Critical Gamer writes: In a previous article, I spoke about inevitable change. The specific example was that of gaming magazines and the lessening reasons they should carry on existing. It may seem ironic then, that this time around I am looking at an example of fighting change.
As I continuously pointed out; change is inevitable, but that it is not to say that change is of a specific type. Change is variable, change depends on circumstance. In order to survive, gaming magazines are now offering more and more online options. Now take a look at something like the Splinter Cell games and how they have evolved to meet the demands of the gamers of the time. These are two examples of inevitable change, but both are different.
Despite the PSPgo's poor retail performance, digital distribution is definitely the way to go for portable gaming, as carrying around multiple DS cartridges or UMD discs kind of negates the portability a bit! The PSPgo is a nice design too, apart from the phantom analog stick of course. Makes me hopeful for the next gen offering from Sony.
Don't like digital downloads as I like to own the box
I don't need the box. I don't have the space in my house to keep them all, along with everything else that I've accumulated in 25 years of music, games, films and books love. However, I'm not too sure about the storage of a game, keeping it on the hard drive isn't that cool if the damn thing breaks or something.
Wouldn't it be a good idea if someone came along and invented some nifty storage device that looked like a game box but was indeed a drive? They could flash it up by allowing the front to wear a digital cover of whatever game you've got on there that you're playing at the moment. You could bung it up on the shelf, out of the way, take it with you if you were going round a mates house to play or whatever, and thus it would nominally pacify those who can't live without the box art and need to have something tangible and real in their hands and it would appease the cluttered lives of those like me.
Say this was a reality - how much would you be willing to pay for something like that?
I like the boxes for my home console, I enjoy collecting them, but for PSP, DS etc it's not important. I'd much rather have a digital brochure. I never carry them around with me anyway.
People still have working NES games and systems, Atari consoles, etc. Will people still be able to play Geometry Wars on their 360 in 20 years though? Digital distribution throws this monkey wrench into the mix for collectors that really makes the idea unappealing.
I don't even keep my game boxes anymore - I throw them out and keep my discs and manuals in a big binder. But as someone who wants to always be able to go back and play my old games, an event like the inevitable shutdown of xbox live is scary. What's going to happen to all my downloads?