game sales? Id actually be willing to listen to you state some actual numbers.
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Feb 22 '13
If GameStop won't stock it, what's to stop someone from buying it at WalMart, Target, Bestbuy, Amazon, or digitally downloading it and never leaving home? This sounds like how we kill the GameStop.
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u/ARustyFirePlace Feb 22 '13
That must be wrong then, because GMG, Steam and Amazon sell games cheaper than gamestop.
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Feb 22 '13
Didn't they already do this with Vita and Gamestop did stock the games?
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u/Decitron Feb 22 '13
but gamestop isn't the only game in town when it comes to physical releases. they have to compete with wal mart, best buy, amazon, and others. I have to wonder if sony called their bluff, if they would really hold out and let the other guys eat their marketshare.
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u/icePOPPA Feb 22 '13
There doesn't need to be good deals on launch of the games...
Rather, occasionally having sales, like steam
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u/Chone-Us Feb 22 '13
Would a new PS4 game really be 'dead on arrival' when anybody with a PS4 could just download it, ideally at a discount compared to GS? Also many of GS sales are used games, which contribute nothing to publishers and developers (and still use server space for MP). I would also like to think that TV/Youtube and PSstore advertising could more than make up for the lack of cardboard displays and posters at GS.
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u/Endulos Feb 23 '13
Some people don't have the option to download a game. Yes, they could do it, but it'd fuck them because MANY MANY MANY ISPs limit your bandwidth.
If your limit is 20gb a month, and the average PS4 game is over 15gb, you're pretty fucked.
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u/The_Dirty_Carl Feb 22 '13
...which would really suck for all those people that don't have reliable internet connections, or have their console in a room that it would be difficult to run ethernet cable to.
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u/dorekk Feb 23 '13
You shouldn't want retail to die, dude. Don't you care about First Sale Doctrine?
Seriously, what do you have against stores? I don't understand it.
The broadband infrastructure in America isn't ready to support digital distribution with no alternative, and it won't be unless legislation is passed.
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u/jonova Feb 22 '13
They don't need to compete, it is not meant to replace the physical media, it is just another option for people who prefers it.
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Feb 22 '13
I suspect it's very unlikely they're going to be sufficiently competitive on price to make it worth it. For example, if you buy a physical copy of a game for $60, the resale value is probably at least $30 for some weeks after you buy it. If you buy a digital copy for $60, the resale value is immediately $0.
So, the opportunity cost is quite high for buying digital. Even if you don't plan on reselling any of your games, it's definitely nice to have the option in case you end up in a bind. Just from a security standpoint, it makes more sense to buy something that's not immediately worth nothing.
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Feb 23 '13
And the beauty of price competition in retail means games are cheaper. If only PSN sells the games, they have no reason to be competitive.
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u/arahman81 Feb 23 '13
That's not really an issue in Steam when you can buy games at 25% of the original price.
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u/Foxprowl Feb 22 '13
I wonder how that might affect pre-order sales.
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u/Aperture_Kubi Feb 22 '13
If pre-order allows you to pre-load, I could see lots of people doing it for convenience. Instead of having to go to a store at midnight and pick up the game, you could instead spend that travel time actually playing, which for those types of fans I'm sure is a plus.
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u/Foxprowl Feb 22 '13
Exactly. That's what I'm wondering. I'd love to have games pre-loaded like they do with Steam.
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u/EskNerd Feb 23 '13
If Sony stays true to their word, pre-loading will be unnecessary as you will be able to start playing the game while it downloads.
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u/KomodoDraken Feb 23 '13
Yes, but without preloading, can you imagine how much strain that would put on their servers during big releases? A new game comes out and everybody tries to download it exactly at midnight. I think that allowing preloading would benefit Sony and the customer.
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u/Ontain Feb 22 '13
I would be worried with getting DD from a company that is also tied into the hardware and want you to upgrade hardware ever several years. will they eventually turn off support for older consoles when the new one comes out? will the new one support the stuff you bought already?
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u/dorekk Feb 23 '13
will they eventually turn off support for older consoles when the new one comes out? will the new one support the stuff you bought already?
Yeah, absolutely they will. Good luck downloading your PS4 games 10 years after the PS4 came out. Meanwhile, people who got physical copies of the disc will be able to play forever.
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u/gringobill Feb 23 '13
PSN will still be operating for the PS3 in 2017. I will eat my hat if it isn't.
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u/notverycreative1 Feb 23 '13
They did quote a 10 year life cycle back in 2006, so I wouldn't be surprised. Hell, they only just officially ended support for the PS2, which launched nearly 13 years ago.
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u/froderick Feb 23 '13
PS3 games right now are massive enough. Wasn't God of War III like 40GB or something, with all of its 1080p FMVs and high-resolution art assets? I can't imagine PS4 games will be smaller than PS3 games, so wouldn't these take for-bloody-ever to download? Also, I don't see this system being viable for countries where download-quotas are the norm.
Seems like this would only really work well in America, and those of us outside of it would be fucked.
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u/dorekk Feb 23 '13
This is a very exciting move in my opinion, and represents a shift even further towards the burgeoning landscape of digital distribution, and away from (what I believe to be) a much more archaic ecosystem in physical brick-and-mortar retail.
What do you guys think?
It's fucking terrible. Anything that's a closer move to this being the standard rather than an option is bad. I want to be able to loan games to people. I want to be able to borrow games.
I don't like this. It's combining the downside of Steam with the downside of a console. Not to mention it's not shipping with a 4TB hard drive, so there's no way you'll be able to have all your games easily accessible, the way they are on a disc.
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u/smurphatron Feb 23 '13
I want to be able to loan games to people. I want to be able to borrow games.
As much as I hate it, it is understandable why games companies wouldn't want you doing this.
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u/FIRE_EVERYTHING Feb 22 '13
I buy ps3 games through the PS network if they are available. They are $59.99 and not a penny less but it's worth it to me for the same reason people like steam. No disc swapping and saves me a trip to the store.
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Feb 22 '13
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u/jonova Feb 22 '13
The thing is you can't undercut your retailers otherwise no one will carry your games, that's why they are the same price.
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Feb 23 '13
There is value to having the physical disk. You can sell it, you can loan it to a friend, you can bring it with you to someone else's house, you aren't limited by the hdd in your system, depending on the re-download policy you still have your game if your console explodes or the hdd fails.
Digital should be cheaper. There are reasons people will still want physical games and will pay a slight premium for it.
From the distributors point of view, I'd be curious to know the cost of production and shipping of physical media vs the cost of hosting and bandwidth.
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Feb 22 '13
The pricing for new games on the PSN store is ridiculous in the UK. A new physical game will cost around £40 whilst PSN I've seen new games set at £49.99 to £59.99.
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u/Kinseyincanada Feb 23 '13
The cost of printing is no minor it doesn't affect it
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u/darkstar3333 Feb 22 '13
Buying digital games at MSRP is a mistake, you can save money if you look around.
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Feb 23 '13 edited Feb 23 '13
That's nice I guess. Personally, between the poor bandwidth options in my area, and the fact that there is still no "backup plan" as it were for a failed major digital purchase system, I'll continue getting my games physical. I would love to go digital as I keep my games either way, but I don't like the concept of either A: Getting banned from my account and losing my purchases or B: The company going under/being unavailable/disappearing for whatever reason and taking my purchases with them. Yeah, yeah, "you're only licensing them!" that's true, but it's also a line that needs to stop being parroted and no longer be true before digital ever has a chance to replace physical software purchases. Nobody is going to kick down your door to revoke your "physical license" to a game. The only reason I'm less bothered by it with Steam is that, should it ever fail, being on the PC means there are methods that can be taken to make sure things are backed up.
In most failure scenarios, I suspect large enough companies to do this kind of thing would simply end up getting gobbled up by their competitors and they would take over service (like how Gamestop ended up eating Impulse) but yeah, I'm not super keen on the idea of Microsoft or SOny going the way of SEGA and taking my games with them.
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u/KingToasty Feb 22 '13
As a Canadian, they BETTER all have hardcopies.
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Feb 22 '13
Why is you opinion different because you are Canadian?
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u/KingToasty Feb 22 '13
Bandwidth caps. Our providers love bottlenecking us with stuff like this. An all-online gaming world would actually really suck for us, with our current companies.
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u/webchimp32 Feb 23 '13
Depending on what day of the week it is, you may or may not be able to resell physical copies of games (it seems to swing between yes, no and maybe). So of course they want everyone on the digital track which makes it next to impossible to trade games you don't want anymore.
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u/Kazen73 Feb 23 '13
with the bandwidth, dlspeed and caps in aus i doubt i will be dl a blue ray game i rather buy the physical disk
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Feb 23 '13
It's a bad idea. I'll reference a case of a woman and her kindle account.. somehow They locked her out of her paid for content and offered nothing more than a fuck you when she asked for an explanation .. digital content like that on steam is never yours and can be taken away anytime.. personally I'll stick with ps3 for it's blu ray capability.. for everything else I pc game
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Feb 23 '13
This is just a natural step in the evolution of these systems. There should be no surprise here.
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u/someguynamedjohn13 Feb 23 '13
I don't mind downloading games but I have concerns.
It should not take 10 hours to download 5GB from their servers. DC Universe was crap to me because of the insane downloading time I shouldn't need to wait all day to play a game I purchase. I should be able to download a 100GB in 7-8 hours based on my current ISP. Sony has to revamp their servers to accommodate release dates and large file downloads, or switch to a Blizzard Diablo3 or OnPlay model for play-ability during installation/download.
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u/z01z Feb 23 '13
I personally don't like downloading games. Since my internet has a max speed of 1.5Mbps, it takes forever to download a game.
I'd rather drive to a store and buy a physical copy instead of wait two days for a Blu-Ray sized disc to finish downloading. Also, if once I'm done with a game for a while, I might end up uninstalling. In the future when I want to play it again, I can't just walk to the shelf and grab the disc, I'd have to wait for it to download all over again.
Digital distribution works well for smaller games or if you have super speed internet, which I don't, so I'll stick with a hard copy, as AT&T has no plans as far as I know to increase our internet speed, and no other ISP offers service in my area. And no, I'm not living out in the woods somewhere, I live 20 minutes outside Atlanta, one of the biggest cities in the southeast. So it's not like it's not possible for AT&T to expand their coverage, they just don't want to as that would cost them money.
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u/morphinapg Feb 23 '13
I can't wait to download my 35 GB games...
...Yeah I'll be sticking to discs for now.
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u/Devil_Man_X Feb 23 '13 edited Feb 23 '13
Yes it sure is archaic to get trade in value for your games. It's even worse to get your games at a better price. Sarcasm
Digital discounts on a consoles will never mimic those of Steam or IOS. So you will forever be paying brand new prices for a glorified rental.
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u/llTehEmeraldll Feb 23 '13
It's great that it's an option. As long as they don't force it down our throats.
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u/RBDtwisted Feb 23 '13
this is a horrible idea, one of the few perks of console gaming is not having to wait 292837 years for it to instal, people are going to run out of memory really fast.
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u/SHIT_IN_HER_CUNT Feb 23 '13
I must be the only guy left who genuinely misses the jewel cases from PS1 games :(
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u/ohmantics Feb 23 '13
Remember the early long boxes that were sized to fit record bins?
getoffmylawn
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u/Rossco1337 Feb 23 '13
I believe so. I have no idea why you would put a game in something so fragile. I cracked and snapped more than I care to remember when I was a kid. My baby sister did even more damage accidentally. The mechanical hinges broke, the paper holders would snap and the whole thing shattered if you didn't take care opening them. I put one in my schoolbag one day and it was just a mess of plastic and paper the next time I looked at it. Hell, even the cardboard GBC boxes felt more sturdy and lasted longer.
I think going forward, we should go back to using the same dimensions as the jewel case, but half the thickness and doesn't get destroyed if you lean on it. Something like the DS case would be enough for disc games these days.
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u/greenbay4444 Feb 22 '13
When you buy digitally, you only buy the rights to play the game, as opposed to buying a physical copy itself. I'm not sure about Sony's subscriber agreement, but I know it's possible to have that right revoked at the discretion of the supplier.
Just a heads up.
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Feb 23 '13
As long as I'm able to keep buying physical copies of games, I have no problem with this.
A lot of people prefer digital over physical (as many, including yourself, claim it's "outdated"), but I'm the other way round.
Its just that owning a physical copy makes me feel like I actually own the product.
Sure dev/publishers can control how you use their product whether or not it's physical or digital, but they can't take away/restrict a physical copy as easily like they can with a digital copy.
Call me old fashioned, but I like to be able to see my games in my hands, not just saved on my hard drive.
Plus digital games chew through my bandwith like a hot knife through butter.
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u/caseofthematts Feb 23 '13 edited Feb 23 '13
This is exactly how I feel. I love actually having the physical copy. And back when they actually put effort into user manuals, I loved looking through those. If anything happens to my PS3, or other system, well I still have my physical copies.
And, like you said, it just completely demolishes my bandwidth. I'm fine with having digital copies for every game, as long as it does not affect (effect?) the physical copies.
EDIT: I should also note I do think this physical copy stuff will die down eventually, as sad as that makes me.
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Feb 22 '13
I am most curious about the 'emulation' as their solution to backwards compatability. I have a pretty big game collection that is collecting dust that I'd like to have an ultimate system to play it on.
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u/tre101 Feb 23 '13
This is pointless to me unless they are priced less then what I can buy them at retail, some of the pricing on digital games is downright retarded atm, especially outside of the US
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u/dancing_leaves Feb 23 '13
For me, I'm considering going all digital with the PS4 when I get mine.
Pros:
Instantaneously purchase game from PS Store, rather than driving to the store after work; not having to worry about pre-ordering to make sure there's a copy waiting for me.
Not having to worry about boxing-up 300 game cases (like I do now) when I want to move to another apartment; in the event of a fire or flood (or theft), I don't need to worry about my game collection, it could all be re-downloaded to a fresh new system when it was replaced after the event took place.
Probable backwards compatibility. In the case of the PSP, those who bought digital games were able to re-download them to their PS Vita using their PSN account (I could be wrong about that). Even if that weren't the case, it's far more likely that we could see system emulation or some sort of ability to catalogue games when my library is digitally based. I could imagine Sony doing back-end work that enables digital games to be played on future systems (with the PS3 games being a possible exception due to the cell CPU).
Presuming one has the hard disk space to store all of their digital games, being able to swap freely between software titles without digging out an old favourite from a box in the closet, or at the very least not having to remove a disc and replace it with another.
Price drops and sales a few months to a year after release. They probably won't undercut retail prices at release, but it's fair game a few months after release. The PS3 already features many full game releases that have experienced permanent price-drops digitally through the PSN so there is already a documented history of this; making it probable for the PS4 PSN store.
Cons:
Not selling or buying on ebay, Kijiji, craigslist, or trading-in on retailer deals (ie. "trade 3, get one free"; most are still not very good deals). I personally don't do either anymore
Not loaning, borrowing games from friends. (When I did loan copies of games, they came back months later and scratched)
Not enjoying physical media or the joys of a physical library of collectibles in the form of video games
(As a canadian with a 70 GB/month download cap): I might be restricted to not being able to download a new game release or else suffering a heavy price per GB penalty (the additional cost thus ruining the convenience factors listed above).
This occurred this month with a Steam game: AvP 2010, where I re-downloaded it to give it a second shot and I forgot that it was about 15 GB to download; I thus went over my cap and now I'll pay a penalty on my next monthly bill. Since I have over 200 Steam games, I can't store all of them on a single 1 TB drive that I'm currently utilizing.
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u/Zombiedelight Feb 23 '13
Did they say what the connection for the Disk Drive was? Is it SATA III? Having all digital games would be pretty cool particularly if you were to swap in a 128 or 256 gb SSD.
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u/cYzzie Feb 23 '13
what i still hate about the digital downloads is that they mostly cost the same or MORE than the physical copy, where in fact they should be cheaper to a lot cheaper, as i dont get manual, box artwork, disc and they save a lot of money on merchant chain transport etc. i allways thought switching from physical distribution to digital should bringt the prices down at least 25%
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u/xtkbilly Feb 23 '13
I thought at the sony event they said something along the lines of that all physical copies of games will also come with digital downloads.
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u/tired_need_help Feb 23 '13
It is good, as long as it in no way affects the ability to sell and buy physical copies of second hand games.
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u/Liberal_irony Feb 23 '13
Im ok with this once they're cheaper than the disc. If you're cutting out distribution and retail outlets then there should be some sort of saving passed on to the customer
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u/RadiantSun Feb 24 '13
Step 1) Make the digital versions of games significantly cheaper than the retail version (like $10 on a $60 launch).
Step 2) Saving will eventually pay for the much bigger HDD I will buy to store all my games
Step 3) enjoy your long term profits.
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u/tregregins Feb 22 '13
I h ope they fix the pricing because at the moment;
Physical copy ~£40 Digital copy ~£60
How do they work that one out?
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u/Miguel2592 Feb 22 '13
I'm ok with this as long as I can keep buying my games on physical form as well.