SCEE president Andrew House has confirmed the thing we all knew by now, that physical media will still be an important part of the games industry for at least a few more years. House has also added that digital distribution has a set of issues that need to be overcome before it becomes the norm.
"The reason retail has been around for thousands of years is because it works really well at showing you a range of content," he says, "having experienced store staff that can find the game you are looking for, tailor choices to your needs and up-sell you something you hadn't thought of.
"Digital, for me, still has a challenge in that it doesn't have the equivalent of that. Browsing is a little overwhelming and too confusing, and that's the challenge that makes me think there's a strong role for physical media for years to come."
Here's the thing, though -- digital content's biggest challenges are the publishers themselves, and especially publishers who think like Sony. The PSPgo was total junk because the PSN wasn't support properly and Sony insisted on overcharging for its games. Sony's own ignorance was its largest stumbling block, not the nature of digital distribution.
I do agree that digital content can get lost in the shuffle, but is that not also true for retail games? I think the biggest challenge Sony faces is the office full of chimps that keeps making stupid decisions more than the "confusing" browsing options.
Sony: Digital retail is confusing [MCV]
Contest:
11:20 AM on 12.14.2010 | 
...it works for Gamestop.
And would he like to preorder Madden?
So yeah.
I hadn't thought of the "latest and greatest" game that they keep asking me to preorder? Telling me I really should sign up for their rewards car program, because you know it'll make me super cool.
I'm never confused whilst browsing Steam. Though some gems can trip and fall through some cracks.
And I'm sorry to hear you wouldn't like to pre-order madden. How would you like to join our rewards program? You earn DOUBLE points on all purchases! </sarcasm>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcYppAs6ZdI
Box art and a brief description is not enough for me to base a purchase on.
If someone brings a shitty game up, I'll tell them. I'll give them advice on good games for their target group and tell them anything they want to know about a system, good or bad. I won't pitch a PO that isn't in line with what they're buying (ffs, if you're buying Madden 10 then why wouldn't I ask you about 11?).
I keep thinking the internet might have a speck of maturity, but I keep being proven wrong.
It's not complicated, Sony: Make the process easy and efficient, and people will buy your stuff.
And this isn't the case with retailers?? With digital content you can browse through different genres and so on which gives a much better overall view of the available games. You have ratings, videos, screenshots.
And I never EVER had a staff member who said something like: "Oh you like that game, maybe you like this game too. It's even 10 bucks cheaper than usual."
Retailers, at least in austria are not really good. Yeah, they have the newest AAA games on the release date but if you want some classics or a game thats only a few months old you really have trouble getting it. The last game I had trouble with was Heavenly sword. I visited 5 different retailers till I found a fucking platinum edition of the game. Often you find the original game with the old price tag.
Retailers really need to do something, otherwise they will be crushed in a few years. The PC sector is already pretty strong with Steam. Just imagine Microsoft or Sony would push this more in the console sector. But I don't think this will ever happen. Sony completely fails when it comes to digital distribution. They started to bring some AAA games to PSN but then stopped. (GT Prologue and Burnout for example.) Why? I don't know. Maybe they don't want you to download 10+ gig for every game or they still think that no one changes the HDD. And then they failed with the PSPGo even though they had a good concept but the execution was so poorly that digital content didn't replace retails. Which is quite a bummer cause it's not that easy to find a good retailer with a big library of PSP games.
That's nobody's fault but your own, Sony. Maybe including a few screenshots, a solid rating system, and a better description of your PSN games would help?
For example, I've never played Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, and honestly know nothing about it. However, I recognized the name when I saw it on the PSN store a while back, and I was interested in finding out more. Here's what the description says:
"Kain is out for vengeance, and nothing but blood will shake his thirst!
Download this PSone classic game today!"
Wow. Way to fucking sell it, Sony. No screenshots, no description of the gameplay, nothing. Take a guess as to whether or not I bought it?
Granted, I could easily Google the game and find out everything I want, but why should I have to? Adding a few pics and a general idea of the content would go a long way to making things more pleasant... and making Sony more money.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, think old-school Zelda with vampires and Oddworld caliber CGI cutscenes.
I haven't played it since the PSX days, so I say if it's held up well, but at the time I really enjoyed it.
I wonder why. I also wonder, why i'd easily buy games on Steam or GoG, but have doubts about buying on PSN or XBL/GFWL
Thanks! I've actually researched it a bit since "the incident", but haven't bothered going back to purchase it. I'm a bit of an impulse shopper like that :)
Fair enough. Sony really should have more info and demo's for all games sold through their service available to consumers at the point of purchase.
Anything less leaves the customer skeptical.
Sony makes mistakes then tries to turn around and say "Man I don't know why that didn't work, let's try it again" they are like a bad roommate, they never want to admit they fucked something up.
It's pretty much the reason why I pass on most sony stuff. Waiting for the PS3 to drop in price again or get a great deal. There's alot of cool games on PS3 but not alot of it seems to get enough interest from me to make me shell out the cash.
It sucks because I used to be a big Sony fan, now all you hear from them is "Riiiiidge Raaacerrrr" and "We don't understand digital distrobution"
How can I give my money to a company that so obiviously has no idea what the fuck they are doing half the time?
That's why I pass on most Microsoft stuff. There's a few cool games on the 360, but nothing else that can get enough interest from me to make me shell out the cash. Especially when better and more diverse gaming experiences can be had on the PS3 and Wii. :)
Digital distribution is not going to take off the way publishers want it to until they price it to offset its many disadvantages. If a physical copy of a game is £40, the download should be £20. That's £40 minus the £15 I would have gotten for trading it back in, minus £5 for the inconvenience of not having a hard copy. If a game costs £20 new in shops, the download should be pretty much £5-£8. If I can pick up a copy of the game preowned for a fiver in GAME's bargain bin, the download should be £2 at most.
Compared to it, PSN is 10 years obsolete.
It's simple
In stores,
If you're looking for a game to discover instead of already knowing what you want, then the store's employees are there to sort the game for you and help you choose. You can mostly come in and not know exactly what you want, but you'll likely end with something you'll enjoy.
Online,
The digital distribution makes the consumer take all the choices in sorting the game's style, maker, sucess etc. Digital distribution includes that you have to replace the services of the GameStore by other means. They want equivalent and their confusion is probably that they have no idea on how to make those equivalent.
Someone wrote demos readily available, and it's a bloody good start. Also Steam for example has started a service that suggest you games according to your purchases and what game you play. Which is also a good idea i think. How it doesn't get in Sony's thick head is beyond me.
Keep in mind that the paradigm shift from gamestore to digital distribution is simply a different method that some old fashioned buisnessman probably have a lot of difficulty to get around their head and how to change their job accordingly.
It's simple
In stores,
If you're looking for a game to discover instead of already knowing what you want, then the store's employees are there to sort the game for you and help you choose. You can mostly come in and not know exactly what you want, but you'll likely end with something you'll enjoy.
Online,
The digital distribution makes the consumer take all the choices in sorting the game's style, maker, sucess etc. Digital distribution includes that you have to replace the services of the GameStore by other means. They want equivalent and their confusion is probably that they have no idea on how to make those equivalent.
Someone wrote demos readily available, and it's a bloody good start. Also Steam for example has started a service that suggest you games according to your purchases and what game you play. Which is also a good idea i think. How it doesn't get in Sony's thick head is beyond me.
Keep in mind that the paradigm shift from gamestore to digital distribution is simply a different method that some old fashioned buisnessman probably have a lot of difficulty to get around their head and how to change their job accordingly.
As far as the future of DD though, I can't say I'm too excited to pay $59.99 for a game I can't loan or sell and then sit around waiting for a Bluray worth of data to download...
"As if giving your money to Microsoft is any better."
Psst! Your fanboy is showing.
Eastern European market, "piracy paradise", where internet became a norm only in 2003 or so, where not a lot of people have credit cards and prefer to use normal shops and stores and not the internet ones is one of the most important markets on Steam, if you believe Valve. I think it's "thinking worldwide".
Problem is - not a lot of Digital Distribution Services know how to operate, nor publishers understand that. Steam is the closest one to the right way, and it's far from being perfect. Nor PSN, nor XBL, nor WiiWare do it right. There are too many "well, you kinda buy, but in the long run you're like renting it" stuff and other restrictions.
Digital distribution is great, easy and not confusing. Publishers and services make it look clunky and confusing.
How is it confusing? go online look at games. Get showed videos for said games through steam. Since your on the internet anyway just look up the game. Despit what Sony says employes don't know everything about every single game out there. I don't play shovelware so yeah when someone asks me at work what the game is about, I generally have to look at the back.
I've had a few customers get mad at me though so my opinion that MW2 sucked though :).
Demos for all games? Nope.
Getting a list of all games? Nope.
Easy to browse? Nope.
Annoying sound effects? Well, it does have that.
Even the Wii Shop Channel is nicer to use than this. Seriously, Sony, you promote the idea of art in all things - then why are your interfaces so clunky?
BUT, I bet if God of War 4 was a day one downloadable full release game it would sell like gangbusters.
The problem I think from big publishers POV is they can't sell you the games that don't sell themselves, and that's scary.