Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

[Iwantcable]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

Manzi, the majority of the US population lives in or around large cities. Check out the stats from the 2000 Census (79% Urban vs 20% Rural).

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/census/cps2k.htm

http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-_box_head_nbr=GCT-P1&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-format=US-1

Just because some people living in rural areas (You Manzi) do not have access to high speed data does not mean the gaming industry will delay any plans to move to digital distribution. Business favors the many not the few. I prefer PC gaming, but the masses prefer console gaming so that is what business favors. The shift is coming and there is nothing anyone can do about it. You can continue to hold one to your culture of ownership and physical media, but it is going away no matter how loud the 20% of you scream. The majority of people in the US live like me not you Manzi.

I look forward to our next debate:

Less Filling! Tastes Great! Less Filling! Tastes Great! :dead:

Take a look at some of these statistics:
http://www.oecd.org/document/54/0,33..._1_1_1,00.html
Namely, 25% broadband penetration and ~50% household broadband usage (read the FAQ for explanation).

Now their definition of broadband:
http://www.oecd.org/document/46/0,33..._1_1_1,00.html
Any speed over 256kb/s... which includes Manzi and I. 1.5Mb/s would be the minimum for me to consider switching to digital distribution, but that's still about 7 hours for a 5GB game.

[Delta1]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

Take a look at some of these statistics:
http://www.oecd.org/document/54/0,33..._1_1_1,00.html
Namely, 25% broadband penetration and ~50% household broadband usage (read the FAQ for explanation).

Gamers are more likely to be broadband users. Their numbers would be much higher than 25%. Check out the stats on Steam or Xbox Live. With the gamers I know it is 100%. With my friends and family who are not gamers it is about 80% and that includes my grandmother who has a 6mb plan.

Take a look at some of these statistics:
http://www.oecd.org/document/54/0,33..._1_1_1,00.html
Namely, 25% broadband penetration and ~50% household broadband usage (read the FAQ for explanation).


Now their definition of broadband:
http://www.oecd.org/document/46/0,33..._1_1_1,00.html
Any speed over 256kb/s... which includes Manzi and I. 1.5Mb/s would be the minimum for me to consider switching to digital distribution, but that's still about 7 hours for a 5GB game.

Start the download before you go to bed, school, or work. It will be done when you wake up or return from home. I do it all the time and I have a fast connection.

[Iwantcable]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

First of all, we're talking about digital distribution over the consoles and PC, right?

Gamers are more likely to be broadband users. Their numbers would be much higher than 25%. Check out the stats on Steam or Xbox Live. With the gamers I know it is 100%. With my friends and family who are not gamers it is about 80% and that includes my grandmother who has a 6mb plan.

That's most definitely true, but why would a company want to limit their potential market to less than half of the US, right off the bat?

Start the download before you go to bed, school, or work. It will be done when you wake up or return from home. I do it all the time and I have a fast connection.

I think you misread my post, I said the minimum for me would be 1.5Mb/s to consider downloading. Right now, a 5GB game would take 24 hours at my full 512Kb/s. In the podcast I think it was mentioned that AoC was 15GB. Granted, it is an MMO, but games aren't getting any smaller.

Don't get me wrong, if I had a fiber cable to my house, I'd download everything (or if downloading was $10 cheaper). I'm not concerned with DRM or Steam going bankrupt, etc.

[Delta1]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

Don't get me wrong, if I had a fiber cable to my house, I'd download everything (or if downloading was $10 cheaper). I'm not concerned with DRM or Steam going bankrupt, etc.

I understand where you guys are coming from. My point is we should not fight digital distribution, we should embrace it. Everything changes in technology and it changes faster than any other industry. In the new information age we all need to stay current or we will get left behind. The digital TV transition was recently pushed back until June, but no matter how long you delay it there are going to be people who are unhappy. We have to draw the line sometime or we will never make progress.

Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only?

Because people do not like change. They are afraid of it, they try to fight it. I collect comics and love a physical book in my hand, however, the two major publishers (Marvel & DC) have said within a decade they will no longer produce paper comics. They plan to move to digital distribution exclusively. So what should I do? Should I say the world is not ready or should I get ready?

[MrKLM]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

A decades time is about right. By then most people should be able to do it. But not even close right now.

[Sir. bzb]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

The main problem with the US is out dated infrastructure. At the out set of the interwebs the US invested a great deal in nifty interwebability, many other nations diddnt invest until later. I suppose its a good demonstration of the practical implications of Moores law.

So really speed isnt an issue, its just a question of time until infrastructure is upgraded. Capping isnt always an ISP being mean, it can just represent network limitations.

An angle im suprised you diddnt touch on was the green one. The more things that can be delivered to your door without using up natural resources the better.

What i was stunned you diddnt go for with fangs out was the cost of downloads.
They are amazingly expensive. There are far greater costs involved in getting a physical copy of a game to you than there are in downloading something yet either method leaves the same sized hole in your pocket. It is very rare to find a digital download cheaper than its physical counter part.

[MrKLM]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

Most of the time as Dre has said you will find Steam, Direct2Drive, or Gamersgate doing sales but for short periods of time, sometimes they will do it cheaper then a retail store which most of the time is 10% off at retail on a sale.

[Sir. bzb]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

You only ever compare normal prices.

For example;

Empire Total War

Steam £39.99
PC World £34.96
Game £29.99
Tesco £23.96
Amazon £23.96

I've done it for several games, i can save 0.64p on a download of GTA4. Left for Dead is the only game i have so far found to be the same price in physical and digital form.

Of course there is precendence for pricing policy when moving to new media, essentially if you can find any excuse to keep the price at least as high as it already is your margin goes way up so why drop it.

[Vreki]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

I think you misread my post, I said the minimum for me would be 1.5Mb/s to consider downloading. Right now, a 5GB game would take 24 hours at my full 512Kb/s. In the podcast I think it was mentioned that AoC was 15GB. Granted, it is an MMO, but games aren't getting any smaller.

24 hours is a bit too much, but I have no problem having to do an overnight download.

For me the alternatives are:

1. Only buy my games on weekends, since most gaming outlets will be closed before I can get too them after a day at work
2. Order it online, wait two days for the mailman to show up when I am not at home, and then being unable to get to the Post Office in its opening hours

[David Champion]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

If it'll get me the game faster by a few days because I pre-download it and I don't have to run 15-20 miles to get it then I am ready, fortunately I have a great connection...

I also enjoy my Gamefly... Sometimes I get the games new and all I have to do is send them the $$ for the difference and they send me the book and the case... Even better, I pay for it at a used price even though I got it on the first wave... I got Far Cry 2 for 43$ and it was brand new for PS3...

Anywho, I will be getting BF1943 and this will be the only way to get it, DLC.
Not sure what the difference is if I D/L on a console or to my PC.

[TheEn|gma]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

You only ever compare normal prices.

For example;

Empire Total War

Steam £39.99
PC World £34.96
Game £29.99
Tesco £23.96
Amazon £23.96

Total War on Steam is a complete rip off, I'd be suprised if anyone picks it up on there. It's a bad example of how to price download only games.

If it'll get me the game faster by a few days because I pre-download it and I don't have to run 15-20 miles to get it then I am ready, fortunately I have a great connection...

Yeah this is one of the main reasons I bought L4D on steam, it was released the best part of a week early on steam compared to boxed version over here and it was practically the same price. I pre-ordered the day before left it to download and was ready to play the second I got back from work, no install to wait for was great. And besides the only time I read the manual is when I bored waiting for the game to install anyways.

[kaheiyeh]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

Games that are small in size, yes, they could be effectively distributed over the internet with little issues.

However, if you want me to download a game the size of FSX/GTA IV or something like that, I'd loose my ENTIRE month's worth of download limit on one single game and have to deal with 56k speeds for the other 29 days until my cap it reset.

Until ISPs get rid of download quotas here, there is no way I am supporting download only games. That is unless, they are small, such as up to a maximum of 2GB. I'm not crapping my entire internet for a month just for a game.

[David Champion]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

Total War on Steam is a complete rip off, I'd be suprised if anyone picks it up on there. It's a bad example of how to price download only games.



Yeah this is one of the main reasons I bought L4D on steam, it was released the best part of a week early on steam compared to boxed version over here and it was practically the same price. I pre-ordered the day before left it to download and was ready to play the second I got back from work, no install to wait for was great. And besides the only time I read the manual is when I bored waiting for the game to install anyways.

And didn't they give us a 10% discount for early purchase?! Well in most cases... hellz yeah!

[TheEn|gma]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

And didn't they give us a 10% discount for early purchase?! Well in most cases... hellz yeah!

Yeah but the conversion rates were being used at that time so it only just made it about the same price for me. Thank god Steam accepts the pound directly now, even if it's worth less to them with how things are.

[Roberts91]

Re: Why the World Is Not Ready to Go Download Only

The world is moving constantly. If you can't keep up with it. Then you are going to slow the rest of us down. You can either die here, or you can stop crying about how painful it is, get up, and go while you still have the chance. Seriously the kind of people who are not ready to go download only are the weak. It's harsh but just forget about them and let them die. There gonna get us all killed