Sony again says we're nearing the end of the road for discs
Will digital distribution take over the disc format in a mere five years? Vice President of SCE Worldwide Studios Europe, Jamie MacDonald, believes so, just like Phil Harrison. Let's clog this drain with a big quote: "In five years' time, my belief is that the majority of content won't be delivered on disc. That has many implications for developers and the way we organise our industry. It also brings with it great opportunities because it means you can touch your consumer in many different ways and at different times - it's not just a one-off relationship where a consumer buys a disc from the store. In terms of object sales, episodic content, in-game advertising and merchandising, there are many, many opportunities to have a relationship with the consumer - which is a great challenge to us as developers because that's not what we're used to."
This actually makes sense -- it's costing more and more money to produce games, so cutting out the middleman (in this case, the disc format) saves both the developers and the consumers a bit of change. Also, to decrease costs, game developers could get money from advertisements that could pop up like a PowerPoint presentation while you download your game (think of the ads that scroll before a movie begins). What do you guys think? If it meant saving a lot of money both for developers and we, the consumers, would you mind cycling through some ads while a game downloads onto your console? Would you miss the discs all too terribly?
