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Rpruett on 20 April 2009
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NJ5 said:
Squilliam said:
The current console market conditions are:

$180 Xbox 360 selling for $200 (10% margins)

To sell a console which relied 100% on direct downloads.

~$150 Xbox 360 selling for $200 (33% margins)

Xbox 360 used as the example.

The retailers would probably demand higher margins on consoles which allowed direct downloads. (Remember you're cutting their margins)


True, but I don't think that will be a big problem.

 

I think you are under-estimating the problem that this causes.  If retailers are getting pinched by digital downloads, they will do a whole host of things to react.  For example,  Floor space will almost definitely be drastically reduced if the margins.  (Think Best Buy in USA) . 

As Squil mentioned,  prices will more than likely grow or stay higher than need be because of the demand for larger margins. 

 

Additionally, I'm still not so sure download speeds will match the desired quality of next-gen games.  Given the linear progression of games in general,  does anyone not think that they won't be using large storage discs (Similar to, or Blu-Ray like)?    I don't know about you but the fastest connection I can get is 6 MBPS.

Plenty of areas around the US still lack broadband access. There wasn't broadband access where I used to live until about 3 1/2 years ago . (And I lived within 10 minutes of Malls, Best Buys, Targets Wal-Marts, Car Dealers, Lowes, etc,etc.  So it's not like I'm in the middle of nowhere.

 

 

In short,  I think it will be supported further (and even better than currently, by all competitors from day one) but I don't think it will be fully supported for current games.  There is just too much politics involved, IMO.