Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Charlie Sheen’s “comedy” tour, Mark Teixeira’s quest for 100 home runs, or lower back pain, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Most pundits believe that videogame consoles will eventually be discless. It’s just a matter of when. Publishers love digital distribution. Digital movies, music, and television are booming and expected to grow at a mercurial rate. When do you think gaming is going to go discless? Will it be the generation after next? Or perhaps the one after that?
The biggest obstacle — especially in America — is bandwidth. American ISPs are all about bandwidth capping, shaping, and throttling. That has to change if consumers are going to download gigabytes of games. Gamers also need to adjust to the digital world. Some people love boxed games, while others love being able to trade games after they’re done with them. I envision a vocal minority screaming and shouting about digital distribution…and eventually accepting it.
Anyway, I wanted to get your thoughts on discless consoles. When do you think they’ll arrive? Which major console company will be the first to attempt one? How do you think the market will react to a discless console? Kindly share your thoughts in the comments section!
*kindle share your thoughts in the comment section
itll be sony, they are the ones who build consoles to last decades. They are forward thinking, moreso than their competitors….Im for digital distribution, but we better see 5 terabyte harddrives in these machines to make them worth the purchase…for me anyways
Discless gaming will not need very much local storage if it goes the dumb terminal route. They can then charge you s monthly fee akin to an MMO.
it will be awhile but discless gaming is coming sooner than you think
It will come and will be bad for us financially. I don't see MS or Sony putting games on sale or slashing prices like Steam.
Then again they might not have a choice in a DD model. $5 Sword and Sworcery is better than most of their $15-$20 arcade games.
Exactly, this is my biggest problem with DD. DD games should cost at least $10 cheaper than the physical copy. I refuse to pay the physical copy amount for a DD game.
If you ever visit Steam, you will see that EA sells new releases for $60 on there. Lame.
Not the least bit interested in online streaming. I like being able to trade stuff in. I like having a physical copy. And I live in the sticks with a mediocre internet connection anyway. Why would I want cloud gaming? Especially when the prices remain the same. It's a model that only favors the publishers, not the consumers.
I didn't necessarily say streaming. If anything, I see triple-A games being downloadable since they'll be dozens of GBs in the future.
Still can't trade it in. Still can't have a physical copy. I'm still not thrilled with it. Again, it's a move that only makes sense for the publisher, not the gamer.
Of course it's not. That's what they want. The caps by ISPs will be the platform they use to move towards streaming for a fee. I sub to an mmo but I'd refuse to sub for any other game type.
The trade-in value I understand. Physical copies are passe. There's a whole generation growing up without music and movies on disc. Most of them find the concept of a physical CD ridiculous. I'm certain that games will eventually go that way. I've lived in large cities for most of my adult life, so I'm happy to keep physical media to a minimum. I much rather have a local digital copy with a digital locker in the cloud.
The thing with digi only games is that they should be able to run on any version of a company's box. Unlimited downloads and bc are necessary I think.
I agree. All three console companies could do a better job with their digital lockers.
Physical copies of games are not passe, especially since (at this point) you can't separate the physical media from the trade in value.
What if consoles started putting keys on the discs that bound to account?
that would require internet connection or they'd cripple the game somehow for offline play. I would see them doing that before they go ALL digital dist.
Trade-ins are on the way out. Discs are on the way out. It's old tech that will be gone in a decade at most.
Doesn't make it a good deal for the consumer.
It's more convenient and it doesn't take up space. Are people complaining about music, books, and movies being digital?
People aren't used to getting $25 back on a CD they don't listen to anymore.
And people will get used to not being able to trade-in. That market is going to disappear. It's inevitable.
I get that. But you asked our opinion. I think it sucks. It sucks hard. $60 for a game is not cheap. If publishers take away a trade in option from the consumer without giving anything back other than "we'll save you some shelf space," it's a shitty deal.
i'm on the fence with discless consoles. I'd love to free up more room but the prices are going to remain the same and the way bandwidth is now in the US, no one can support it. I agree thundercracker that Sony may be the first of the big 3 to try this out with a console but their online service can barely handle online gaming, i seriously doubt they would be able to support discless gaming.
Firstly I am not for Discless gaming at all. I enjoy it for the crap whatever games I download on PSN and XBL, but not for a full featured game. I don't have that kind of time to wait for the POS to download also.
Secondly, What is a collector's edition of a Digitally Distributed game going to consist of? Because currently you already can get exclusive digital stuff just by pre-ordering. It would be odd to see collector's editions die too.
Firstly, we're talking about the future, so I expect the bandwidth situation to improve where you live. If you're still dealing with the same speeds a decade from now, there's a huge infrastructure problem.
As for collector's editions, the more popular route seems to be going with content instead of swag. Things like getting extra maps or free day-one DLC have proven to be popular.
I am okay with Demos distributed over the internet, and for smaller games? Sure. However, I just don't see multi-GB downloads as a viable option. When I downloaded Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus, it took over 6 (maybe even over 12) hours to download and install, and that game doesn't use much memory, only about 1.5 gigs. If that's how long it takes to download a title of that size, then I can't imagine how much time it would take and how much memory you'd have to have to download 4+ Gigabyte games. Plus, selling games online takes sales away from gaming retailers (who aren't Gamestop), so it's bad for other companies as well.
I think that Sony is going in the right direction by offering a non-UMD flash-based format with Day 1 releases both in said format and online. By doing this, they can also gauge how popular discless gaming is by comparing sales data.
If you could download games quickly and have enough memory to support those games, then I'd be for discless gaming. Until that day comes, I'll stick with the retailer- and consumer-friendly approach.
@lunias
Your speed was bad because PSN has crap for bandwidth. Steam or Xbox Live are faster since they actually put money in the delivery bandwidth.
**some** ppl have decent speeds but they are in the minority from what I have observed
Plus, we're talking about the future. The next generation of consoles (PS4, Xbox 720) will surely have discs. We're talking about five to ten years from now. We won't be dealing with the same kind of bandwidth.
I would like them to move to flash for delivery. Less to break on the machine.
???
<img class="alignnone" src="http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/vel17/uploaded_images/amd_flash2-767083.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="358" />
Hehe. Exactly.
Seriously though if they expect 10 year life cycles (which I find to bel ridiculous) then not having spinning, heat producing mechanical components would be a good thing. I'm sure as hell not going to replace a console that breaks. Especially if it is 3-4 years old. The tech isn't worth the price then to me.
Warning: things will likely be slow today, with a chance of getting weird. I wrenched my back yesterday and it hurts to move / sit / stand. The weird part would be a result of the vicodin I just popped.
That sucks. I did a similar thing last weekend.
Get well soon, Chief.
Hope you feel better… I mean, mainly when the vicodin wears off.
-M
I actually don't enjoy vicodin. I wish I did. It just makes me feel stupid and slow.
Vicodin never did too much for me when I had it for getting a wisdom tooth pulled. I normally don't need painkillers for anything like that, but it did take the pain away from that. Nothing more though unfortunately.
If you crush them up and snort them they seem to be more effective.
(don't ask)
i did the same exact thing yesterday, hurts to lay down, walk, sit, stand, breathe
cept i dont have vicodin, i have advil
The vicodin is leftover from when my knee was really messed up. (It's only a little messed up now.)
my address is 4811 treely road chester va 23831,
send me some lol
in a related note, google maps needs to update their photos lol
You must have me mistaken for Jeff Hardy. I'm not a drug trafficker.
Wow… that's incredible. The title of this Coffee Talk was one of my high school nicknames.
Oh… wait a minute… DISCless Wonder… nevermind.
LOL!
-M
ladies and gentlemen, the comedy stylings of nate fitzgerald
I was hoping someone would appreciate the pun. Thank N8R! You get me.
I love the very last sentence in the article, haha. Anyways, I think that we will only get complete digital distribution on games after there are no bandwidth caps and we are able to have true unlimited data. Until that point there will be some severe limitations that I just don't see the big three really trying to overcome. All digital obviously works for Steam, but I'm not sure that the big three will put in the effort to do anything like Steam until there is unlimited data, or the get a piece of the profit from overage charges on data usage. I just don't think there is any incentive for the bigger companies to go all digital.
Also, the thing I would miss most about having all digital distribution is not so much the lack of being able to resell my used games, but that pre-order promotions and special editions probably wouldn't be as likely.
You don't think there's incentive? Look at how Apple, Amazon, and Google sell digital goods.
I don't think any of the big three in the video game industry are hurting from NOT having digital distribution only. If they aren't hurting, losing money, wasting money, etc. anywhere and they are still doing just fine with hard copies of their media then I don't think they have as much incentive—and if there is some incentive, it isn't enough to force them to change to digital distribution only right now.
Retailers and shippers are making money that could be theirs. It's not like Amazon wasn't selling books and CDs before it went big with digital.
To be fair though, Amazon changed with the trends of the particular markets when it comes to music and movies. They took the leap with books and it paid off.
The biggest problem I see with all digital media is the easy ability to pirate. If I can see it or hear it with my computer, I can record it (Screenflow FTW). However… this is slightly different with games, but I see piracy becoming even more rampant on games if they go 100% digital distribution. The crappiest part about that, is that game companies will probably then do what Adobe did and start charging RIDICULOUS prices… but for games.
I see it more them not sending you a complete client but only what you need to run it locally in order to play on a server remotely. Sorta like an MMO right now. Think DC universe.
True… for that sub-genre of gaming and possible other multiplayer games… but single player gaming is not going to die in our lifetime.
However… I'm reminded of the social gaming revolution opening up the world of gaming to the millions of new gamers that it does. I'm then reminded of the advances in html5 and where that is quite possibly headed for future technology. Those combined makes me think of a web-based structure where your email and password allow you to play the exclusive games. The publisher can then release consoles for tv's, or even completely web based, or both. The only thing you store locally is like a code that takes you to your save point.
That scares me a little.
@N8
Why would that method exclude single player? ME2 is a single player game but has to phone home.
Naa…your save points will be in the cloud as well. Sony is going to do that with PS+ it sounds like. The two mechanical components of these consoles (3 if you include the tray on the 360) are arguably the most expensive part of the console aside from licensing of patents. Like I was telling Ray earlier…next gen I could see them not having discs at all but going with Flash for client delivery. There could be local storage on the machine for firmware or a profile, but the game saves would probably be handled by the flash cart as well.
Odd that we would regress back to that method of storage huh? Just my guess though. I really don't see the current spinning disc and spinning hdd being in the new machines.
I agree… the future will have no moving parts.
I actually see piracy being less of an issue if content is tied to an account. There's no good way to track copied discs. It's much easier to catch people cheating with accounts.
People will find a way, I guarantee it.
It's much easier to police anything that require online authentication.
That's when people will start making fake accounts.
That's easy to police. Faking IP addresses is harder to police, but also more difficult for consumers to do.
Maybe and maybe not. Depends on the level of access on the machine. That's an interesting hurdle on a console to say the least.
Would the machine be able to have more than one profile?
What are the recovery stipulations?
Hmm.