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Gaming will never go fully digital

Digital game purchasing has become increasingly popular very quickly. Some have even come to question how much longer companies will continue to produce physical copies of games. With Next-Gen approaching there are some key reasons why going fully digital will still be a problem.

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gameblinx.com
dasbeer883857d ago

In response to the title of this article: STEAM begs the differ.

DeadIIIRed3857d ago

The size of games are growing at a much faster rate than bandwidth here in the states. Downloading 50 gig games would put a lot of stress on the existing infrastructure if everyone needed to do it.

SpitFireAce853857d ago

Well they need to sell games at a discount
if they want me to go digital $10-15 cheaper.
And I'am in otherwise no way will i pay
the same price as retail.

MicDude3857d ago

@DeadIIIRed

The same argument can be made that download speeds are getting faster and the price of storage is getting cheaper. I think we are looking at an all digital future, but it's still 5-10 years away.

PickAShoe3857d ago

Try Onlive, the quality is not good. Digital only works for music and movies. I prefer renting movies on disc anyway for better picture quality and sound.

DeadIIIRed3856d ago

@MicDude

Download speeds are getting faster, but imagine a next gen game as popular as GTA V and suddenly you have over 5 million people attempting to download 50 GB at once. At that point service speed doesn't matter if the current infrastructure can't support it.

Improvements are being made, but what we is more of a complete overhaul.

ChickeyCantor3856d ago

"The size of games are growing at a much faster rate than bandwidth here in the states. "

Not if Google can help it. The bandwidth you guys get ( not to forget the freaking data cap ) for that high price is a crime. I really hope Google shakes up the north american internet provider business.

No_Pantaloons3856d ago

DeadIIIRed hit the nail on the head. People are already talking 4k this and that, but very few are talking about how a 4k movie is over 100GB.

Thing's like google fiber are amazing, but they've only gotten to like 3 cities in 2 1/2 years, even with huge acceleration it will be a long time before something similar is available country wide. Comcast and the others have no interests in upgrading while they can still milk the current market.

Aceman183856d ago

i personally will never go full digital. physical media will also be in my collection. i'll buy a digital game here and there.

SilentNegotiator3856d ago (Edited 3856d ago )

"The same argument can be made that download speeds are getting faster and the price of storage is getting cheaper"

Counter arguing with that is like arguing that accelerating your car against an identical car that you're racing will guaranteed get you ahead of the other car.

Unless you deny that game sizes are quickly getting bigger, there's no argument that we're getting closer to an all-digital future.

+ Show (6) more repliesLast reply 3856d ago
P0werVR3857d ago (Edited 3857d ago )

Digital none the less. Besides, not everyone are game collectors.

So your average joe will more likely buy it only $60 for it.

@dasbeer88

Yes sir!

denawayne3856d ago

I think it'll come down to some of the game being downloaded to the local HD while the rest will be accessed on the fly. MS's cloud anybody?

pyramidshead3856d ago

Pretty much. As long as there are people will awful internet connections around, retail will be around for a long time.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3856d ago
ZBlacktt3857d ago

Nope, collectors edition are not going away!

admiralvic3857d ago

Go away? Most likely never.
Stay physical? Terraria collectors edition ( http://www.gamestop.com/ps3... ) begs to differ.

Terraria: Collector's Edition

More details
Terraria 2GB Pick-axe USB stick
Exclusive New Items Crafting Poster
3X Velum Character Stickers
Digital Game Download Card

It's entirely possible that we will just see "special" editions that exist physically (that, ducktales, MvC 2, a couple of PSP games like Patapon 2), but are nothing more than X with a voucher code.

kjones05873857d ago (Edited 3857d ago )

It's like saying, "music will never go fully digital." Cd's haven't disappeared, but once the capacity is there, the majority of people will prefer the pros of having digital copies versus physical discs.

VitaOwner3857d ago

I think there will always be a use for physical copies if for nothing else but for Backup purposes. No matter how great your digital system is, There is the potential for Data loss.

keabrown793857d ago

Music cd's are not 50 GB+ With internet caps you are lucky to download "A" game per-month

Jovanian 3857d ago

Lol you serious bro? I've downloaded several games ranging from at least 10-20GB in size within the span of a month. And the only games that are 50GB are from idiots who don't know how to port, that is a gross misuse of hard drive space

keabrown793854d ago

@Swadian_Grognard many current gen PS3 games, examples being GTA 5 at 18GB, MGS 4 is about 32GB compressed. Those are quite bit for current gen and with next gen assets being a higher resolution you can expect quite a bit of an increase in file size to a low 20gb and then up from there. So potentially if you have an internet cap of 50 gb you could only download 2 games in a month.

Hufandpuf3856d ago

With services such as Spotify, google music, Hulu, red box, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if physical music and movies disappear just because of convenience. Physical copies may continue to go down in price until they eventually don't make a profit anymore.

If that can happen to those markets, the same can happen to games. Just not anytime soon.

deep_fried_bum_cake3857d ago

A future in which physical copies are still readily available is a future I will game in. Otherwise I just won't bother. I like the convenience of digital but I will never fully trust that I actually own games unless I have the physical copy.

sypher3857d ago (Edited 3857d ago )

Exactly, i think the closure of Games For Windows Live (any content you owned on that simply disappears) show's the future of any DD service. Once they disappear so does all your stuff because well you never owned it in the first place...

I do believe a Netflix like service will eventually become the norm on the systems. There will be too much competition and choice that its the only logical choice for digital only content.

deafdani3857d ago

A Netflix like service? That is pretty much what OnLive is.

Now, that platform is a superb idea, but it's still a bit ahead of its time. There's still a lot of people that just don't have the required connection speeds to use OnLive effectively, and hell, there's even still a fair amount of people without internet!

However, that will obviously change over time. In the future, when everyone has a minimum of 100 MB internet speed or something like that, then yes, OnLive (and other services) will be as popular for games as Netflix is for movies now, if not more.

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mkis00738m ago

Such a good game to me. Crazy how different peoples opinions can get.

Crows9028m ago(Edited 27m ago)

For me it wasn't that surprising. There was some bad press before. There's also the matter and element of a person's disposition when trying out a certain game. Sometimes you're just not really into the type of game that you're playing so you put it down because you don't like it. Not necessarily because it's a bad game but because you're just not up for something like this. Reviewers have a tough because no matter what they feel like playing they've got to play what's releasing.

I have many times gone back to games that I put down only to thoroughly enjoy them the second time around because either there wasn't another exciting game coming out around the same time or I just had no other games to play and haven't played that type of game in a while. I'm not the type of person that can just play a souls game through all this iterations one after the other without getting burnt out on the formula.

In my opinion this game was great from the start. Some bugs here and there but nothing worse than the most AAA releases during the same time after and before. All I did was wait one week and I had a phenomenal time with the game. No other zombie survival game comes close to how I thoroughly enjoyed this one

Leeroyw29m ago

Second act of that game far surpassed the first. Which is why people felt it didn't live up to the hype of the trailers. Personally I loved it. But it was a slog to get your bike and weapons up to skill.

Inverno9m ago

Was gonna post a brick wall of text but I'll keep it short. Pardon my French but f**k the media for the hate they gave this game. If you have a PC to play it on you can get it as low as 10 bucks, and if you have a PS then it's a no brainer. Totally worth a play.