During his comments following the release of Nintendo's recent financials, company President Satoru Iwata laid out the connectivity rates for the Wii and DS in Japan. According to Nintendo's numbers 30 percent of Wii owners are currently connecting their Wii to the internet and only 20 percent of DS owners are doing it. The numbers spike whenever a big online game is released for either system or whenever new online functions are released, but Iwata says that the company must take more aggressive action or those numbers will drop.
Despite Iwata's claim that Nintendo is truly interested in its system's online functionality (and their work to sponsor wireless hot spots in places like McDonald's) Iwata does not think that digital distribution of games will be playing a big role in the gaming market for quite some time. He reinforced his opinion that while he does see digital distribution as a means to provide additional internet-driven software features he does not see it as a dominant delivery method for games any time soon.
""In 20 years or so, I might say it will have probably changed," Iwata said while discussing the possible shift to digital distribution. "But in 5 years or so, I do not totally agree. ...Habits of life do not change [so] radically and quickly."
He is, of course, right. Even I, a technologically advanced person of a young age, am having trouble letting go of physical retail. Imagine what a member of Nintendo's new "expanded audience" feels when they're offered a game without a box or disc.
Matthew Razak is Destructoid's Associate editor and co-founder of film site
Flixist. He began as community member "cowzilla" and was since sequestered to write brainy features material. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife.
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Contest:
1:00 AM on 11.08.2009
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Dear Nintendo,
I have one thing to say to you:
No duuuuuhhhhhhhhh...
Thank you.
Most of the DLCs I've bought would've been better as rentals anyway. The first Watchmen episode wasn't worth $20 and I wouldn't have played the second one if I hadn't been able to rent it on disc. Same with GTA IV. I've got the Episodes of Liberty City disc rented out now, but would've never paid $20 for The Ballad of Gay Tony (and have already traded in GTA IV anyway).
I wish they'd offer downloadable rentals for games on consoles. That would save hard drive space and money...for the consumer, anyway. I have no idea how profitable that might be for Microsoft or the devs.
Today, they would be apprehensive - but if Nintendo really clings to the "Channel" interface, basically offering users the interface metaphor the'yve come to expect and be familiar with via other forms of media (TV, Radio, etc...) then I could see it becoming as ordinary as ordering a pay-per-view within 5 years.
Assuming, of course, that this new "expanded audience" has widespread access to broadband...which will obviously be a major determining factor as to the feasibility of DD as a primary means of distribution. If you're using the US as a benchmark for broadband penetration, well, in that case I can understand the 20 years part of it.
Games, well, since I got my PSP-3000 and DSi, I just like having lots of games without having to switch out physical media all the time to play something else.
They're basing it on their own data for digital signup, so, yes, if online gaming were as bad as the Wii, we'd be decades away from Digital distribution. With other, working methods, much closer.
I maintain, OnLive will blow everything else out of the water as soon as it emerges.
Make no mistake, PC sales are down, blah blah blah... they are still very healthy, industry types will tell you, they are just not selling much through normal retail chains.
Consoles will follow suit, probably as soon as next-gen... Gamestop will have to figure out how to do without those sales as well.
Even now they start offering bigger and bigger hard drives, since that's the biggest hurdle...having the space for all your stuff.
But a lot can forward in five years. And bigger hard drives should be a pretty minor hurdle over time.
20 years...that sounds about as wise a prediction from Nintendo as when they chose to not go CD with the N64.
I realize the kind of crowd going to internet sites is sure to be more digital buying hooked up than some Middle America housewife as of today...but five years from now?
That's it. I'm gonna go cry in a corner now.
I do not own a 360, but if I did I am sure I would buy the games that I could over the on-demand service.
The sooner all games are made downloadable and I do not need to have dozens -- if not hundreds -- of game boxes cluttering up my house, the better!
One thing that I do think needs to happen in order for digital distribution to really take over though, is price-matching and price-beating physical copies. Quite often it is cheaper to buy a disc than it is to download a game, which is ridiculous, because it is far cheaper to distribute a game via a download service than it is to do so using physical media.
You're right. One thing I've noticed about the prices on Steam, nothing that was made past the 90's is under $20.
Generally retail games are cheaper because they take up shelf space. Shelf space that can't be used for new games if old games are littering it. DD has no such problem, so they can keep it at whatever price they want.