Aielyn said:
As people have been saying, over and over again, in this thread, every single poll ever done has indicated that people want retail options. The few times that digital-only has been attempted on a dedicated gaming system, it has flopped massively. The only way that digital-only works is when it's on hardware that also enables a broad variety of other uses... in other words, PC, phones and tablets. And have you noticed that the AAA games are released on PC as an afterthought in most cases? Do you know how they can do retail and digital in a way that makes a solid balance? It's really simple - the cost of the disc/card/etc are added to the retail price, with the understanding that the upside to paying the extra cost (other than not needing the hdd, not having to use up internet quotas, etc) is that you can share games (since the card/disc can be removed from one system and taken to another one). If the cost of cards is such an issue, the 3DS would have been in big trouble, since they do cost more per GB than discs. You can assert that all-digital would be smart, but I've yet to hear any person actually address any of the above. The ONLY benefits to digital are easy access (no need to switch out discs or cards) for the consumer and increased publisher margin per sale. But the downsides are plentiful - reduced accessibility*, inability to share, issues with retail hardware support and used games**, diminished impulse purchasing***, lower market activity, fewer ways to obtain products resulting in reduced competition, the potential drowning out of indies, difficulties around games that require specific or special peripherals, the inability to physically give games as gifts for birthdays/christmas, no way to do proper special editions, a difficulty distinguishing between game and DLC, reduced free-advertising (another benefit of retail stores)... I can continue, if you'd like. Incidentally, flash memory is faster than typical HDDs - that's why SSDs exist, after all. What slows optical disc drives down is the need to physically move the read head to the location of the next bit of data, so unless the data is all sequential, it's slowed down. HDDs suffer the same problem, albeit to a slightly lesser degree. Solid state technology, including flash memory and SSDs, don't have this issue.
*not everyone has easy access to internet of sufficient speed and a sufficiently large quota. **Gamestop doesn't want to sell only hardware, they want to sell software, it's where they make their money - but the hardware makers need to actually sell their hardware somehow. ***people are far more likely to impulse buy at stores, whereas they can always wait a few hours, a few days, a few weeks when they're at home. |
And as I've said and have only needed to say once, polls mean shit when it comes to innovation and progress. People don't know what they want until they have it. The few times digital only has been attempted on consoles, they've been executed terribly. A bad product doesn't mean a bad idea. It just means a bad product. AAA isn't an after thought on PC because its digital if that's what you're trying to imply, so that's irrevent. Your point about digitally only working only when the product is multimedia is also wrong. The ipod wasn't. The Kindle isn't.
No offense, but no one will buy that excuse. No one is going to sit and happily pay more money for the same game for a luxury that doesn't cost more on any other digital plaform. That's not a solid balance, that's an artificial tax to supplement an antiquated idea.
The 3DS isn't sharing multiplats. That's the issue. The 3DS exists in a market where only carts exists. There is nothing to compare costs to because carts are the standard in handheld games right now. Also, 3DS carts are WAY cheaper than NX carts would be because they're much smaller in size. The NX would exist in a market where only discs exist. Discs are the standard in console games, so to try to come in with a more expensive form of media and expect literally anyone to jump in and eat the costs is stupid.
Those downsides are imaginary or insignificant. You can share with digital through streaming with family share, so that's false. There would be higher market activity, as proven by literally every other digital medium, so also false. It doesn't matter that there are fewer options because the one digital option is more direct and proven to get users to spend more, so false. The most popular platforms for indies are the PC and mobile, both digital only platforms, for that's ludicrously false. You could literally just buy the game on someone elses account. Or buy them a points card. Or buy them a digital code for the game. Hilariously, borderline sarcastically false. Special editions would be 100% uneffected, because a special edition doesn't hinge on your copy being physical, so false. If you can't tell the difference between a digital game and DLC, you shouldn't be playing games. False. Mobile games ape average console games in profit with that "reduced free advertizing," so that's a non-issue.
*Hasn't stop digital from dominating every other entertainment medium, including PC gaming. Won't stop the NX. It's a non-issue.
**Frankly, Gamestop will just have to deal with it. But I've said before that I think Nintendo plans on using NFC download code cards to tackle this "issue."
***That's flat out untrue. Home is way more immediate. You compare the standard Steam library to the standard physical game library. They aren't even comparable.
There's nothing to keep going. Claims against digital are laughably absurd.
