Jones: APB "has to ship on a DVD"

By Tom Bramwell Published 16 July, 2009

Not comfortable ditching retail yet.

Realtime Worlds boss Dave Jones has said that he needs Electronic Arts' publishing might because he's "not really comfortable" doing away with retail on a 6GB game.

"At the end of the day, we still have effectively a big client to distribute. It's still a traditional game in that this is a five or six gig game. It has to ship on a DVD," Jones told vg247 at Develop.

"Are we at the point yet where we feel comfortable that people want to bypass retail completely and download five or six gigs? No, we're not really comfortable with that.

"If that points comes in the future, which everyone's talking about, I think we'll be reactive to that. We won't try to be proactive in trying to make that happen."

Jones' keynote at Develop yesterday focused on taking your game completely online, much as he has with APB, obviously. You can see how the speech went in the transcript of our live coverage.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • hiddenranbir #1 3 years ago

    Good decision.

    Means I can get a lower price on amazon!

  • KreyAtiv #2 3 years ago

    I mean 2GB takes long enough to download, let alone 6GB.
    It is better off on DVD anyway and as donnie080208 mentioned most do tend to like to have a box for their shelves, room floor wherever they may put them. If you have a box to notice you are more likely to remember the game, than something that may be just on the hard drive. Out of sight out of mind sort of thing.

  • Ryuken #3 3 years ago

    Sounds like a console version isn't a certainty after all, nice thing to hear a developer saying he's focusing on PC for a change...

  • kangarootoo #4 3 years ago

    6GB is too large for DLC in this instance, but otherwise I am a fan. Boxes just clutter the place up, and discs get scratched. If your disc gets knackered, its gone. If your DLC gets lost, you just download it again. Its a no brainer for me.


    "If you have a box to notice you are more likely to remember the game, than something that may be just on the hard drive. Out of sight out of mind sort of thing."

    Are we saying that people will forget they own a game if they don't have a box sat there next to their PC?

  • mkreku #5 3 years ago

    I only have a 10 Mbit connection (student) myself so I have no idea how long 6 GB would take. A while, I assume. But for those with 100 Mbit connections should easily be able to download it. Not very uncommon in Sweden (Bredbandsbolaget).

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #6 3 years ago

    I like boxes. I like the physicality of ownership and looking at a collection on a shelf.

  • kangarootoo #7 3 years ago

    I used to, but they just take up space now as far as I'm concerned. All my console game discs are in a draw out of sight, same as my films, and now the draw is full storing them is becoming a pain in the butt.

  • Penguinzoot #8 3 years ago

    Are we saying that people will forget they own a game if they don't have a box sat there next to their PC?

    It happens to me even when I do have a game box stacked next to my PC ;)
    Edited by 1 at 16/07/09 @ 16:17

  • Alkeno #9 3 years ago

    I wish I lived on a modern country. But I'm not, soy I live in Spain. Broadband here isn't broad, isn't cheap and isn't easy on your mental health.

    I can pay 40€ for a crap 3Mb/320Kb ADSL. I could cope with stupidly a huge latency (say over 100ms in the best case). But I won't accept that cable and DSL companies are allowed to screw their users big time:
    -Hei young man, want broadband?
    -Yessir.
    -Easy! Call this costly phone number and say "bang me!".
    -May I see the contract?
    -It's on the website.
    -I've looked for half an hour and haven't found it.
    -You must be dumb... er... look again, it must be hidden somewhere. Use the "zoom" feature on your browser.
    -Got it! Wait... It says "You will not swap provider, no matter how bad the service is, within 18 months or we will pwn your wife!".
    -So? You wanted broadband, right?
    -God... and if I swap provider after those 18 months what will happen?
    -We'll play deaf and keep charging you for the service.
    -I will go to court and tell the bank not to pay you!
    -Then we will cut the service, keep charging money and put your name on a blacklist of bad users so as nobody gives you broadband.
    -But... fuck... This cannot be legal...
    -IT IS!!! HAHAHAHA!!! ENJOY THE SUN, KID, THIS IS SPAIN!!!

    Sorry for the rant. So, what was the post about? Ah, heavy DLC. The guy is right, 6 gigs is too much for a download-only game.

  • Subi #10 3 years ago

    On the other hand, those of us who snagged an Age of Conan key a few days ago had to cope with a 12GB download. It took me 29 hours. ;)

  • skillian #11 3 years ago

    The only reason I've bought any boxed game in the last two years is because they were cheaper than their downloadable counterparts.

    As long as there's competition, I've been ready to ditch boxed games for a long time.

    I've have never understood the argument about wanting the boxes (unless you consider yourself a 'collector' I suppose). What does "I like the physicality of ownership" even mean?

  • Sharzam #12 3 years ago

    I do tend to download alot of my games regardless of size. I really do like steam (as i tend to loose discs) , however seeing games in shops draws your attention to them many times ive seen a cheap PC game in a shop and thought may as well try that out. if it was not for retail i would maybe not of even known of the game in first place.

  • UberFrog #13 3 years ago

    Too bad its max 100 players in each instance/city?

  • Alkeno #14 3 years ago

    I believe most people mean "collectionism" when speaking about "physicality of ownership". I'm not a big fan of boxed games or collecting, it's my father's fault (he had this horrible rule "new things come in as soon as old things go out". That's how my Atari, GameBoy, Master System II, Megadrive, Saturn and a couple of PCs ended in other peoples hands or in the bin :'(

    There is, however, a good point for people liking boxed games: If someone keeps his PS1 games, he will always be able to play them as long as there is a PS1 available (his own or, if broken, a second hand unit). With DLC, however, there is a slim chance for that game to remain playable in 10 years time, I don't see Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo keeping DLC and account information online forever... if your Xbox 360 dies, that copy of Braid (DRM binded to that SKU) dies.
    Edited by 2 at 16/07/09 @ 18:51

  • Redeye #15 3 years ago

    Surely there's room for both physical and digital in this big ol' crazy world?

    *waits for the inevitable*

  • Calundann #16 3 years ago

    what the hell is APB?

  • Figgernaggot #17 3 years ago

    Anonymous Paradigm Backlash

  • EmiliasHorse #18 3 years ago

    I think we are two years from seeing 6gb as an acceptable download. Sure many folks think nothing of borrowing a DVD or maybe a Blu-Ray from a torrent site, Sims 3 is 5.2gb and that got a solid amount of downloads. EA were delighted to see 150,000 downloads, even more delighted when they found out those fans were so eagre they just had to own Sims before release day.

  • siro #19 3 years ago

    Calundann: Exactly.

    What an unmemorable game title is APB? I clicked the follow up link just to learn that this is no abbreviation... They prolly wanted to go for a GTA-esque title (as that sells so well), but might have forgotten that it still is Grand Theft Auto. Bad game titles definitely cost sales, so it's not trivial of a matter.

  • erp #20 3 years ago

    Do I find it really annoying when people make a point by asking it as a question and then answering it themselves? Yes I really really do.

  • skillian #21 3 years ago

    APB stands for All Points Bulletin.

  • bloodflowers #22 3 years ago

    Not a fan of digital distribution. It's slow, it ties up your internet connection for a considerable amount of time, can fail and require retries, and hits some consumers where it hurts - their bandwidth allowance. The availability and quality of broadband has a LONG way to go before this is really a viable method, I'd prefer to stick with my disks thanks.

  • kangarootoo #23 3 years ago

    Are there still ISPs in the UK that have a download allowance?

  • skillian #24 3 years ago

    Yes, lots.

  • YourMessageHere #25 3 years ago

    Dear RealTime Worlds,

    Steam. Not EA.

    Thanks,

    YMH


    6GB is not a big deal. Even without Steam preloading, that would probably only require waiting overnight, but I'll keep my PC chugging away at it for a week if it means I can get it at a sensible price, have access to it anywhere, and have an unlimited number of downloads of it in future, as with most Steam games (when they don't inflate the price for no apparent reason other than that they can, that is).

    Also, surely DLC = DownLoadable Content = add-on stuff - i.e. content - for an existing game? I doubt DLC can correctly be used to mean a whole game, which is by definition infrastructure (code etc.) and content.

  • Lamb #26 3 years ago

    Its takes a little less than 2 hours to download 6 GB on a 10 MB connection but thats only after 9pm. For it to become mainstream it would have to be under an hour and at any time of day.

    I just got Entrenchment the add-on for Sins of a Solar Empire on Impulse the other day it took only a few minutes for a 330 mb download and didn't have to fiddle with discs installs.

    Also it takes much longer to install from discs versus a click on a file on a esata harddrive. Thats even without DRM. Watching Sims 3 install and having the disc grate bit by bit to install a file is painful. This bottleneck also has to be removed in the components of the computer and how the operating system chooses to do things.