PSP Go the Future of Gaming?

[jfrost]

I love Steam. I'm not worried.

[avrame]

I love Steam. I'm not worried.

This. All aboard the gravy train for me. Steam, XBlive and PSN have never let me down, so I'm all in for digital distro as I'm concerned. Only time I buy physical copies anymore are for physical bonus, ala soundtrack or artbook.

[Gunstar Green]

We'll never go to all digital distribution unless retailers are able to get in on the action. If I can buy a DLC code for Madden 2021 at Wal-Mart for $50 on release day, $40 a month or so later, and eventually $10-$15 when the game is a year or two old, then maybe there's a viable market. When there is some system for trading/selling my DLC codes (perhaps they give you a new one if you delete the game?), then maybe we'll see a market develop. Buyers want older games for cheap, which isn't the digital model.

Most music is sold in stores. Most video is sold in stores. Most games are sold in stores. I don't see the recent incremental advances of digital distribution in ANY of the these media ever replacing the importance of retail. Media companies have too much invested in those relationships with retailers to ditch them for an all digital model.

I disagree. We'll end up going to all digital distribution specifically because of retailers, especially used game retailers like GameStop. Through digital distribution the developers can do an end-run around retailers and deliver the game directly to the consumer completely eliminating the used game market. This is something that video game companies badly want. Not only that but they'll eliminate the cost of producing physical copies and their packaging and what-not.

And older games for cheap is most certainly in the digital model. Have you ever used Steam? There's constant sales for older titles many of which are much cheaper than you'll ever find in the cheapest of bargain bins at an actual store.

[corn619]

A downloadable future will only happen if the masses allow it. Once people start realizing that there $500.00 to $1000.00 gaming collection is worthless because its all digital and locked with DRM, then people may start to wise up. Music going digital makes sense because music is meant to be portable. Gaming is mainly done at home and games are generally much larger than a music album.

I don't really know the figures, but how many people in the world have access or can afford high speed internet? I know my speed is frickin slow as hell and would take weeks to download a 50GB game. Then theres people with data caps among other restrictions from their ISP. Gaming companies would really be severing their customer base by going all digital presently and in the near future. I could really care less though, I have such a backlog of games that it would take a lifetime to complete them all anyway.

[msimplay]

A downloadable future will only happen if the masses allow it. Once people start realizing that there $500.00 to $1000.00 gaming collection is worthless because its all digital and locked with DRM, then people may start to wise up. Music going digital makes sense because music is meant to be portable. Gaming is mainly done at home and games are generally much larger than a music album.

I don't really know the figures, but how many people in the world have access or can afford high speed internet? I know my speed is frickin slow as hell and would take weeks to download a 50GB game. Then theres people with data caps among other restrictions from their ISP. Gaming companies would really be severing their customer base by going all digital presently and in the near future. I could really care less though, I have such a backlog of games that it would take a lifetime to complete them all anyway.

Some very good points here and I'm inclined to agree there are still homes that don't have broadband yet.

People are already having problems with Xbox drm when moving their games to a new hard drive and some of the games won't even play when not connected to the internet.
I know a lot of people that have Xbox's and Playstations not even connected to the internet.