PotW: The future of retail games

PALGN Feature | Brick 'n mortar or a series of tubes?

What a downloadable week. Adventure game stalwarts given the first episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. Indie game fans graced with the artistic merits of Braid. Those dwelling on the past treated to the meticulously nostalgic likes of Bionic Commando Rearmed. Publishing powerhouse Electronic Arts taking its first larger steps in the digital channels, announcing plans to sell Burnout Paradise online. Like we said, "what a downloadable week".

The momentum for digital delivery has undoubtedly grown exponentially in the span of the last twelve months. And while there are still a few bumps felt along the way here and there, we can't help but feel an ever growing sympathy for the videogame retail chains of the material world – even if they do nickel and dime the unsuspecting on a daily basis.

So what if, as the analysts and Nostradamus' of this industry have endlessly predicted, the middle man was well and truly cut out completely?

The future arguably lies in the hands of those able to embrace convenience and cost-effectiveness, rather than more money than sense in pre-ordering yet another cluttering collector's edition. Indeed, dear PALGN reader, do you think all games should exclusively be purchasable digitally?

Vote | View Results

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17 Comments

ObsoletE

3 years ago

no.

i have no issue with all games being made buyable digitally, thus allowing the consumer to make a choice between Digital Distribution or buying it in a box, but to go the extreme and say Digital Distribution only?

no.

Spanca

3 years ago

I'm with Obs on this. I'm a big big fan of digital distribution and where this is going for so many media and entertainment industries at the moment, but we're not there yet. Bandwidth is still a big issue for countries like ours (*sigh*), as are things like copyright protection and there will always be that desire in some to have something tangible for their hard earned money.

I like the new layout for this though with the Vote and Results links much easier to reach.

G3ck0

3 years ago

I don't want digital distribution to become the norm until, say, the broadband plan I am on gets upgraded from 20 gigs a month, to say 60, then I might consider it a good possibility. But until broadband gets that cheap in Australia, no.

bobboblaw

3 years ago

I never want that to happen. Call me materialistic, but I like to have physical copies of my games.

Marka

3 years ago

I have nothing against digital distribution, but to make it exclusive is a mistake. There are plenty of people out there who just dont have an internet connection fast enough to download 6-8GB in a reasonable time frame let alone the download limit to allow such file transfers.

Even if digital distribution were to take over I would like to see it get cheaper considering that you have no box, manual or dics in a physical form (Im sure cutting out this stuff would save them money, including what they would save on shipping and other fees asocciated with getting a game onto the shelf in countires accross the world)
I could also imagine you would have a hard time getting your money back on a faulty product.

On more thing worth mentioning, if a ditribtuion system flops your downloaded software often ends up been as usefull as a brick, especially if you have uninstalled it since. Some people found that out the hardware when one of these companies went under a while back.

Skiller

3 years ago

I would have voted yes, but I love the collectors editions of games, and also I would need about 2-3TB of hard disk space to have the downloaded versions of my games... actually it's probably even more than that.

I just wish they didn't have regions on the download services, there are alot of games on steam I want to buy but can't since I'm in Australia and they aren't available or have inflated prices that make the import versions cheaper

Deus Sceleris

3 years ago

Heck no! I love my special editions. What's an exclusive digitial distrobuted title going to have in it's "special edition", a few interview/behind the scenes videos? Lame.

That's not to say i'm not for digital distrobution at all, if they can bring a game down <5GB, all the better. But something like Lost Odyssey, at 4 discs... Bugger off...

Marka wrote

manual

So it's not just me thta finds these completely useless? Controller layouts etc. appear in loading screens, character profiles, stuff like that... Useless...

ObsoletE

3 years ago

very interested to hear from some of the people who voted yes.

Spanca

3 years ago

Communists.

or worse, Commie-Nazis

john_solids

3 years ago

in 10 to 20 years yeh maybe, deffinetly not now though to early still people with dial-up, broadband aint to cheap and the bandwidth and speeds in australia arent big/fast enough. we havent even seen music and movies go all digital yet, so prolly a few years after they are only available digitally would be a good time for games to go all digital.

mattstep

3 years ago

I agree, digital distribution is a great option, and in fact will (and should) probably become the prominant way in which games are released in the future. However I think the choice should still be there. There is something special about tearing the plastic off a new game and flipping through the manual before you boot it up.

Appel

3 years ago

You look at the manual!?

I usually rip open the plastic and shove the game straight in.

legend166

3 years ago

That's quite the loaded question.

I don't want everything digital distribution now. Speeds aren't there, storage isn't there, bandwidth limits are too restrictive, etc.

But if in the future, if we actually get advantages from it, i.e. lower prices, more availability, etc, I'm all for it.

Jellyfish

3 years ago

Nothing beats a quality manual and cloth map of your area of adventuring. Ah the good old days... Now days you the bloody Health and Safety Warnings are longer than the manuals.

Lord Haart

3 years ago

Personally, sometimes the box is better.

Depends on the game. For a game like TF2, DD makes more sense, while for a deep RPG, there's nothing like a hefty manual to reassure you.

Duckula

3 years ago

God no, as a collector I'd hate this. I'm not even fond of MegaMan 9 being digital distribution only. I'm sure I'm probably the only person who'd pay $60 for a copy of it. Also they should bring back boxes, cases just aren't as cool.

MikeCrick

3 years ago

Definate no from me.

I've still got original boxes of 95% of the games I own. I like the idea of a tactile object more than just a file, the same goes for Music with me.

I don't think it's really even viable yet, especially in Australia with our slow internet and low download limits. Plus the storage needed to not only install the game but for the install files themselves.

I don't ever see them bringing the prices of games down either, people already pay full price to download games, Companies aren't going to let a cashflow like that die down. Pluse what they make up in shipping, they loose in server hosting and bandwith etc.

I'd rather have my games distributed on USB sticks than download them in the future.

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