Sony and Universal to introduce vending machines for movies and PS3 games
- Thread starter patsu
- Start date
This is what i was saying ms should do next gen with flash based data storage instead of disc.
You get a small enclosure with say 4 sd cards in it and raid them so you get 4 times the transfer. SDHC class 6 is 6MB/s write speed. That would be 24MB/s or 1440MB/m = 1.44GB/m They can deploy these everywhere at malls as kiosks at supermarkets and so on.
You could also scale up as prices come down. Now it can be a 4x4 but in the future it can be a 4x32. Want more write speed and you can go 8x? and double the transfer to 2.88GB/m.
It could be a great solution for the midterm untill we all have gigabit + download speeds.
Bravo to sony for getting this out there .
You get a small enclosure with say 4 sd cards in it and raid them so you get 4 times the transfer. SDHC class 6 is 6MB/s write speed. That would be 24MB/s or 1440MB/m = 1.44GB/m They can deploy these everywhere at malls as kiosks at supermarkets and so on.
You could also scale up as prices come down. Now it can be a 4x4 but in the future it can be a 4x32. Want more write speed and you can go 8x? and double the transfer to 2.88GB/m.
It could be a great solution for the midterm untill we all have gigabit + download speeds.
Bravo to sony for getting this out there .
Hard to say. Might be too early for its time. The initiative also lacks razor sharp focus (e.g., who exactly is it trying to serve ? How many people need media in late night and don't have Internet ?).
Would be interested to see what studies lead them to roll it out now. The location of the vending machines may be critical (e.g., in airports), but I can't connect al the dots yet. Too bad the articles are too brief.
Would be interested to see what studies lead them to roll it out now. The location of the vending machines may be critical (e.g., in airports), but I can't connect al the dots yet. Too bad the articles are too brief.
Answering part of my own question...
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081028-universal-studios-attacks-dvd-rental-kiosks.html
In essence, Universal and Sony Pictures may want their own POP (Point-of-Presence) to counter run-away rental and resale markets. If they don't have consumer interests as their first goal, I doubt they will make it far though. Adding PS3 games to the library is nice, but it's probably more relevant to specific areas (e.g., fallguy's situation here).
EDIT: I like the concept if they are going to price the content cheap (like US$1 for rental and $7 for resale), but I don't think they will do that here. More official pricing info would be welcomed.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081028-universal-studios-attacks-dvd-rental-kiosks.html
In essence, Universal and Sony Pictures may want their own POP (Point-of-Presence) to counter run-away rental and resale markets. If they don't have consumer interests as their first goal, I doubt they will make it far though. Adding PS3 games to the library is nice, but it's probably more relevant to specific areas (e.g., fallguy's situation here).
EDIT: I like the concept if they are going to price the content cheap (like US$1 for rental and $7 for resale), but I don't think they will do that here. More official pricing info would be welcomed.
This may be the future of retail for movies and what not.
Imagine a post bluray world where we have cheap 64 gig flash cards and you simply go to the store with your thumb drive or flash card put it in a kiosk and download what you want to it then go home nad put it on your media server.
They can set these up with 1TB or great drives in them and raid them. Have thousands of titles on them and connect them through the internet to a main server that can constantly update them. Just think of how much room a bestbuy would save by just having a kiosk like this instead of all the dvds and blurays they currently have.
I'm sure they can do what your talking about and rent them and also sell them. It be great imo. Some people may want to own the disc , but if they can set up a drm where you can deactivate it on x amount of decives and get those installs back i think it could wor
Imagine a post bluray world where we have cheap 64 gig flash cards and you simply go to the store with your thumb drive or flash card put it in a kiosk and download what you want to it then go home nad put it on your media server.
They can set these up with 1TB or great drives in them and raid them. Have thousands of titles on them and connect them through the internet to a main server that can constantly update them. Just think of how much room a bestbuy would save by just having a kiosk like this instead of all the dvds and blurays they currently have.
I'm sure they can do what your talking about and rent them and also sell them. It be great imo. Some people may want to own the disc , but if they can set up a drm where you can deactivate it on x amount of decives and get those installs back i think it could wor
It may be but I'm just saying the way Universal and Sony presented the concept is not so crisp (or even true-ful). Off the cuff, it sounded like a temporary scheme to counter Redbox. Was there a press briefing for this ? All the press could described revealed very little.
If they really intended the POP machines to be accessible 24/7, then they may need to put the POPs in a lot of residential areas, airports, 24 hour gas stations and stores. Advertising on the built-in screen would be part of the income. I have even seen kiosk models that allow people to recharge their cell/PMP for a small fee. That will draw the targeted crowd to the POPs.
It might also be more effective to include renting in the mix. Placing the POPs inside high traffic stores may be rewarding too (but these will be unaccessible on 24/7 basis).
There are some interesting play if the POPs are connected themselves, but these may be too costly to set up. ID check (for adult content) and BD-Live movies/applications would be an interesting aspect under that scenario. The ID check part may be doable via a telephone link but more sophisticated use may require better connectivity.
If they really intended the POP machines to be accessible 24/7, then they may need to put the POPs in a lot of residential areas, airports, 24 hour gas stations and stores. Advertising on the built-in screen would be part of the income. I have even seen kiosk models that allow people to recharge their cell/PMP for a small fee. That will draw the targeted crowd to the POPs.
It might also be more effective to include renting in the mix. Placing the POPs inside high traffic stores may be rewarding too (but these will be unaccessible on 24/7 basis).
There are some interesting play if the POPs are connected themselves, but these may be too costly to set up. ID check (for adult content) and BD-Live movies/applications would be an interesting aspect under that scenario. The ID check part may be doable via a telephone link but more sophisticated use may require better connectivity.
Live demo of POP: http://stuff.tv/Video/Universal-Pop-exclusive-video/Vidcasts/
(You may need to click on "Universal Pop - exclusive video" from the list).
(You may need to click on "Universal Pop - exclusive video" from the list).
Kind of odd that Universal, which was one of the last HD-DVD holdouts, would be collaborating with Sony to vend Blu-Rays and PS3 games.
At airports, there are vending machines which sell iPods and digital cameras. Only issue is, you buy them but you don't have a chance to charge them or load content on them.
Maybe these things are more for last-minute gifts or impulse buys.
As for the downloadable content at retail idea, they tried that with custom CDs and that didn't go anywhere. If people are going to pay up to of $30 for a Blu-Ray movie, they will want packaging so they can store it in their shelves.
At airports, there are vending machines which sell iPods and digital cameras. Only issue is, you buy them but you don't have a chance to charge them or load content on them.
Maybe these things are more for last-minute gifts or impulse buys.
As for the downloadable content at retail idea, they tried that with custom CDs and that didn't go anywhere. If people are going to pay up to of $30 for a Blu-Ray movie, they will want packaging so they can store it in their shelves.
They are on the same camp now.
The studios have collaborated on various projects before, so this is back to normal.
Need to see the price first. Downloadable content (e.g., movies and PSN games) is impulse buy for me. The price should be lower than physical media.
Blu-ray movies are sold as physical disc. There is no $30 downloadable Blu-ray movie.
They're not going to offer downloads cheaper than packaged media. It costs them less but they have no incentive to lower prices to a format which might encourage consumer adoption/migration of a lower-priced format.
So if they offer downloads onto flash, they won't price it any lower than current packaged media, because it would only encourage cannibalization of their existing formats.
So if they offer downloads onto flash, they won't price it any lower than current packaged media, because it would only encourage cannibalization of their existing formats.
specwarGP2
Regular
No, you suggested that games should ship retail on flash media. This idea could work, however. I'm sure the prices will stay the same as packaged media, in which case I prefer the actual media.
Wait a minute... These downloadable games are the same ones on PSN, right? So why not just download from PSN? If you're savvy enough to actually utilize this vending machine, you probably have an internet connection. I see no point in this, other than to sell blu-ray movies
The articles I've seen only mention that music and movies are downloadable. I'd assume the games are on disc.
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