The collectors Comments by Rob Fahey

I buy boxes. First I love the art, love owning them, it's fun to browse through etc.

Secondly, and probably more importantly, what will happen if the Xbox 3 comes out or the PS4? What will happen in 15 years with the WiiWare, PSN, XBLA games I bought and downloaded when MS or Sony or Nintendo decides to stop 'the service' because their next console is coming? What happens if Steam goes broke? What happens if I die? Will my kids get the downloadable games I bought on a different name? Legislation around all of that is way too vague for me.

And i just love boxes :)

50% of the people (possibly more) want a habtive shopping experience, meaning that they want to feel/touch the box on the shop shelf and they want to carry it home.

Digital distribution is nice but all the DRM fiascos have made me very sceptical. Also you won't get "reselling / used" with digital distribution... also a big disadvantage for us customers.

"lavalant
What happens in a few years?? or in the 'next gen' will this content that I've purchased still be available for me to download on my new console free? or even stored on the servers at all? it's that unknown and feeling of being at the mercy of large corporations."

Lavalant is spot on, what happens when these consoles are no longer supported. 360s are not the most reliable console ever made, I am happy to buy physical media.

I never owned an original xbox so have been buying discs I did not download any of the originals because of the cost it is cheaper to buy the original discs. another related point for the 360 anyway is HDD space, who could download and store all the content they purchase now? Certainly not an option on a genuine MS HDD.

If everything moves to download only there will be no nostalgia / retro purchases, you may even see people selling consoles full of DLC with the attached user name so it all works. Empty the friends list, advertise with "X" amount of content and gamerscore.

The publishers are certainly driving this as they want a cut of every sale or resale and consider the purchasers of second hand games to be thieves. I think a middle ground is more appropriate. Buy the games on discs and download additional content, that way they make money on every resale, if the content is good enough. If you buy a new game and dislike it you can return it to EB Games in seven days and swap it for something else with downloading you are stuck with it. The Magic the Gathering game being a good example. I would gladly delete it and get my points back, what a piece of shit it is.

I buy a lot of games at RRP and also many as second hand. I would certainly buy a lot less if everything was download only.

And to the point of the article :) I do have a large collection of games I have not yet played and I collect series of games like Elder scrolls and Call of Duty so it is nice to have them on the shelf. I do not buy music in compressed format but I then digitise the music in a lossless format to my HDD and put the discs away out of sight.

Physical media for me for the quality, the retained monetary value, the reliability and the Art.

I think all that comes with physical media - the second-hand market and retail competition - is too important to write off simply for the sake of convenience. A boxed game gets released and within, say, a month its value will have dropped significantly below the RRP (and will likely have been available at a fair discount from day one) From there, in most cases, it'll only get progressively cheaper as people eBay it away and shops look to shed their stock.

With digital distrubution, though, its value will freeze at whatever the hell the distributer wants to charge. In some cases, for example, indie games like Plants vs Zombies or old rarities on VC, where a physical method of distribution wouldn't be practical of cost-effective, it's perfectly reasonable and is perhaps a better model. But for the latest and greatest releases from the big publishers, you'll be paying a premium because they have the clout to make it the only legal option. A £30-40 title will continue to cost that much until the centralised publisher decides to offer a discount - not because of competition or the consumer-side value of the game, but because of marketing.

As for the prices of digital media being lower than a physical product, I see no reason why it'd ever be the case. If DD isn't providing a world of bargains in its fledgling years while it still has to compete with the physical media market, it's not going to start when it becomes the industry standard.

The fact that new games for example cost more to buy from places like Steam than from online retailers means that, for me, there is absolutely no point in purchasing such games that way. I buy the odd cheap sub-£5 game from Steam when they have an offer on but that's about as far as their worth goes in my eyes. Steam represent everything I fear will happen once games go download only, that we'll end up paying the RRPs only for these games and will no longer be able to shop around and pick up new games for typically £10 to £15 cheaper.

And what about Christmas presents? I'm someone who receives games, CDs, DVDs and BDs as gifts from others because I like them as well as sending them to others. Sending or receiving a slip of paper that entitles you to download the product of your choice just isn't the same but I guess, at worst, it can be compared with gift vouchers. Receiving gift vouchers is nice, sure, but not from everyone!!!

@atomboy - "Lets not forget that thanks to secureROM many box copy games also require internet authorization. Okay some of these games allow de-authorization but it certainly puts a finite lifetime on a physical copy."

That's only on the PC though, console games will be playable for as long as the hardware continues working (or not in the Xbox 360's case!!!). However, there are means of getting round the problem on the PC with NoDVD hacks.

While pirates certainly use them illegally to play the downloaded versions, I also use them with my legally bought copies to avoid having to put the DVD in the disc drive. It's just more convenient and avoids wear and tear on my precious discs. Similarly I buy CDs for all my music but I rip them to my PC for convenience and keep the original as a backup.

Speaking of backups... if we're going to be downloading huge amounts of content digitally then we're going to have to consider backups, as any sensible person should, unless they like redownloading GBs of stuff when you lose everything because of a duff hard drive. I'm sure their ISPs are going to love them for that!

Currently the Xbox 360 for example has no means of backing up its content as its all DRMed and for me that's a big no-no. I can backup all my PC and PS3 stuff to external HDDs (and I do regularly). If Microsoft want digital distribution to succeed then they're going to have to reconsider their approach to DRM and allow the DLC, etc., to be backed up to external media and hard drives.

The day DD becomes the only way, i'll be putting down my pads

@ Darren

Personally, I'm hoping that Microsoft allow the future Xbox to have Windows Home Server integration. Use it for running backups, gamertag storage, hell, even install games onto it and 'stream' the content via ethernet.

I definitely want to have an easy way of moving my gamertag (with Live account) from one 360 to another in my house - have a main setup in the living room, but then sometimes I want to play upstairs. WITHOUT having to unbundle all the cables, etc. Even swapping over the HDDs is a bit of a pain, plus it also increases the risk of damage.

And as people have said, if all your gaming content exists on one HDD, with your only option for 'backing up' betting on the fact that Microsoft will somehow keep terabytes of obsolete data clogging up servers, I can bet there are going to be quite a few consumer and governmental compaints.

I've definitely jumped the fence. Used to think it was physical media or nothing, but nowadays I prefer the instant gratification of having as many games, music and movies on the HDD as possible and not farting around swapping discs. I still buy plenty of CDs, DVDs etc. but now they're straight into the PS3 or Mac to be ripped, then the physical media is straight up to the loft to gather dust. Apart from the painful download time on a full game, it's digital all the way for me. Obviously it's a long way away before a big game like KZ2 is going to be available as a download, purely because of the size (download time, and HDD size too, even with a 250gb in the PS3). But if I could install the game onto the HDD (not like the half arsed 360 version which still requires the disc) and archive the disc, I'd be happy as. It's not as if 2nd hand games are worth much anyway.

So long as my digital content is attached to a profile which I can move around / recreate (like Steam, PSN, Xbox Live) then I'm reasonably happy with it. Especially with the occasional cit price offer :)

However, if it's like the Wii and locked to the (in my case faulty) hardware instead.... no sale. I find it unbelievable that there's no way to move my DRM rights to another Wii. >:(

@ 3william56

That's what I do (with DVDs anyways - rip 'em and tream 'em), but that's kinda the point: with physical media, you have the choice to do that and unless that physical object gets destroyed - by fire, say - you'll always have it to go back to. Purely digital media has so many issues right now, not least as shown by Microsoft's music service, that you can actually still have the content on your PC, which you've paid for, but if they turn off the verification servers, you're screwed.

I guess the best thing would be for MS et al to allow digital downloads at a reduced price, with the option of buying the disc as well for an extra premium. The platform owner stocks the 'download-only' model and the traditional retailers get the boxed product - that way, the hoarders and those who want backups are happy, as are the 'everything digital' crowd.

The retailers could get hissy about the predicted loss of sales and refuse to carry games for whatever system implemented it, but, at least initially, the market segment for downloadble games will be so small that not carrying games for an entire platform would actually be detrimental to their sales. And if the publishers responded in kind by refusing to supply any games to retailers, they'd die off pretty quick.

"So long as my digital content is attached to a profile which I can move around / recreate (like Steam, PSN, Xbox Live) then I'm reasonably happy with it. Especially with the occasional cit price offer :)

However, if it's like the Wii and locked to the (in my case faulty) hardware instead.... no sale. I find it unbelievable that there's no way to move my DRM rights to another Wii. >:("

The 360 binds it to both the machine and the profile.

'an often overlooked factor which is extremely important to many consumers, especially the over 30 age group.'

Seems an odd comment to make. I am well over 30 and the demand for space in our household is extememly high. I am long past the phase of hoarding and downloading games is an important factor in my war against clutter.As I have got older I have gone to great lengths to eliminate stuff I don't need. Your comment is strange IMO. Most of my firends are in the same boat as me.

I agree with jonsaan, everyone I know in the same boat as me (fairly recent first time home buyers) has gone to great lengths to clear out pretty much any physical media they own.

I was a collector when I lived at home with my folks, hundreds of Laserdiscs, DVDs, games etc. Owning the physical item was as important as actually watching/playing, I had DVDs I probably never watched.

Now I own my own house, it's simply a case of the less clutter the better. DVD purchases have been replaced by Lovefilm (the irony being, I actually watch a lot of films now) and games get sold on or traded in as soon as I've finished them.

The convenience and impulse purchase factor shouldn't be overlooked. Bored on a Thursday evening? Log on to Steam and download a game, maybe even one you would never consider buying in a shop or waiting for an online purchase to arrive.

Absolutely love Steam and often my purchasing decisions are based on if its on Steam or not. No more lost discs, no more worrying about losing the manual with the KEY on it, so for me it is fantastic.

I moved house recently and left a bag full of CDs (everything I already had saved to HD) for the local charity shop. I'm so over physical media now and really surprised by the number of people saying they still want to own a box with a picture of the game/CD/DVD/whatever on it. If I had the option to get rid of the all the garish, multi-coloured game boxes under my TV and have them all stored on their respective consoles I'd be so happy I think I might hurl.

i think trophies etc are almost as important these days...

i can see my shelves of games, but everyone else can see my list of games... i own almost as many PSN games as i do boxed titles (though i do actually own boxed versions of GT5P and warhawk), and seeing my list is kind of the same feeling. incidentally all the bought PSN games go in a separate folder to demos, which makes them feel more.... real.

I think That no list of download games could ever give me such a good feeling as looking at all 216 Dreamcast games on my shelf!

I want my games on a disc, in a box with a manual please. Then i can keep them on a shelf and my friends can say "ooooh" and "ahhh" and then, when I'm finished with said game, I can flog it to someone else and get most of my money back.

Digital distribution is alright until something like a hard drive failure means the end of your collection. Same with music and stuff too; I prefer to have physical copies of everything. Also, as somebody who collects retro games 9as well as current stuff), a lack of packaging is kinda pointless :(

Think of it this way, one is like a variable currency exchange whilst the other is simply money down the drain (plus more money to provide your own hard drive space and long term internet connection). I've been able to buy a few new games because I've sold on some of my old games, in fact, sacrificing part of my DVD collection helped pay my tuition for a year. Given that the cost of DLC equals and exceeds that of the glossy total package why throw away potential returns for the sake of...what again?