|
games anime | toys
|
 
|
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Yukai's blog
follow this blog
subscribe via RSS
send message
invite to meetup+play
|
|
| get involved register or login post a blog post a forum enter a contest contribute a news tip suggest a feature be a guest editor |
support new member's guide login assistance tech support report abuse email our editors read our dev blog nuclear crisis? |
keep in touch RSS feed Myspace Flickr Game nights Meetup+play online |
seriously about Destructoid advertising terms of use privacy policy jobs at MM buy our crap |
our network Tomopop Japanator Despingation? |
||
|
||||||
 living the dream since March 16, 2006 |
||||||
I hate the idea of my game that I bought with my own money being stored on my hard drive or even some server on the other side of the country. what if the drive dies? bye bye games, what if the servers crash? gonna suck.
A physical copy of the game will probably never die if it is taken care of. plus, what about the rarity of some games? I can gloat and show off my copy of MUSHA but where is that same feeling when you get it off the virtual console? "Yeah guys, I TOTALLY downloaded that!"
I hate digital distribution.
I have literally hundreds of physical copies of games. And it's nice to put on a shelf, but I don't actually ever play most of them like that. It's fine for nostalgia's sake, but I'm a lot more likely to play a game when I can just click an icon and have it right there. Not to mention how much getting retail out of the equation can bring down prices on games...
And besides, most game packaging is ugly as crap, especially nowadays and in the US. Manuals? Most of those are 4-pages in black and white. Unfortunately making interesting packaging and including things with it is largely a relic of the past, where those kind of things were needed to make up for the fact the actual games were just a bunch of little pixels. Nobody other than Atlus actually makes it worth owning a physical copy anymore, so I doubt I'll be missing it a whole lot.
I used to be against the idea of digital distribution because of many of the same reasons as you've said. But at the same time I realize, I'm really running out of shelf space. Plus it's nice to open my XMB and see all my NOT illegally downloaded movies and TV shows all nicely alphabetized along with my demos and downloaded games. Maybe I'm just getting really lazy but it's nice not having to get up to switch the disc out. Plus I don't think a single one of my DC and GC games are in the right case anymore :(.
Relax, downloaded content is not going to replace discs and cases anytime soon. I'd give it another 10 years at minimum, maybe 20.
Sure, I like my boxes and manuals and stuff, but when it comes down to it, I just want to play my games. The art of the game instruction booklet will be lost, which is a damn shame, because there are some good ones. I embrace the digital distribution business model as much as I think
I possibly can, but I don't think I'll ever forget the boxes and manuals of yesteryear.
I totally agree it's very handy to have all your games ready to play at the click of a button. The wonders of the digital age eh?
I think it's probably the old nostalgia bug kicking in.
I'm with ya, though most of my games exist on the PC instead of a console. I like having a box and manual so I have something to look through while I install and update whatever beast of a game I just purchased. Digital downloading just doesn't have the same feel and if I'm gonna be out $60 I want something I can hold to justify it.
what pisses me off is most digitally distributed games cost just as much as on disc and the companies that campaign digitally distribution say its lowers costs for them yet they are charging us the same price and using our gullibility to their advantage, not our advantage.
Qraze : Good point. I could understand if the deal was sweetened with additional content like concept artwork and making of's included within the package. Otherwise it seems like a bum deal.
Tell me about. Although owning too many game boxes can be troublesome at times, some games are really worth. What actually worries me the most is what Rider Chop said. What if my hard drive dies on me? What if a new console comes out, and my old downloaded games become useless. This would be extremely frustrating.
I tell you, I just recntly started buying games in the Virtual Console, and although it's amazing, I fear when I buy the Wii2 or whatever, and I won't be able to transfer them or something.
I've definitely been struck by this same realization in the past. The thing that makes it acceptable to me, I guess, is that services like Steam have so many community features that my friends end up seeing what I have. That was always the point to me, sharing purchases with friends. Besides, not having to lug around a ton of discs is really nice for me.
BTW, the reason DD games aren't significantly cheaper than retail is because retail stores would not stock the physical copies if they were. And even PC games still rely a lot more on retail purchases than people think. So the best you can do right now is buy them when they go up on sale one place or the other.
However if things were only online, then consumers would dictate the market value of games. Games would only be expensive as people were willing to pay, because prices could be adjusted at the drop of a hat when there's no mass of retail printed and the numerous middlemen stocking them to worry about.
Give it a decade or so. Current studies indicate that DD only accounts for maybe 5% of games sold, at least in the US. The vast majority of consumers still want a disc, for better or worse.
I personally prefer DDs if I have the space and wherewithal. I re-bought Warhawk and Burnout Paradise because those games are so much more fun if I can just call them up on a whim.
You might say "just get off the fucking couch you lazy dickhead", and you might be right, but there's really something different about a game you can just turn up right then and there, whenever you like, especially titles as grand as Burnout and Warhawk, both of which are generally deeper than any of the for-PSN titles you can find.
Excuse me while I go backup my HDD :P
I LOVE boxed games. And I also don't want to see it go anywhere anytime soon, but DD is great for smaller companies who don't really have enough money (or can't get signed to a big publisher) to get their games out there and sell them cheaper. Nice article, I totally agree.
I do like my physical copies of my media (music, films, games) but I really like the convinience of DD. I don't own a physical copy of the Orange Box, L4D, TF2 and Call of Duty 4, but I still own them. I think when all the kinks are worked out and there's no rish of losing your purchase, then we'll see a groundshift towards DD.
I must say, I don't miss the days of big chunky PC boxes; just give me the disc in a small neat case, that's fine.
I guess we sow the seeds of our own destruction. I too love to collect my games for my collection, official and import stuff. The rise of digital distribution is pushed uphill more and flag planted by the piracy of modern retail games (not the old out of print stuff.
If you were to compare buying a new game to other experiences like going out to the cinema, I agree it can't be compared to, when done so against digital means. And while I applaud the DLC of the likes of Criterion etc, and like it to be a part of my gaming, I really hope that the retail game survives and co-exists with digital means.
I think its the only way to stop games becoming a souless experience, buy treasuring the artwork, packaging etc. I do agree much less effort is put into selling game packaging these days, beyond the cool japanese outfits like Capcom, Atlus, Konami and maybe even Square Enix, it seems many other spend little time on this.
However, with more games giving lovely artbooks, models etc now, like is the common japanese practice, I'd be prepared to shell out for limited edition copies and keep the flame burning. These bring the love back and make me appreciate my purchase every time. Stuff like this I feel will keep the retail sector ahead.
Here's to physical games collections.
I thought a lot about this in respect to music, but never about games. When iTunes and downloads became more popular, there was an uptick in people going back to vinyl for nastalgia. I wonder if something similar will happen with gamers? More interest in collecting the classics, or getting special edition copies? Personally I could care less about how I get the game, so long as the game is worth playing.