aaronspink
Veteran
This isn't true. In both Germany and the US the internet infrastructure is perfectly fine for DD.
Alternative distribution to optical disks : SSD, cards, and download*
- Thread starter Cheezdoodles
- Start date
This isn't true. In both Germany and the US the internet infrastructure is perfectly fine for DD.
aaronspink
Veteran
So we should all expect to wait weeks while they make the master imprints, press the disks, and then distribute them throughout the world?
aaronspink
Veteran
The time argument is old, tired, and entirely incorrect. If anything, the existence of optical distribution is adding 3-4 weeks of delay onto the game.
optical disk is no more secure than any other storage medium.
aaronspink
Veteran
And all over the world, metered bandwidth is dying out. It is a stupid system with no basis in reality.
I wouldn't say that to loud, mobile broadband is all metered and I know plenty of ISP's are looking to add it to their product portfolio.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Probably for the same reasons that many releases are scheduled when they are. For example, most FPS titles were re-scheduled to make sure they don't coincide with the release of COD or Halo into timeframes where they have a much smaller ceiling on the number of units they can move, but on the other hand they don't have to go head to head with a guaranteed blockbuster.
Or the simple fact that neither Sony, Nintendo, nor MS wants a month to go by with little to no releases. So they'll schedule releases such that there will be something released every month.
There's a lot of factors that go into determining when a title will release. Only a few developers have the freedom to determine when their title will release. Many have a set developement time with penalties for missing any ship date once it's set.
I wish that were true, but it doesn't seem to be the case. Metered bandwidth is increasing in popularity in Canada and Japan. One country I recently looked at (Chile) has seen almost all ISPs implement bandwidth caps when just 2 years ago very few of them had caps. And while some of the large ISPs in the US (AT&T and Time Warner for example) have backed off plans for bandwidth caps, they are still on the table with both wanting to implement some caps.
Even my DSL provider after 13 years of having no wording in its terms of service with regards to bandwidth useage has recently (about 3 months ago) put in wording that they can now temporarily turn off the DSL connection if a user is determined to be using "excessive" bandwidth. And has started interrupting service (about 2 months ago) of users if so detected. Although currently you can get it instantly turned back on after digitally signing off acknowledging that you've read the terms and have been notified of excessive useage.
Regards,
SB
corduroygt
Banned
You know what size discs the 3DS will use and how much its games cost already? Stop commenting on rumors.
You totally ignored the cost argument, and you're assuming the prices will be halved. Even if they were to be halved, you still have $10 extra cost with SD, since optical costs only a few cents. A console with the same graphical quality games, but the games cost 15-20% more. Besides the people with sour grapes against blu-ray, no one would buy the console with more expensive games.
corduroygt
Banned
Got any examples to that? I can think of many examples on the contrary, which is a bad thing.
DD is nice, but only at Steam clearout prices. I bought COD:BO and sold it a few weeks later for $10 less than what I paid for it. If such an option did not exist, I would never have bought it in the first place until it was in the bargain bin. I'm not paying more than $15-20 for a download, ever. Valve realizes this and their success is due to their pricing model.
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upnorthsox
Veteran
None of this though has anything to do with a DD only title that is payed for, downloaded, and ready to play but not activated just for the sake of a perceived convenience. In a DD only world, if it's ready for download it's ready to play. To foist an artificial release date as some kind of benefit to the consumer would most certainly bring alot of bitching and as the platform holder and distributor you would receive the lionshare of it. So why do it?
Well the benfit to the platform holder is simple. More money. A DD game will make more money than a disc based game.
With DD platform holder , developer , publisher get a cut of the money.
With physical distrubution you got Manufacturing /shipping , retailer , developer , puslisher , platform holder.
You're making the assumption that a complete DD title is being made available early. To cut back bandwidth costs the platform holder may decide to limit how much of the DD title is pre-downloaded. They could make small portions available leading up to its official release date. If they were to make the whole title available all at once, then you would be correct about it being ready to play, but then that could have serious effects on its infrastructure, especially if they're not able to gauge their audience accurately to meet demand. Remember what happened to Xbox Live a couple Christmas ago?
Tommy McClain
I'd assume any game large enough to take a long time to download will also get a disc release, so I wouldn't necessarily expect an artifical release date for download titles. Should a game be download only, the reason to have an artifical release date would be pyschological, so players feel like they get it at release, instead of having to wait 3 days for it to download. But that's unlikley. I'm thinking of disc and download options for every game, with the issue of slow downloads being addressed by predownloading the game prior to street release date meaning every gets it at the same time, either walking into a store and having it there, or having it on their HDD when they get home.
corduroygt
Banned
Any numbers to back that up? Less people will be able to buy the DD only game, and less people are likely to spend some money on software that they cannot physically hold or resell. There's a reason for all those Steam clearance sales, because the demand for high priced DD is not there.
we aren't talking about DD only . We are talking about the benfit of dd over physical disc.
The reason for steam clearance sale (how does something go on clearance when its allways in stock ?) is to boost sales. There are tons of articles on the effects of steam sales.
However the reason publishers wil lwant to release on DD is because they can make more money becaue its less expsenive and there are less hands in the pie.
Physical discs may sell more , but the profit per sale will be lower and at some point in the future physical discs will not sell more
corduroygt
Banned
How can you say this, when the ASP of the DD is a lot less as compared to disc? There are less hands in the pie, but the selling price is lower too.
hahahahahahahahhahahahaha god you don't live near a rural area do you
Where are you reading that the ASP of DD is less compared to disc ? WHat platform is that on ?
But it tells us nothing about the profit? So if the price the consumer buys it for is lower due to less expenses on selling it, but the platformholder/publisher/developer gets the same amount of cash, what is the problem?
There are two views here, the market for DD today and the market for DD in the future.
Today you say rural Germany has an issue, fine, but will it be an issue in 3 years?
If you got a system that works today and is field tested you only have to keep up with demand and continue scaling and adding features for your needs.
Heck look at XBox Live vs PSN, much of the reason that Live is better today, is because they had a version of Live last generation to. MS evolved on the old one and probably they did it much better due to what experience and knowledge they gained then.
In my none gamer life, I design service networks and help service providers upgrade networks and add new services etc, they are planing for a DD/Streaming future (well I am at least and they do as I say
it might take some years, but we will get there.And the reason is very simple, if provider A does not want to give you something usable, then there will be provider B that will ie provider A will go away or they will provide you with it also.
I see this all over the place, for my company the hardest part is to get the first provider to signup and start offering things, but when that happens "all" the others signs up to.
