Do you think Digital Distribution will take over?

its bound to eventually....its just a matter of time....every form of media has been getting more and more digitally based.

just look at Steam and PC gaming.

i would like to say yes, but since these are buisnesses, they would be too worried about losing money to piracyULTIMATEZWARRIO

digital distrobution has no effect on piracy......if anything....Piracy is harder with digital distrobutuion since the entire process can be controlled...like with Steam.

Not for awhile, Virgin Mobile and Warner Cable both discuss putting caps on their internet service, and charging people for going over the limit, as long as internet providers like these try to dictate and control, we won't see digital distrubtion taking off...

Now, if internet providers had a plan that allows you to download stuff off xbl in a matter of seconds, basically like how internet providers already have something that allows your internet cap to increase when you download torrents to boost the dl speed for that, I could see it taking off...

Basically, it would be like 5 dollars extra for xbl support I'm thinking, allowing you to download anything of xbl with like a 2GB per second connection or something, that would eliminate the problems of slow downloads and such, and allot digital distrubution to take off, that's my idea of what they could do, but having the internet the way it is now won't allow it to take off...

YES - but not for a long time, it is inherint for most human beings to naturally want to physically own soemthing it been liek that for 1000 of years and to break that ideal will be difficult. People on these type of forums will most likely be easliy convinced but the majority of people have to adopt it, most likely will be forced. along with all the money and downlaod speed required to make evrything DD.

NO - but on the other hand you guys arent thinkinh about those companies that make millions and billions of dollars related to physical media! Corporations arent going to just let another corporation make a technology that bipases them and causes them to loose money they would normally get. ie places like Best Buy, Circuit City, companies who make the machinery for physical media, the companies who created certain physical media, etc.

I hope not, I like building a collection. Realistically, I know it will though. However, it better result in cheaper games since there is no need for middlemen and all the other nonsense. Knowing the console business, they'll keep the $60 even though they tried to justify the price. It was in some magazine awhile ago, idk which one though

Based on what I've seen in the last week, the bandwidth barrier will be GONE within the next ten years. Companies will be able to deliver TERABITS per second, whereas now they are only limited to a gigabit or two per full cabinet. The only question now is whether the consumer market will be able to keep up.mjarantilla

the only question I have about DD is not whether it will take over....but how it's implemented.

Do you think that we will be playing games while streaming them to our consoles off massive servers owned by the companies.....or will we be downloading them directly to our console.

[QUOTE="mjarantilla"]Based on what I've seen in the last week, the bandwidth barrier will be GONE within the next ten years. Companies will be able to deliver TERABITS per second, whereas now they are only limited to a gigabit or two per full cabinet. The only question now is whether the consumer market will be able to keep up.MikeE21286

the only question I have about DD is not whether it will take over....but how it's implemented.

Do you think that we will be playing games while streaming them to our consoles off massive servers owned by the companies.....or will we be downloading them directly to our console.

well i guess you can look at the PC as agood indicator as to how it will end up. DD is massive right now on PC. Steam for example. You join steam, add your payment details then everytime you want a game simply log on choose the game and download the full game to your HD. Of course steam does many more things other than this but for DD thats about it.

[QUOTE="mjarantilla"]Based on what I've seen in the last week, the bandwidth barrier will be GONE within the next ten years. Companies will be able to deliver TERABITS per second, whereas now they are only limited to a gigabit or two per full cabinet. The only question now is whether the consumer market will be able to keep up.MikeE21286

the only question I have about DD is not whether it will take over....but how it's implemented.

Do you think that we will be playing games while streaming them to our consoles off massive servers owned by the companies.....or will we be downloading them directly to our console.

Why not both?

Download the engine to start up the game, but the assets will be requested from and sent from the server the way they are requested from and sent from the DVD/hard drive today.

Not anytime soon. We might be getting closer to the day where you have the option of physical media/DD for many games ...Vampyronight

Didn't it 'take over' four years ago, when Half-Life 2 came out?

I mean, since then, I've probably bought as many new PC games digitally as I have physically. In the future, I can ony see it getting more popular.

Yes.

In the UK the government is thinking about increasing everyones internet speeds to 50meg download speeds and BT already offers 100meg speeds if you want to pay for it!

[QUOTE="Vampyronight"]Not anytime soon. We might be getting closer to the day where you have the option of physical media/DD for many games ...deleted_basic

I was speaking more in terms of consoles. Right now the only game that fits that bill is Warhawk. And even then, not every modern PC game is available as DD.

If it intends on becoming the primary distribution method for consoles, it needs to be more readily available to consumers. New games would need to be released in both disc and DD form, with DD games at a lesser price (i.e. Warhawk: $60 retail, $40 PS Store). Of course, the issue of HD space becomes prevalent, which Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo would have to address.

Can I put my DD collection alphabetically sorted in a cool looking cabinet in my living room? No. There's your answer. NielsNL

you can sort them alphabetically in a cool looking console in your living room...

[QUOTE="NielsNL"]Can I put my DD collection alphabetically sorted in a cool looking cabinet in my living room? No. There's your answer. Hewkii

you can sort them alphabetically in a cool looking console in your living room...

Yeah I know... but it's just.. not the same.

I don't think it will take over. People have an attachment to owning THINGS and I think they will feel ripped off if everything was digital. However, as a Nine inch Nails fan, they have done a lot with digital distribution, making CDs free online even, but if you pay money you can get a hard copy a couple months later. I LOVE that idea because I get the CD right away, the band gets my money and I can still get the hard copy which i love to have.

DD will certainly gain popularity and become more and more mainstream, but I think in the end, it will always be a complimentary option to owning an actual "box." I don't think it will take over...and by "take over" I assume you mean become the dominant delivery method, so much so that it actually harms rental stores, etc.

It's happening in music, and it's already dominant on the PC. I'm sure digital distribution will become one of the primary delivery methods on consoles, though I don't think retail will ever fully disappear, at least not for a very long time.

It's much more convenient, and it's better for developers, publishers, and console manufacturers. All the console companies have put a lot of work into developing functional online stores through which to distribute games. And while only Sony has released full retail titles online, all of them could theoretically do that. It's just a matter of bandwidth and storage being cheap enough, and prices are falling fast.