There are two ways to look at physical media. Some see it as needless clutter; useless relics taking up shelf space and collecting the airborne remnants of your dearly departed skin cells. Others, however, see rows and rows of boxes and books with a sense of pride -- proof that they have incredibly good taste when it comes to spending free time. According to the NPD, those two parties are rapidly becoming equal when it comes to gaming, with 21.3 million "full-game" PC titles downloaded (legally) in 2009 and 23.5 million boxed copies sold. That's awfully close, and ignores all the PSN and XBLA titles that are currently making our console hard drives cry for mercy. Should brick and mortar software stores be nervous? Not according to
GameStop CEO J. Paul Raines, whose franchises are decidedly ceramic and paste-based: "The world won't be all digital tomorrow... In this business, users still want physical content." And he's right, you know. We'd say it'll be more like 18 - 24 months.
posted July 23rd 2010 12:56AM
I love boxes. Makes me feel like I truly own something.
@maythetechbewithyou To hell with the damn boxes. Digital download is more eco friendly, faster, doesn't require getting up from the chair, and well, it's more convenient it all. Not to mention you don't need a CD/DVD drive. :D
@theSixFive
Wow you're a pompous ass
@theSixFive I don't have to waste hundreds getting hard drives for games that fit on Blu Ray discs though.
@maythetechbewithyou
You can buy a 1 TB HDD on Newegg for about $70, so much for spending hundreds on HDDs for the space of a bluray................
@VanNorden
He is a pompous ass for making a good point?
In fact I like the idea that no matter what I can go on steam and just redownload the game. It sure as hell beats your little brother stepping on the disc and destroying your $50 game forever.
@theSixFive Ha ha very true, Downloads will be more eco, but for the love of God, don't stop doing boxes either. If it's a game that I know I'll play forever, I'll get it in box form.
@maythetechbewithyou
I love boxes too, the eco friendly non getting up guys just don't understand!
@theSixFive
What happens when the drm makes you have an internet connection to play.
@theSixFive Are u stupid a digital game the exact quality of a disc game is not fast, even with a connection of 12mbps it would take around 20 mins to an hour and most people don't have Internet past 4mbps so it's more like 3 or 4hours plus network congestion
@Onifate Wow ur dumb too, the ps3 can only use 2.5 drives and 750GB costs like $70 minimum and for 360 owners they can't go past 250GB right now
@Onifate And also if someone is stepping on ur game then u don't deserve it, if u really cared about ur stuff it wouldn't be on the damn floor in the first place
@manofchao5
You know they invented this thing called a PC you can download games to it and play them. Clearly I was not referencing 2.5" drives for the PS3, watch who you call dumb.
@manofchao5 Ok, I mean at least on the PC frontier (especially with excellent services with Steam) download > physical, while on consoles physical > download because of the lack of CD-keys and nagging DRM. But alas, I am also guilty of not supporting my own cause, as I could not resist the collector's edition of Starcraft II (which is only physical, obviously).
@manofchao5
Did I say that I would have left it on the floor? There are many things that could happen and no matter what if it is your fault it is gone and there is nothing you can do about it. Humor me if a game fell on the floor off your cabinet and someone stepped on it you are SOL.
Get off your high horse and understand that other people are allowed opinions too. BTW I own many physical games but lots of the games I play are digital.
Also while you are arguing about HDD space remember that most physical games today are installed on their platforms and even on Xbox 360 to improve performance. Just like a physical game a digital game can be uninstalled and deleted until you want to redownload and play it. Now take your i'll tempered butt back to N4G.
@theSixFive
Don't apologize to him you made a clear and good point until these guys came in and insulted both you and your opinion just because their opinion is different.
@maythetechbewithyou
No to boxes... I like to get my games minutes after I click a purchase button.. I never look at the damn box after I install it, and it's a pain in the ass to have to put a disc in to play the game.
There's probably a good reason digital distribution is equal to boxed at this still somewhat early stage of digital distribution..
@VanNorden you guys are idiots. u can uninstall steam games, stream onlive games and these services are just a start. if u ask me< id rather have them in an hdd when i have a lady friend who wants to visit instead of shoving these collections under my bed or inside my closet. its a collection of clusterfuck if u ask me. cd's are to mp3's, movies are to netflix and games are to digital distribution. older gaming generations may hate it but newer younger kids will adapt to it. this will also fight piracy. cloud based will give developers the hard earned cash they deserve. piracy is still up there.
@maythetechbewithyou
totally agree with you. its too bad everything is mostly digital now
@maythetechbewithyou I agree. Downloads suck.
@DefPoet
Steam's DRM is better than no DRM
Just kidding, DRM should goto hell and Ubisoft (especially after AC2) with it. But seriously Steam is an awesome platform and one hell of a place to get your [well priced] games.
@theSixFive can't resell it, can't return it. I like boxes, but I don't like disc swapping
@theSixFive
I won't pay the same price for a digital download which is usually the case. They can go to hell since they're saving money.
@VanNorden
Nah, he's just a fat bastard
@maythetechbewithyou I like boxes because I have something to resell. I bought "Bad Company 2", played it through, decided to sell it and got something like $35 bucks for it when I only paid about $50 new. In essence, I bought the game enough to play it and be happy for about $15, but if I had a digital download I'd be stuck paying the original price with no way to sell the game.
@theSixFive This is all i am saying i am all for digital but digital needs to be as portable as physical. meaning if i want to sell it, i should be able to sell it without having to turn my whole account over to someone else. Like starcraft is coming out, if you buy it and play online and then try to sell it you cant its on your account. I want to be able to either give it away free to someone else or sell it like i can with the physical copy.
@(Unverified) If your ladyfriend has a problem with games, she isn't a keeper.
@maythetechbewithyou I love being able to buy a used box at 1/3 the list price... the price that the download is still being sold at.
It's not just the box either...I still treasure the old instruction manuals that come with games. Especially the ones that are nice. Blizzard games usually come with nice little books for manuals and it really wouldn't be the same to slap a pdf file into a download.
@Onifate
You can't sell a game downloaded to your HDD. Boxed games have resale value.
@(Unverified) lmfao lmfao lmfao lmfao how will it fight poiracy in the least?
I only download through Steam and I actually prefer that over boxes. All games in one area, no key to lose, no CD/DVD to break or having to insert it every time you want to play the game. Something which also is a pain in the arse if you have multiple places/houses that you go to.
I don't care if it's physical or digital, as long as the price is right.
@HikaKao
BLOCKBUSTER Video is expected to go Bankrupt this year. Ya know why? Because pay-per-view, on-demand channels, bootlegg DVD's, inexpensive DVD's at walmart and Best Buy and improving movie theater expenses have caused people to rethink going to the video store to rent movies.
How long will it be before high bandwidth internet connections kill off Gamestop?
The only reason I think people even still go there is because they always have exclusive codes for downloadable content with pre-orders (yes - I got my Splinter Cell: Convictions Silenced Shotgun)
Thing is, Gamestop is no match for downloadable games and larger hard drives.
its also in the companies interest to make content downloadable because selling us a game image is a helluva lot cheaper than selling us a physical product.
@nuclearopts
I don't play a lot of video games, but some of them are usually with a portable gaming console. Things like Steam and Valve are great for playing the games on a computer, but you're SOL if you want to actually play on the portable console.
Maybe if blank rewritable cartridges were available, the trend to just download the content would be more widely accepted. Better still, you could just design the next-gen portable consoles with micro-USB ports and just copy the games to an internal storage.
But I like boxes! Please dont take away my special edition video game bundles and pride in possessions gathering dust! :(
Is it just me, or do I feel like the companies are simply pushing users to downloadable games?
@Independence76 It's not just you, and if I were in their position I would push for it as well. Saves them the expense of producing disks, booklets, cases, and inventory, and (at least how things are presently constructed) allows them to sell them for the same price as the physical form.
However, as long as they insist on charging the same price for a digital download as the physical game, and DRM prevents me from reselling the digital download once I've grown tired of it, they can kiss my ass.
when all games are digitally downloaded and companies save all that money on shipping, discs and retailers, we'll pay less right? Haaaa kidding
Boxes are cool with me cause they keep jobs for all nerds working at the gamestop stores however I do love Steam game distribution system :)! No more clutter, no useless manuals, boxes, and DVDs and CDs to worry about
Bandwidth is a huge factor here.
As much as I like the idea of downloading games, I'm limited to 95GB a month for bandwidth (paying more, default is 60GB), some of these games are getting close to 10GB. I know I'm not alone with this issue, so I think there is going to be a market for "boxes" for quite some time, until ISPs can get their bandwidth situation sorted out.
Heck, with Netflix hitting Canada I'll need every ounce of bandwidth available to me, it makes the idea of download these huge games a lot less attractive.
@hastings
Those games require at least nearly 50 hours of continuous playtime. So you're complaining that while you're playing the games you just downloaded (and are downloading additional games at the same time), that you'll still have time in the same month to NOT play new games? Even if this is true, then your argument is actually a call for faster internet, not disc-based storage.
Do you spend nearly every waking moment playing games? Even if you did burn through 10 games a month and max out your internet, then the only other problem is storage space. Since 1 TB drives (~980 GB) can hold 10 months of games (and I doubt that 10 good games are released every month), that's still only around $100/TB.
@hastings But, to counter that point (though I agree there is a short-term issue):
>Bandwidth will get cheaper per GB over time, that's nearly a given and not that we shouldn't take for granted (since prices will go up as well)
>These games *should* be cheaper than the box form. Therefore, if you save *hopefully* $10 a box (only on a full-priced 50-60 game) at 5 of those a month (seems high) you save $50...that might pay for the 50GB in todays internet costs, perhaps the economics will be there in the future.
They definitely need to it to economically friendly to entice the consumers, especially those who will get throttled, charged overages and/or cut off from service.
@Dante of the Inferno
I live with multiple people, all sharing the same monthly bandwidth.
@juanvaldez
I definitely agree that bandwidth should get cheaper over time. As it stands right now, every major ISP has very recently begun imposing bandwidth caps. In the short term I see things getting worse, not better. Keep in mind however that files, on average, are getting bigger at an alarming rate. Games are huge now, videos are in HD, MP3s are all 320KBPS. This is all happening while my ISP is reducing my monthly bandwidth allowance.
This is also going to be an issue for Netflix as well. It would be great if commercial companies could set up some sort of deal with ISPs that would allow us to download games/movies/music without getting dinged on our monthly bandwidth.
@hastings
I'm with you here man, I'm on Bell and they gave me 50GB bandwidth. I had to pay $5 more to get it increased to 90GB. Downloading Mass Effect on Steam was torture, because I had to save a lot of bandwidth for it (the game is around 10GB). I find that I regularly hit ~88GB/90GB each month, and this is after I carefully monitor my bandwidth. There has to be a big reform with respect to bandwidth here in Canada. I think when it comes to PC gaming, Steam is the best choice because it has friendly DRM and great portability.
@ALBGunner04 Damn, must be rough up in Canada, I've got FiOS here in the US, no cap, rediculous speed, ~40 a month for it. I've seen it cap at 25MBPS
I will say that I greatly enjoy being able to download games through Steam, but I do worry for the future if ISPs move to non-unlimited internet plans.
Long live VALVE, free play weekends, 75% off sales, uninstrusive DRM, free cross platform, cloud storage, hell even free games (Portal, Alien Swarm), here's hoping they buy out OnLive and add their rental options
@JeremyBenthem
Valve rocks. Dont have to worry about stupid cd keys either. Or drm keeping me from installing when I replace a harddrive
@JeremyBenthem psrtnership would be better and steam can bring all of their games to it. onlive works, they just need more games now.
@JeremyBenthem
Agreed. I've got 120+ games on my Steam account and I don't think it'll be going away any time soon.