Will Games Become Download Only?

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Gameguru Mania News - Mar,04 2006 -

Will Games Become Download Only? - briefly
(hx) 02:25 AM CET - Mar,04 2006 - Post a comment / read (9)
Gamesindustry.biz article has an Electronic Arts exec stating his belief that all entertainment media, not just games, will be downloadable and that within 10 years:

EA's European VP of sales, Dr. Jens Uwe Intat, has given the clearest signal yet of the firm's commitment to digital distribution - stating that within the next ten years, "all entertainment media will be downloaded to a device."

Speaking at the firm's European HQ in Chertsey, Dr. Intat told GamesIndustry.biz that ten years from now "CDs, DVDs and boxed games will be as antiquated as cassette tapes and vinyl records."

last 10 comments:

Jelster

(06:36 AM CET - Mar,04 2006 )

Yes, I'd say under 10 years to score a majority of sales but far longer to replace traditional retail sales altogether. The net might be getting cheaper and more wide spread but there are substancial pockets of the population that need high speed internet.

Even so, right of resale, ownership management and an actual incentive to give up that physical cd/dvd need to be fixed before anyone will give it serious consideration.

ThePacifier	(02:10 PM CET - Mar,04 2006 )
Well..if that happens..Portugal(the country where i live) have to change the policy of international downloads. We can have download maximum 2 gigabytes international and 20 gigabytes national. Or maybe the companys of games have a ftp here in Portugal... Thats crap..for us if that happens.

Sabot

(02:42 PM CET - Mar,04 2006 )

The serious implications of this are far more reaching out than can be evisaged. EA is talking out of VALVEs infected bum!

Here's why:
Imagine the amount of games (that you download) that will *naturaly* have a limited number of uses (licences) if you will. Now what happens when your HD crashes or are infected with a virus that means you reformat or have to rebuild?
SOOOOOO what do you have to store that downloaded media on?????? Come on, CD/DVD is dead, according to EA in 10years...so how do you backup THAT downloaded game?
ON a blank CD/DVD is how...dooooh!!! Yeah EA it's soooo dead that WE have to back it up onto CD/DVD all over again :roll: We can hardly keep it on HD since it's to volatile

Read into this as per VALVE; it's another way of passing the buck and basicaly saying YOU pay for the backup media because we can have **ONE copy of the game on our server** but charge you lot to download it and pay for your own storage AND print your OWN sodding manual also!

Read between the lines and all is clear.....

What's the biggest selling format of any media -and has been since we invented it? a **PHYSICAL** copy is what!
Vynl LP/singles are still popular and you can buy digital record decks. CD sales still outweigh downloads -if not then why do artistes still sell/make CDs

DVD is still king, HD is all the rage, HD TV is the future along with Blu-ray and we still have audio tapes on Hi-Fi......then EA woke up and it was a dream...............

Jelster

(09:45 PM CET - Mar,04 2006 )

While you point out very valid points that will need to be addressed you fail to acknowledge the possible positive sides.

Being able to keep your software collection at a remote location means you can activate regardless of where you are. No need to lug round lots of CD/DVDs to a friends house.

No lost, damaged discs to worry about.

Not needing to go to the store to see if they've received their delivery in yet.

Easier to give you the full game for a limited time instead of needing to produce a costly demo.

Logically its a much better distribution system, and a cheaper one which I really would like to see passed onto the consumer.

Now the negative points do need to be fixed.

Agreements should allow you to sell your license to another person, the distribution system should be built to allow this kind of ownership transfer.

Contingency funds should be legally set aside to enable the transfer of software to a third party or physical medium if the company went bankrupt. You shouldn't lose ownership because somone goes out of business.

You should be able to install the software as many times and on as many machines as you like. However, you should only be able to play on a single installation at a time. The easiest and best way to work this I'm not sure, but they must do this.

And yes, download limits. More and more ISPs are rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of charging a tax on these downloads by imposing a download limit on their end. I hope this goes away in ten years. Otherwise, well I guess you could rely on social distribution, friend downloads game, burns backup to DVD, passes to other friend who installs majority of backup data from the DVD and then just activates the licence.

devilhood	(11:04 PM CET - Mar,04 2006 )
I'm too retro, nothing like a big box and a well written quirky manual (hard to come by these days).

yhancik

(12:57 AM CET - Mar,05 2006 )

DuTraveller> Well..if that happens..Portugal(the country where i live) have to change the policy of international downloads. We can have download maximum 2 gigabytes international and 20 gigabytes national. Or maybe the companys of games have a ftp here in Portugal...

Thats crap..for us if that happens.

it's a little the same here in Belgium... almost all ISP set a transfert limit (upload+download), around 10Gb

if you download just one game, you're fuxxed

and you would certainly not want to have to download it again in case of HD crash

Anonymous	(05:08 AM CET - Mar,05 2006 )
DELETED

Sabot

(05:00 PM CET - Mar,05 2006 )

Ok here's another major issue, just how many kids/teenagers out there have credit cards???? Well,well EA that's a HUGE market that WONT be buying downloaded games eh?

What about internet fraud? Do you honestly want to give your details to EA employees? Look at the fiasco that VALVE went through -something like 30,000 accounts cancelled due to illegal credit card use practicaly overnight!

The internet is a whores den of filth. creeps out to hack and infect your machine for credit card details -stolen identity, now there's a good one. You don't even own a hard copy of a game so these creeps can steal your card details and download games to their heart content at *YOUR* expense. Sounds great now eh......

The only people that profit out of this are VALVE and the EAs of the world, your details are stolen online..so what, do they care?? NO. It only takes 30secs and a scumbag has used your card and faded into the internet mist -not their responsibility.

I think you lot must look a little harder into this before preaching that 'it's the way forward!' The way forward is *SECURE* internet shopping THAT IS THE UPPERMOST FIRST STEP before buying games permanently online becomes *anything* like the norm.

Absolute fools to see it otherwise

xxxx

(06:47 PM CET - Mar,06 2006 )

Who would listen to what EA sees 10 years from now. I'm hoping gamers actually get a little smarter and not buy from the money hungry scum that is EA. Let us not forget their prices, let us not forget their poor support and let us not forget Valve is with EA. EA can suck my left nut, cuz the day I have to buy software online is the day I give up gaming. And again, who the hell would take the word from EA? Pfff? Please.

Ya I remember a guy saying 640K is all we will need.

When I start seeing someone from EA predicting the future, I laugh.