Digital Distribution Is Far Better Than A Disk

[QUOTE="Planeforger"]

[QUOTE="hayato_"]

why would i need to buy a bigger harddrive? i buy physical copies of games...also, i rent games and keep them for as long as i want.... i CANNOT do that with DD.

see how that works?

falconclan

But disks are way slower than hard drives, and they will be 5 times slower once SSD's become mainstream. This is the main reason why DD will replace disks. People can stick to their irrational beliefs of having a "hard copy", but technology will advance, and much faster speeds > the "box art".

yeah, good luck downloading a new game when it releases. im sure you and the other several hundred thousand people will have sometime on your hands will you wait...

like i said. i rent alot of games.... i will never choose DD over a physical copy. also, i have friends and like to let them borrow games when im done with them... its a nice thing to do

[QUOTE="Planeforger"]

[QUOTE="hayato_"]

But disks are way slower than hard drives, and they will be 5 times slower once SSD's become mainstream. This is the main reason why DD will replace disks. People can stick to their irrational beliefs of having a "hard copy", but technology will advance, and much faster speeds > the "box art".

falconclan

yeah, good luck downloading a new game when it releases. im sure you and the other several hundred thousand people will have sometime on your hands will you wait...

like i said. i rent alot of games.... i will never choose DD over a physical copy. also, i have friends and like to let them borrow games when im done with them... its a nice thing to do

Well you can have fun waiting 5 minutes for the game to load with your Blu-Ray disk while our games, which will be stored in SSD's, will take less than 20 seconds to load. Games will become bigger and bigger, and it's only a matter of time before the loading times become ridiculous on your DVD's.

The day digital distribution achieves a significant presence in the video game industry is when I will truly enjoy gaming.

[QUOTE="Hanass"]

[QUOTE="falconclan"] DD will probably never overtake disc. People cite Itunes and PC games, but the reason they are doing so well is because people used to pirate so now they pretty much have no choice, and a 99 cent song is a lot different than a $60 console game. On top of that there is no real piracy problem on consoles right now. I mean they are there, but they aren't big enough to be significant. DD will probably not replace disc in my life time, and I got a while to go.

falconclan

Just wait until games start becoming 10, 20, 30, 40, even 50GB big. You'll spend more time waiting for your damn game to load than actually playing the game because BD/DVD is so slow. Devs won't have a choice by then.

DD sucks. If your Hard Drive goes corrupt, you lose it like "that". Can you bring a DD game over to friends house to play? No. Do you get the satisfation of buying something in the box? No. Just wait 24 hours for a download, and there, you just wasted five times more space then you would with a disc. Also, Blu-rays don't scratch.enterawesome

DD sucks. If your Hard Drive goes corrupt, you lose it like "that". Can you bring a DD game over to friends house to play? No. Do you get the satisfation of buying something in the box? No. Just wait 24 hours for a download, and there, you just wasted five times more space then you would with a disc. Also, Blu-rays don't scratch.enterawesome

I like having a disc. If I do not get a disc then I would like the option to be able to download the game then store it on a disc.

The only time I buy games without a disc is when they are really cheap.

Sonwhy

[QUOTE="Hanass"]

[QUOTE="Burning-Sludge"]

I'll take a few seconds for a game to load over a few hours for a game to download.

Burning-Sludge

Those "seconds" will become minutes once games start becoming very large. I'm guessing you wouldn't mind waiting 10 minutes for a game to load by then?

Then the "hours" will become days when you download the said game.

Man, this is so sad. If you really think that technology doesn't evolve...

When a generation ends i am always selling all my games+the console, can i sell my games if they are on my HDD? nop so for me digital garbo is garbo.

[QUOTE="Burning-Sludge"]

[QUOTE="Hanass"]

Those "seconds" will become minutes once games start becoming very large. I'm guessing you wouldn't mind waiting 10 minutes for a game to load by then?

Hanass

Then the "hours" will become days when you download the said game.

Man, this is so sad. If you really think that technology doesn't evolve...

In some places of the world it doesn't progress fast enough..

I live in nice small rural town in New Hampshire, and I recently got DSL, oh and it's only 768kb/s and my downloads usually hover around 40-70KB/s

Right now it takes me a nice long time to download games from steam which usually are around 2-6GB is size.
Now, once more games start to hit the 10+ range i'll be totally screwed because I'll have to wait days to actually download a game.

The alternative is taking a 30 minute drive to then nearest gamestop, buying a game, drive another 30 mins, and then install whatever game I bought.
This process usually only clocks in at about 1 1/2 hours.

While technology will advance where I live, by the time it does what connection I have will be the low end for the time.
I also know many people who are still on 56k dial up who simply cant use DD because it's far too slow.

This is why physical media, whether it be optical or flash will always, and forever be needed :)

Also, inb4 "MOVE!" because I'm not going to leavce a peaceful picture-esque town just because my internet is sluggish.

[QUOTE="enterawesome"]DD sucks. If your Hard Drive goes corrupt, you lose it like "that". Can you bring a DD game over to friends house to play? No. Do you get the satisfation of buying something in the box? No. Just wait 24 hours for a download, and there, you just wasted five times more space then you would with a disc.Also, Blu-rays don't scratch.kenakuma

"If your Hard Drive goes corrupt, you lose it like "that"

LOL, what?!?!?

I've lost digital downloaded games on both my wii and 360 for one reason or another and it took only a couple minutes to replace them! All these DD games are purcashed on an account so if you lose these games you can simply redownload them in a sec as the system knows you already bought it!

HOWEVER, will they replace a DISC if its stolen, damagedor lost? NOPE! And if by some stranged wonderous miracle they did it would probably involve calling them up, answering a ton of question, mailing stuff back and forth, ect, ect!

"Can you bring a DD game over to friends house to play?"

Why not? If I want to play an XBL arcade game at my freinds house I simply pop out my HDD and bring it with me! And with the wii I can just unplug the system and carry it along (since ninty still doesnt have a HDD :( )

"Just wait 24 hours for a download"

Out of all my downloads on LIVE the longest I think I've had to wait was MAYBE 20 minutes! The wii is alot slower but still never even came close to 30mins!

"Also, Blu-rays don't scratch"

Yet they can still crack and get damaged in other ways!

[QUOTE="kenakuma"]

[QUOTE="enterawesome"]DD sucks. If your Hard Drive goes corrupt, you lose it like "that". Can you bring a DD game over to friends house to play? No. Do you get the satisfation of buying something in the box? No. Just wait 24 hours for a download, and there, you just wasted five times more space then you would with a disc.Also, Blu-rays don't scratch.enterawesome

"If your Hard Drive goes corrupt, you lose it like "that"

LOL, what?!?!?

I've lost digital downloaded games on both my wii and 360 for one reason or another and it took only a couple minutes to replace them! All these DD games are purcashed on an account so if you lose these games you can simply redownload them in a sec as the system knows you already bought it!

HOWEVER, will they replace a DISC if its stolen, damagedor lost? NOPE! And if by some stranged wonderous miracle they did it would probably involve calling them up, answering a ton of question, mailing stuff back and forth, ect, ect!

"Can you bring a DD game over to friends house to play?"

Why not? If I want to play an XBL arcade game at my freinds house I simply pop out my HDD and bring it with me! And with the wii I can just unplug the system and carry it along (since ninty still doesnt have a HDD :( )

"Just wait 24 hours for a download"

Out of all my downloads on LIVE the longest I think I've had to wait was MAYBE 20 minutes! The wii is alot slower but still never even came close to 30mins!

"Also, Blu-rays don't scratch"

Yet they can still crack and get damaged in other ways!

"Also, you would have to be a clueless idiot to crack a Blu-ray."

I guess you could say the same about scratching a disc but it happens! But like I said damages are not all you have to worry about, theirs still losing the game or having it stolen! All of these can be fixed by dimply re-downloading a digital game while with a disc your kinda screwed!

"however bringing a game to a friends house instead of an entire system or a hard drive is waymore conveniant"

Not really when you think about it! HDD are getting smaller all the time, the 360 HDD is rather big yet is still roughly the size of a single gamepackage, maybe a little thicker but definetly slimmer, so when you couple that with the fact your holdingyour entire game collectionon that single HDD its really rather conveniant!

I can see how ppl might still want to have their games on discs as that is simply what they are used to and that is easily compensated for in a DD era! I would assume if all systems next gen are DD they will STILL have a disc drive for backwards compatibilty! And their is a good chance that you will be able to burn your DD games to a disc in one way or another as STEAM allows that now! So if discs are your thing I'm sure they'll be around at least for the next couple gens ;)

Only reason I like Digital Distribution is that its better for the enviroment. Just think of all the plastic and other crap we use making billions of disks. But I like a physical copy, Iono why but if I have a digital copy of something I feel alot less ownership over it and I usually get bored of it faster.

When a generation ends i am always selling all my games+the console, can i sell my games if they are on my HDD? nop so for me digital garbo is garbo.

Syferonik

"can i sell my games if they are on my HDD?"

Why not?

People sell their Ps3's and 360's all the time with their HDD and games on them!

Reasons why Digital Disribution Wins

-Doesn't take up space

-No need for a loud disk drive

-All of your games are neatly stored

-No need for used/new games

-We can drive those nazi's Gamestop out of buisness or at least force them to change their evil nazi esque ways

However lets be fair and also count the benefits of physical storage.

-

-

-

-

Reasons why A physical game CD/Cartridge wins

-Games will become scratched and dirty over time eventually becoming good for nothing more than coasters.

-Former freinds can borrow them and never give them back!

-Stickers, plastic wrap and other useless things are awesome!

-Do you enjoy paying more for what a publisher calls a "collector's edition"? That consists of nothing more than the regular game and a wortheless art book/plastic figurine? Then physical formats are for you!

-Enjoy a increasingly large and unmangable libary of game cases that will eventuall topple and kill you!

-Can be fashioned into a shuriken for those pesky suprise ninja attacks

IndigoSunrise

what's all this changing disks? buy your $70 750gb hdd and you wont be doing and disk changing for a good 70-120 games. imprezawrx500

Have you ever had to change a harddrive on the Ps3? It's quite a pain. I know saying that we could essentially hold a lot of games, that's great. I understand that hdds are really cheap, but is it really worth it to have to go through changing the hard drive. I changed my 60 gig hard drive and upgraded it to a 500 gig for 75 bucks. I researched the type before, and it fit, but changing, and then formatting it to work with the ps3 was not worth the pain. Maybe it's because I'm super lazy, or something but I was worrying about breaking the console along with doing it wrong. It took me like an hour to change the hard drive. Just esitmating by how much space that games will take in the future (the average game now takes around 9 gigs) I would have to wait a good 4 hours to download it. It's much simpler to just buy the disk and insert it into the disk drive. On a 80 gig hard drive, I would only get around 8 games.

Although, in the future, when it is easier to change the hdd, I will be all for DD. But for now, it's too much of a pain. Plus they need to find a way to make it so we can rent games through dd. I know that PSN offers a video service so that the game expires within 24 hours of the first play, we need it so it expires within a 7 day period, and then we could buy the game.

Trust me, I'm not completely against DD, I just don't see its practicality quite yet.

Only reason I like Digital Distribution is that its better for the enviroment. Just think of all the plastic and other crap we use making billions of disks. But I like a physical copy, Iono why but if I have a digital copy of something I feel alot less ownership over it and I usually get bored of it faster.

bri360

Seriously don't get me started, but plastic isn't our main concern when it comes to the enviroment. Meat consumption is. I still eat meat every now and then, but do some of your own research, you will see that nothing is hurting the enviroment more than meat consumption.

Here's my argument guise.

I like the boxes.

puttig DD games in your hardrive is putting all your eggs in one basket.

There will be no competitiveness in the market.

not alot of people around the world have sufficent internmet caps.

games will get alot bigger.

[QUOTE="imprezawrx500"]

what's all this changing disks? buy your $70 750gb hdd and you wont be doing and disk changing for a good 70-120 games. verbtex

Have you ever had to change a harddrive on the Ps3? It's quite a pain. I know saying that we could essentially hold a lot of games, that's great. I understand that hdds are really cheap, but is it really worth it to have to go through changing the hard drive. I changed my 60 gig hard drive and upgraded it to a 500 gig for 75 bucks. I researched the type before, and it fit, but changing, and then formatting it to work with the ps3 was not worth the pain. Maybe it's because I'm super lazy, or something but I was worrying about breaking the console along with doing it wrong. It took me like an hour to change the hard drive. Just esitmating by how much space that games will take in the future (the average game now takes around 9 gigs) I would have to wait a good 4 hours to download it. It's much simpler to just buy the disk and insert it into the disk drive. On a 80 gig hard drive, I would only get around 8 games.

Although, in the future, when it is easier to change the hdd, I will be all for DD. But for now, it's too much of a pain. Plus they need to find a way to make it so we can rent games through dd. I know that PSN offers a video service so that the game expires within 24 hours of the first play, we need it so it expires within a 7 day period, and then we could buy the game.

Trust me, I'm not completely against DD, I just don't see its practicality quite yet.

[QUOTE="bri360"]

Only reason I like Digital Distribution is that its better for the enviroment. Just think of all the plastic and other crap we use making billions of disks. But I like a physical copy, Iono why but if I have a digital copy of something I feel alot less ownership over it and I usually get bored of it faster.

verbtex

Seriously don't get me started, but plastic isn't our main concern when it comes to the enviroment. Meat consumption is. I still eat meat every now and then, but do some of your own research, you will see that nothing is hurting the enviroment more than meat consumption.

puttig DD games in your hardrive is putting all your eggs in one basket.

There will be no competitiveness in the market.

not alot of people around the world have sufficent internmet caps.

games will get alot bigger.

convicted_94

[QUOTE="convicted_94"]

puttig DD games in your hardrive is putting all your eggs in one basket.

There will be no competitiveness in the market.

not alot of people around the world have sufficent internmet caps.

games will get alot bigger.

imprezawrx500

[QUOTE="falconclan"]

[QUOTE="Planeforger"]

But disks are way slower than hard drives, and they will be 5 times slower once SSD's become mainstream. This is the main reason why DD will replace disks. People can stick to their irrational beliefs of having a "hard copy", but technology will advance, and much faster speeds > the "box art".

imprezawrx500

yeah, good luck downloading a new game when it releases. im sure you and the other several hundred thousand people will have sometime on your hands will you wait...

like i said. i rent alot of games.... i will never choose DD over a physical copy. also, i have friends and like to let them borrow games when im done with them... its a nice thing to do

[QUOTE="imprezawrx500"][QUOTE="falconclan"]

yeah, good luck downloading a new game when it releases. im sure you and the other several hundred thousand people will have sometime on your hands will you wait...

like i said. i rent alot of games.... i will never choose DD over a physical copy. also, i have friends and like to let them borrow games when im done with them... its a nice thing to do

HuusAsking

Thank you!!! I have been trying to remember the law's name for quite some time and finally someone says it =)

[QUOTE="verbtex"]

[QUOTE="imprezawrx500"]

what's all this changing disks? buy your $70 750gb hdd and you wont be doing and disk changing for a good 70-120 games. imprezawrx500

Have you ever had to change a harddrive on the Ps3? It's quite a pain. I know saying that we could essentially hold a lot of games, that's great. I understand that hdds are really cheap, but is it really worth it to have to go through changing the hard drive. I changed my 60 gig hard drive and upgraded it to a 500 gig for 75 bucks. I researched the type before, and it fit, but changing, and then formatting it to work with the ps3 was not worth the pain. Maybe it's because I'm super lazy, or something but I was worrying about breaking the console along with doing it wrong. It took me like an hour to change the hard drive. Just esitmating by how much space that games will take in the future (the average game now takes around 9 gigs) I would have to wait a good 4 hours to download it. It's much simpler to just buy the disk and insert it into the disk drive. On a 80 gig hard drive, I would only get around 8 games.

Although, in the future, when it is easier to change the hdd, I will be all for DD. But for now, it's too much of a pain. Plus they need to find a way to make it so we can rent games through dd. I know that PSN offers a video service so that the game expires within 24 hours of the first play, we need it so it expires within a 7 day period, and then we could buy the game.

Trust me, I'm not completely against DD, I just don't see its practicality quite yet.

[QUOTE="Burning-Sludge"]

[QUOTE="Hanass"]

Those "seconds" will become minutes once games start becoming very large. I'm guessing you wouldn't mind waiting 10 minutes for a game to load by then?

Hanass

Then the "hours" will become days when you download the said game.

Man, this is so sad. If you really think that technology doesn't evolve...

If technology evolves as quickly you say does where is everybody's flying cars?

What about people who don't have internet?

They can least buy a hard copy.

What if you lose your internet access?

You can at least buy a hard copy.

What if you want to lend your game to a friend?

You can at least share your hard copies.

What if your harddrive becomes corrupted?

You can least fix scratched disks.

What if you need to delete the game to open up space?

You can at least reinstall games from disk.

What if the game company goes out of business?

At least there will be hard copies in circulation.

Hard Copies will always exist, the utopia of pure digital distro is but a pipe dream.

[QUOTE="imprezawrx500"][QUOTE="falconclan"]

yeah, good luck downloading a new game when it releases. im sure you and the other several hundred thousand people will have sometime on your hands will you wait...

like i said. i rent alot of games.... i will never choose DD over a physical copy. also, i have friends and like to let them borrow games when im done with them... its a nice thing to do

HuusAsking

DD is better but none of the current consoles have enough storage space.

What about people who don't have internet?

They can least buy a hard copy.

What if you lose your internet access?

You can at least buy a hard copy.

What if you want to lend your game to a friend?

You can at least share your hard copies.

What if your harddrive becomes corrupted?

You can least fix scratched disks.

What if you need to delete the game to open up space?

You can at least reinstall games from disk.

What if the game company goes out of business?

At least there will be hard copies in circulation.

Hard Copies will always exist, the utopia of pure digital distro is but a pipe dream.

pimperjones

Those are very valid points there

[QUOTE="Hanass"]

[QUOTE="Burning-Sludge"]

Then the "hours" will become days when you download the said game.

Burning-Sludge

Man, this is so sad. If you really think that technology doesn't evolve...

If technology evolves as quickly you say does where is everybody's flying cars?

Nope, you're using an "appeal to ridicule fallacy".

[QUOTE="Hanass"]

[QUOTE="Burning-Sludge"]

Then the "hours" will become days when you download the said game.

Burning-Sludge

Man, this is so sad. If you really think that technology doesn't evolve...

If technology evolves as quickly you say does where is everybody's flying cars?

[QUOTE="Burning-Sludge"]

[QUOTE="Hanass"]

Man, this is so sad. If you really think that technology doesn't evolve...

HuusAsking

If technology evolves as quickly you say does where is everybody's flying cars?

Aren't those called "airplanes"?

[QUOTE="HuusAsking"][QUOTE="imprezawrx500"] There is no problem on steam when new games come out anymore. millions of people can download the game with no problems. what if you go into eb games only to find it has sold out and wont be back in stock for a week? dd has unlimited stock. Itunes lets you rent who says dd stops you renting, plus is is actually against the copyright of the game to resell or rent a game. every game says something along the lines of resale and renting is prohibited. with physical copes you buy a licence to play the game not the game it's self. falconclan

Try again. If your auction gets taken down, send letters to eBay and Valve saying they're violating the rules, and cite Vernor v. Autodesk.

[QUOTE="HuusAsking"][QUOTE="Burning-Sludge"]

If technology evolves as quickly you say does where is everybody's flying cars?

Hanass

Aren't those called "airplanes"?

[QUOTE="imprezawrx500"][QUOTE="verbtex"]

Have you ever had to change a harddrive on the Ps3? It's quite a pain. I know saying that we could essentially hold a lot of games, that's great. I understand that hdds are really cheap, but is it really worth it to have to go through changing the hard drive. I changed my 60 gig hard drive and upgraded it to a 500 gig for 75 bucks. I researched the type before, and it fit, but changing, and then formatting it to work with the ps3 was not worth the pain. Maybe it's because I'm super lazy, or something but I was worrying about breaking the console along with doing it wrong. It took me like an hour to change the hard drive. Just esitmating by how much space that games will take in the future (the average game now takes around 9 gigs) I would have to wait a good 4 hours to download it. It's much simpler to just buy the disk and insert it into the disk drive. On a 80 gig hard drive, I would only get around 8 games.

Although, in the future, when it is easier to change the hdd, I will be all for DD. But for now, it's too much of a pain. Plus they need to find a way to make it so we can rent games through dd. I know that PSN offers a video service so that the game expires within 24 hours of the first play, we need it so it expires within a 7 day period, and then we could buy the game.

Trust me, I'm not completely against DD, I just don't see its practicality quite yet.

JudgementEden

Main reason Digital Distribution is never gonna realy take off is Bandwidth Caps as some people mentioned.

I have a 10MBPs connection but im limited to 60Gigs a month and overusage charges aint pretty.

-No need for used/new games

IndigoSunrise

Um, being able to buy used games for cheap is a GOOD THING.

-Games will become scratched and dirty over time eventually becoming good for nothing more than coasters.

IndigoSunrise

Speak for yourself. I take care of my media, and have yet to have a game disc go bad on me.

Main reason Digital Distribution is never gonna realy take off is Bandwidth Caps as some people mentioned.

I have a 10MBPs connection but im limited to 60Gigs a month and overusage charges aint pretty.

ackr1TE

The day that Full DD arrives on gaming consoles is the day that I quit gaming. Period.

Physical media has worked in the past, present, & will continue to work in the future.

Physical media>>>>>>>>Full DD.

While I agree that digital distribution is convenient, it really sucks to have Xbox Live and pay for a Arcade title, or some downloadable content, only to be denied access if you lose your internet.

While I agree that digital distribution is convenient, it really sucks to have Xbox Live and pay for a Arcade title, or some downloadable content, only to be denied access if you lose your internet.

godzillavskong

The day that Full DD arrives on gaming consolesis the day that I quit gaming. Period.

Physical media has worked in the past, present, & will continue to work in the future.

Physical media>>>>>>>>Full DD.

garland51

People said the same thing during the transition from horses to cars, and guess what happened? They got used to it.

[QUOTE="garland51"]

The day that Full DD arrives on gaming consolesis the day that I quit gaming. Period.

Physical media has worked in the past, present, & will continue to work in the future.

Physical media>>>>>>>>Full DD.

Hanass

People said the same thing during the transition from horses to cars, and guess what happened? They got used to it.

How do you know?

Basic human psychology. Conservatism is the first human bias.

I think Digital Distribution is a fantastic part of any game system. However, I still think we are not yet in the era where all games should go digital. There just isnt' enough support or foundation set up by internet connected systems to justify all digital. Sales would plummet if games were taken off the shelf and relied soley on digital copies.

At the same time, what do retailers do? Do they sell empty cases with codes in them? I understand the PSP has done this, but i just don't think it would be the best route.

On a side note, what about used games. That is a huge market that relies on heavily discounted game discs that would otherwise still sell for 50-60 dollars. Online distribution is fantastic for small scale games with small footprints, ie, XBLA and WiiWare or even Apps on Ipods, but for fullscale games, the disc is still king, until next gen that is.

[QUOTE="Hanass"]

[QUOTE="garland51"]

The day that Full DD arrives on gaming consolesis the day that I quit gaming. Period.

Physical media has worked in the past, present, & will continue to work in the future.

Physical media>>>>>>>>Full DD.

Burning-Sludge

People said the same thing during the transition from horses to cars, and guess what happened? They got used to it.

How do you know?

I think Digital Distribution is a fantastic part of any game system. However, I still think we are not yet in the era where all games should go digital. There just isnt' enough support or foundation set up by internet connected systems to justify all digital. Sales would plummet if games were taken off the shelf and relied soley on digital copies.

At the same time, what do retailers do? Do they sell empty cases with codes in them? I understand the PSP has done this, but i just don't think it would be the best route.

On a side note, what about used games. That is a huge market that relies on heavily discounted game discs that would otherwise still sell for 50-60 dollars. Online distribution is fantastic for small scale games with small footprints, ie, XBLA and WiiWare or even Apps on Ipods, but for fullscale games, the disc is still king, until next gen that is.

Goten_king