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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Digital future is slow to transition and digital customers have to suffer.

DexInDaJungle on 14 November 2014
LubeMeUpUncleAlfred said:
On topic: There's no way in hell I'm waiting for a 50+ gig game to download off my slow ass internet. The installs are bad enough, but waiting for that kind of a size to download is BS in any case. Unless wireless providers all of a sudden found a way to allow for ridiculous download speeds, no tank you, please come again.


Dude it took me over an hour to install Halo MCC, this was using the actual disc. I can't imagine how frustrated I would have been had I needed to download it and THEN install it. Especially since the servers were kinda broken lol

My friends brother downloaded CoDAW day one and had some issue where he couldn't boot the game. He had to wait for Activition to patch the game for it to finally work. There are still a lot of problems when it comes to the digital world of gaming, at least on home consoles. Besides, I actually like going to midnight launches and what not, it feels more personal. You get to interact with the people waiting on line for the same game as well as the overworked underpaid Gamestop employees!



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torok on 14 November 2014

Despite my position against digital games, I agree with your point. The correct would be that digital copies were cheaper. You aren't getting a disc or box (so you're getting less stuff) and you will have to use broadband to download it and storage to keep it. You use your resources and they use less of theirs.

Of course, I still think they won't do it because it would piss off retailers and that's pretty bad for them.



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yvanjean on 14 November 2014
torok said:
Despite my position against digital games, I agree with your point. The correct would be that digital copies were cheaper. You aren't getting a disc or box (so you're getting less stuff) and you will have to use broadband to download it and storage to keep it. You use your resources and they use less of theirs.

Of course, I still think they won't do it because it would piss off retailers and that's pretty bad for them.

Well i'm not concern that it won't get there, it's unavoidable future and disc free digital only PS4 and Xbox One will soon hit the market (by 2016?). I'm just annoyed with the current digtal price gauging and slow change and transition to digital.

If you think about it more then 50% of the current console are digital already.... Any demo and trials are digital only, eshops or indie games are all digital only and most retail games are availalble digital. Retail game makes up less and less of the actual market space. All of the games DLC is sold digitally. 

Digital has already taken over next gen consoles. 



Intrinsic on 14 November 2014
LemonSlice said:

If digital is more convenient for you, why do you mind paying the same? Most games get sold at retail, and not only get sold, also advertised which bring in digital sales as well. 60$ is gauged as the price people are willing to pay, and that doesn't change with digital. You also really don't want to mess with the bread and butter of retail stores. When you combine all these, it's fair.

There are some very nice sales with digital. Like right now on PSN there's Knack and Infamous: SS for 21 EUR, Killzone for even less. Kind of insulting considering the triple pack bundle, in fact.

Please lets not act like there is no difference between digital and physical games.

  • The only reason digital prices match physical prices is cause there s more money to be made from any digital sale and they know they can get away with it right now. And of course there are certain deals made between them and retailers who also help with individual game marketing to keep the prices of digital locked.
  • Physical games even get deals before digital which is beyond me.
  • As convenient as digital may be, its inherently carries less value than a physical copy of the same game. Cause you know, you can trade in a physical copy of a game for at least someting.
Truth is, if this were a pro-consumer industry, theer is no reason digital games should not at leat cost $50.


Intrinsic on 14 November 2014
LubeMeUpUncleAlfred said:
On topic: There's no way in hell I'm waiting for a 50+ gig game to download off my slow ass internet. The installs are bad enough, but waiting for that kind of a size to download is BS in any case. Unless wireless providers all of a sudden found a way to allow for ridiculous download speeds, no tank you, please come again.

Lol... these kinda comments. Two questions.

  1. 5 years ago how long did it take you to download 1GB of data?
  2. 5 years ago what was the average HDD size?
Point is, these things change. Tech gets better and cheaper. If tehre is a growing need for digital content, trust me network providers will step their game up. Just like they have been doing so far. Some countries are slower than others, but most are right on point.
Besides, the way these games are made these days (at least with eth PS4), you don't even have to download the entire game before its avialable to start playing.


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Teeqoz on 14 November 2014
kitler53 said:
yvanjean said:
prayformojo said:
Meh, I'd be happy if we NEVER went digital. I don't mind it as an option, but having physical games should always be something you can buy imo.

Music CD used to cost $12-15 and most of the song were crap for the one or two good songs. 

Now it cost $1 or less per song digitally. 

The cost of paying game digital would be cut by half.... new release would cost $19.99-29.99 compares to the $59.99-69.99. Would you still want to pay $59.99-69.99 at retail when you can go digital for $19.99-29.99??? 

most albums have 12 or more songs so most albums cost less than $1 per song at retail ergo digital costs more.

take this for example..  taylor swifts new album:  $10 for retail CD.  $12.50 for digital album.  $1.29 per song.  
Digital is the most expensive option other than vinyl.

 

i don't care.  i'd rather just buy the digital version than get a CD and have to rip it and transfer it to my phone.   too much fucking work.

 

also, if the music you listen to only has 1 or 2 good songs you are listening to shitty music.


Or you could just use spotify. 10 dollars a month, and you can listen to whatever you want.



pepharytheworm on 14 November 2014
kitler53 said:
Ka-pi96 said:
kitler53 said:
yvanjean said:
...

Even for gamers we all agree that there more value if you can get a retail copy vs digital copy.

..


i disagree.  retail is worth at least 50% less to me than digital.   ..maybe even less.

i'll pay money for an mp3.  i won't even accept a CD anymore.   i feel almost the same about video games.

Even though you could take the files from the CD and convert them to mp3s and then sell the CD?

if i buy digitally i get to listen to the music now.

if i buy a cd i have to wait 5 days for it to ship (via amazon cause like hell i'm driving to best buy) take the time rip it and than transfer it to my phone.   fuck that shit.  how poor would i have to be that i'd rather wait a week and spend an hour fucking around with shit in order to save 5 bucks.  i have a kid now.  my free time is worth dramatically more than 5 bucks and hour. 

Amazon does have a feature that when you buy the physical cd you also get the mp3s instantly on a lot of albums. If you listen to the radio and like pop then yeah, digital is the way to go, all the singles you want. Now if you really love music physical is way superior. I can do everything you can plus more.



Uabit on 14 November 2014

Then leave consoles and come to Steam.



Mystro-Sama on 14 November 2014

I try to physical games as much as possible. But its so much easier to buy them digital since orders take forever to get to my country.



disolitude on 14 November 2014

What's the point of physic games in 2014? Seriously, it takes 2 hours to install the damn thing and then another 2 to download the day 1 DLC patch?

Its not like you can take it to a friends house and play it while you're there. The disk is just a vessel for the installation files...that's it.

Truth is that Xbox One was going to give digital users the best of both words and solve the exact issues OP posted in this thread. The initial Xbox One strategy was going to allow people to buy physical games at best buy, find sales, accept birthday gifts...yet have them stored digitally on your console and reap all benefits involved with that. But we all know how that turned out...