Blitz predicts digital-only PS4/Xbox 720

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 21 October, 2010

"Why would they want physical media?"

As shops prepare to open stores at midnight to sell Call of Duty: Black Ops and gamers around the world are anxiously for the likes of Fallout: New Vegas and Vanquish to pop through their letterboxes, one developer close to the hardware manufacturers has predicted that the next round of consoles from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo will ditch physical media entirely.

Indeed Blitz Games Studio chief executive officer Philip Oliver would be surprised if the PlayStation 4, Xbox 720 and Wii HD – if that's what they're called – played discs at all.

"Let's be honest, a lot of us have got smart phones – mostly iPhones – certainly in this office there are iPhones," he told Eurogamer. "I can't remember the last time I went into a shop to buy an iPhone game, and I haven't missed it. In fact I've got lots of iPhone games and I'm quite happy.

"With the current generation of consoles, the best games come in physical form. But the next range of consoles that will be out in the next five years, why would any of those need physical media? Why would they want physical media?"

Why indeed. According to Oliver, the benefit of going exclusively digital far outweighs the benefit of sticking with physical discs.

"If you've got it physically and you trade it, the hardware manufacturer just lost out, big time," he said.

"When they produce their next console - let's call it Sony Next, it could be any platform holder Next – if they make it only a digital store, they absolutely control everything. Pricing, their margins, you can't trade it second hand.

"Their logistics and overheads come down considerably. The cost of manufacture of the original console comes down considerably. The reliability goes through the roof because there are no moving parts. Why would they not?

"It would surprise me if any of the next round of consoles has physical media.

"What we know about that's coming – launching next year – is still physical media. But beyond that I just don't see the point.

"If you were designing a machine right now, why would you want physical media? It would be crazy."

Blitz Games Studios is currently working on a raft of multiplatform titles, including Kinect launch games The Biggest Loser and Yoostar 2, and the just-announced Kinect game Fantastic Pets for THQ, due March 2011.

Oliver's comments contradict those from Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai, who in August insisted that a digital future is over 10 years away.

"We do business in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn't as robust as one would hope," Hirai said.

"There's always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium.

"To think everything will be downloaded in two years, three years or even 10 years from now is taking it a little bit to the extreme."

Oliver, though, reckons digital-only consoles will benefit the consumer as well as the companies that make them.

"Once you've got something and you've turned it digital and you've stuck it on the net, it's there forever," he said. "Whereas if I only had a videotape or a disc box, if I lose it or break it, that's it. It's over.

"In some ways it's more secure being digital. I own it more because I've always got access to it.

"Photographs – I can access my digital photographs way easier than I can access my physical ones. I wouldn't even know where they are.

"It's completely generational. I've got kids and they have no value in discs and physical things."

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have refused to comment directly on their plans for their next home consoles.

Sony and Microsoft have been keen to push motion-sensing add-ons PS Move and Kinect, respectively, while Nintendo points towards its glasses-free 3D handheld the 3DS.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (134) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Golgo #1 2 years ago

    That's very interesting and that, but he's just wrong isn't he?

  • Stepharneo #2 2 years ago

    "you've stuck it on the net, it's there forever"

    Outrun says hi

  • ryn.x #3 2 years ago

    ISP's will always be the biggest stumbling block (although storage will as well I suppose). With Virgin Media I can only download 3GB of data before my connection speed is capped under their fair usage policy and imagine most ISP's have similar setups.

    Downloading a game off Xbox Marketplace at say 7GB shouldn't be an issue, for the first 3GB I'd hit speeds of 1mb/s but then for the remaining 4GB I'd only have 200kb/s resulting in massive wait times.

    Think I'll prefer a disk thanks, and that's from someone with a fairly active Steam list.

  • Freek #4 2 years ago

    I don't own that many games but they sure as hell can't all fitt on a Ps3 or 360 harddisk, not by a long shot. Neither can all your PC games. You tend to have a few installed at any one time.
    Don't have a particular desire to have to start a 4 hour downlaod to play a game when I can just pick it up on way back from work.
    Digital downloads have thier place, sure, but technology hasn't reached a point yet where it can aplied to everything all the time. That won't change in the next 2 to 3 years either. Wich is when we we'll see those new consoles.

  • RodHull #5 2 years ago

    I'm sure all the developing nations (such as the UK and Nepal) with 2meg speeds will be delighted by this prophecy.

  • etherfiend #6 2 years ago

    They'll have to ship with massive hard drives then as I couldn't even get close to 25% of my games collection installed and I'll be damned if I want to incur the wrath of the ISP for breaking download limits and/or waiting for a couple of hours for 4gb to download before I can play it. I agree with Sony's Mr Hirai on this one.

  • RexRunti #7 2 years ago

    Yes because the PSPGo is way more succesful than the PSP. The problem is where do you sell these online consoles? Physical shops who want to make more money than a one off sale with little return.

  • Cosquae #8 2 years ago

    I think console manufacturers are far more likely to look at the resounding sucess of the PSP-go and stick with physical media for now.

    There's a big difference between downloading a 50mb iphone game and a 10-20gb AAA console title.

    You'll pretty much kill of gaming related retail outlets which are the predominant suppliers of the consoles in the first place.

    Don't get me wrong, digital distribution has its place and I love steam, but I know it's not for everyone everywhere.

  • ZizouFC #9 2 years ago

    1) I like physical media.

    2) I can't download 6-7gb games on a whim.

    3) My iPhone and my 360/PS3 are not comparable.

  • Akuma #10 2 years ago

    I've always thought that digital distro, with only one source as the distribution is anti competition.

    I remember when the RRP of Army of Two PSP (not that I'd buy it, just an example) was £29.99 for the retail unit and the Digital version (mainly for Go, unless you like paying more...) was £35.99 on the store.

    They could charge that because they knew that anyone that wanted the game and owned a PSP Go had no other choice.

  • dirtysteve #11 2 years ago

    "Let's be honest, a lot of us have got smart phones – mostly iPhones"
    Christ, iPhone owners, even in a professional capacity, they just can't help telling you.

    Of course, the you see what Blitz is working on, and the words 'pretentious' and 'overrated' make perfect sense.

    Overall, yet another prediction for the games industry that's not worth the (antediluvian) paper he wouldn't write it on.

  • RodHull #12 2 years ago

    @ryn.x

    I thought Virgin had stopped throttling speeds? I'm with them on cable and rarely have sub 18meg speeds regardless of what I download (I buy and download at least two films a week in HD quality).

  • Arcadiian #13 2 years ago

    It'll probably happen eventually. But not yet.

  • Mr_Brown #14 2 years ago

    He's wrong. There is a market for digital distribution but we are not ready for a complete switch to it yet. Comparing the console gaming industry to smart phone gaming is stupid. They are completly different. Despite it making sense to the manufacturers, it's what the consumers want and what retail want also. There will be a massive backlash from the likes of Game, Gamestation and maybe online companies if they announce disc less consoles. It could put them out of business overnight. Just look how well PSP has been recieved for an example of this.

  • I\'mListening #15 2 years ago

    He can just pspGo and do one

  • homerramone #16 2 years ago

    "Once you've got something and you've turned it digital and you've stuck it on the net, it's there forever," he said. "Whereas if I only had a videotape or a disc box, if I lose it or break it, that's it. It's over."

    What so its not sitting on a HDD on a server somewhere then ? Tit

  • beastmaster #17 2 years ago

    Well, for one thing Sony produce Blu-Ray movies...

  • ratmaggot #18 2 years ago

    So wrong it's not funny. People will always enjoy the physicality of going to a shop, buying something and bringing it home, or getting it in the post.

    He also doesn't seem to know the difference between a 500k phone game that costs 59p and a 9gb disk that costs 40 quid.

    Strange man.
    Edited by ratmaggot at 21/10/10 @ 14:46

  • SilverInfinity #19 2 years ago

    "There's a big difference between downloading a 50mb iphone game and a 10-20gb AAA console title." - Totally agree here a huge difference.

    If they do that prepare for profits to fall, because someone will give the consumer what they want and stick with physical media and everyone will buy that console.

    Surely if everyone wanted digital media only we'd all be buying our games off of Xbox Live / PSN / Steam but the fact of the matter is that were are not. Physical media will remain here for a long time I predict. :)

  • MiniAmin #20 2 years ago

    I think he's right. I only rebut his claims because I desperately want him to be wrong.

    I hope this doesn't happen because I love the *tactility of physical media. Scruples aside, I hate the power shift digital downloads entail for the consumer.

    *edit
    Edited by MiniAmin at 21/10/10 @ 14:51

  • retr0gamer #21 2 years ago

    I want physical media so the platform holders don't have a monopoly on game prices and I know that I'll always own the game even if my xbox 720 RRODs on me or one of the companies goes tits up along with their online service.
    Edited by retr0gamer at 21/10/10 @ 14:50

  • CatWeazle #22 2 years ago

    Nope, we're not nearly there yet mate - and even in 5 years time broadband won't have enough market penetration to allow consoles to be 100% digital delivery.

    However, in some demographics there might be enough connected households to allow the platform holders to produce SKUs without optical drives - and for these to be the biggest sellers in those regions.

    And when this happens, lets hope we can all download our games onto regular hard-drives like on PS3, instead of paying through the nose for custom hardware.

  • TopKatt #23 2 years ago

    If one of the next gen consoles has physical media and the others don't, I think I know which would be the winner there. The big three console manufacturers will be watching each other very closely next gen, thus all the consoles will use physical media or none of them will.

  • stuntmaster #24 2 years ago

    great idea so i get all my games on a hard-drive and bang it goes dead and corrupt .i rather have a disk please as back up .

  • GamesConnoisseur #25 2 years ago

    I always believed this will happen

    Only a question of WHEN we may be quibbling about, sure I dont think as well quite likely that X720,PS4 or Wii HD will do without media drive.

    The one afters that, yup believe so, as by then the infrastructure would have improved, that ISP would have reached a sort of understanding with internet service providers, such as iPlayer, Netflix and others who would in over next five years increases their market share free or paid.

    ISP needs to be involved with that and thus some sort of financial incentives would be necessary as cannot ignore ISP in the equation but other that that, just the constant increases in HD sizes.

    I remember I purchased 120 MB hard driive for Amiga 1200 all the years ago.

    Now we hardly have that size anyway including the USB drive which are now into 32 GB and 64 GB terrority!

    Inevitable I believe as the physical medium DEMANDS extra costs that the publishers feels burdened by and would jump at the first chance to do away with, middle men - retailers, disk covers etc etc.
    Edited by GamesConnoisseur at 21/10/10 @ 15:00

  • Tinrib72 #26 2 years ago

    What a load of bollocks. Iphone/PSP minis etc, I dont mind paying pocket change for what are essentially throw away titles, but when I'm forking out £20-£40 for a game I want to own it physically and then sell it on once I'm finished with it. If download only is the future then I shall be spending far less on games and certainly wont be buying games for their story again. Will be strictly score chasing or online multiplayer titles only. Much like the xbla titles I buy now..

  • Darknight #27 2 years ago

    Why would they want physical media? So they can avoid alienating half of their user base. It would be stupid to forget that not all gamers either A) have a consistent, high speed connection to the 'net, or B) would appreciate losing the option to trade in games that they have finished with.

    The constant comparisons of the iPhone to home consoles annoys me too. The iPhone is a portable gaming device, not a replacement for a home console - they are two completely different markets. Why do you think Nintendo and Sony have handheld devices alongside their home console counterparts.

  • darkmorgado #28 2 years ago

    If you were designing a machine right now, why would you want physical media? It would be crazy

    Because there is still massive consumer demand for physical media?

  • darkmorgado #29 2 years ago

    I'm sure all the developing nations (such as the UK and Nepal)

    Since when is the UK a developing nation? I mean, I know the CSR has effectively raped us into third-world territory, but it's a bit far to suggest we're living off foreign aid.

  • Deckard1 #30 2 years ago

    It doesn't take 5 hours to download an iphone game though does it. Disc aren't going anywhere for a while.

  • Corben_Dallas #31 2 years ago

    Cause Virtual media is shit, can be turned off anyitme etc. You never really own the product fully and u can charge extra for updates /patches/extended use of product

    Fuck off.

  • MiniAmin #32 2 years ago

    The one place where I'd like digital distribution to shine would be with backwards compatibility. If there were say, "Playstation BC" or "Xbox BC" consoles, which offered the entire back catalogues of their respective brand names via digital download only: I'd love that.

    It'd be wonderful having a collection of your favourite games (from previous generations) on just one console...But for new consoles, and new (full price) games, no.

  • darkmorgado #33 2 years ago

    I thought Virgin had stopped throttling speeds?

    Nope. They throttle speeds on a tiered system. Only the highest broadband package has no data limits - but it costs around 50 quid a month.
    They also throttle traffic during peak times. I time out even trying to get f*cking Google between 5-6pm.

  • teabagger #34 2 years ago

    Presumably Philip lives in a town/city with a 50meg unlimited cable/fibre connection and assumes everyone else in the world has access to the same...

    Philip is a moron.

  • White_Waffle #35 2 years ago

    His arguments are really bad.
    It's like, don't own any physical money, it could get stolen from you.
    Don't buy a house, it could burn down.

  • RKOwned #36 2 years ago

    Oh, I dont know cliff, maybe because internet speeds arent fast enough or connections arent common enough.
    Edited by RKOwned at 21/10/10 @ 15:14

  • RevanNL #37 2 years ago

    how about: because the internet isn't ready for it. And people aren't ready for it. In Europe, only the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands have decent internet connections, in the US it's a bit better but even that varies per state. If the new consoles are download only, you'll essentially be cutting the potential market down to a third tops.

  • richyroo #38 2 years ago

    "...they absolutely control everything. Pricing, their margins, you can't trade it second hand...""

    Why would they want physical media? Because the day they ditch it entirely, is the day I give up gaming!

  • mfnick #39 2 years ago

    1. Not everyone is connected
    2. The people that are connected usually have dopwnload limits
    3. Downloading takes a bloody age, especially when talking about blu-ray disc games & when everyone is trying to D/L at the same time - the online store will basically shut down on every AAA games release.
    4. Less sales due to high price on online stores & being unable to trade in against new releases.
    5. The market isnt ready & probably wont be for at least 10 years.
    6. Every console will need to ship with at least a 1TB HDD. Extra cost onto the console production there.

    Theres probably loads more perfectly good reasons not to go digital only but im bored now. So i'll just finish by saying you're wrong.

  • FireMonkey #40 2 years ago

    Ok, there seems to be a big jump here. Why does everyone take 'digital only' to mean 'download only'?

    It doesn't necessary mean that. Shops could easily have copies of the games that they upload to a memory card for you or even sell the game on memory card (in fact I'm pretty certain some places do this with MP3's onto memory sticks already). They would basically be a physical front to the digital store.

    This would still give the console makers all the control and benefits that was mentioned in the article, but not take anything from those of us who can not / will not download the games.

  • Miths #41 2 years ago

    I'm fortunate enough to have an unrestricted 50 Mbit cable connection (and I think bandwidth caps and traffic "shaping" in general is a thing of the long gone past here in Denmark for virtually all non-mobile ISPs, although I guess we could be unlucky and they might actually introduce it in the future if the infrastructure becomes overloaded), but I seriously doubt something similar is going to be the case for the majority of console owners within the next 5-8 years.
    At least if all the complaints about ISPs and their strict limitations in various countries are anything to go by.

  • FireMonkey #42 2 years ago

    ...and to the people saying it won't work and using PSPGo as an example. Well PSP games didn't exactly sell that great either did they, so why would they on an overpriced console.

    Take a look at Steam. That's doing a pretty decent job of digital distribution.

  • evild_edd #43 2 years ago

    @Rexrunti: you're asking about console sales and which stores would sell them - I think you'd find that department stores, supermarkets, and high stree retailers (WH Smith, for example) would be happy with the idea of just selling machines with no requirement for game shelf space.

    What would happen is that retailers would expect to make more of a profit on machine sales, peripheral sales, and vouchers, rather than disc games. I would really just be the game specific stores that would really feel the pain!

    I love my discs - the game collection on display, just to wind up the Mrs - but do accept that sooner or later we will be goon digi download only. Think it may take another couple of console generations, however....

  • alcides #44 2 years ago

    how about no?

  • bodypopper #45 2 years ago

    As long as I own game x forever and can re-download it when my Xbox 720 fails I'd be happy but I still prefer to have it on disc.
    Edited by bodypopper at 21/10/10 @ 15:29

  • evild_edd #46 2 years ago

    @tinrib72: good (if worrying) point - this would be a further nail on the coffin for SP focused titles, a trend that, I feel, has been on developing for the past few years....

  • WiseGuy #47 2 years ago

    I hope not.

    I have 36 PS3 games. I like to look at them in the morning. It makes me happy. Sometimes i reorganise them. I know this is kinda sad. But I dont want to stop.

  • kangarootoo #48 2 years ago

    Digital distribution and physical media both have their advantages, and I think he is jumping the gun somewhat.

    All the positives he lists for DD are absolutely true, but that is all they are - positives of DD. What they aren't are a list of reasons why physical media will die out soon. DD will grow in popularity and use, no doubt about that. But its going to be quite some time before any of the current 3 release a non-disc console (my money is on Nintendo going first, with the more hardcore platforms hanging on a while longer).

  • FireMonkey #49 2 years ago

    @White_Waffle: "replace your memory card with cheaper bluray or dvd and it's the same situation as right now?"

    Except for all the points that were made in the article. With the digital version:
    - Trade in could be stopped / controlled (the game could lock to a console once installed or even deleted)
    - The cost of manufacture of the original console comes down considerably
    - The reliability goes through the roof because there are no moving parts

    and also discs can easily be scratched.

    I just want to point out that I don't actual think it'll be as soon as the next gen (but I suppose that depends on how far away that is), but I do believe it is coming.

    Edit: I'm confused. I can't see the original post by White_Waffle anymore. Maybe it wasn't by him, but it's completely gone. Hmm.. My point stands anyway.
    Edited by FireMonkey at 21/10/10 @ 15:41

  • superbeast2010 #50 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 10:57:39 01-02-2012

  • FireMonkey #51 2 years ago

    @Kangarootoo: "my money is on Nintendo going first, with the more hardcore platforms hanging on a while longer"

    Yeah? I'd have thought the other way around tbh.

    Nintendo don't seem to be that great with the whole on-line thing so far and I'd have thought that the more casual gamer market (which is what a lot of the Wii fan base is) would be less likely to be happy downloading the games.

    They do seem to like being the first to do things at the moment though, so maybe.

  • Widge #52 2 years ago

    I take it that everyone on here has immense problems with Steam then...

  • faster1974 #53 2 years ago

    I'm sure the next generation of consoles will still use physical media initially, however it wouldn't shock me if a PS4 Slim was released afterwards that relied on downloads.

  • funkateer #54 2 years ago

    "you've stuck it on the net, it's there forever"

    What a ridiculous statement.

    One thing is absolutely 100% certain, and that is that it WON'T be there forever.

    * MS or Sony could simply decide it PSN and XBL doesn't make them enough money and stop supporting it.
    * They could introduce XBL2 and PSN2 and sunset their old services.
    * MS or Sony could simply go bankrupt.
    * License restrictions could force something to go offline (i.e. Outrun)
    * (Fill in any of the other 384 million reasons of why something could go offline).
    Edited by funkateer at 21/10/10 @ 15:45

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #55 2 years ago

    @Widge

    If valve went bust and you could no longer access your games then yes people would have a problem with it, but its a big if as PCs seem pretty much safe where as console manufacturers do come and go and losing all your games is a possibility, i personally am not so bothered as i rarely go back to old games as people keeping making new ones!

  • Widge #56 2 years ago

    I think all demos and games should be removed off XBL and PSN as its clearly too much of a hardship for people. Plus you lose out of the joy of having to go into a shop.

  • Vilhelm #57 2 years ago

    The digitalization of games is overrated. Yes, a lot of people buy games off PSN, Xbox Live, App Store, and Steam, but there is a lot of people who want conventional discs due to reasons such as the lack of internet access, packaging as collectibles, etc. For the next generation of consoles a combination of digital and physical distribution would be better; ie. release games both digitally and physically.

    Considering that we're only 5-6 years away from the next generation of consoles I think a device which relies solely on digital distribution would be too far ahead of its time. It certainly is too early to think about it right now, as can be seen in Sony's PSP Go experiment.

    Oh, and the main reason the App Store works is because of all the iPhones connected to it. So unless you're going to sell next gen consoles with a built in internet connection you can't compare mobile phones with consoles.
    Edited by Vilhelm at 21/10/10 @ 15:51

  • irve77 #58 2 years ago

    @FireMonkey

    right because the RROD was caused by the CD drive !

    ( well actually it kinda was cos some idiot thought it a good idea to stick it over the GPU )

    a fully DD machine is a Decade away easy. But i believe that MS and SOny will be pushing a more integrated dual format machine with their next systems that will give you full background download capabilities so you can still play online while your new games download.

    I also don't trust companies to control my games .. just look at nintendo all content is locked to a console never to be changed so if it breaks you lose all your games ... that would stop me ever buying a DD only machine.
    it's ok to waste a couple quid on a digital game but £40 a pop ??

  • sink257 #59 2 years ago

    From my perspective, as a PC gamer, I must say I had my reservations about digitally distributed games. After almost 9 years of buying physical disks exclusively, I bought my first digitally distributed game back in 2008, off steam, and I haven't looked back since. The only disk games I've bought since then were games that were'nt available off Steam or GOG.com. Heck, I've even bought second copies of most of my older games from GOG.com incase something happens to those disks.

    All in all, the benefits of digital distribution far outweigh it's cons for me.

  • Darknight #60 2 years ago

    @Widge

    Your reference to Steam is only partly relevant here. If I want to I can still walk into game and buy a physical copy of most PC games. What has been mentioned here is moving to a completely digital distribution method, which would in turn give a massive amount of control over pricing, and the availability of content to the platform holders.

    I don't know about you, but I don't particularly want to be stuck with PSN style pricing on any games that I buy, with no option to shop around.
    Edited by Darknight at 21/10/10 @ 15:54

  • Eraser #61 2 years ago

    He's wrong. Jeez, is he really comparing downloading a 500k (ok, 15megs maybe) iPhone game to a 9GB XBox game or a 50Gb PS3 game?

  • Darren #62 2 years ago

    I don't believe for one second that the successors to the PS3 and Xbox 360 will come without physical disc support at all, not unless they're both five or more years away from being released.

    If they are then I will simply not buy them because I don't relish the idea of downloading all my games onto a limited capacity hard drive, which restricts how many I can have at any one time. And what happens if the machine or hard drive die prematurely. I don't relish the idea of redownloading everything every time nor do I want to be doing 500+ GB backups on a regular basis either that need additional storage; I already do that with my PC. A disc for a console is simply more convenient IMO.

    Neither the Xbox 360 nor PS3 have proven themselves to be very reliable anyway and both throw up frustrating issues with DRM when transferring data to new hardware. With their successors added complexity I can't imagine the situation will be any different than it is now in all honesty.

    My own guess is that both machines will come with a Blu-ray drive *and* support for downloaded digital content though. One day, someone *will* release a download-only console but whoever takes the first step is going to have to get the timing right and I don't believe that time will come before the new machines are released, certainly not in the U.K. where our broadband infrastructure is positively archaic (and comes with unwelcome usage caps) compared with countries like the U.S. and Japan.

  • Collymilad #63 2 years ago

    Ridiculous.

    I'll eat 2 hats if this happens. There are so many problems with digital only that are no-where close to being solved - ISP's, bandwidth, no ownership of anything physical, being at the mercy of servers located miles away (for redownloading) - this is not going to happen.

    Also, you can bet your ass if they did try this the price of games wouldn't drop. Look at Games on Demand, most titles on their are 2-3 times the price you can find a used copy in the shops for.

    Seriously, you people saying this is a good thing - read the friggin article. The only people who win from this are the hardware manufacturers and developers, not consumers - thats YOU btw in case you've forgotten. Why would any sane person who doesn't work for Sony/MS/Nintendo/Whoever want digital only media? As the guy said they control everything.

    I gotta love this guys attitude though, like they have total control - how about people just don't buy the damn console? That won't happen of course, since people are still buying CoD and it's 1200MSP map packs proving the idiocy of the general consumer.

    Edited by Collymilad at 21/10/10 @ 16:08

  • StooMonster #64 2 years ago

    I am no Virgin Media apologist, but I think their 'throttling' isn't as bad as some people make out.

    darkmorgado: They throttle speeds on a tiered system. Only the highest broadband package has no data limits - but it costs around 50 quid a month.
    If you download more than threshold for you package at peak times of the day your speed is throttled 75% until that peak-time is over, and if you download off-peak then it's not throttled. So, if you're on 20Mb package and you download more than 3.5GB between 4pm and 9pm your speed is reduced to 5Mb until 9pm then it's back to full speed; therefore the longest it's possible to be throttled for in one session is five hours ... surely better than a monthly download cap?

    50Mb/s package is £38pm or £28pm if you get their phone line too.

    They also throttle traffic during peak times. I time out even trying to get f*cking Google between 5-6pm.

    That's contention rather than throttling. I think you'll find all ISPs grind to a halt around that time of day, sheer number of users on the interwebz at that time.

  • FireMonkey #65 2 years ago

    @irve77 "right because the RROD was caused by the CD drive"

    Well it would have added to it. That and the hard-drive spinning would be adding extra heat to the system which would have made it worse. Remove both of those (as I'm thinking solid state hard drives too), and you can reduce the total heat and reduce the size of the console whilst still giving more space to cooling systems.

    "I also don't trust companies to control my games .. just look at nintendo all content is locked to a console never to be changed so if it breaks you lose all your games ... that would stop me ever buying a DD only machine.
    it's ok to waste a couple quid on a digital game but £40 a pop ??"

    Yep, they would be stupid looking it down so tight and not letting you re-download you games upon hardware failure. Hopefully they would come up with a decent solution though.

  • rivuzu #66 2 years ago

    Sorry, I lost complete faith in him when I saw this.

    "Let's be honest, a lot of us have got smart phones – mostly iPhones – certainly in this office there are iPhones," he told Eurogamer. "I can't remember the last time I went into a shop to buy an iPhone game, and I haven't missed it. In fact I've got lots of iPhone games and I'm quite happy.

    Er, you can't go to a shop and buy an iPhone game. What a cafuffled comparison.

    And has he forgotten that Trade Ins are, for some groups, the only way they can afford the most recent games? I can't see console developers pushing out potential hardware buyers, because they won't allow borrowed and/or traded games.

  • Seoh #67 2 years ago

    I totally agree with this post.

    and to those complaining about time downloads i imagine it would work a lot like steam where pre-loading occurs upto a week before release so everyone can have the game at minute 1!

  • cnlfailure #68 2 years ago

    How many of the dissenters here still buy all their music on physical media?

    Yes, MP3s are way smaller than buying a game digitally, but we're only waiting for net speeds and bandwidth to catch up and we won't think twice about being digital. I'm already there for PC gaming - if it doesn't come on Steam, I don't want it. Just makes everything way more convenient.

  • StooMonster #69 2 years ago

    Darren: the U.K. where our broadband infrastructure is positively archaic (and comes with unwelcome usage caps) compared with countries like the U.S. and Japan.

    Mate, you have no idea about broadband in US do you? We've got it good here compared to US. You wanna talk good broadband you should mention South Korea and Scandinavia, not USA.

  • Darren #70 2 years ago

    @superbeast2010 - "I cant see it happening any time soon people have been saying the same thing about music cds being replaced by mp3s but they havent gone anywhere"

    Never mind CDs, you can still buy music on vinyl at places like HMV and that's a format I've not bought in over 15 years!!! I still buy all my music on CDs though and will continue to do so for as long as I can because I keep them as backups after ripping them to my PC's hard drive. I have bought the odd MP3 album but only if I could not buy it on CD.

  • StooMonster #71 2 years ago

    rivuzu: And has he forgotten that Trade Ins are, for some groups, the only way they can afford the most recent games?

    Game makers and console companies make no money from second hand sales, why should they care?

    I can't see console developers pushing out potential hardware buyers, because they won't allow borrowed and/or traded games.

    Sony and Microsoft sell consoles as loss-leaders (for first years), so I don't see them crying too much about that; people who don't earn them any revenue (don't buy new games) won't cost them money in lost made on hardware.

  • irve77 #72 2 years ago

    @StooMonster

    god yes .. South Korea have an infostructure is set up so that they could have 1gb internet connections that is such a cool idea 8second to download 1GB i could wait a couple of minutes to download a ps3 game.

    even then imagine the size of hard drive you would need to store your games !!

  • Darren #73 2 years ago

    @Collymilad - Yikes! I have personally NEVER bought anything from Microsoft's obscenely overpriced Games on Demand section so I'd completely forgotten about the pricing. But, yes, it's true that a download-only console will be completely at the mercy of publishers to set their own pricing and there'd be nothing you could do about it. Horrifying thought really. :o

    Even on the PC where digital downloads are supposedly popular, you only have to look at Steam's pricing here in the UK to see that you end up actually paying more for less. That's why I refuse to buy new releases from them as I can typically save £5 to £10 per game that way and that goes towards new ones that frequently cost as little as £18 to £25.

  • kangarootoo #74 2 years ago

    @FireMonkey

    I realise Ninty aren't very online savvy with the Wii, but we are talking future hardware here. I am basing my speculation on Nintendo having a larger percentage of their customer base that don't care about owning game discs.

    The traditional 360 and PS3 audience are mostly not so keen on not being able to buy discs, whereas your more mainstream Ninty owners (who don't form the entire Ninty user base I realise) don't care so much. The number one thing any vendor wanting to drop physical media has to consider is their customer base. Tech is the easy part :)

    And as you say, Ninty don't seem afraid to go in whatever new direction they feel will best suit their business.

  • darkmorgado #75 2 years ago

    50Mb/s package is £38pm or £28pm if you get their phone line too.

    Funny, I was originally on the 50mb package with the phone line too and it was costing me £70 a month.

    Now I'm on 20mb with a phone and my monthly bill is £38pm (not including the additional telly package).

    Are you sure your prices are up-to-date? Cos if so, I'm kicking up a stink.

  • Gromit #76 2 years ago

    When the infrastructure is in place so that we are all on "up to" 50 meg broadband, it will be more feasible. That is not going to happen any time soon for many people.

    The biggest benefit for the people selling the games, other than the ability to dictate prices and wiping out the secondhand market, is that it will wipe out piracy.

    I bet they are itching to get into the digital age. Shame it will be mostly bad for the consumer.

  • StooMonster #77 2 years ago

    darkmorgado: yes I am, I was on 20Mb and paying £37pm and when I saw website found 50Mb was £1pm more than I was paying, phoned them up and got upgraded. When they cut prices, apparently they didn't cut them for existing customers automatically ... hence me being no apologist for them.

    [link url=http://shop.virginmedia.com/broadband/compare-broadband-packages.html
    ]http://shop.virginmedia.com/broadband/co...[/link]

  • StooMonster #78 2 years ago

    Gromit: When the infrastructure is in place so that we are all on "up to" 50 meg broadband

    Virgin Media are bumping their 10Mb, 20Mb, 50Mb packages up to 20Mb, 50Mb, 100Mb next year -- after running 100Mb as top tier package for a while. I've also read on The Register that they're testing 250Mb connections too.

    Needless to say this is over cable modem and not ADSL, but on the plus side Ofcom have ruled that VM an others are now allowed to run fibre over BTs infrastructure (e.g. telegraph poles) so might not be too long before everyone is on super-fast broadband.

  • LittleRiver #79 2 years ago

    It is very short-sighted for manufacturers and publishers to think that the market is ready for digital media only.

    1. I am far from alone in having low bandwidth, it would take me days to download a full price game. On top of that, like many other people I have a monthly cap.

    2. On average I buy around 10 full priced games a year; 7 of which I will put on Ebay after I have finished them, the other 3 will be MP games that I know I will still be playing for months.

    If I can't move the sp games on when I am done with them I will only buy a couple per year.

    That means the industry has just lost half of my gaming fund. You multiply that by a few million users, you lose a lot of cash.

    3. Retail outlets are the frontline face to face connection with the gaming public.

    The more hardcore fan may well spend hours reading articles and pre-ordering on the internet, the casual fan or people looking to buy a present etc. will buy from shops often on impulse.

  • Diomedes #80 2 years ago

    because users want it?
    bandwith caps?
    users not having to have and swap between half a dozen HDD to play our games?
    more economic for users not having to buy a new HDDs each 20 games?
    keep alive the second hand market ?

    The benefits of download -only models are only for the publishers ,not for the users ,thats why we users have to oppose with all the strenght we can the phisical formats.

  • FireMonkey #81 2 years ago

    Just want to re-emphasise something I said earlier.
    Digital only does not necessarily mean download only.

    You could still buy copies of games and have them uploaded onto media cards at a kiosk / shop with all of the benefits that have been mentioned previously.

    Just because they are digital only does not completely rule out the idea of physically buying the games. It just opens up more possibilities and control for the hardware manufacturer as well as reducing the hardware units cost.

  • knightmt #82 2 years ago

    CD music is not that big, but I still it for my favourite bands.

    I think this guy is going for any publicity is good publicity.

    I think digital download is great, but I still love the games that I have bought in hard copy and kind of doubt that broadband is going to get to the level within five years where I can download 50GB in an hour (this is a fictitious figure based on what I think is desirable).

  • Lobosolitario #83 2 years ago

    retr0gamer said: [...] I know that I'll always own the game even if my xbox 720 RRODs on me or one of the companies goes tits up along with their online service.

    This. I'm expecting a big backlash against digital distribution when sooner or later one of the big companies goes bankrupt and everyone's purchases with them go up in smoke.

  • FireMonkey #84 2 years ago

    @LittleRiver "Retail outlets are the frontline face to face connection with the gaming public.
    The more hardcore fan may well spend hours reading articles and pre-ordering on the internet, the casual fan or people looking to buy a present etc. will buy from shops often on impulse. "

    There is no reason why shops would have to go. Plenty of furniture / kitchen shops are just showrooms rather than somewhere where you can walk out with physical goods. They exist to entice the customers in and show them what the goods are like.
    Gaming shops could go more along that route. Imagine them being like modern Arcades of the future where you can go and socialise with friends, ask staff about the games, try out demos of all the games (without need to download them all) and either pay in cash for a game to be downloaded later (with the correct system this could even start up your console and get the game downloading whilst you are out of the house), or get the game installed onto a media card.

    Also, I wouldn't be surprised if shops will remain the place where most people will try out and buy any new hardware.

    Personally I find this style of shop much more attractive than what we currently have.

  • L0cky #85 2 years ago

    @RevaNL
    In Europe, only the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands have decent internet connections, in the US it's a bit better but even that varies per state

    Wiki says no; apparently Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Monaco, Germany and Belgium have higher broadband penetration than us; while the US has less.

    Just sayin.

  • IronCladChicken #86 2 years ago

    Because a purely online distribution service wouldn't limit the number of potential customers at all.

  • molekiller #87 2 years ago

    If that happens I'm going full Steam then, I'm sure the prices would be way lower than the ones in a Microsoft Store.

  • mossychops001 #88 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 11:49:27 04-05-2012

  • djcool3005 #89 2 years ago

    This guy doesnt have a clue what he's rabbitting on about. I think a lot of people prefer to own the physical media. I do for one atleast. Also a mobile phone game is totally different. Most are usually somewhere between 50 to 100mb these days. Games for the ps4/xbox 720 will likely be somewhere around 50gb. Also you can't really have physical media for a mobile because it doesnt have the slots for it and why would I carry phone games around. I think there is actually a value in owning the game on a physical media in a box as apposed to just some 0's and 1's on hard drive somewhere.

  • Bravestinsane #90 2 years ago

    Your wrong, it wont be allowed because of anti competition laws.

    Why do you think MS dont set download able games cheaper?

    Its because there not allowed because it would be anti competative.

    Same reason why theres several forms of downloading games on the PC such as a Steam client,

    And if you really think in the UK we will be able to download full games in 5 years time to a console that has no disk drive....well mate your fucking delusional and should fuck of and die in a hole.

    Most of us wont even be able to download them quickly.... and if its anything like xbox live now where it pauses downloads while your paying online...even on single player games such as Halo Reach (single player) do you really think people will wait several hours in front of a screen not being able to play anything else while it downloads.....

    Simple answer is no

  • SavageEvil #91 2 years ago

    Lol, this guy never heard of invisible caps on unlimited internet. Trust me all the cable companies do it, you go over the limit for a month, you will permanently lose your download speed, keep it up and they will give you the boot. These HD games are not going to be small, as the amount of data required for the visuals will definitely keep those file sizes fairly large hovering around 10Gig for uncompressed sound and video. Sorry i prefer to have my physical media as digital media can be chained to one machine, check out all your downloads on Live, can't use them on a different system can you? I predict High Capacity Blu Ray for PS4, next Xbox will have to use Blu Ray as well or try digital, but unless you have Gigabit internet, getting these new large ass games will be a long arduous task.

    These guys talk before thinking, most consumer internet speeds are about 15mb/s down 7mb/s or less up, how can they expect you to download a 8 gigabyte game on that in a reasonable amount of time, it's like when you had 56k and tried to download a 3 mb song, that took forever.

  • tancredo #92 2 years ago

    Let's start by making downloaded games cheaper than DVD games. If it is cheaper on the manufacturer, it should be cheaper on the consumer.

    Then we can start discussing new distribution channels

  • Stop-gap #93 2 years ago

    What? The last 2 generations of Playstation have been used to purposefully increase the number of homes with a machine capable of playing a new physical media, why would the next one be any different?
    I can imagine MS considering it, digital distribution through Live is a possibility, but there's just too many areas in the world with limited or unreliable internet access to drop discs all together and not cripple sales.

    edit - and as to "no moving parts increasing reliability", although that is true, i would like to know when we're getting solid state drives big enough to hold complete copies of your entire (actual next-gen) games collection.
    Edited by Stop-gap at 21/10/10 @ 18:16

  • Gambit1977 #94 2 years ago

    Yeah, because Sony would push blu-ray then ditch it once it's actually successful.

    Some folk just need the headline space.

  • Gambit1977 #95 2 years ago

    @stopgap
    Yeah, basically what you said :D

    /needs to open eyes and read!

  • electrolite #96 2 years ago

    "why would any of those need physical media? Why would they want physical media?"


    Because they don't want to alienate a large percentage of their potential software base?

    Just a thought like

  • Stop-gap #97 2 years ago

    Also I bet that if they did one day do this, they would STILL stagger US/Euro release dates.

  • captainrentboy #98 2 years ago

    I haven't read all the replies but I'm guessing the general consensus here is 'Umm, no Mr Blitz man'.
    I am one of those old fashioned freaks that likes to physically own a copy of any media I purchase, not pay £40 just to have a bloody downloaded file stored away.
    There are also far too many folk with shitty internet speeds and download limits in the UK for this to be a good idea.
    I'm not saying it wont happen but it's a good few years away yet.

  • lockload #99 2 years ago

    Well i would guess games will release on disc/Xbox live at the same time on the next xbox

  • Murton #100 2 years ago

    Nothing new in this prediction, plenty of people have said it before him and plenty more will afterwards, they'll more than likely fail to discuss why this will never work.

    Broadband speeds in key markets, US, UK and much of Western Europe simply aren't up to the task of streaming SD video, let alone the sort of massive downloads that a full retail 720p game may require. In the UK you could order a game from play.com at the same time as starting the download and for much of the country the play.com order would arrive first, that's how bad the broadband is for much of the country. Until UK ISPs start investing in proper fibre connections this simply won't work regardless of how many people in the industry sound the fanfare for it.

  • innerspaced #101 2 years ago

    Surely they learnt there lesson with the psp go.they will cut out a huge swathe of people who don't have broadband .also the people who rely on the used game market.

  • albinac #102 2 years ago

    if they bring out digital only consoles they can stick it up their ar ses because i will not even phatom the idea of it because i want my pjysical media and i will not pay the same price for digital media.

    i am in an area that has a poor internet connection so more than 8.5 megas is impossible so on day one of game sales when everybody is downloading their games i will probable finnish downloading around the same time the following day and im not willing to wait that long for a download.

    so a solution would be to find a company that has fiberoptics connections yeah, oh and pay even more money for that just so sony, microsoft and nintendo can work less and ask for more money for a non phisycal media.no,no,no and definitely NO!

    i think they will fail big time just like the pspgo, less inside the console for more money and look how that has ended for sony and it has ended just as soon as it started for them and im glad.

    they need to go and rob their grannies and leave us gamers alone for the love of god.
    Edited by albinac at 21/10/10 @ 19:22

  • darkmorgado #103 2 years ago

    @Stoomaster

    Cheers for the link. Virgin media have one big shitstorm coming their way...

  • oupe #104 2 years ago

    What an idiot, for multiple reasons. Why the hell am I on the phone to renew my credit card after Microsoft deleted the e-mail adress that's associated with my gamertag? So much for digital.

  • Azilis #105 2 years ago

    I like the idea of no physical media (I own a PSPGo), but we're nowhere near the point where physical media is no longer necessary (let alone preferable).

  • StooMonster #106 2 years ago

    SavageEvil: Lol, this guy never heard of invisible caps on unlimited internet. Trust me all the cable companies do it, you go over the limit for a month, you will permanently lose your download speed, keep it up and they will give you the boot.

    Invisible caps? Permanently lose download speed when ISP says it's temporary? Which would be illegal, anti-consumer, and false advertising behaviour ... you'd have to be paranoid to believe that, at least in UK. Maybe ISPs in USA get away that? Would be yet another reason why broadband is worse in America?

    My British ISP throttled to 25% down to 5Mb if I went over threshold in peak, but come 9pm it was back to 20Mb; although now I'm on their 50Mb package and have no throttling. :)

    SavageEvil: most consumer internet speeds are about 15mb/s down 7mb/s or less up

    Seeing as you are American, I will assume that you're talking about US speeds where average download speed is 3.9Mb/s. FYI, OFCOM, the UK telecoms regulator reports that the average download speed in UK is 5.2Mb/s. According to Akamai US broadband ranks 35th in world, behind most of Europe and Asia.

    Moreover, about 15% of Americans are on dial-up because the cannot get broadband; like a couple of my friends who live outside the cities in CA.

    Furthermore, broadband is significantly more expensive in US too, the average 3.9Mb/s costs $40 per month; whereas in France $45 gets you 20-30Mb/s, VoIP, HDTV with DVR (similar plans in US cost more than $100 per month).

    Finally, 7Mb/s average upload speed? Yeah right!

    Really finally, American ISP customer service levels are awful as the dropped connections (my friends in LA can't even download large files because the disconnects are so frequent), these ISPs make the legendarily bad service of NTL past look like a panacea of customer responsiveness.

  • StooMonster #107 2 years ago

    Murton: Until UK ISPs start investing in proper fibre connections this simply won't work regardless of how many people in the industry sound the fanfare for it.

    Virgin Media's network is fibre optic -- they inherited it from Mercury Telecoms (remember them, they original sponsored the famous music award), via Blueyonder / Telewest / NTL -- so long as you can get cable, but it's regular ADSL over copper wires if you can't.
    [link url=http://shop.virginmedia.com/broadband/about-virgin-broadband/fibre-optic-explained.html
    ]http://shop.virginmedia.com/broadband/ab...[/link]

    I've read that Virgin are experimenting with fibre to the door, and have it running in some places in Kent. As I posted above, this week OFCOM ruled that BT has to give access to its infrastructure to other ISPs in order to improve service all over the country and especially to rural areas -- Virgin are already talking about running fibre over the old telegraph poles.

  • Loghorn #108 2 years ago

    He honestly thinks that both PS4 & XBox 720 will be DD only? Keep dreaming there, buddy. If they happen to be DD only this early, then those consoles aren't going to be selling very well or to make a huge impact. PSPGo & Onlive is proof of that.

  • Lusterpurge #109 2 years ago

    You guys need to get with the times. You're like my old grampa - he said he would never replace his CD player with a newfangled MP3 player. Well, either accept the change or get left behind.

  • brod #110 2 years ago

    "It's completely generational. I've got kids and they have no value in discs and physical things."

    That's because they don't pay for them. Digital goods have no resale value - people like to actually own something they buy.

    I'm sure companies like Sony and Microsoft would love to monopolise their content by only providing it digitally, but consumers will never go for it. Look at the failure of the PSP Go and digital downloads of PSP games in general.

    The only company I currently trust to price digital games fairly is Valve, with Steam. Digital distribution is always going to be more viable for PC because of the possibility of competition - it's not something that the consoles will ever be able to achieve for full priced games.
    Edited by brod at 21/10/10 @ 23:46

  • ColdShoulder #111 2 years ago

    Philip Oliver you're an idiot. You think Nintendo didn't do their homework with 3DS? Even after all the piracy on DS they're STILL sticking with solid media. None of your points hold any water, they're just fantasy and the best thing you can do to back them up is a ridiculous iphone analogy. Go home to your second rate studio and carry on making Barbie horse riding games you twat.

  • vmanb #112 2 years ago

    I think i'd prefer getting left behind than going down digital only gaming route . If this is the future then my xbox 360 and my PS3 will be my last ever console or gaming device purchase i will ever make.

  • smelly #113 2 years ago

    >Philip Oliver you're an idiot.

    Come back and say that when you've been in teh industry for as long as he has...

  • SavageEvil #114 2 years ago

    @Stoomonster...Over here I have actually heard of people having their internet cut because of constant abuse, such as going over an invisible limit, somewhere in the 5gig territory per month. Repeated offenses will usually end up with speeds throttled down and if you continue they can terminate your contract.

    My basic internet is 15mb down/2mb up this is Optimum Online, plenty quick for what I do. There are a total of 3 PC's and 3 game systems in use on peak time, Cablevision will cap only on sustained usage over a 5-24 hour period. It's written into the contract, we know most people don't even read those things. After the 4th throttling, they can terminate your internet service. It's invisible because they don't actually tell you these things and only once you noticed your internet being sluggish then you have to call them, and then basically try to get your provisioned speed back. This is for constant upload abuse, downloading hasn't been given any problems as of late.

    I messed up on the uploads number, was busy looking at something else when I wrote that. I did say 7mb or less up though.
    I always thought of internet prices being to high, but not much to do as I only need it for my home and my internet rarely if ever disconnects. I live in NYC, just to let you know where I actually am.

    Dial up internet, wow well there are some pretty backwater places in the US, this country is pretty spread out. Metropolitan areas tend to have a lot of people and thus better services available.

    Do you live in the US? I'm thinking that you are speaking from experience as you say this "... American ISP customer service levels are awful as the dropped connections (my friends in LA can't even download large files because the disconnects are so frequent), these ISPs make the legendarily bad service of NTL past look like a panacea of customer responsiveness. "

    Perhaps your friends have bad connections, or are using their internet at peak times in a heavily populated area. Usually what causes most disconnects are people who didn't set up their routers correctly and those who don't keep up to date with firmware for said router. They couldn't be tech saavy and stay with crippled internet, might as well use their cell phone as internet on those things are much faster than any dial up network.

    "Furthermore, broadband is significantly more expensive in US too, the average 3.9Mb/s costs $40 per month; whereas in France $45 gets you 20-30Mb/s, VoIP, HDTV with DVR (similar plans in US cost more than $100 per month). "
    I'm not sure what you are trying to say, are you talking about download speeds? upload speeds? If it's uploads, then the French are getting one freaking amazing deal, that's the sort of thing you hear about in places like Dubai. Optimum you can get 101mb/s down/15mb up for $100 a month, who the hell needs that much speed anyway. For 10 extra a month on my current plan I get 30mb down/5mb up, but my regular plan works fine and I have zero issues with it. Live works great as does PSN.

    Anyway, point about all of this is doesn't matter where you live, consumer internet isn't ready to sustain such incredibly large downloads. Can you imagine when the popular game comes out and everyone wants to download it, lol. I can see the news stories now, servers lock up, ISP's begin throttling customers by the thousands because of constant downloading of 10+gig files. Storage isn't much of an issue, just getting the information to the storage is the problem.
    Just re reading your reply, seems like you are going on about your internet being better, while it could be, makes little difference. ISP providers would have a serious problem if millions of people started downloading 10+ gig files in a matter of hours, that's a clusterf@ck waiting to happen.

  • wishlen #115 2 years ago

    For comodity i agree that digital is good, but still i Prefer Physical Media more, on a digital store they could put pretty expensive prices on games and since thats the only way you can get the game you'll have to pay that price if you want the game. and since there wont be any competition they can put high prices, for example some games on Online stores, like Burnout paradise,GT5 Prologue are like 29.99$,39.99$ (from the japanese PSN store) while on a store i can get them for 19.99...
    unless they are smart enought and put cheap prices but i pretty much doubt it, the more money the better, take Modern Warfare 2 Map packs prices for example,they put that price because they know ppl will still buy it and they cant get them from anywhere else...
    And what about people that dont have internet or have a slow conection?
    Rant over... :3

  • ColdShoulder #116 2 years ago

    >Smelly

    Might not be as much but I think after 6 years I'm qualified to have an opinion of my own.

  • Bonders99 #117 2 years ago

    I've said it before, that my belief is that the next generation will be hybrid. Part of the games will be physical media and then digitally download the remainder. That way it will keep the bricks and mortars happy, and keep the pirates at bay. In a sense we have already seen it this generation with the "2 Missing" chapters in Assassin's Creed 2, which I believe will have a been a test to see how many people connected to Live/PSN would download the 2 DLC packs. Remember these companies are not naive enough to have a day to day business model, they usually have a 5 to 10 year strategic plan. That's my tuppence worth anyway.

  • ThePissartist #118 2 years ago

    Is this guy expecting all gamers to have an internet connection in five years? Surely digital only will split the market?

    There's still going to be moving parts too; fans and HDDs.

    It's the future certainly, just not in five years.

  • The_Asking #119 2 years ago

    The PS2 and, to a lesser extend the xbox, both benefitted massively from the fact they could play dvds - dvd movies.
    It's been less pronounced this generation but having a built in blu-ray player has been a huge selling point for the ps3 from the word go and having had an xbox, followed by an xbox 360, has mean't I have never bought a dvd player. Also things might have panned out quite differently if the xbox had shipped with a HD-dvd drive.

    Digital distribution of movies hasn't killed off the dvds/blu-rays and, even though the next generation will surely be far more download centric - for media playing aswell as game playing, it seems hard to believe games would meet that fate sooner.

  • Sunyavadin #120 2 years ago

    They'd better make hard drives more than a terabyte in size the standard if they do this, because installing all my current 360 games to my HD would require almost that much already...

  • kobashi #121 2 years ago

    Man when these people use iphone as an example it makes me laugh. Seriously how can you compare a phone with a shop full of average 99p - £5 games against a console where game will be £30+.

    It is silly and it is funny how none of these people dare to mention PSP Go failure.

    If the next batch of consoles were online only, someone tell me how we are all gonna download the games with ISP caps. How big the HDD gonna be? You will need TB+ and also what about the people who do not even bother connecting there console online.

    You just gonna ignore them??

    What about if your HDD dies after I have downloaded 30 games+. You seriously think people will enjoy downloading them all again!

    Edited by kobashi at 22/10/10 @ 08:18

  • kangarootoo #122 2 years ago

    @Bravestinsane

    "Your wrong, it wont be allowed because of anti competition laws."

    Someone should probably tell Apple about that then, as their app store is exactly what is currently being discussed.


    "Why do you think MS dont set download able games cheaper?
    Its because there not allowed because it would be anti competative."

    What do you mean by "cheaper"? You are talking about downloadable games being cheaper than games on physical media, but the discussion is about a future where there is no physical media. In that future, the RRP may or may not be lower than it is now, but there would be no "cheaper than in the shops", because the "in the shops" bit wouldn't exist.


    "Same reason why theres several forms of downloading games on the PC such as a Steam client,"

    No, there are several forms of downloading games on the PC because there CAN be, because Windows is not a closed platform and MS can't stop other companies selling games digitally. It has absolutely zero to do with what MS wants, or anti-competition laws, or anything of that nature.


    Now I've already said I don't agree with the quotes in the article, but I'm starting to wonder if you have even read it.

  • kangarootoo #123 2 years ago

    @smelly

    Nobody needs industry experience to qualify their opinion (though the opinion in question could have been rather better worded). Oliver may be very experienced in certain fields, but he is also a guy well used to firing this stuff offthe cuff as if it is fact. He clearly knows how to run his business, but he is wrong about this one.

    And if you aren't being sarcastic, the correct spelling is "the". The say you start writing "teh" in normal sentences is the day you drop out of the human race (unless it was a typo, in which case you are forgiven, this once).

  • raduciu #124 2 years ago

    Some guys/companies just like to hear themselves talking. I believe that's the case here.

  • kangarootoo #125 2 years ago

    @PS_2010

    Tell that to iTunes.

    As I suggested earlier, I think the number one factor here is the customer base. You can explain advantages all day and all night, but its very hard to defeat a responbse of "I just don't like it". And those that have said its a generational thing are right on the money. Humans aren't inherrently built to like owning physical stuff, it just feels that way because we are so used to it. There is a generation of kids growing up now who really don't care about owning physical media. But by the time the next gen of consoles appears, they will only be in their teens and won't form a significant enough part of the user base, and that is why Oliver is too soon in his predictions. I'm not saying all current gamers need to die out before this change can occur, but it takes a lot longer to change an opinion than it does to form one.

  • tancredo #126 2 years ago

    Why not enable to copy a game into a Xbox/PS formated pendrive at a kiosk or a store. Have download/copy stations set up for this kind of thing. We could just buy a code from the Xbox/PS/Store and then use it to copy the game into the pendrive at the downloading dock. Then we could just move that game(s) from the pendrive into the Xbox/PS3, and would become attached to our tag and console.

    The companies or the stores themselves could run special promotions with the codes.

    Much better option than everyone downloading the game using internet.

  • drhickman1983 #127 2 years ago

    I can see downloads becoming the norm eventually. As Oliver points out, it's good for business.

    But discs are more versatile in someways. Assuming the next gen games will take up as much space proportionally as games at the moment would do, you wouldn't be able to have all the games installed at once. Lets say you fancy a quick go on Project Gotham Racing 8, but oh look, you uninstalled it to make room for Metal Gear Rising 3. You're now faced with, what for many, will be a painfully slow download period, during which time the urge to play will possibly have subsided. It'd be even worse if the reason you wanted to play was because you had a friend over.

  • craziii #128 2 years ago

    so the next gen consoles become 1 trick pony pcs? hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahdhhhhhaahhhahahhaha

  • Soton4084 #129 2 years ago

    I will always buy physical media over download. End of.

  • darth_paul #130 2 years ago

    of course... the whole world has broadband *sarcasm*

    knowing that GT5 (on PS3) will be around 50GB big (word on the street), it'll be fun to download 100-200GB for GT6 on PS4 :p

    who cares what that guys says. blitz games? what, from "dead to rights" fame? you must be kidding me (yeah, and Dizzy, but who outside the UK cares/remembers)
    Edited by darth_paul at 24/10/10 @ 00:55

  • Flipper79 #131 2 years ago

    And what about limited edition? That's a market that's only recently taken off with big budget series and I'm sure it's a huge money spinner. And publishers do get money from second hand game sales...second hand is a good way to try a game you're not sure about and if it's part of a series the next game might be purchased release day instead of ignored completely. In fact, I would suggest it's far more profitable for EA to utilise it's online pass than to restrict second hand games completely. And any costs saved in the manufacture will need to be passed onto the consumer. I wouldn't be prepared to pay the same for a game of which I didn't have a physical copy.

  • jamesisaacs #132 2 years ago

    Lol, Blitz...nuff said.

  • tokenwebster #133 2 years ago

    ARGH!! dont get me start i could go on for hours but im just gonna bulletpoint:

    What would happen to the retailers??
    Running out of space??
    Hard drive corruption??
    Most likely will need an internet connection, not everyone does??

  • Murton #134 2 years ago

    @Stoomonster: Virgin's network isn't full fibre, it's fibre to the level 3 cabinets and then co-ax from there, still kicks the arse off of straight copper though. When first built that network was reckoned to be capable of 100mbps, Virgin reckon with a few tweaks and upgrades they can get 200-400mbps, but to get above that the co-ax has to go and proper fibre will have to replace it.

    The problem is that it's more cost effective for Virgin to concentrate on maxing the speed of its current network than it would be to replace or expand, and BT has this false sense of entitlement to public funds to finance its ability to compete with VM, so unless we get a Government with some balls that simply part (re)nationalises BT in exchange for those public funds.