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Most Console Gamers Still Prefer Physical Media
arcticstoat writes "Despite the advent of online game stores on all three major consoles, most console gamers apparently still prefer hoarding collections of gaming discs to downloading games. A recent survey conducted by Ipsos in the UK revealed that 64 per cent of the 1,000 users polled would rather have games on physical discs, while only 25 per cent would prefer digital copies. In the survey, 55 per cent of those polled said price was the key factor in determining their interest in downloading games, while 27 per cent said they wanted games available online before they were in the shops. Ipsos' director Ian Bramley explained, 'Interest absolutely drops away when you get to the types of pricing that you might charge for a new physical disc. People's perceptions are that they're not prepared to pay as much for digital content — they make the connection that it's not a physical disc and therefore it should be cheaper.'"
Because I can trade it in when I'm done.
Summation 2
We're so used to getting dicked around with the inability to format shift digital media that the only thing that seems safe is physical media.
A few pence/cents cheaper.
mass pressing CDs and bulk distribution means that the cost of the disc is negligible
The only download game I bought was GTAIV-TLAD and almost as soon as I bought it they brought out the physical copy Episodes from Liberty City with that and the Ballad of Gay Tony on it. It was twice the price of the download but didn't require a large chunk of the disc space on my Xbox (20GB launch system) so I waited until one came up pre-owned cheap and picked that up. So, I've bought TLAD twice now. If I had bought a real disc I could sell it and get some money back but I can't. Great from the game publishers but crap for buyers. I won't do it again and in fact the vast majority of games I buy are preowned or discounted substantially such as Bioshock 2 bought brand new for half price. In 6 months or so I'll pick up Red Dead Redemption once all the fuss has died down and pre-owned copies hit the market at a decent price.
For me, if I had to buy games at full price I think I would stop buying them pretty much all together so none of my money would go into the industry - download games are just bad news.
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
while only 25 per cent would prefer digital copies. In the survey, 55 per cent of those polled said price was the key factor in determining their interest in downloading games, while 27 per cent said they wanted games available online before they were in the shops.
Case in point: Steam
You have sales. You drop your price. You advertise. People buy games that they would have skipped over in an alternate timeline. You make more sales. You make more money. Everyone wins.
Honestly, at the price point of $5.99, I wouldn't cry if I couldn't access a steam game in 4 years. If all digital downloads had sales like steam, then I bet this poll would be much different.
[citation needed]
Generally, if I have a physical copy of the game, I can expect to still run it 20 years later, long after their authentication servers have bit the dust. I still play Alpha Centauri and Civ3 fairly often, and occasionally dig out the old N16 games.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
No resources are wasted on materials, packaging, shipping or handling. Just electricity.
We are all God's parents.
If only we had a shorthand symbol to represent this useful concept, we could save many characters.
If I had the ability to move my downloaded games easily between one console and another, then I wouldn't mind download-only games. As it stands, unless a game is of OMFGMUSTPLAYNAO quality (I'm looking at you, 'Splosion Man, Shadow Complex, Cuboid, and others), I generally stay away from them.
Ironically (or not), unless there is a killer special edition, I exclusively buy PC games on Steam now.
Living With a Nerd
People's perceptions are that they're not prepared to pay as much for digital content — they make the connection that it's not a physical disc and therefore it should be cheaper.
Why shouldn't it be cheaper? With digital distribution you don't have to worry about pressing disks, printing manuals, designing box art, shipping, storage, and a host of other costs. If I'm getting less stuff, why shouldn't I pay less?
Gee...imagine that. Introduce a method that eliminates the need of ALL packaging costs, ware house storage, shipping costs, duplicating hardware, the initial cost of the physical media, the cost of printed manuals, and customers expect the price to go DOWN? Plus we have get the added benefit of DRM lock in! Who do they think they are? Don't they understand we need to profit at all costs?! The audacity.
I don't care if your games are $1, Steam. I want to be able to trade them. If copying is "stealing", then I should be able to trade. For example, you can steal a banana or trade it.
You can't have it both ways.
Despite the advent of online game stores on all three major consoles, most console gamers apparently still prefer hoarding collections of gaming discs to downloading games
You know, that might have a lot to do with the fact that most titles are never available for download until they're 5 years of age or older. It's like saying "more people prefer chocolate to vanilla" in a store that only sells chocolate.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
There are some games that will never, EVER get a re-release so the only way I can ensure I enjoy something for years to come is to actually buy the damn thing and keep it.
So far the only thing that has foiled this is theft...
crazy dynamite monkey
Physical media will always be far superior to digital.
1) Can buy the game used. Instead of paying $60 for a game, you can wait a few weeks and get it for $35-40. Within a few months, it's available for $20-30 while Steam still sells it for $60.
2) It can be resold. After you spend 10 hours finishing that game, you can turn it around and resell it for 80% of its buying price. You can then apply that money towards #1 and buy another game for cheap.
3) You're not stuck with it. How many games, honestly, do you still play after a year? Maybe one or two. Why be permanently stuck with a game that you'll never play again? And why be stuck with a game that sucks? How about those poor saps that paid $60 for Terminator Salvation, discovered the game could be beaten in 5 hours, and had absolutely no replay value?
4) You can trade games. The ultimate barter. Tired of a game and need a break? Trade with a friend for a month. Want to see if a game is really fun? Borrow it from a friend. Downloadable demos do not compare.
5) A visual reminder. Having a physical boxed item is a visual reminder that you have a game that you can play. I compare this to the Humble Games bundle I bought a few weeks back. I honestly keep forgetting that I have these games to play, since they're just icons on my desktop along with dozens of others. It's different than being bored and walking to a bookcase to view through a physical collection.
Their real complaint is that consumers are not willing to pay full price for something they cannot turn around and sell when they are done with it.
Also, it is cheaper for the publishers to distribute downloads then it is for physical media. Why shouldn't we get some of that discount passed on to us? This sounds like the RIAA model: Distribution is cheaper, so we get a bigger profit margin. Screw the customers for thinking they should get what they pay for!
Mr. Bramley just doesn't get it...
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
What the hell do you think the disc is?
I've got somewhere around 20 or so PS3 games and only a 40GB HDD.
Even if you assumed I had upgraded to a 500 gig disk, at about ~10 to upwards of ~40gigs per game, usually 10, my drive starts to fill up. Fast. And I still need to store saves, music, video and everything else.
Screw that.
Just give me discs.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
While i'm not a gamer, i have an extensive DVD & CD collection, and i refuse to pay to download a bunch of bytes, if i pay for it, i want it in a shiny container that i can put with the rest of my collection.
Also, physical media can be sold on, downloads.... not so much
With many games retailing for a lot more than $10, I refuse to buy without a resale option, so I nearly always buy physical media... usually 2nd hand off ebay, since I'm late to the PS3 so even old games are still new to me. That said, I've downloaded lots of demos from the PSN, and did buy one game off it (lemmings) because it was quite cheap and not being able to trade it in or swap with friends doesn't matter too much.
Another reason is that I've got an old firmware, as I'm still holding on to OtherOs/Linux on my PS3, so I've been blocked from the PSN store, putting about $5 in limbo. I'm hoping a hacked firmware will appear which will renable otheros but allow access to the store, but it seems GeoHot has taken a back seat on that.
I've had a PS3 since late last year - bought a phat just as the slim came out, getting a discount, and I wanted otheros etc. It replaced my (chipped) original xbox (non-360) which was stolen.
Steam.
I have re-purchased games after losing the disc, scratching the disc, loaning it to a friend (who lost it/forgot to return it/damaged it), losing the installation code, etc.
So far Valve has done a good job in my opinion. I will continue to buy my games via Steam and play them on my desktop at home, my media center PC, my laptop, and occasionally even my desktop at work -all with a single purchase.
"You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
They know that being able to resell the physical disk is worse something.
People assume that a download is worth less than a physical copy because they can't physically hold it, however if you consider the actual cost of a dvd the difference in cost will be a couple of cents at most.
There is also the worry that downloads will be tied to something arbitrary like an account or a single piece of hardware, which you may lose access to and thus lose your games.
Personally i prefer downloaded games that i can store on an HD to the hassles of physical media, then again the only game downloads that don't place arbitrary restrictions on me or price-gouge are the usual pirate sources.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Sad... replying to myself.
Of course, the article was talking about console games and I am not. Steam really needs to get a foothold in the console world, preferably on all the major consoles -now that would be worth my $.
"You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
Come on over and I'll give you a "citation" :wink:
Wow, you mean consumers are smart enough to realize that paying $60 for a digital download gives them less than paying $60 for a disc with a case and a manual?
No shit sherlock. Fer real?
I hate physical media. It's a pain in the ass. I'll tolerate getting DVD's from netflix but I'd prefer if everything streamed. I'm damn well never buying another DVD again. Of course, life is made easier by being able to torrent what I can't get through netflix. I'm also very happy reading my books electronically. Sometimes reference hardcopy is nice but for novels and the like, electronic is the way to go. But they dick you too hard through the online stores. And that's the weakness with the games.
As far as games go, they're screwing you six ways from Sunday. You have to buy from the official store. I know on itunes for iphone apps you have to back it up yourself since they won't let you download it again if you lose it. I don't know how Xbox handles that sort of thing. I know people are complaining about trying to migrate downloads from console to console so I guess they're handling it poorly. And then there's the issue on getting discounted used games, trade-ins, borrowing a game from a friend, etc. Can't do any of that with downloads. And the hard drives on the consoles are so limited. 20gb for an Xbox? please. Oh, they came out with a 250gb. Whooptie fucking doo. You run out of space real quick and they sure as hell won't let you hook up an external drive via usb.
So given the current state of the industry, I'm stuck preferring physical game media to downloads, but that's only due to the legal constraints. If not for that, downloads would be the way to go, same as it is with PC.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Is that they offer older games at good discount. Just bought Street Fighter IV via Steam for $10, where as the console offerings are around $20-30 second hand.
And a couple of weeks ago, I bought the bundle of 5 codemaster racing games for $20.
So I'd guess that the price point for when I would buy games digitally is around $10.
That said, I do take pride in my collection of retro games consoles and those games, which get a run every now and then. And I'm not going to re-buy those to run on new hardware.
I like having as many of my games as possible all loaded in a harddrive, so I can just turn on the console remotely and play. No swapping discs, no noisey cdrom drive, etc. Same principle as why people prefer a "jukebox" they can stick in their pocket.
However, I do still prefer physical media, since I want to actually OWN what I purchase. So while I have bought a few independant games via download, I prefer discs for the AAA stuff.
Now, the irony here to my first comment above is that even if I install my games to my XBOX hard drive, I still have the inconvenience of swapping the damn disc as "proof" I own it. Legit customer, inconvenienced. I was much happier with my PS2 and HDLoader. Power up, get a menu of my games, pick one and play.
"I have re-purchased games after losing the disc..."
There's your problem. You think that it's acceptable to have to repurchase games simply because of a small problem like scratching the disc. Used to be that game companies would actually mail you a new disc if you sent in the old one. Not anymore.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
Downloaded Wii games live on the console, and can't get moved off to a new one. So while the Wii will play old Game Cube games, all your downloaded content will not be forward compatible to the Wii 2 (or whatever they come out with next). Physical media likely will have some sort of path forward if history is any lesson.
So yeah, disc please!
As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers. You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play.
IIRC they did allow a short time for people to quickly burn their purchases onto audio CD.
A music collection is usually supposed to survive sitting in a corner mostly undisturbed for years. You shouldn't have to periodically "maintain" it to keep stuff from not playing anymore. You shouldn't have to watch your email for announcements. You should be able to wake up from a coma and pull out any arbitrary album, despite how long it's been there, and assume that it will play.
After seeing games that are only a couple years old on Steam for under $10, I could give a shit less about physical media. I have lost all interest in being a "hard core" gamer having to have the latest and greatest in hardware and software. I barely have any time to play much less go up to Best Buy to dig through the somewhat limited selection they have.
I don't much follow anymore the release dates of new games. It helps me not get overly excited about the next big thing and keeps me from pre-ordering it. My biggest indicator as too whether or not a game is going to be a AAA must have title is when they hold the $50 release price for 4-6 months. You don't even much need to read the reviews since most of the companies panic and drop the price on a game they know is shit.
Once any games hit the $10 and under mark I'll buy it just to have something to play with for a few hours/days and then delete it off my system. It's the gaming equivalent of one of those snack bags of chips.
As far as sharing with friends, fuck them, they need to go buy their own damn copy so we can play co-op or multi-player.
So, when Spore came out, there was this big thing and I was like that sucks, but probably won't affect/effect me because I don't really go for those games or most games from EA right...
;D
So a friend made (convinced) me to get BattleField 2142 right... So after a format or 3 (hardware issue) I wasn't able to play because I've hit the max install limits. I was very upset
So I hit the EA forums, and literally, a "mod" said to send him PM's with info and they'd help out. Although people were helped at first, that was the end of it. The "mod" said that EA people weren't going to "fix" those problems. That's when the outrage started!
So after hearing NOTHING back from EA directly, the "mod" was actually more helpful even though they didn't work for EA, I did what everyone else was doing (and suggested everyone else to do) which was reporting EA to the BBB. Big whoop right?
EA actually answered, once, and never again lol. So I said f this and forgot about it. Months later I tried it and sure enough it installed, with no surprise. I had found out that after a certain amount of time (I think weeks) the installs "get cleared" from their system and allow it to be installed once again on a "different" PC. What was different was the install, as the hardware (except one stick of RAM!), case, software and programs were all exactly the same! So since then I go out of my way to keep people from buying their games.
So yeah, whenever possible, I try to stick to physical media. Sure, it could have the same exact thing built into it, but I am not forced to install a downloader which downloads a game several GB's fat each and every time you want to reinstall. I backed up all my files and installers and it just didn't like that. It thought I was trying to trick it! So yeah, I played by their rules once, and they lost a customer and hopefully countless others as well.
My abilities are only limited by my imagination
I wouldn't mind buying games online except that if the hard drive in my PS3 crashes, I lose my games. Sony says that they are not responsible if a hard drive crashes and games are lost. It's up to the user to back up the hard drive on their own. Well, fuck that. I'll just buy the discs and not worry about backups.
I don't respond to AC's.
I know I'm dating myself here but I remember my first CD ROM drive. You had a little case that had a sliding door similar to what a 3-1/2 disk looked like. It was great because you didn't have access to the disc surface and you couldn't scratch them. I have kids and it's hard for them to properly hold a CD so they always get finger prints on them.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
Agreed, I've found the risk analysis for my habits to come down in favor of Steam for the most part, too. The risk of Steam disappearing forever or having a temporary outage is less than my risk of harming my disk or temporarily misplacing it. The fact that my most-played Steam games are also multiplayer (and thus require an internet connection anyway) helps, too.
I still prefer physical media for consoles, though. I chalk it up to a combination of the planned obsolescence of the platform, smaller HDD, vendor lock-in, and familiarity with a stack of console games next to the TV.
Write your representatives! Repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!
I can buy it used for 1/5 the price which lets me play a game I would have never bought in the first place and if I don't like it I can sell it for the same amount or more.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
I totally agree with you. In slashdot there is this stigma about trading a physical good for a digital one. Don't get me wrong i love buying music CD's but when i do it i get a personal satisfaction feeling and nostalgia that is not really connected to the end product which is music. The music is equal to the flac or high quality mp3 counterpart.
But i also find that steam is a good platform for a games library that is both versatile and convenient.
Some users replied that they can't sell their games or that they have to log in to play the downloaded content, but not with steam and steam is basically DRM. With steam you can play in offline mode and can play as you mentioned in any computer you own just by logging in and downloading. It's true you can't resell but steam constantly has such good deals that not even in your dream store you will get so much discounted titles. In my opinion they may even be cheaper than second hand games bought of ebay or any online store.
There is just one thing i am afraid regarding the fact that in some jurisdictions the digitally transactioned goods may not be regulated by the same solid physical goods laws.
PS: Steam's recent promotions are completely brilliant
http://pneves.net/
Steamworks is coming to the PS3, as per VALVe themselves, so there's hope. And Portal 2 will be playable across platforms, meaning you can play on your PS3 and then fire it up on your PC or Mac and start right where you left off.
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
I think that the reason digital distribution is so popular has nothing to do with logistical costs one way or the other. It has to do with the fact that unless you have a major publisher interested in giving you major shelf space in a store, you can't put your product somewhere were people can even buy it.
There is a bout 30 feet of shelf space in most non specialty stores that sell computer games. That might be room for all the titles in 1982, but that isn't going to cut it now.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
As said by many other people here, physical media isn't going away any time soon as long as they don't radically change how the system works. Games on physical media works so well that I can't imagine a console that only uses downloadable games to thrive. Lets take a look at the reasons why, shall we?
Pros for using physical media:
1) Buy it once and it's yours forever.
2) You can re-sell it when you'd like a little extra cash and you don't want it anymore.
3) You can back them up using various methods. (Ever since I got a DS homebrew flashcart and installed homebrew on my Wii, their personal value for me has *SKYROCKETED* since I can play my game backups without digging for the disc.)
4) You can lend them to a friend that wants to try the game out.
5) The game case has a "look at the awesome thing I have" value for showing it off on your game rack.
6) I can play (most of) the games ten or twenty years from now, if they still work.
Basically the cons for using discs and cartridges are that if you lose them or get them scratched/broken, then you have to buy a new one. The pros heavily outweigh the cons for this. But what about downloadable games? Lets see:
Pros of downloadable games:
1) You don't have to drive to a store to purchase the game.
2) Sometimes the prices are much cheaper than a physical copy.
And... that's about it. The cons list, however, is much more extensive:
Cons of downloadable games:
1) Most have DRM that controls when, how, and where you play it.
1.5) You most likely won't be able to play the games in 10-20 years
2) You most likely won't be able to purchase the games in 10-20 years. (Nintendo/Sony/MS, I'm looking at you. Do something about this one!)
3) You can't trade them in for extra cash.
4) You can't lend them to a friend.
5) Games usually cost as much as a retail disc, which doesn't make much sense considering the cost of the disc or shipping it is not involved at all.
6) You're at the mercy of your internet connection to get a decent speed for downloading the game. (If you have "Super Ultra Basic DSL" or dial-up, it might be more worth it to go to a store.)
As long as physical media remains as sane as it is, and as long as downloadable games don't act so stupidly, I'm sticking to discs and cartridges. They are clearly the winner here.
"Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded." -Archbishop Fulton Sheen
On a console, I prefer a physical disc, because at least that way, if I lose/break the console, I don't lose ALL my games.
With Steam, or anything similar, or anything actually DRM-free, I would much rather have a digital download. It's far more convenient, so long as I can actually, legitimately, easily make backups -- or, in the case of Steam, Valve has it backed up for me.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Downloads are convenient because it's easy, quick and you don't have to go into the big blue room. Physical media is good for collecting, saving disc space, lending and reselling. Why don't companies give the option of shipping a CD when you buy a download? Maybe for a slightly increased fee, but still less than buying both separately and not much than ordering a cd should be.
Brain surgery - it's not rocket science!
.. it's quite often cheaper that the download equivalent. Even Valve releases are generally cheaper retail than they are on Steam (in the UK at least).
Also in other cases (eg Mount and Blade Warband) localised tax, for example VAT here in the UK), adds too much to make it viable to make an online direct download purchase. For me it would have been circa £26 download, whereas online hard copy on play.com (other websites are available) it cost £18.
and you cant sell them again or lets friends borrow them.
I looked af buying xbox games through their online service, but most of the ones I wanted was not available online. Those that were available cost 1/3 more than buying them from an online store and getting them through the mail. Some were even less than half the price compared to buying them as a download.
So I buy the physical media since it is a much better deal.
because with console games, you can always trade in your old games you don't play anymore and/or buy used games for far less than the price of new games (assuming you can wait a bit for the price drop). You can also borrow games from friends or bring over a game to play at a friends house as long as they have the appropriate console.
As for PC gaming, we are used to games being progressively harder to share (cd keys, authentication servers, etc). For PC games, the only real difference between having the physical media and download is becoming more and more the difference from waiting for the download vs the time it takes to go to a store and buy it.
As for cost, I am finding PC gaming with downloads far cheaper than buying console games. Steam sales save me far more than buying the same game used for a console, then reselling when I'm done.
That's a big "if". AFAIK it's never been done before, especially on a AAAAA title. I know Valve said they'd do it, and there's no technical limitation for it, but the chances Sony backs out of this due to the precident it sets (basically a dumb Steam terminal) could be very dangerous for the industry. I can see Sony backtracking on this, or nerfing the feature significantly.
moox. for a new generation.
C'mon - it's not the future - it's already here.
With consoles like Playstation 3, it's much easier to just have a heap of games ready to play right here and now, rather than having to sort discs and insert/eject stupid scratchable game discs all the time.
Another advantage is that you can just "re-download" your entire game collection if you should switch machine, or upgrade to a bigger harddisk, now tell me that's not LOOOVELY?
As for PC and STEAM, they very often have huge price cuts, and brand new games are usually 30-40 percent cheaper than in the stores (at least Danish stores - where a new game costs 100 bucs, and sells for 59 on Steam)...
And...you can carry your games collection with you - forever, I mean...I STILL have old playable games on steam I installed ages ago, and have lost the discs to - Yay for the future I say, it's not the future - it's today! ;)
(ok, that was cheesy, but you get the point)
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Consumers are NOT STUPID. Maybe most people could not clearly explain why they feel downloads should be less expensive, but their perception that downloads are intrinsically less valuable than physical media is accurate and justified. Here are some of the reasons why:
1> You cannot sell, trade, or loan a digital download, therefore it intrinsically has less value than physical media.
2> You cannot trust that you'd be able to re-download something if your copy gets lost in a hardware failure. So owning it comes with more risk of loss, and that risk reduces its value.
3> Downloads cost less to distribute than physical media, and it is basically unfair for the publisher not to charge less for something that has less overhead. As human beings we understand trade and we understand greed. We are greedy ourselves, and we recognize greed in others. How can you expect consumers to take you seriously if you don't want to give them a fair shake?
Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
None of your money goes into the industry now! You buy all your games second-hand, which means the people who MAKE those games that you enjoy so much, get nothing.
You're giving your money to GameStop or some other parasite company. You're not even giving it to the big publishers who bring games to market -- certainly not to any of the developers who made those games.
If you really want to help the industry, buy 1 game less per year, and buy your games NEW at retail, so that the people who MAKE those games will at least get something.
Until then, you're not even actually their customer, so don't be surprised when they fail to take your preferences into account.
There are a couple of reasons I don't use the Xbox live store to buy games such that are also available on physical media:
1) Often the downloads are considerably MORE expensive
2) It would be even easier for them to take away/disable a game at any point in time
3) You can't sell it or lend it to anyone else
4) It is tied to your account, so if you for some reason would lose that, you would have to purchase everything all over again
I like how folks are going on about how being able to rent / resell their games make it worth having it in disk form. Meanwhile, the big names in the industry are starting to do everything they can to prevent resale, or even rental. Its only a matter of time before they finally just go for it and make it so that they all ship with the one-time-use "premium content unlock code" and become demos without it. Ubisoft has already begun down this path - and so has EA. Soon your 60 buck game will have 0 resell value.
I think battle.net [blizzard] has it right, you can buy a physical copy of the game, and then if like what happened to my copy of WC3 becoming unusable (scratched), you can enter your WC3 key and then DL a copy of the game for free, and it is posted indefinitely onto your battle.net account.
Sony won't let us log in to the Playstation network until we install their OS update 3.21. However, this "upgrade" disables linux (the "Other OS" feature). I refuse to allow Sony to remotely delete this option, so downloadable content is not an option for my family. Cleverly, Sony is also preventing me from buying or renting films or other content. Well, that's their call.
Steam is good in my opinion because in exchange for only getting a digital copy it gives you many other advantages (most notably sales that make the games so cheap I won't cry over not being able to resell them). Many of the services, especially publisher-driven ones, get that wrong and hurt you in the name of preventing piracy without giving you anything in return.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
...the vendor can't take it away from me.
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. - John 14:6 NLT
For a start, because the Wii is capable of 480p resolution, while the PS3 scales up to native 1080i - I'm sure you can imagine just how much graphics alone takes up.
A 1080p frame buffer has six times as many pixels as 480p. Also consider that the PS3's Cell has a far more powerful CPU for more complex compression and post-processing schemes. I'll also grant that PS3 games use lighting effects involving multiple texture layers. So, having read only the published specs but not the confidential specs, I'll assume that PS3 textures and meshes are eight times as big as they would be for Wii.
Add onto that the Wii's sound processor probably isn't AAC/DTS/TrueHD 7.1
True, Wii's sound processor is matrix surround. But in a game, as I understand it, you usually have a mono or stereo source and then change the levels based on the vector from the source to the microphone.
So I can see a 40 MB WiiWare game ballooning to 400 MB when redone for PS3, but still not 40 GB.
Steam is good because it's more convenient and is a better overall experience than downloading pirate copies.
I have no love for DRM or systems which use it, but Steam is absolutely the best way for me to reward developers for a job well done. If some of that money also goes to Valve, then that's cool too. I really like Valve games.
I don't know if the devs get more or less reward than if I'd bought a copy of their game from a retail store, but I don't care. Store-bought games mean I have to deal with these crappy, outdated and overly-fragile things called DVD's. Plus, if I can't at least have a really nice box and manual... forget it. Little DVD cases and a PDF of the manual really doesn't get my impulse-purchase juices flowing.
If Steam dies tomorrow and I can no longer play the games I've paid for. Well, that's why I also support piracy as a distribution mechanism.
I'm a PC gamer and I live in a third world country. For me digital distribution like Steam is a lifesaver. First, only a few legitimate games ever get to my country as physical discs so digital distribution gives me much much more choice. Second, digital distribution can make the price really affordable. All I have to do is wait for it to go on sale. Since I never plan to turn around and sell these games, the inability to sell them does not bother me. After playing I'll just back them up to a burned DVD But of course DRM is always a problem
Sorry but if I pay full price I want something and I want to play it as long as I want not when the company deems that the game is old or when they quit supporting the hardware.
PCs aren't as bad because I do trust Valve more than the likes of MS and EA but more importantly there is more ability to buy and play games for ages. Consoles generally, at best, last 5 years and after that you don't know what could happen. Sure anti-used games people like Mark Rein would get a hard-on over being able to take your games away after a few years and make you buy the latest sequel but I don't like it.
Why should I get a new disc for free if 'I' break the old one?
Because you paid thirty quid for a game and not a shit piece of metal and plastic?
They had a chance to make CD's indestructable by making them encased, but they decided not to. you still get a fucking case anyway, its just you have to separate the disk from it when you use it!
However well you look after your own stuff, shite engineering is still doomed to a life of failure.
Games are getting bigger and bigger, and ISPs are giving us less bandwidth per month. On top of that, unless you're running Fiber its still faster to run down to the store, pick up the game, come back and install it or just run if your on console, than it is to download it. Give me a 25-50Mbit fiber with unlimited monthly bandwidth and a guarantee that what I download is mine to do with what I will, then ill stop buying physical media. Shame that'll never happen.
Of course physical media is better than a digital copy. It sounds better!
totally not the case for me. my xbox 360 elite is a streaming machine for my tv. and i definitely prefer being able to download a game and not insert the disk. reason for all of this: pure laziness ^_^
In other words, you like Steam because it keeps things organized for you. At the cost of the inability to share games with friends (sharing accounts is a violation of the TOS).
Yeah, I'll just pay the extra $5~$10 and trade with my friends whenever I got bored of a game. Trade Dragon Age for Mass Effect 2 for $0? Sweet deal!
"I totally agree with you. In slashdot there is this stigma about trading a physical good for a digital one."
Because digital goods are usually wrapped in DRM which cripples them vs physical goods. The only good online distribution systems are those that don't use DRM.
To me the biggest problem with digital goods is that ultimately your content is a RENTAL. If the content is secured with DRM then inevitably the provider will kill the DRM servers and your content will be orphaned (you will be unable to move it off the device). This has happened with EVERY DRM scheme that has been developed and WILL happen with all the current popular DRM schemes (Steam, iTunes, etc.) Microsoft completely screwed MSN Music customers, killed DLC for the original XBOX, and will eventually screw Zune owners as well. There are countless other examples.