Or just stop playing video games altogether…:ninja:
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Another thing is price. There will be no used market anymore. Not only will that eliminate an uncountable amount of jobs world wide (video game stores would cease to be) but gaming will become an even more expensive hobby as you'll have to pay MSRP for every game, or wait ages for even a $10 price drop. Most digital games are still full MSRP even tho they've been out for years.
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The worst thing about digital gaming, to me, is that in some cases you aren't even buying a digital copy of the game. You are just paying for the privilege to be able to access said game. And the company has complete control. They can force you to be connected to the internet to play a game, even if you don't want to play online. They could take away your access for any number of arbitrary reasons. And then there's all the stuff other people have said.
I just like physically having a thing to hold in my hand and say "the world could go to fuck, but if I want to play this game, there is not a damn thing anyone can do about it."
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Another thing is price. There will be no used market anymore. Not only will that eliminate an uncountable amount of jobs world wide (video game stores would cease to be) but gaming will become an even more expensive hobby as you'll have to pay MSRP for every game, or wait ages for even a $10 price drop. Most digital games are still full MSRP even tho they've been out for years.
Actually in the case of Sony everything is overpriced. Shops sold Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker for about £20-£25. I'm sure Sony had it for £30. And it's still the same price while the game is about £10 most places now.
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Seeing as we now know quite a fair bit about the up coming next gen consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Revolution).
OH, THE NOSTALGIA. That brings me back.
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Had this conversation at length before in other threads.
Digital is the future, and it makes insane amounts of sense in nearly every possible way and in as little as another 10 years hard copies won't be around as much. Music and video have already nearly made the transition, its just the waiting game of everyone catching up to the tech.
Problem is the companies don't take proper advantage and try to profit squeeze every penny despite the lack of middleman and screw the customer around in various ways.
It'll balance out in the future as it becomes standard and the technology for downloading and storing gets better and the market demands equalize things.
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Robby. Make a "Digital Gaming - Yay or Nay" thread with an open poll.
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Slightly off-topic: But one thing I definitely do not want to go full-digital is books. I hear how some people'll talk about stuff like that, but to me, there's nothing like having a hard covered book in your hand while flipping through the pages.
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In a best case scenario yes. If the system goes down, or they lost the rights for it, or go bankrupt, or any one of a number of scenario's that have happened in the past occured, then you're out of luck.
Well actually, that's not always the case.
As long as your account is tied to having acknowledged purchasing the game prior to its removal, you're free to redownload it after deleting it even after it's been removed from the marketplace. Same even applies with Steam. I got OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast a while back on Steam. Sega's license with the Ferrari at the time expired, forcing them to pull the series from all downloadable sources. They regained the license, but OR2006 is no longer on Steam to purchase. I can still very easily delete the game and redownload it without any hassles, simply because the game is tied to my account.
The ONLY one you have to really worry about is the Wii, but that can be fixed as long as you register the console before any possible break down occurs. In that sort of situation, a call to Nintendo can have them transfer your account over to a new Wii, should you have to replace your old on.
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Robby. Make a "Digital Gaming - Yay or Nay" thread with an open poll.
Not a whole lot of point. Its going to overwhelmingly be "nay" since people seem attached to their hard copies for one reason or another. Even I'm not totally digging it, I'm just accepting of the convenience and that it's inevitable.
And this really is kind of the proper thread for it.
@HiroVoid:
Slightly off-topic: But one thing I definitely do not want to go full-digital is books. I hear how some people'll talk about stuff like that, but to me, there's nothing like having a hard covered book in your hand while flipping through the pages.
It'll take longer, much longer, for books to go all digital than it is for other media. Having a hard copy of a book in hand and flipping pages, getting double page spreads, having a tactile copy you can smell and see when you're getting to the end, is different than a cd, video, or game, which all play up on a screen regardless of where the data is coming from. But given enough time, and kids growing up on ipads and the like, it'll happen. 50 or 100 years maybe, but digital books will eventually be the norm and paper archives a rarity.
It all seems really crazy and impossible to us because we grew up on the old standards… but eventually? It'll happen. And much shelf space will be saved.
People are mostly just scared of "what if I have everything in one place and then I lose it" or "if I buy it and only have access to it online, what if they then take it away?" which is completely legitimate, mostly because of shitty company policies, but eventually redundant backups and crazy memory storage on online server backups and such will make that largely a thing of the past as well.
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Well then. Make a poll here.
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I don't think it would be overwhelmingly nay, I think we've got quite a silent bunch who'd vote for yay. At the end of the day all of the problems associated with digital gaming will be fixed by time while the simple fact that digital gaming is far cheaper than manufacturing millions of CDs is something that's never going to go away.
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Well also, there's no middleman. Production, shipping, the distributor's cut, and the mark up of the stores so they can make a profit all inflate the price of games a TON. In any industry really, from books to games, the company is only getting maybe 1/3-1/2 of whatever is actually being charged as the price.
Without all the production and middlemen, companies can charge 25$ for a game, and still make the exact same profit as if it sold for 60$ in the store. They COULD exploit this fact and mark things down and sell shitloads of copies to meet a demand, but instead they keep the price gouged and at full retail market price. Which just… costs them in the end and holds up people willingly converting. So its the usual, going for short term profit by trying to get the most out of a single sale as possible rather than getting far more actual sales.
It's also possible there's contracts that prevent them from undercutting the brick and mortar.
EVENTUALLY they'll figure out the balance and the true advantages.
3$ for a download of Suikoden? I'm there in 2 seconds.
100$ for a used copy on ebay, that the company gets no profit in anyway? Not so much. -
Before the tech catches up with giant copies of retail games for download (something feasible, but ill-advised, on consoles already), one of the first major reformations that'll have to go down before games go all digital are definitely those pesky license agreements. Those things are frightening right now and I don't want to go into a ~digital age~ with them as they are now.
On the whole, as much as I love physical collection (I'm a big collector of media) I can't help but agree with Robby. It's not my generation's decision that will influence it anyways, so it's not my place to feel too icky about all-digital. At least until legalities are fixed up and it's a smoother process.
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We all know what Nintendo are like. They still don't like Online play.
Even if Sony and Microsoft go with it. Nintendo wont. And with a cartridge based Zelda or Mario. People will follow.
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See, I think that the future will move into digital. I just feel all old-fart about it, and I'll be dragged into the digital distribution age kicking and screaming.
but there are actually a lot of benefits, as people have stated, they just need to figure out a way to not be shitty in other ways.
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There's absolutely no doubt in my mind a ddl only future would be worse for consumers. I have no faith in the majority of companies to do the right thing.
I mean can you imagine what a company like activision would do when it has ten times the ability to screw around with people.
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It's definitely the future for the PC and some consoles but I don't see it taking over on handhelds any time soon.
Who knows?
A lot of people like to own physical copies of things, I'm not really bothered but I know a lot do.
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I can already see that there is some major worry into how the future of gaming will be handled by all digital downloads. It will be a major blow to the consumer price-wise, it'll cost jobs, it'll make things more confusing to people who want to play games, etc.
But the bottom line is this: It's business! What matters for the game makers at the end is how much they're going to make in their bottom line. If it means performing cuts to jobs, production, and B & M middlemen in exchange for maximum profits, they will do that and there really isn't anything we as the old generation gamers can do about that aside from not registering and buying.
Fact is, industries evolve all the time. People and businesses will always find ways to make things better for themselves and the consumer even if it means sacrificing the old guard. It's not pretty but that's the reality of business.
That said, I gave up being up-to-date with the gaming scene a good decade ago and haven't regretted it since. I'm perfectly happy with my current library of sprite-based gaming.
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I believe that digital gaming is the future, but i really don't want it to be. I prefer my good old discs.
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I don't think digital will be coming along anytime soon (as in next couple years) but there's huge incentives for companies to go for it, and not much incentives for consumers to stay on board. I doubt people are like me, though - individuals who would either pirate a game, buy a hard-copy cheaply/used or not play the game at all. The last full-price retail PC game I purchased was Duke Nukem 3D in 1997.
What I'm worried about though is if companies will start to buy up or attack alternatives like webgames and flash portals in an attempt to try and "force" people to buy games. When I stopped PC Gaming, I went to NewGrounds (1999-2003). Then I started writing my own RPG Maker 2K/2K3 game (2003-2005). Then I came to Arlong Park (2005-). I've kept myself entertained for the most part with such options, and I tend to eschew modern games…but I'd hate if these sources of fun were snuffed out in some way. There's fear, for example, that an RPG on a board I frequent will be targetted by Hasbro because they feature fake MTG cards. Apparently, that is a major no-no.
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So are people voting on whether they want the future to be ddl, or whether they think the future will be ddl.
Because these are not one and the same.
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Yeah… Robby did it wrong...
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"Digital gaming-Yaye or Nay". That's all you told me. Clarify what the hell you bastards want.
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Exactly, nigga.
YAY or NAY.
Not "you think it's gonna be there, although it's obvious as hell that it's gonna be there eventually?"
C'mon, son.
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Heh, everyone who said digital is inevitable said Yes. Everyone who doesn't want digital said No. Now it's a 9-9 split.
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I thought the implication of personal preference was pretty obvious.
But fine. I'll modify it.
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This poll is stupid, but
I would be more openly accepting of all digital gaming if there weren't still such huge issues over ownership, license agreements, and DRM that need to be definitively resolved, like others have mentioned. I agree that it is ultimately not my generation's choice as to what direction the future will take, but right now I'm solidly against modern gaming's tendency to nickle-and-dime with DLC which is essential content and not having full ownership of a game I purchased (i.e. being unable to play a game because of a criticism made of the company on a forum) – and I don't trust companies to handle my rights to my game fairly or responsibly. Like, maybe I want to play Final Fight Double Impact without having all of my stats uploaded to the internet or being forced to be signed into PSN - and maybe I want to know that before purchasing it. I acknowledge the value of downloadable games or games that can have patched in content because I play a lot of fighting games: ...but can't I get the roster balances for free and pay the extra $15 if I want the extra 4 characters and online modes?
If there's some brightly sparkling, shining future where I don't have to deal with ads, pay for [effectively] mandatory patches, or face a company dictatorially arbitrating the terms on which I play their game - I welcome it with open arms.
(That said: I am not a video game pirate, or a PC pirate, nor sympathetic to [part of the] the homebrew crowd who use ownership of a product as a thinly veiled excuse to do whatever they want with it.)
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I don't suppose the outage of the Playstation Network is a big score for an all digital download future is it?
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Meeeeerrrrrrkkkkkk…
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I don't suppose the outage of the Playstation Network is a big score for an all digital download future is it?
Yeah, no kidding. I can't even play some of my games because they REQUIRE you to be signed in to PSN to play (BC:R2).
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In 15 years, I heard that the PSN network is going to open up!
=D
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And another hit to digital distribution:
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/23/tmnt-re-shelled-no-longer-available-in-us-after-june-30/
I still buy digital things all of the time but I also don't play buy the rules. If there comes a time where things I've bought are no longer available to me to download or use (even after I've payed) then I will hack my system in a heartbeat.
I tried the demo of this game and I didn't like it so I won't bother buying it before it's unavailable.
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http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/26/diamonds-are-forever-and-so-are-resident-evil-the-mercenaries/
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries for 3DS has a permanent save feature that makes it so you are unable to erase your saved data. It is assumed this is to prevent used games sales.
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That's the reason some games are coming with one time redeemable online passes as well, to discourage used game sales. I say it's bullshit and it's the same as the fucking DRM on some PC games.
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That's the reason some games are coming with one time redeemable online passes as well, to discourage used game sales. I say it's bullshit and it's the same as the fucking DRM on some PC games.
It's total bullshit.
For the online games, however, if it isn't an MMO they give you the "option" to buy an online pass…ususally for $10. I can actually sorta understand this because they have to pay for the online services (at least for PSN).
Notr being able to delete your saved data however.....that's just wrong. It's like buying a blu-ray only to have it play once and then tell you "You have already seen this movie. If you would like to watch it again please purchase a new copy".
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http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/26/diamonds-are-forever-and-so-are-resident-evil-the-mercenaries/
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries for 3DS has a permanent save feature that makes it so you are unable to erase your saved data. It is assumed this is to prevent used games sales.
If it turns up in europe in this state, I won't be buying.
Good job CRAPCOM.
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That game looked pretty "whatever-y" anyway.
I'll wait and see how Revelations turns out before I write the franchise off forever.