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.

[corvusmd]

It appears Yusef was right.

[XiNarutoUzumaki]

No, he wasn't.

This is not enough.

[tgunzz]

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....

[4Sh0w]

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".

[kreate]

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.

[4Sh0w]

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.

[Volkama]

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).

[rainslacker]

@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.

[Volkama]

@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...

[colonel179]

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_Nappa]

nintendo also ties your downloads to a sinlge system.

[Bonkerz]

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

[ColonelRex]

And if that happens. The industry will die.

[Edvin1984]

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-vegeta]

@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

[ghostface9]

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

[darthv72]

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.

[4Sh0w]

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.

[zeuanimals]

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

[xX-StolenSoul-Xx]

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

[Lawboy2]

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

[HexxedAvenger]

ah laziness! i know that well lol

[artsaber]

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

[mursumaki]

#artsaber

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

[artsaber]

@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

[kingPoS]

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

[towelie1288]

Digital is better
IMO

[JBSleek]

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.

[ColonelRex]

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.

[Utalkin2me]

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.

[JBSleek]

"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.

[4Sh0w]

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.

[AceBlazer13]

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

[HugoDrax]

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.

[Jrmy84]

I dont have one digital game for my PS4, I order off amazon or go to Walmart, BestBuy to buy my games.

[Utalkin2me]

So you don't have playstation plus? Or you just don't download the games they give away with plus.

[Jrmy84]

No PS+, no xboxlive gold. I do my online gaming, when I feel like it on my pc. My shelfs are full of games. I do admit though, I purchased a few on xbox360 now thinking about but can't remember what games they were been awhile since I've played anything besides my pc.

[incredibleMULK]

plus games are garbage. All digital sucks because i can't go to red box any more and rent games.

[Bonkerz]

My final thing to say about this. Im slowly transitioning to fully digital wanted to try it first with a few games and see if it truly made a difference. Let me tell you the ability to just either say "xbox go to" or simply have a tile with that game on you're home screen or even just go to all you're games and click on ANY game there and it instantly come up without worrying about what disc is inside or having to get up and change it is a joy. Im not sure if PS4 works the same way but the ability to just instantly change games back and forth etc. is ridiculously niec and convenient. My preference is definitely digital and am only buying digital titles from a few months ago.

[choujij]

There's nothing wrong with that. Nor is there anything wrong with the choice to do so.

I like to have my games on discs, because I can bring them with me when I go to friends places, or easily loan/borrow or sell em if I find I don't like the game I bought, or am simply tired of it and will never play it again. And even though I consider myself rather lazy at times, I still get up and change discs.

[MasterD919]

And yet no talk of potential expansion for hard drives....

[Software_Lover]

Any external usb 3.0 drive doesn't ring a bell?

[Utalkin2me]

External, lol. Replace your PS4's current HDD with a much larger one.

[Software_Lover]

I'm going all Digital for the most part. But I will buy the games used down the line just so I can have the cases on my shelf.

[Kurisu]

I'll be digitally downloading for PS+ titles and PSN only games, but where I can buy retail I'll buy retail.

[urwifeminder]

People love online only DRM action.

[artsaber]

This doesn't necessarily mean anything. One could argue that the simple implementation of default larger hard drives allows for more consideration of digital purchases whereas before people were just more frugal with HDD space. Most people I know still prefer hard copies over digital simple due to resale and trade possibilities.

[Jrmy84]

Yep.....

[rainslacker]

Or the fact that digital is being pushed much harder this gen. Can't speak for the X1, but on the PS4 the store is pretty much integrated right into the UI.

[DJustinUNCHAIND]

All digital on my Xbox One. All physical on my PS4.

[ghostface9]

Im going all digital this gen that way I can just xbox go to (insert game) no more switching out discs and I wont sell the games so I can play them later on again without having to rebuy them

[kingduqc]

Consoles, literally a decade too late

[jay2]

My internet's not ready for digital, annoys me cause half my street is, my part? try 2017........Maybe..... nothing decided till next year........ If not, I'm stuck on 1.5-2mbs avg of 1.7mbps. I'd love to be digital, but I'm not going get a new house for that.

[Infinite_Legion]

I really hope that because of this, both Sony and Microsoft can add some sort of game sharing and trading system for digital games in a reasonable way that it doesn't require radical drm implimentations, like the xboxs one day check in stuff they originally had planned.
I honestly believe that both physical and digital can coexist without having to put restrictions on one to benefit the other, it just takes alot more planning and such than what Xbox originally had planned.

[HexxedAvenger]

I'll go digital to the games I know I'm going to keep in the long run. Or if the box has kick-ass boxart.

[mrpsychoticstalker]

Digital is happening. whether you like it or not.

I love it.

[No_Limit]

Thank god for my twin 2gb external HDDs setup (total 4.5 gb) on my XB1. With all these digital games requiring 20-50gb, This is a life saver. Sony really need to add HDD support as well as my replaced 1.5tb HDD is good now but will be an issue next year when all those games are coming.

[MysticStrummer]

Because there are so few games available in stores for both consoles. As the generation goes along and more games are on the shelves, the digital attach rate will fall some from this early high.

[hello12]

I was actually not one for buying games digitally, but i love it now.

I download games off x box live in about 5 hours worth the wait. Only got a 7 meg connection, 22gb i download in that time.

I also share games with a friend. He shares he's games with me plus DLC.

I don't even have to own the game, he owns, i can still play it.

This one is a little cheeky, but if you change the dashboard to another region, not the country you live in. You can buy games cheaper. I usually buy games on the American store its cheaper for me than buying in my own region.

I bought Watchdogs for 44 Euros (59 dollars it was priced) it was 70 Euros in my region.

Plus when i had my 360, i scratched lot of disks, and they would no longer play. Digitally this will never be the case.

[MysticStrummer]

I share digital games and DLC with a few people also. My digital copy of Diablo 3 was bought by a friend. I just prefer a disc and box. Old school like that I guess.

[hello12]

Nothing wrong with being old school. I guess i just like digital now after having tried it out.

[Minute Man 721]

It should be an option not the norm.

[Artista]

I bought a tera-byte HDD today in preparation for my Xbox ONE.
I'll be going all Digital, with the only exception of sports games. I need to be able to get rid of sports games before the next one releases.

Also going all digital will make me even more picky. I will only purchase games I really want to play. I also love the fact that I can switch between games without having to switch disks.

[Yetter]

My XB1 has never had a disc of any sort inside of it and I doubt it ever will. But who knows maybe I'll move somewhere where they cap my internet. I guess that would have me switching to discs pretty quickly

[Redgehammer]

I am not boasting when I say I have 300 fullversion digital games on my two HDDs for my 360. My house has 3 360s, and the other two have as many of my fullversion games as the 250 gb drives can handle. Microsoft allows you to transfer your licenses every 121 days to a new console iD, meaning I have bought the game once, and transferred my purchases to ever xbox I "own". I love digital; but, I started out on tape drives.