Sony should gear PS4 towards digital sales

Digital content is growing ever rapidly. This got me thinking, why shouldn't the PS4 gear itself towards this trend? Ship the PS4 with a huuuuge hard drive and use the PSN to sell games (think 'Steam'). They could offer pre-download services for the big title launches, since they go gold 2 months before the release date, it could pre-download to your PS3 in some sort of background downloader. They could also offer sales on games that just don't happen right now. You never to into a GameStop or Target and see GTAIV on sale for $5, but with digital sales Sony could do just that.

Could hypothesize about this for days but what do you think of the general idea? Should it go more towards digital sales or stick with the hard copies?

They would have to cut the cost of purchasing a digital copy of a game at present it's far cheaper for me to go into town and pick up a physical copy. Gotta cater to everyone too what about those without internet access

The day everything goes 100 percent digital is the day i retire from being a gamer

The day everything goes 100 percent digital is the day i retire from being a gamer

brownpriderider

[QUOTE="brownpriderider"]

The day everything goes 100 percent digital is the day i retire from being a gamer

BrianB0422

ok yea its goin to happen and my statement will happen also

[QUOTE="BrianB0422"][QUOTE="brownpriderider"]

The day everything goes 100 percent digital is the day i retire from being a gamer

ok yea its goin to happen and my statement will happen also

[QUOTE="brownpriderider"]

[QUOTE="BrianB0422"] Why? It's going to happen.BrianB0422

ok yea its goin to happen and my statement will happen also

no re-sell value, cant borrow games between friends and family, no awesome collection of games to admire on your shelf, theres more but i invite anyone else to give the other things cause i know for a fact people feel the same way i do

Digital content is growing ever rapidly. This got me thinking, why shouldn't the PS4 gear itself towards this trend? Ship the PS4 with a huuuuge hard drive and use the PSN to sell games (think 'Steam'). They could offer pre-download services for the big title launches, since they go gold 2 months before the release date, it could pre-download to your PS3 in some sort of background downloader. They could also offer sales on games that just don't happen right now. You never to into a GameStop or Target and see GTAIV on sale for $5, but with digital sales Sony could do just that.

Could hypothesize about this for days but what do you think of the general idea? Should it go more towards digital sales or stick with the hard copies?

BrianB0422

If someone buys their friend a "digital video game" gift, can they return it? Or is digital games non-returnable?

And there are PS3 games that are like 50GB so the PS4 would have to be like what for the person who has like 200 video games? And we have to assume that PS4 games will be much larger than the PS3 games. The PS4 would need to be really really huge for the big video gamer with huge collection. 10 Terabyte PS4?

What about the people that buy a game and don't like it so they prefer to sell used games on ebay? I bought many games that I didn't like that much so I sold it on ebay. Digital would be a huge disservice for me there.

And what about the people that don't have cable internet or any internet at all? I wonder how long it takes to download +50GB game on a dial up aol account. And that person won't be able to use their telephone.

While I think that digital is taking a huge hit over dvd/blu-ray sales and rentals, I don't see the same for digital video games.

[QUOTE="BrianB0422"]

Digital content is growing ever rapidly. This got me thinking, why shouldn't the PS4 gear itself towards this trend? Ship the PS4 with a huuuuge hard drive and use the PSN to sell games (think 'Steam'). They could offer pre-download services for the big title launches, since they go gold 2 months before the release date, it could pre-download to your PS3 in some sort of background downloader. They could also offer sales on games that just don't happen right now. You never to into a GameStop or Target and see GTAIV on sale for $5, but with digital sales Sony could do just that.

Could hypothesize about this for days but what do you think of the general idea? Should it go more towards digital sales or stick with the hard copies?

BH14

If someone buys their friend a "digital video game" gift, can they return it? Or is digital games non-returnable?

And there are PS3 games that are like 50GB so the PS4 would have to be like what for the person who has like 200 video games? And we have to assume that PS4 games will be much larger than the PS3 games. The PS4 would need to be really really huge for the big video gamer with huge collection. 10 Terabyte PS4?

What about the people that buy a game and don't like it so they prefer to sell used games on ebay? I bought many games that I didn't like that much so I sold it on ebay. Digital would be a huge disservice for me there.

And what about the people that don't have cable internet or any internet at all? I wonder how long it takes to download +50GB game on a dial up aol account. And that person won't be able to use their telephone.

thank you BH14, this guy doesnt seem to understand anything at all, maybe he should look at his own poll he created and see that digital choice still has 0 votes

Both digital and hard copy. Alienating existing customers whom don't have access to fast internet connection is not a wise decision.

It's good to see people are finally seeing the negatives to digital download games, a year or two ago when it was hardly an idea you could not find one person against it XD.

I say provide both. Eliminating hard copies is foolish and could potentially hurt business. Not everyone has a speedy-fast internet connection. I could easily run to a store, pick up a game, come back home and play it for hours before I could finish downloading something the size of a game. Not to mention bandwidth caps would limit how much I could download in a month.

It's only ever going to work if; 1) All PS4 come with a 1tb hard drive. 2)PSN is always up and offers high speed downloads. 3) Games are not 30% above RRP. Infamous 2 for £60 on launch day. luls.

Digital will become the new main way to get media during the PS4's life cycle. Although I am not a huge fan of it when it comes to games, only way to bring a game to a friend's house is to bring your whole console over. . . But, if it was an Onlive type streaming service and I could just log into my account on their system and access all my content without having to download the full game then I'm sold. Apple has cut their software prices by up to 50% when comparing physical to digital media. If the same is done with games I will become a huge gamer again. $60 for a game is really just too much.

although it may happen someday, PS4 is not the time to do it. They should start heading for it though, giving bigger HDD to keep the games in and offer more digital downloadable games, but dont get rid of the hard copies all of a sudden or they will loose costomers. Also the games must sell for less than a hard copy, if you sell at the same price then give me the hard copy why shouldI pay for less? if its digital then it costs them less to get it to me.

If they handle it like Steam does, cheap games, constant sales, big holiday discounts, and preloading (where you download the game prior to release, so you can play the game the minute it unlocks). If they handle it like PSN now, it will be too expensive and slow.

Couple that with a 1 or 2 TB hardrive, sounds good to me! Oh and of course cloud saves and being able to download and redownload games an infinite number of times, and a buggless offline mode (much like how it's handled now would be fine).

thank you BH14, this guy doesnt seem to understand anything at all, maybe he should look at his own poll he created and see that digital choice still has 0 votes

brownpriderider

Digital content is growing ever rapidly. This got me thinking, why shouldn't the PS4 gear itself towards this trend? Ship the PS4 with a huuuuge hard drive and use the PSN to sell games (think 'Steam'). They could offer pre-download services for the big title launches, since they go gold 2 months before the release date, it could pre-download to your PS3 in some sort of background downloader. They could also offer sales on games that just don't happen right now. You never to into a GameStop or Target and see GTAIV on sale for $5, but with digital sales Sony could do just that.

Could hypothesize about this for days but what do you think of the general idea? Should it go more towards digital sales or stick with the hard copies?

The day everything goes 100 percent digital is the day i retire from being a gamer

digital sales are the future regardless. And you can bet it will not save money to the extent that games will be sold cheaper. More cash for the game makers is all it will be. Mean while just imagine your gaming system going up on you(what ever the system may be). Now you lost those games you download. And I doubt you get unlimited downloads for good reasons. No thanks I want a hard copy.duane27

[QUOTE="duane27"]digital sales are the future regardless. And you can bet it will not save money to the extent that games will be sold cheaper. More cash for the game makers is all it will be. Mean while just imagine your gaming system going up on you(what ever the system may be). Now you lost those games you download. And I doubt you get unlimited downloads for good reasons. No thanks I want a hard copy.BrianB0422

[QUOTE="BrianB0422"][QUOTE="brownpriderider"]

ok yea its goin to happen and my statement will happen also

brownpriderider

no re-sell value, cant borrow games between friends and family, no awesome collection of games to admire on your shelf, theres more but i invite anyone else to give the other things cause i know for a fact people feel the same way i do

I prefer goin two block to my loal gamestop and pick the game I like and play it imediatelly than wait for hours just to le tit finish downloading. The only way this will be effective is if my internet connection is fast enough download GBs of memory in seconds and my ISP charges me cheap. That won't happen since the governmwnt won't allow such speeds to us users.

Besides, its great to have a collection on display.

I don't mind downloading smaller/ cheaper games but I definitely wouldn't want to be downloading all my games. Waiting for a 4 GB install before you play a game is a slight nuisance but having to download 10GB to play one would be utterly ridiculous. And wasn't Uncharted 3 near enough to 50GB? That's about 3 days of downloading just to play something. No thanks... There's a reason the PSP Go fell flat on its face.

I don't mind downloading smaller/ cheaper games but I definitely wouldn't want to be downloading all my games. Waiting for a 4 GB install before you play a game is a slight nuisance but having to download 10GB to play one would be utterly ridiculous. And wasn't Uncharted 3 near enough to 50GB? That's about 3 days of downloading just to play something. No thanks... There's a reason the PSP Go fell flat on its face.

TheLordHimself

The trouble with digital downloads is that Sony wants to not only sell those games for full price - even though you don't get the physical disk - but they don't discount older games until loooooooong after they've hit the bargain bins in stores. And the PSN is slow - it takes for freakin' ever to even download demos. I certainly wouldn't want to be unable to play anything for a day just because it was downloading a game. And what if my console dies - do I spend a month re-downloading all my games? Or if I don't like a game at all, can't I even recoup a portion of my investment by trading it in? No.

And I've got 8 games under the tree this year. I look forward to unwrapping them and feeling like a little kid on Christmas.

[QUOTE="TheLordHimself"]

I don't mind downloading smaller/ cheaper games but I definitely wouldn't want to be downloading all my games. Waiting for a 4 GB install before you play a game is a slight nuisance but having to download 10GB to play one would be utterly ridiculous. And wasn't Uncharted 3 near enough to 50GB? That's about 3 days of downloading just to play something. No thanks... There's a reason the PSP Go fell flat on its face.

BrianB0422

They'd never do that because they'd be worried some hacker would figure out how to unlock the game before the release date. And I'm sure there are numerous stipulations in the various contracts between Sony and the game publishers that they can't make the games available prior to the official release date, locked or not.

Please don't do this Sony. I don't want to wait a day or two to download a game when I could have spent 30 mins going to a store nearby. Plus, it's much easier to share physical copies as well as sell and buy used.