1C international publishing director Darryl Still is a man who's not afraid to stick with a date. He sees the beginning of 2011 as the age of digital distribution for PC gaming. Speaking with MCV, he gave the prediction, saying "PC games will be sold completely via digital" when that time frame rolls around.
His reasoning behind such a bold prediction? The lackluster handling of PC games by brick and mortar retailers. "If PC games manage to get listed at retail, then they're rarely getting any exposure because they're appearing at the back of the store."
While Still admits the demand is there, he says "retail is forcing PC games out." Not only are developers, publishers, and even consumers pushing for increased digital distribution, but according to Still, retailers are helping the cause by providing limited "options for the PC."
Of course, content providers like Steam, Direct2Drive, and Impulse, to name a few, aren't perfect either. "The issue is we don't know which ones will succeed and which ones won't." But with consumer-friendly bonuses like cheaper game prices -- especially when retailer's needs aren't a concern -- and added convenience, it seems like we could be a lot worse off.
Boxed PC games market 'gone by 2011' [MCV via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
Contest:
3:00 AM on 01.15.2010
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Um...what?
For major publishers though this is a loooong ways off, even on PC. Which is a good thing, because with boxed games you have a lot more ownership and control than with digital sales (try playing your Xbox Live games someday if the service shuts down, or if MS decides you can't).
I imagine Best Buy type retail will get smaller and smaller for ALL games as digital sales take more of a hold, but Amazon and the like will still sell them for years and years to come. Personally I like Telltale's method, digital releases which have the option of a physical package later on if you want to pay shipping.
All the digital distribution platforms have sales every now and then.
*ahem* anyway, I think battlefront had the right idea, a combination of mail shipped hard copies ordered online with an instant down loadable version being available simultaneously - so you get the lower prices and convenience with the added security of a permanent physical copy. 2011 is probably too early but the man is right, games in general are getting digital, which imo is a very good thing provided we can have a system that has security for the long term (like steam games being able to be backed up to a hard disc for example)
My only problem with down loadable distribution is the EA/Apple model with limited downloads and installs - the the constant threat of having to re purchase a title because your old system broke - thats the worst case scenario.
If we're gonna go totally digital, we need;
- Infinite number of re-downloads and re-installs without penalty
- Games attatched to an account that can be transferred between systems infinitely
- The ability to back up install files to a physical medium
- Offline capability to run games (steam sucks at this)
I doubt hard copies will completely fade out any time soon, let alone by 2011, but I couldn't care less if they did.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/33622/Study-Industry-hit-by-11500-layoffs-since-late-2008
Study: Industry hit by 11,500 layoffs since 2008
New research also tallies ‘record number of studio closures’
The global game industry has been hit by as many as 11,500 job losses since late 2008, a new study suggests.
Research by entertainment analyst group M2 Research says that “the final count for layoffs since the economic meltdown in late 2008 reached 11,488 worldwide, with the majority of the losses coming in 2009.”
The study has identified staff redundancies from 95 individual studios, adding that 52 of the affected studios were situated in the US.
M2 adds that the majority of layoffs come at “studio level”, with QA staff often being the first to go.
The analysis group adds that 2009 saw a ‘record number’ of studio closures, including 3D Realms (pictured), various Midway studios and EA’s Pandemic Studios.
but come on, the feeling of owning a physical copy of a PC game is why people still buy the cased copy and it will never die out(probably)
lack of a physical product doesn't justify piracy, but since i'm always going to get a digital copy one way or another, it feels like i'm handing over money for something i already have. i honestly like to support developers by buying games, but lets face it, i can have my cake and eat it so a hard copy does tip the scales.
Oh come now, that's hardly even a B.S. justification, that's more like "yeah I'm a horrible person, oh well."
Put some effort into it.
Now, it is kind of odd that a spokesman for 1C, which is a company that primarily makes PC games, and also runs brick and mortar game stores in Russia, would be saying PC's going all digital in 2011 because of brick and mortar stores negligent to the market. I can only imagine the quote's poorly translated and he's talking about Western markets. It would also explain the whole "Digital age to start in 2011", considering it STARTED with the release of Half-life 2 in 2004.
In any case. Some clarification is probably needed. The timeline of Q1 2011 is the tipping point at which I estimate more than 50% of a publishers revenue will come from download sales, NOT the point in time where you will not be able to find a PC box in a Best Buy store. Remember also that we get around 3 times more revenue for a digital sale than we do for a box sale, so this is also not saying that download sales will be as numerous as boxed sales. It is the tipping point where far sighted publishers will consider one method of distribution as more influential than the other.
Some analysts have quoted 2013 and that may be accurate for all games, but my point was, if we have to wait until 2013 for PC downlaod sales to overtake boxed, then the way retail is stocking PC now, the platform will be in big trouble.
Can I recommend that any interested party reads "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson for a little research on the subject.
Can I also recommend that those people who are dissing our games take a look at the two Kings Bounty releases and the Men of War games to get an idea of the quality games for proper gamers titles that is coming out of our studios these days. If you prefer your horror or FPS, you may also find Cryostasis and Necrovision to be excellent value at the current 12.99 pricepoint.