I'd love a way to make the disc version behave like a DD without losing the intrinsic disc ownership. Any method where discs cannot be used as a real physical media anymore are unacceptable to me, because it's back to DRM hell. So repeating a bit what others have proposed in the last few months...
1. Retail discs could come with a one-time unlock for the DD version (Sony is already doing that for some games cross-buy, so it's not that far fetched).
2. Like (1) but for a price. A one time opportunity to buy the DD version, that would make it available only to the first owner.
3. Offering a way to "convert" it and destroy the physical disc (a bit too complicated, requires retailers involvement or shipping, is it worth it?).
4. The Sony's RFID technology could make the conversion perfectly transparent though, you convert it to DD and it flash the RFID chip as disabled (cannot be used to play anymore, just install). I wouldn't want that, because it makes it difficult to resell a disc, it would have to be checked in a console to see if it's still an unlocked copy. But better than nothing and hassle free, and it could even allow to revert back and reenable the RFID.
5. They could print a play-disabled disc which can only be used as a download accelerator. They could give a stack of them with every shipment of the game to retailers who would sell you a DD version at full retail, or ship the disc to anyone buying a DD version online, as a way to quickly (re)install the game. So the DD game could cost less (like the Vita), but they could charge $5 to ship you a disc for install/reinstall.
What bugs me is that DD prices are still being experimented with, I guess it's to find the perfect spot which will yield the most profit. There's a ridiculous situation right now where DD versions costs the same as the retail disc, it's just wrong. It should be at least $5 or $10 less expensive. The gamer is paying for the distribution, there's no retail/distributor profit, nor physical media expense, nor shipping, and the gamer lost it's ownership and resale privilege. What a great deal! A lower price for DD would be more than enough to offset excess bandwidth expense for the gamer. ISPs are the new distribution middleman, after all. Distribution cost something one way or the other, it's up to them to charge accordingly.
I'm all for choice. I wanted a choice. The FW took away my choice. They fought against it. They took away my choice of buying a physical disc with the benefits of digital copy.
With all due respect Brit, if Microsoft does something, blame Microsoft. You can call us forum warriors, vocal minority, these people, FW or whatever acronym you fancy, this isn't a group responsible for some sort of deception, nor any kind of business decision. We didn't take away your choice, we protected ours by expressing clearly and publicly our purchase intent and invited these companies to crunch the numbers to see how much they win and how much they lose. It was a very honest movement, we voiced our concerns, some sort of "hello Sony, we are more numerous than you probably think, give us a product we want to buy, we love your games", of course it ended up a bit pointless because it seems they already knew.
Microsoft however misjudged the market for months, they should have reacted long before E3. They took away your choice because they didn't want to offer both. It's possible they thought Sony would be forced to have the same scheme because of 3rd part pressure (which was a lie). For all I care they can offer a million choices, anything you want, as long as mine still remains. It's a line in the sand. It's up to you to communicate with Microsoft what you want, don't bring me into it. I'm not responsible for the other group's inability to communicate.
