Bring On Digital Distribution

[Gabriel]

To hell with shopping for games in stores.

 

This evening I stopped by two stores.

 

In the first store, I happened to notice Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn in the game case. I had told myself previously I'd wait on this particular title, but I figured what the heck. I asked if I could get some assistance with the game case so I could buy the game. The store was slow and several employees obviously had very little to do, so it wasn't like they were in the midst of a Christmas rush. I was told someone would be with me shortly.

 

So, I waited at the game case for 5 minutes and no one came. I went back to the counter and asked again politely. I was reassured someone would be right with me. Another 5 minutes passed and I figured that was more than enough time, and I left the store to continue about my business.

 

At my next stop, the store had not only Fire Emblem, but also the Spider-Man trilogy Blu Ray set. The catch? Both were locked in a case. No one was anywhere near electronics to assist. I caught about 3 employees wandering around who assured me someone would be with me shortly. After about 15-20 minutes of this, I went to the Customer Service Center and asked if there was someone who could help me in electronics. I was told someone would be right with me.

 

After about another 10 minutes, I checked again, and was once again reassured someone would be right there to help me. At this I gave up on the whole business and walked out of the second store.

 

So, it doesn't surprise me how well I've taken to digital distribution considering how completely futile the act of shopping for a game has become. First off, most of the time the game I want isn't in stock anywhere I go. Even when it is in stock I'd have to deal with stripped copies, stupid Gamestop type employees, or the game isn't even accessible as in the experience above. The whole thing makes the inconvenience of the downloadable DRM schemes seem absolutely mild in comparison. Sure, if my XBox 360 breaks, I'm SOL on my downloaded games, but at least I can buy the games I want. That's more than I can say for the store situation.

[moycon]

Sure, if my XBox 360 breaks, I'm SOL on my downloaded games, but at least I can buy the games I want. That's more than I can say for the store situation.

 

One cool thing about the 360 is if you delete or lose your game, you have the option of re-downloading it. If you go to friends house and want to show them a game you have, you can log in and download it to his system and play to your hearts content. The downside is you HAVE to be conected to LIVE to play on a system other than the one you originally used when you obtained the game. That sucks especially with the large number of people who had to send their system in and get another. If they could remedy that issue, and make the games transferable to the next generation of consoles, I'd welcome DD with open arms. As it stands, I don't mind it, but I am concerned that someday the content I'm buying will be worthless because I wont be able to play it. I think soon they will hit on something that will click with consumers in that the content will be transferable, and always obtainable and more people will open up to DD.

Edited November 9, 2007 by moycon

[+remowilliams]

As it stands, I don't mind it, but I am concerned that someday the content I'm buying will be worthless because I wont be able to play it.

Bingo, by and large - screw 'big game' digital distribution. I'd like to be able to always play my (expensive) games at a later time of my choosing, be it 6 months or 15 years. $5 and $10 smaller transactions I can deal with losing, but for the big stuff give me a disc. Or holocube or whatever comes next.

[Gregory DG]

I won't buy a game if it's locked in a case. I'm far too impatient to wait for someone to open it.

[Ze_ro]

The downside is you HAVE to be conected to LIVE to play on a system other than the one you originally used when you obtained the game. That sucks especially with the large number of people who had to send their system in and get another.

When my 360 died and I got a replacement, I just attached my old hard drive to it, and everything was back to normal. I didn't have to download anything a second time (except for Marathon, which was in the process of downloading when my original 360 died).

 

--Zero

[moycon]

The downside is you HAVE to be conected to LIVE to play on a system other than the one you originally used when you obtained the game. That sucks especially with the large number of people who had to send their system in and get another.

When my 360 died and I got a replacement, I just attached my old hard drive to it, and everything was back to normal. I didn't have to download anything a second time (except for Marathon, which was in the process of downloading when my original 360 died).

 

--Zero

 

Yes I know. I didn't say you lost the content.

Disconnect your internet access and try and play them when you're not logged into LIVE and see what happens.

If this works for you then they are doing something new now.

 

Going my a tip on the XBox forums that last time I got my console replaced through MS a few months ago, I could delete the old content and re-download the game to the new console and that seemed to work (Something that didnt used to work) and still play them even if I wasn't connected to the internet. Maybe now even this is un-nessesary, which would be cool. But if you haven't tried to play the games sans internet.... I wouldn't assume everything is "back to normal" just yet.

[godslabrat]

TSo, I waited at the game case for 5 minutes and no one came. I went back to the counter and asked again politely. I was reassured someone would be right with me. Another 5 minutes passed and I figured that was more than enough time, and I left the store to continue about my business.

 

At my next stop, the store had not only Fire Emblem, but also the Spider-Man trilogy Blu Ray set. The catch? Both were locked in a case. No one was anywhere near electronics to assist. I caught about 3 employees wandering around who assured me someone would be with me shortly. After about 15-20 minutes of this, I went to the Customer Service Center and asked if there was someone who could help me in electronics. I was told someone would be right with me.

 

This isn't an argument for digital distribution, IMO. It's an argument for online shopping. My favorite store is Amazon.com, and has been for a number of years now. Why hunt down help and worry about price comparisons, when I can google all the pricing info I need, and then let someone else expend the time and gas money to get my product to me. When I want a new movie or game, all I have to do is come home from work, and it's there waiting for me.

 

THAT is sweet.

[Gabriel]

This isn't an argument for digital distribution, IMO. It's an argument for online shopping. My favorite store is Amazon.com, and has been for a number of years now. Why hunt down help and worry about price comparisons, when I can google all the pricing info I need, and then let someone else expend the time and gas money to get my product to me. When I want a new movie or game, all I have to do is come home from work, and it's there waiting for me.

 

Online shopping is how I shop for all of my games which aren't impulse buys nowadays. It's really the only way to actually find anything.

 

The problem being that I don't get my games until about a week after I want them. And I've also had a few problems lately with online stores charging me and "losing" my order in their system.

 

I've had it. If brick and mortar retail is just going to get even worse from here on out, and I'm having to shop online for stuff anyway, I'd rather pay for the game and get it instantly, on day of release, with not even so much as hunting around for an online store which carries the game.

[Lord Helmet]

I'd rather download everything from games to movies to music. No more boxes, disks etc.

 

I already stopped buying movies and music on disk. The only physical media I pay for anymore is games.

[KrazyKaiju]

If you go to Walmart or Target really early in the morning (say 2AM-ish), they are usually in the process of resetting the electronics department for the day. I've never had trouble getting help then. Of course, normal people are generally asleep at that time, so it helps if you don't get off work until 1:30AM or so.

 

I get most of my games from Newegg these days, though I've used Walmart when Newegg has something backordered for an extraordinarily long time.

 

I have to say that I don't much care for digital distibution. I've heard too many horror stories lately about content providers 'turning off' content when it suits them, leaving the purchaser SOL (see the stories about Google Video and most recently the MLB videos). I've bought a few games from the Wii VC, but I'd be very hesitant to spend $50 or $60 on a game that didn't come on physical media. If nothing else, it gives you the option of reselling it. If the consoles start going the route of PC games where the game is locked to the individual console, I see myself getting out of the hobby, at least for the new stuff.

[Lastblade]

Go to a better store....

[godslabrat]

I'd rather download everything from games to movies to music. No more boxes, disks etc.

 

I already stopped buying movies and music on disk. The only physical media I pay for anymore is games.

 

I dunno about that... I really like having a physical disk. There have been too many services that depended entirely on the parent company maintaining their system indefinitely, and once they failed to do so, the customer loses out on everything. Plus, a disc is ultimately more portable, more durable, and is easier to adapt to other mediums should you need to do so.

 

Lord Helmet, send me your boxes, your discs, your huddled cartridges yearning to be free....

[koster]

At my next stop, the store had not only Fire Emblem, but also the Spider-Man trilogy Blu Ray set. The catch? Both were locked in a case. No one was anywhere near electronics to assist. I caught about 3 employees wandering around who assured me someone would be with me shortly. After about 15-20 minutes of this, I went to the Customer Service Center and asked if there was someone who could help me in electronics. I was told someone would be right with me.

 

After about another 10 minutes, I checked again, and was once again reassured someone would be right there to help me. At this I gave up on the whole business and walked out of the second store.

You should have asked for a store manager, and gotten the phone number for the district manager. I'm sure both would be interested in the lack of customer service shown by the store staff.

 

If that happened to me, I wouldn't hesitate to leave feedback regarding the shopping experience with the company's corporate website/contact person.

[Karyyk]

Eh, I'm not a fan of the total digital distribution thing. It has its place, but considering the problems I've had with faulty XBOX 360 hardware, and that I have to call to get my Live Arcade games to work again (and redownload them), it's just a great big hassle waiting to happen. If digital distribution is ever going to work, then you need to find a way around this, unless of course you feel like paying for the same game repeatedly. That's the beauty of having a hard copy of anything on hand, it's there when you need/want it. I'd rather spend half an hour to buy a game than have to be on the phone with Microsoft for twice as long, explaining myself and jumping through hoops just so I can play the ones I've downloaded.

Edited November 12, 2007 by Karyyk

[Mendon]

Like so many other issues that confront me, I can see the good and bad with digital distribution.

 

Gabriel and others brought up some good points for DD. Another point for DD is that disks do get damaged..... I've even read posts on other forums and news stories on websites like IGN where some Xbox owners claim that the 360 scratches their disks (through no fault of the owner) until the disks are unplayable. DD would eliminate the damaged disk.

 

A couple downsides of DD that apply to my situation (but maybe not yours):

 

Storage. Consoles today don't have huge hard drives and the constant deleting to free up space then re-downloading when you want to play the game is a real negative. The Wii doesn't even have a HD and some Wii-owners are complaing about no more room for new VC downloads... Nintendo responds to the storage problem by saying "Well, you can always delete then redownload if you want". Sorry Ninty, but that isn't a solution. And I'm not rich enough to keep spending $180+ for a new Xbox HD every time the old one fills up with games, demo's, and movies.

 

Internet Speed. I live between Pixley and Hooterville so my broadband service is still stuck pretty much in the stone age. A small XBLA game isn't too bad but a big demo can take me 2 - 3 hours to download. I tried one movie from XBL Marketplace and it took around 4 hours to download it. Until good internet speed is available across the nation, I won't do much DL'ing.

 

Cost. I buy a disk based game and when I tire of it, at least I can get some of my money back by selling it, trading it, etc. But a DD purchase is money I can never get back. Guess you might have to view anything by DD as a rental instead of a purchase.

 

Again, I see good and bad to DD. Guess I'm a terminal Fence Straddler.

 

 

One last note..... I'm interested to see how DD is actually doing on the consoles. I've never seen any sales figures for Warhawk on the PS3 but I'd be interested to see what total sales of the game were, and then how many were DD purchases and how many were disk purchases. (Figures might not be a good indication for Warhawk though, as the disk purchase came with a headset)

 

Tomb Raider on the Xbox might be a better indicator since there are no "freebies" with the disk based version. So I'll be interested to see how the DD version and disk based version of TR: Anniversary do in the sales area.

 

 

 

Mendon

Edited November 13, 2007 by Mendon

[Lord Helmet]

I have a feeling that digital distribution is the way of the future whether we want it or not. It makes too much fiscal sense from a business point of view. No more costs for physical media, no more distribution costs....the list goes on and on.

[Gregory DG]

I have a feeling that digital distribution is the way of the future whether we want it or not. It makes too much fiscal sense from a business point of view. No more costs for physical media, no more distribution costs....the list goes on and on.

Exactly. I only hope they lower the cost of games to compensate for them not having to make boxes, media, manuals, etc. Not to mention the fact that we'd be PAYING for our own internet connection on top of that.

 

If digitally distributed games aren't $10 cheaper than they are boxed, I'll be disappointed.