Digital Distribution is big. So big in fact, that it’s massive! …on the iPhone. For quite some time now, digital distribution is being hailed as the future for media in all forms. And to a point it is the future. One that we are all more then happy to embrace. But, are we prepared to let downloadable content replace the disc? In short, NO.
There are so many reasons to go all digital. Less raw/recycled materials needed, cheaper (not always the case), access to it anywhere, no shortages of copies, less things to store on your shelves and in your drawers. How ever, as convent as it may seem at first to forget all about the disc, you may want to review what it is your actually buying.
When you go to a store to buy a game, your buying a hard copy of it to own forever. Play the game, take it to a friends house, use it as a frisbee or a table coaster. If for some reason your short on cash, you can turn around and sell off a bunch of your games on eBay and get some of your money back. The fact is it’s yours and you can do what you want with it.
When you go into Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Network or Steam to buy the latest $60 title, your not technically buying it. Your renting it with no expiry. You will never have a hard copy of the game to take to a friends house who doesn’t have an internet connection, you will never get your money back from it, and it will always stay locked to your online account. And if for some reason your account gets banned, deactivated or stolen, all the money you spent on games is gone.
Small mini games on the other hand are on the opposite end of this spectrum. For the most part any games that are about $10 or less, most people don’t care if they lose them since they don’t tend to punch holes in your wallet. For this reason, the iPhone has become the biggest seller in its small bite-sized games. Sony is currently attempting to mimic the iPhones success with its new PSP Go. The biggest problem is that the PSP Go is close to the same price as the iPhone. Difference is that the iPhone is an actual phone, the PSP Go is not. But besides the steep price, the PSP Go offers an interesting look on portable gaming. When your on the go, you don’t want to carry around 20 UMD or DS cards in your pockets. It’s clumsy, messy, and there’s more chances of breaking or losing something. Digital only games in this case make sense.
The other problem with download only games is simply bandwidth limitations. How many of you are with Rogers Cable? How’s your bandwidth cap holding out this month? Standard cable bandwidth caps are about 60GB/month give or take depending on your region. When your downloading 4 or 6GB games + playing online + your weekly movie and music downloads + streaming any online media + any internet usage from other family members in the house, that all adds up really fast. And Unless you have a DSL or Fiber Optic line, chances are your watching how much your using per month in order to avoid that extra fee.
Bottom line is both methods of media distribution have their pros and cons and neither one should over take the other. Both Digital distribution and hard copy media need to co-exist together as they are now in order to get the best of both worlds. Not everyone want’s to buy online, but not everyone feels the need to own a hard copy. Will digital distribution play a major role for games from now onwards? Yes. Will it be the only future? Never.
That would be stupid to cut off hard copies and move to pure digital distribution.
Perfect reasons for why the Disc wont just be history.