What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

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  • tw1g

    #46
    Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

    Originally posted by Casey
    What happens if your hard drive crashes? Do you have to repay to download the booster pack agian, or do they keep records of who has bought it, so they can give it to you again..?

    If that's the case, that beats the crap out of having to buy a new copy from a store if you lose/brake your CD.
    Simple solution. Burn it on a CD so you have a copy to reinstall if harddrive crashes. Unless it crashes as soon as you got it which is highly unlikely.

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    • Copy_of_Blah

      #47
      Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

      Just for the record -
      Special Forces ~ the EA Downloader NEEDS XP just to unpack the contents.
      BF2/SF ~ Retail just warns you if your OS is not supported and continues the installation.

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      • jdrou
        Member
        • Jul 2006
        • 1860

        #48
        Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

        Originally posted by Copy_of_Blah
        Just for the record -
        Special Forces ~ the EA Downloader NEEDS XP just to unpack the contents.
        BF2/SF ~ Retail just warns you if your OS is not supported and continues the installation.
        Also, the editor won't install on 2000 but it will run.

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        • « R²» HKS

          #49
          Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

          EA are really going to restrict the market with this online purchasing and downloading of content.

          A lot of people who bought this game don't have a credit card. Those that do, there would be a high percentage that mistrust handing out their CC number over the internet for purchasing goods.

          If they also had paypal as an alternat method of purchasing the game then I'm sure they would get a lot more sales. Even now, finally, in Australia you can transfer funds from your bank account to your paypal account. Not only is it a much safer route than using a CC card its more widely available to everyone as an alternate to CC.

          I think these booster packs will be a dud.

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          • Metal_Storm

            #50
            Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

            Will their servers be able to handle the demand?

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            • imported_-USN-Seadog

              #51
              Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

              Originally posted by [TOILET]Metal_Storm
              Will their servers be able to handle the demand?
              Will I ever figure out your avatar?:laugh:

              But seriously, my SF download went suprisingly well considering how intimidated I was at the size. I did jump on it as soon as it was availible though because I knew it would be well after the release when the base stores would carry it.

              And coasty, I sent you a pm on a possible workaround.

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              • Metal_Storm

                #52
                Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

                Originally posted by -USN-Seadog
                Will I ever figure out your avatar?:laugh:
                Maybe you dont want to! :shock:

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                • imported_-USN-Seadog

                  #53
                  Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

                  Originally posted by <<R2>>Capt.HKS
                  A lot of people who bought this game don't have a credit card. Those that do, there would be a high percentage that mistrust handing out their CC number over the internet for purchasing goods.
                  Just to add my two cents. I can really understand peoples fears of handing out that information. Two years ago my number was intercepted from an amazon purchace and my checking account was drained of $5,000 from somewhere in Taiwan. The good news is that credit card companys want you to have confidence in online purchases and my money was refunded by VISA in about five days, no hassle.

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                  • Tiamet

                    #54
                    Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

                    Originally posted by -USN-Seadog
                    Just to add my two cents. I can really understand peoples fears of handing out that information. Two years ago my number was intercepted from an amazon purchace and my checking account was drained of $5,000 from somewhere in Taiwan. The good news is that credit card companys want you to have confidence in online purchases and my money was refunded by VISA in about five days, no hassle.
                    You're missing the point. Money was stolen from your account. The fact that you got it back is irrelevant. The fact it was taken in the first place is. And maybe the next time will be the one when you don't get the money back.
                    Here in Germany almost no shops accept plastic. E-bay is bank transfer for preference. Other mail-order is Cash-on-Delivery. Few people bother with C-Cards because there is no need. We don't all live in America, where if you don't have a credit card you don't exist.

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                    • KCoastie8206

                      #55
                      Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

                      Originally posted by ptegan
                      Yeah. I forgot about Visa gift card, great answer !

                      KCoastie8206 could you enetr a fake address and still use your CC number?
                      I don't know, i'll probably try it when the time comes, but I would think that if my CC number and the address don't match up, it wouldn't work. ???

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                      • Chief-Mulla

                        #56
                        Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

                        well the problem for me is that I have a 1gig download limit and for some reason I can only download at about 12kbs most of the time

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                        • Older-OMO

                          #57
                          Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

                          Originally posted by Chief-Mulla
                          well the problem for me is that I have a 1gig download limit and for some reason I can only download at about 12kbs most of the time
                          The packs are supposed to be around 300MB, so that is under your limit. 12kbs is slower than dialup. How do you play the game?

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                          • big_sammy_b

                            #58
                            Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

                            i buy stuff off the net (hardware) all the time but theres no way im going to pay for software that i download if im paying for it i want a box and a disc.

                            Comment

                            • flakpyro

                              #59
                              Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads

                              If EA is a publisher for Valve boxed games not why doesnt EA use their new found friends and use Steam? Steam has been around for a few years and it USUALLY works..most gamers already have it installed, it has alot of bandwidth capacity. In fact what EA is doing with their downloader service is exactly what im afraid of, every publisher having thier own steam clone that they expect me to download and install, more crud. Steam is already there, the beat you to it, just use it! At first i was very anti steam, i thought it was crudware/spyware like but once i actually tried it i found it worked quite well, ive bought DOD:S and HL:S on it for reasonable prices and the download speed has been good. Steam also lets you backup your games to DVD.

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                              • megawhompertoo
                                oldswab
                                • Dec 2005
                                • 2124

                                #60
                                Re: What's Wrong with Electronic Downloads?

                                Originally posted by Older-OMO
                                snip
                                Think about the normal distribution costs. The costs to deliver boxed software are not insignificant:
                                - Design, edit, finalize and produce packaging
                                - Printing documentation
                                - CD art and reproduction costs
                                - Shipping costs to distributors, who in turn have to ship to their retail partners
                                - Potential stocking fees
                                - In store marketing (signs, posters, end caps etc)
                                - Margin to each layer of the distribution channel

                                This doesn't even include the development costs.

                                By the time it ends up in the store, it has been marked up 1-2 times. At the end of the day, noone is going to make much money at $10 per box. More important it also isn't going to make it to your hard drive as fast.

                                snip EA have said the SF download helped convince them that online sales and distribution was a viable alternative to exisiting traditional methods for add-on content. Think about it, they have eliminated or reduced packaging, distribution and marketing costs. They can charge $10 and still make a reasonable profit.

                                snip It costs less, gets to you faster and allows them to make money. Everybody wins?
                                Great theory. I walked into Best Buy and paid $24.95 (edit: plus 8.5% sales tax) for SF three weeks after it's release. Can you tell me how much money would I save if I downloaded it today for $29.99?

                                You're right. Those cardboard boxes are killing their business model...

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