160°

PS4, Xbox One seeing much higher digital download attach rates

With E3 coming to a close, the industry has seen the majority of the products that major publishers and platform holders expect to drive the market for the rest of this year. The good news, according to the CEA, is that the new consoles are resulting in renewed enthusiasm in the business. CEA said that wholesale revenue is predicted to reach $5.2 billion in 2014, an increase of 85 percent over 2013, and CEA is predicting an additional 12 percent growth for 2015.

Read Full Story >>
gamesindustry.biz
corvusmd3602d ago

It appears Yusef was right.

XiNarutoUzumaki3602d ago (Edited 3602d ago )

No, he wasn't.

This is not enough.

tgunzz3602d ago

Yep (MS had it right).. At the end of this road is subscription rental services.. Why buy a game, finish it or not, and sell it back for a loss, when you can rent it, and move on (think gamefly/psnow, and whatever service ms has in store) The core data for this upcoming transition, was always through the sell back programs... The hatred for a company (MS) is what was the deciding factor... If the majority who felt/feel whole heartedly about the online/drm/disks would not support this method no matter who produces it (yes, this includes ps plus/ps now and so on)... It was never ms, it is us.... If you going to hold one brand to the expected gamer standard, then all should follow the code including the brand you like most....

4Sh0w3602d ago (Edited 3602d ago )

I'm old enough to remember all the hate for music's overwhelming medium switching from CD's to mp3's/digital.

Now digital music downloads are like breathing.

lol, what's crazy is 99% of my games on ps3 and 360 were physical discs, now just 6-7months into this gen I can't imagine being bothered to change a disc, "ugh, that's just so 2013".

kreate3602d ago (Edited 3602d ago )

The market for physical games will always be larger than digital.

U can't really compare it to music. GameStop doesn't do trade ins for music CDs.

If u want music, u just download it from YouTube. That's why music is digital.

Its a few mb vs up to 50gb worth of data.

I think Microsoft should go all digital so their fans can be satisfied.

4Sh0w3602d ago (Edited 3602d ago )

Wrong, as the news suggest, digital market share is growing, consumers like convenience so what do you expect is going to make it decline? Every market trend favors a digital world, its inevitable. Gamestop is 1 gen from being the next Blockbuster Movie Rental business that succumbed to the move to digital. Also again when dial up 56k modem were the latest and greatest speed were slow music even took up to 5 or 6 min per song waiting for AOL, lol speeds got better and now I don't know anybody who buys music CD's although they still sell them.

"Its a few mb vs up to 50gb worth of data."

lol, huh? Well I guess that's hard for some if you have some type of service cap I guess still for those of us regularly online its a non issue. I mean since the first night after I rushed home from the midnight launched to download my games, I haven't waited 1 min for my games, I just wake up and any game I purchased is ready to play. Yeah I think once most folks are able to go all digital they will be more than satisfied its just too damm convenient, less I have to do with so many OTHERS THINGS I HAVE TO DO but hey I understand the other side of needing every dollar for a trade in too, a few dollars off just isn't enough incentive for me to forgo the convenience and go back to physical, hell but then again I think I sold 2 games all last gen, I usually preferred to give them away to some of my nephews. Actually I'd love a digital "gifting" service or share plan that would be the best case scenario for old digital games I likely won't play much.

Volkama3602d ago

Tgunzz Yes! Subscription/rental services are the next step in the distribution of games. It is a destination I cannot wait to reach.

£30/month for unlimited access to the full library of games from all publishers for as long as you subscribe? This needs to happen.

Even better if it is cheaper (though personally I'd gladly go quite a bit higher).

rainslacker3601d ago

@Volk

Yeah...how's that going to work for new games? Unlimited games for $30...or even $60 a month? Publishers aren't going to make enough money to produce these big budget AAA games. If they do this, expect it to be priced like digital movies are now, but probably more expensive, or a rental type service like PSNow is supposedly doing.

Unless of course you guys are cool with heavy micro-transactions.

Volkama3600d ago

@rainslacker new Blu-rays are £15-£30. Or I can pay something like £10 a month to one if numerous rental services, and watch as many as I want.

Hell even games, there are already rental services on physical games. What is this big obstacle that you think makes it impossible to do digitally?

I agree with you on one point in particular though; it will be the death of the £50 retail game. No longer will people feel the need to tack both single and multiplayer onto their game. No longer will a publisher say "8-10 hours is the correct length for a campaign". They'd just focus on making a game people will play. Doesn't sound like a bad thing to me...

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 3600d ago
colonel1793602d ago

The issue is not going digital. The biggest problem is that companies want to control the content in a way that you no longer OWN it. Microsoft initial vision was that. They wanted to keep every right to the software that you were going to pay for them to LOAN you the software.

If someone (Sony, MS, Nintendo, Valve or whoever) develops a way where gives costumers more freedom to use the software they download, for sure people will like to go digital.

I think the company that gives more freedom on that is Nintendo (so far). So digital, while it might get more attention since it's become easier to download games, will never substitute retail as long as companies are more interested in their greed.

Ghost_Nappa3602d ago

nintendo also ties your downloads to a sinlge system.

Bonkerz3602d ago

It is only a matter of time until it all goes digital.

ColonelRex3602d ago

And if that happens. The industry will die.

Edvin19843602d ago

ColonelRex I think you are jumping to conclusions there rather fast. All my PS4 and XboxOne games are digital, and nothing has died here i am gaming just like the guy who gets a disc.

Majin-vegeta3602d ago (Edited 3602d ago )

@Edvin I think you missed his point.He meant if the VG industry goes all digital it will die.Simply due to the fact that there are so many areas that have no to little internet connection and bandwidth caps.

@Ghost *Facepalm* Read my comment

ghostface93602d ago

nope then the devs and consoles make more money per game and get rid of the middleman

darthv723602d ago

We cant keep hiding behind the lack of internet or internet caps every time this subject is brought up.

If you are in an area with no internet, or heavily restricted internet service, then it is pointless getting an internet capable device like a gaming console. Especially when the majority of its content is centered around online interaction.

4Sh0w3602d ago

It's definitely going to happen a lot quicker than folks think and by the time ps5 and X? launch it will be an fraction of physical disc sales if they have disc drives at all.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 3602d ago
zeuanimals3602d ago

So long as data caps exist, we will never go all digital.

xX-StolenSoul-Xx3602d ago

Pretty much all of my games for the PS4 are digital besides Killzone SF

Lawboy23602d ago

Same....on both consoles...I hate having to get up and switch games

HexxedAvenger3602d ago

ah laziness! i know that well lol

artsaber3602d ago

Until that HDD dies and you have to re-download your entire game library.

mursumaki3602d ago

#artsaber

And what if your disck break? You have to BUY new one. I rather download again for FREE than buy new physical one.

artsaber3600d ago

@musumaki - honestly, when is the last time you broke a game disc? I have never even scratched a Blu-ray game I own due to the protective coating. Besides, if I break one disc, I only have that one game to worry about. If the HDD goes, so does the ENTIRE library until redownloaded. These internet service providers are praying for unified digital games across the board so they can implement the bandwidth caps and extra fee services across the board. Thanks for helping make my case. For $150 a month you will be able to buy Comcast or Cox's Gamer Plan for faster download speeds and more GBs

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3600d ago
kingPoS3602d ago

While I don't mind downloading games, I do however mind having an actual physical game collection. While some may figure that installing discs over downloads on the PS4 is redundant, i would beg to differ.

Sure, one can call up an app, purchase said game and have it download while you're away... However, nothing is as quite satisfying as buying a new game from a store, inserting said game and achieving (near) instant gratification. Even some PS3 fail to load within a minute. *cough gta5 cough* lol

Gateway MT6706 2008

JBSleek3602d ago

I agree. I go digital only. It's so quick and easy. I don't sell games because when they are resold the publishers don't get money.

ColonelRex3602d ago (Edited 3602d ago )

Yes they did, they earned the money they were supposed to when the game was originally bought. Original manufacturers does not have the rights to earn money off of 2nd hand sales.

Utalkin2me3602d ago (Edited 3602d ago )

I only buy indies digital. There is not value in digital. I trade my games in and get a resell value. That would be like me not trading my vehicle in cause it would take money away from Chevy.

JBSleek3602d ago

"Yes they did, they earned the money they were supposed to when the game was originally bought. Original manufacturers does not have the rights to earn money off of 2nd hand sales."

That works for you but for me it doesn't. You aren't going to convince me to give stores 100% profit off of games.

4Sh0w3602d ago (Edited 3602d ago )

Softwares digital nature makes it vastly different than hardware or other physical products like cars, furniture, clothes etc. Those products were made and were sold with a nice profit margin based on 1 customer for 1 product theory.

Videogames/software ease of use, limitless duplication and basically no loss of quality after use means that essentially it can be *potentially transferred and shared many millions of times while the creators/publishers/manufactur ers DO NOT get paid for even close to the amount they should because while 3mil wanted and played game A only 1mil of them actually paid retail for the game, thus Gamestop got paid *twice* or in many cases it was free.

Now of course NO product get's a 1 for 1 return with ALL paid customers, its EXPECTED that people will loan games, trade games to each other and sale games, but the problem is we've went way beyond rental services where now Gamestop has a huge business model specifically setup to make reselling games a big business which directly take profits from devs. Also note that gaming prices have stayed relatively flat over the last 20yrs vs other industries because the intent is to make the hobby relatively inexpensive so many folks can enjoy while huge sales makes game development worthwhile.

So pretending that selling a depreciated car that the manufacturer recouped ALL their expenses from production on with the 1st sale, PLUS a profit vs devs who are in many cases quite frankly 1 really bad release from closing their doors is just not even close, yes so huge pubs like EA and Activision get over on gamers but most are just trying to earn a admittedly well paid living but also well deserved do to years of training, experience and hardwork. When we complain about DLC and all these money grab tactics you have to remember why dev's are looking for reasons for folks to pay retail for a game AND keep it for a long time.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3602d ago
AceBlazer133602d ago

All without 24 hour check ins.We adopt digital at our own leisure Microsoft.

HugoDrax3602d ago

The 24hr check in was due to the SHARING DIGITAL LIBRARY feature Microsoft was implementing into the XB1. You make it sound like they just wanted you to check in 24hrs lol.

Show all comments (65)
60°

How to recruit Lam in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

Lam is among the 120 characters available for recruitment in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. While she is one of the many straightforward recruits, a known bug may prevent players from recruiting her if certain conditions are met. Despite developers’ assurances of fixing the bug, some early access players still encounter issues with recruiting Lam despite attempting the standard method.

Read Full Story >>
infinitestart.com
310°

Tomb Raider Remastered just quietly censored one in-game detail

Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered players are ticked off by the game’s most recent patch, which censors in-game pin-up posters of Lara Croft.

Read Full Story >>
gamingbible.com
rlow111h ago

This is why gaming is screwed. When people change things to fit someone’s agenda, it’s a slippery slope downhill.

Christopher10h ago(Edited 10h ago)

Even if that agenda is of the developer? Way to remove developer rights.

***One player called it a “huge problem with modern games,” saying they can now be “ruined AFTER people buy them”.***

The level of drama. Yes, I recall sitting there for more hours than I did anything else in the game. These two pinups are the core of the game, after all!

coolbeans9h ago(Edited 9h ago)

rlow1's cringe catastrophizing aside, I do think developers *ought* to strive to maintain an original work to the best of their ability. The language of a "remaster" tacitly implies that - for good or ill - what's being resold is what fans remember but better.

Profchaos8h ago

Games can be ruined after purchasing them yeah we know this not from this but from GTA IV which had half it's radio content patched out due to licensing expirations and to me that was a huge deal.

This pin up poster is a bit of nonsense but the whole argument of modern games can be ruined post launch is Absol true.

DedicatedDark7h ago(Edited 7h ago)

It's not their work to censor. They are incharge of restoration & remastering the work, not overwriting it.

Barlos6h ago

It's not the agenda of the developer though, they're pandering and trying to increase their ESG score.

Way to support censorship...

victorMaje6h ago

It’s not the end of the world for sure, but I understand the hate towards this kind of change. I believe it’s also a matter of principle.

Imagine a Picasso painting being restored & the restorer deciding there aren’t enough strokes, or some lines aren’t straight enough or curved enough…not sure it would/should sit well with people.

Have all original devs signed off on this change? Even if it’s the case, are we saying older gamers are better mentally equipped to process what was there than current gamers, hence the change?

Enough time ago the case was made that games are an art form. We’re supposed to have won that case.
So which is it? Are games art or not?

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 6h ago
Eidolon7h ago

Hasn't this been happened for over a decade since remasters? I can't see that it's any worse now. Maybe if Sweet Baby starts getting their hands on remasters we will definitely have a problem.

Rebel_Scum9h ago

tbh I dont see something like this as censorship. Does anyone else not find it strange for someone to stick pin ups of themsleves in a locker room?

Now of it was a pin up of some half naked firefighters it might make sense as Lara might like that, and if they removed that I would cry censorship. But removing pin ups of the main character, yeah I get it.

Barlos6h ago(Edited 6h ago)

It's a game, and they were placed there for the audience. It's not real life. If it was, she wouldn't have fought a T-Rex now would she?

Yes, it's censorship but it's a bit less in your face. If they were in the original game, then they should have been in the remasters. It's bad enough that they have that ridiculous unnecessary warning at the start, but then they start removing things post launch. I don't care how small the change, they shouldn't be doing it. It's nothing but ESG pandering but in a subtle way.

Rebel_Scum5h ago

Look bro, if you have pictures of yourself naked on a bear skin rug up in your house let me tell you, its not normal.

jambola4h ago

I wasn't aware censorship was based on what made sense to you

Rebel_Scum4h ago

Likewise, what a stupid comment.

jambola4h ago

I agree
Your comment was pretty stupid

Rebel_Scum3h ago

I never said censorship is based on what I say dumbass. Just because I dont see this as censorship doesnt mean I’m saying others cant.

How about you come at me with your opinion rather than snarky comments with no thought on the matter.

SimpleDad6h ago

By the year 2030, this remaster collection will totally be changed and censored. Probably will remove Lara as a playable character. It's ridiculous. Glad that my family didn't buy this.
I still have Tomb Raider 2 PS1 as a memory.

jambola4h ago

Those shorts are a little revealing
Should probably make them snow pants

Barlos4h ago

They'll probably make her trans

CobraKai5h ago

It’s mentioned in the article, and it’s a point i 100% agree with, it’s the fact that they can censor a game after you buy it. That’s total bullshit.

Killer2020UK5h ago

Whilst it's an overreaction to say this has "ruined" the game, it's still problematic that this has happened post launch and for many, post-purchase.

I don't want someone to change a product for the worse after I've bought it. The same goes for implementing micro transactions after reviews.

I wonder why they did this? Nobody was kicking up a fuss as far as I'm aware.

maykhausonninh5h ago

Nobody was kicking up a fuss as far as I'm aware.

Show all comments (26)
100°

Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster Review – You Are Your Job, Apparently

Gary Green said: In a time where an enhanced, 3D remake of Final Fantasy III already exists, it’s hard to argue that Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster is the definitive version we were expecting. With Final Fantasy III already being the last in the series to be translated and make its way west, this is something of a slap in the face for the fans. Still, let’s not be disheartened. There may be many shortfalls in this edition of Final Fantasy III, however there’s no denying that this classic JRPG still holds some nostalgic value, even if it struggles to break away from its original hardware limitations.

Read Full Story >>
pslegends.com
FACTUAL evidence10h ago(Edited 10h ago)

It’s funny I’m seeing these articles about pixel remaster, and I just platinumed 1-4 within 8 days lol. I’ve been on FF5 for about a week now. Let’s just say 5 was the start of FF having content like crazy. I should have the plat within 2-3 days.

MrBaskerville1h ago

The game being an accurate represantation of the original was not a slap in the face to the fans. The 3D remasters looked like ass (visually) tbh.