Digital Distribution Vs Physical Media

After reading some recent stories regarding games developers (such as PlayDead, the creators of Limbo), and the fact that they would only really consider distributing digitally in the future, and the hardware developers Sony (especially) and Microsoft denying that the physical media of discs is obsolete, it seems the game companies are at a stalemate situation with the platform owners.

[hennessey86]

digital distribution only
won't happen for a long time yet, physical media will obviously change from disc to something else but it will be 20 or 30 years before we can go digital only.

[Saryk]

I say 5 years max and everything is DD. Too much of a financial savings by not having the physical media.

[dumahim]

Too much of the country without access to high speed internet to go full DD.

[attilayavuzer]

People really overestimate how powerful the internet is currently. Full DD and cloud gaming are multiple generations away.

[jeseth]

I want something for my money ... not something that goes with my HDD when it craps the bed.

[Lord_Sloth]

I spy a Folklore. XXXD

[Summons75]

Physical now and forever thank you

[dasbeer88]

Video games have been destroyed since they've went mainstream.

[close2silent]

um... games were created for the mainstream since the beginning (pong, jumpman, pacman, etc.) the goal is to attract as many people as possible to buy your game so you can stay in business and make... MORE GAMES. why would you not want your game to appeal to the masses?

[wishingW3L]

publishers should offer both and let people decide what they prefer. Then sooner or later one will become more prominent than the other and you know the rest of the story.

[jeseth]

The DD should be a considerable savings, otherwise .. f it.

[timbow1982]

I think that in order for it to really take off the publishers need to start offering the savings back to the user. Releasing a game on the PSN at £50 when you can buy it retail at a lower price due to their buying power. At the moment Valve/Steam are leading the way with their pricing structure, if MS & PS want a bigger slice of the cake they will have to accept they need to lower the cost.

[dumahim]

I prefer physical over digital. I collect games and you can't really collect a digital download. Well, you can, but it's not nearly as satisfying. That's not to say that downloadables don't have a place, especially with the smaller/indie developers where a phyical copy may be overkill. But for full games, I don't want them eating up my HD space.

[Bimkoblerutso]

It's not that I think DD is inherently bad, but it seems like publishers are pushing in that direction for all the wrong reasons. DD should make gaming easier and cheaper for consumers, but in fact it's just making things more profitable and easier to control for publishers...which would be fine except that it's at the cost of our consumer rights.

Given that games release at the SAME PRICE as physical copies, and DRM is becoming more and more restrictive and easy to implement, I would have to say I have absolutely no desire to move the industry into exclusively DD territory.

[-GametimeUK-]

The reason I prefer physical copies is because it feels like the game actually belongs to me. I can share it with friends easily or I could choose to sell the copy if I really wanted to. It allows me to also buy other peoples copies and borrow games off my friends with ease. I can also give my old stuff to my younger family members.

I share a lot of things with my friends... They may need a tool or may even want to borrow my ipod for a bus journey etc etc... Games should be no different. I like to be in complete control of my purchased items.

Give me the same ease and flexibility with my downloaded games and I will be happy, but until then I don't really care.

[abzdine]

i like to have my games in Digital format, the only problem is that it takes too much time and space on the HDD so i hope the Gaikai will solve this problem.

I just bought LA Noire Complete Edition on PS Store 13GB!!

[oldfriend86]

"Matt, you haven't played Heavy Rain? You should definitely check it out. Here, borrow my copy. By the way, do you stil have GTA San Andreas? May I borrow it for a little while? I can't find my copy. Thanks."

Not only did this pleasant exchange between friends actually happen within this year, but this scenario can't happen in a DD only world.

I think the only advantage to a digital download is that there's no disc to get scratched. I'm very careful with my discs, but just reflecting on how lucky I am to still have PS1 games with very little wear and tear. Otherwise, I prefer to look at my physcial library, than my purchased list on my account. Internet down? Well, good thing I have a physical copy of the game.

[MadMax]

Physical media for life, or im quitting gaming!!!

[Emilio_Estevez]

I like having that actual disc in hand, I could keep it forever if I want to, not so sure about digital.

[Farsendor1]

digital only i don't have any game disk at all at this point

[Pandamobile]

My computer hasn't had a working disk drive in over a year. Haven't missed it once yet lol.

[Dms2012]

I think a fully digital format somehow cheapens the whole experience, it just feels flimsy and disposable. Maybe we can be given the option to back up our games on a blu ray disk?

[Farsendor1]

i have been playing digital for 2 years now and it doesn't feel cheapened to me it actually feels better. easier to select the games i want to play.

[whitesoxfalife1976]

ive been doing digital since the orignal xbox the very first marketplace, i knew then, this wud be the future well its here just gotta widen up the lanes more....right now we can do 100, in a few months to a year it will be speeds up to 300......

[Emilio_Estevez]

Physical is here to stay until date is more secure and internet speeds up for everyone. I like the mix there is right now, seems like a decent medium.

[Somebody]

I used to be a staunch supporter of physical media but a number of factors have made me changed my views.

First is the online distributors' discount offers are too hard to resist. Currently Steam is my top choice followed by GamersGate which always give such aggressively low discounts but Steam has faster download speed. In my place games are sold at full priced all the time and I rarely see them getting discounted.

Second is that both of my top online distributors allow me to make back up of my digital games. That feature alone tipped my support for digital downloads since in the end I'd still need to make backups. Steam made it better since it allow users to simply copy and paste the Steam folder to any computers and the only installation you need to go through is the verification process of your account. Just think digital downloads as physical media inverted since you still end up with a physical copy (back ups).

Third and probably a minor point is that digital downloads allow me to not lend games to my friends. Sounds selfish but necessary in my place. Piracy is still pretty big here so being the only guy with expensive legit games in the area is not a very uncomfortable position to be in. A co-worker actually questioned my sanity when I told him of my plan of getting a legit Windows 7 for BF3 last year. Another friend "borrowed" my copy of Company of Heroes and that was the last time I see that game. So now I used Steam as the my excuse for not lending him anymore.

I still support physical media to a certain degree. I bought Max Payne 3 retail since I'm not sure I'm patience enough to wait for the Steam version to finish downloading.