Predict: The Next Generation Console Tech
- Thread starter Acert93
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Nah. See Steam. It's not about watching the game download anyway. You can just let it run while you sleep or something. I don't know what the biggest game on Steam is, but I've bought a few that are >10GB and they are top sellers.
There's also the consideration that traveling to stores is quite inconvenient for some people, and ordering boxes online involves even longer delays than downloads.
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I'm thinking more along the lines of MS and 360. They took a pathetic 20GB HDD and turned it into a major marketing bullet for the "top" model, and sold it separately for about $100. In 2005/6. Cringe.
The amazing 120GB currently sells for $150.
That, my friends, is not particularly reasonable lol. It's out of line with even USB 2.5" externals by a few multiples of $/GB.Essentially MS discovered that one of the really stupid things they did (for themselves) with the first Xbox was make it too integrated. You got a lot for your money with that box. Thus, 360 became more modular, with parts they could charge a special, lets call it, "Xbox tax" for. A 2.5" drive looks a lot "fancier" in an enclosure than a 3.5" drive, and I doubt they pay much more for their out-of-date little notebook drives after their volume deals with whichever company they pick.
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Blazkowicz
Legend
but with a 500GB HDD you can have seamless, long term caching of dozens games. and provide an option for those that really want it.
the raw data density makes the hard disk more useful than current gen, it's not about picking a handful of games to reside on the HDD anymore.
even better : you play games when it's downloading. your console is not running MS-DOS, or used without an OS.
We're talking about a wider market which may or may not have the willingness to wait for 24 hours for a download to complete who may or may not have a fast internet connection and/or have caps which makes downloading 10GB files inpractical. In addition to this, they may not be willing to inconvenience everyone else in the household to download files.
I'm sure there will be optical disks yet for those people, but I really can not imagine new consoles not having the ability to do digital game distribution. It becomes more and more popular with PC gamers every year. MMOs use it heavily simply to function. Right now, console gamers are essentially left out of this completely. Honestly I think buying games this way is convenient and that it is the future.
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Well we'll see how popular it is tomorrow with the financials. I'll wait for them before I answer.
I'm confused. You are going to judge the viability of digital downloads for consoles by how well the stuff on Xbox Live sells? The big games that the 360 revolves around aren't even for sale on there to my knowledge....
The games on demand are all more expensive than the most expensive Arcade games. Since we know how much the userbase has expanded, we can somewhat determine a rough percentage increase that we can attribute to the games on demand since the previous years figures do not include them.
But only for a small portion of the world.
Im pretty sure their financials talk about the world wide situation.
I don't want this as even installed I'm likely to have to change disk or insert disk to make proof that I really own the game. What I want is two distinct offers:
* huge optic supports with plenty of redundancies
* optimized (in size) online packages
Difference from gamer POV should be minimal in experience (say the downloaded game will launch faster).
Online games should be a bit cheaper (no second hand market).
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That's something that online game distribution bypasses. For example, on PC with Steam and Impulse, you buy the game and download it. There is no physical media so they can't ask for it. The game gets authenticated via the executable checking for Impulse, Steam and/or activation stored on the machine of some sort. An internet connection isn't needed after the game has been run once.
On the consoles, almost all games already use Xbox Live for things so I would imagine that it wouldn't be a big deal to use the OS / Live as an authentication tool for game downloads. XBLA already does this I imagine.
Indeed but we don't disagree on this (I'm not sure I get your post properly or otherwise that mine was clear enough).
corduroygt
Banned
Instead of a $60 Disc based game that I can get on Amazon for $50, I'd be willing to get $40 digital version. The digital version has to be cheaper for it to be attractive, since you can't sell or trade it. I don't know how the financials would work out regarding bandwidth costs and such, but I wonder if that would be just as profitable for the developers.
Wont happen anytime soon.
-Pubs never miss a chance to make a buck. Whatever savings they get in DD are unlikely to be passed on to you
-Retail. You cant undercut retail pricing or they'll get mad with bad consequences for your game.
A year ago I'd have agreed that the games don't get cheap enough to offset the lack of product physicality. But this year's Steam "Mega Sale" at the end of December was insanity. There were some really amazing deals to be had. I got some big titles that I didn't own yet for <$10. I got a couple of game collections for $5. They are running weekly specials now too. It's definitely addictive if you are susceptible to impulse buying.
When games are brand new, they usually sell at a MSRP for both boxed and digital copies. However, sometimes there are combo deals with the digital download purchases, something I don't see for boxed games. For example, AVP3 preorders come with Universe at War on Steam.
With respect to the resale of boxed games, I've found that most of the stores near me have stopped buying PC games. They told me they've been forced to because the DRM and serial keys are often non-transferrable and even if they are it's way too much work to make sure the games will work for a new buyer. Fortunately console people don't have to deal with this bullshit.
When games are brand new, they usually sell at a MSRP for both boxed and digital copies. However, sometimes there are combo deals with the digital download purchases, something I don't see for boxed games. For example, AVP3 preorders come with Universe at War on Steam.
With respect to the resale of boxed games, I've found that most of the stores near me have stopped buying PC games. They told me they've been forced to because the DRM and serial keys are often non-transferrable and even if they are it's way too much work to make sure the games will work for a new buyer. Fortunately console people don't have to deal with this bullshit.
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