Pemalite said:
hsrob said:
Now both of these things can change but we aren't there yet for enough people. People's internet will get generally faster (+higher caps/unlimited), that is obviously just a matter of time. For my second point, retailers could be offered a significantly larger percentage of the hardware sale, this would obviously affect the hardware manufacturer's bottom line but they should be making large savings on software manufacture and distribution which could offset this. |
Well. Microsoft could also partner with Internet providers who have download caps in each respective countries and offer all the data over Xbox Live! As "Data Free".
A few internet providers here in Australia already do that such as iiNet/Westnet/Netspace and probably soon Internode. - Hence I can download as much as I want regardless of my download limit. :)
Same thing with Steam too, most of that data isn't counted due to avrious deals internet providers have done.
Essentially, if there is demand and it can be a big sale point, internet providers will follow, it's a chicken vs the egg game essentially, someone has to make the first move, but it can be a sale point for providers across the globe to bring in more customers.
|
Interesting, I did not know that, I'm with TPG on an unlimited plan (it will be interesting to see what kind of plans become available as the NBN gets rolled out more widely). The difficulty is you would need to have similar plans in place in all countries that you hope to sell in. The benefit to MS/Sony/Nintendo will only be fully realised when they don't have to print or ship a single physical copy of the game. As soon as you have one or two locations where you can't do digital, it means you have to put infrastructure and business in place to support physical game sales.
Still, the retailer thing is a pretty big hurdle to overcome. You need people to be able to buy your system before any of the other stuff matters, it will require a significant change from the exisiting business model which may not occur until all three of the major players are keen to go down that road.
