Disc only at Launch, why does this still happen?

I was looking forward to this game even though I haven't played any of Quantic Dream's earlier games like Heavy Rain. I much prefer digital because I've been primarily a PC user and such I am accustomed to Steam, and because when I finally decided to get in on the console goodness (fairly late in the cycle) I bought the Super Slim PS3. It was cheap and I had a spare hard drive. I had heard the Blue-ray drive was somewhat noisy on the model which didn't matter too much as I was planning on using it as little as possible.

I soon realized that a fair number of PS3 exclusives that I wanted to play where actually Disc only, games like God of War 3, Resistance 3, Valkyria Chronicles, 3D Dot Game Heroes and of course, Heavy Rain.

While I can understand that some of the slightly older games might not be on PSN as it was probably a different time and digital services and hadn't caught on to the same degree as it have now, (though I would have thought they by now, would have had plenty of time to get it done) but it really boggles my mind as to why a brand new game like Beyond Two Souls doesn't launch on PSN. Have they made some deal with retailers to not release digitally? Because I can think of no other logical reason.

Sony have made it clear that they are very focused on digital services for the next generation. Why not begin by having major exclusive titles such as Beyond Two Souls. always have a digital version, and further more, get these aforementioned classic games on PSN. I know that Sony probably isn't to directly to blame as it is probably the developer who decides whether to release digitally, but I would think it to be in Sony's best interest to push developers to always release on PSN.

I guess I will have to buy it on disc or maybe wait for a digital release in the future, though I might have lost interest in playing it at that point.

It's probably a big ass game. U3 was ~30 gigs, and I imagine this is the same, if not more, considering how much audio there is. Beyond is a first-party game, so it would be Sony's decision. On that: this is a game that is considered to hit "non-standard" markets, meaning non-gamers (who are more likely to shop in store than the PSN), so it makes sense that they wouldn't put the time into optimizing the code to make it easy for download (at least for day one), and instead focused on making it run from a disk.

Frankly I'm shocked that you are turned off from buying this game because you can't download it. Blows my mind.

I was reading about and one theory made sense on why beyond is not available on Digital. GTA V really took it out of the servers and the psn servers continue to struggle with GTA online so i think Sony does not want to add more pressure to its servers.

Also Since beyond is a fully story driven game Sony might have thought that the game would get hacked like what happened with GTA V.

My guess is that it takes extra effort to pack an executable for release on digital platforms and this game had a time limit that prevented them from doing so. Plus, the commenter above is probably right when it comes to the size of the download. I bet that game is filling up the Blu-Ray disk as full as it can get. Bandwidth is not cheap.

Its probably ether the game is huge in which case downloading it on PSN would take forever and a day, or it could be that they were worried about leaks since the game is kinda the story mode and thats it. Ether way your complaint about having to go out and get it is a first world problem

If it really is a case of the game being too big, what'll happen with the PS4 when all games are that size.

Ideally they will have ironed out the kinks in PSN's network by then, and not every game will use the full space of the disk, hell most games dont use the full blu ray on current gen games

I haven't used my disc drive in 2 years. I imagine that is the same for a lot of people who only play on PC. People who go from PC to console just have different expectations because they are so used to a different distribution model.

Well I'd gladly pay extra for a disc rather than a digital download, for two reasons.

1) I like tangible stuff and it means I can resell it when I'm done.

2) My download speed STINKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

@dizzyhippos: While I do not doubt that you have been to the jungles of south Africa, or the deserts of the Sierra. I do doubt that, if this user was living there he would not have this same complaint. I also doubt that that having fun is isolated to the "first world" where ever that is, I can never find it on a map.

I don't think the size of the game should be a reason here. In around 40 days Sony will be offering everything digitally on day one for PS4. At least I think they said everything...

You might want to double-check that. And even if they did, the PS3 and PS4 are not the same thing.

I've been playing PC mostly for the last 8 years, can't say I'm playing the same way as you though. I download 90% of my games and still buy some boxed when I come across a really good deal. Buy almost all my console games boxed.

Expectations aside, I just can't put myself, mentally, in a place where I'm interested in playing a game but the delivery format swings my decision. I'd understand if this was about a PC game and your PC *didn't have a disc drive* for some reason but... yeah...
*anywho* good luck with Beyond!

They'll be available to download, the question is *who* will download them? 50 gigs for Shadowfall? I'll grab the box copy thanks.

Because the game is big and PS3 hard drives are relatively small on average. Plus retailers still need to be part of the equation I guess.

Because Sony does not Standardize everything. They are more willing to bend just for the better relationships with retailers or press. In this case, retailers.

Because this isn't fucking iTunes.

Next year everything will be different. I bought the PS3 version in a store because I'm still doing that. Not the first store I went to, turns out Target doesn't carry it. Anyway, how do I get it out of the steelbook? It's in there real fucking good!

Discs suck. Cases suck. Digital is the future. That'll be nice. Plus it'll mean I won't have to box up any old games or start using a 3rd row of my bookshelf.

well its nice to be able to still sell your used games ( punches MS in the face) but i was curious why QD wont release digital copies of HR or this? its not that big, like 5gig install.

I can't wait for more MMOs to come out on Consoles and people picking those up digitally.
Of course the new Killzone as well and so on.

Then we're gonna have threads about "OMG! Sony lied, sure they're all digital but I installed 3 games and my HDD is full!".
Never ending circle of just nonsense.

It is kinda crazy, they've been pretty good about digital releases for the last while. I'd just buy it off amazon or something.

Or actually, maybe just wait, its not a very good game so far.

I kinda thought the topic didn't interest anyone since I never got notified. I was only because it randomly surfaced on the "Recent Forum Activity" list that I realized that wasn't the case.

I might have overstated how interested I was in playing it, it certainly doesn't hold my interest to the same degree as The Last of Us, a game which early footage became the deciding factor in getting a PS3. Rather it seemed to be game doing something different and in a budget mostly reserved for man-shooters. Which piqued my interest, but was never a must buy.

While I guess size is an issue when considering that some people might still be limited by hard drive size as low as 20 GB, I still think that shouldn't matter, these people probably almost never buy digital in any case. Beyond two Souls is on Pirate Bay at 25 GB which is less than The Last of Us, besides in relation to some rumours suggesting that the European version will be censored, Beyond’s European Product Manager at SCEE, Ross Alexander had this to say:

“I can fill you in with more detail on this.

There are only two amends between the EU and US versions of the game, amounting to about 5-10 seconds of gameplay that’s not been removed, just edited slightly to be in line with a PEGI 16 rating.

For BEYOND we wanted to make the game available to as many people as possible, hence applying for a PEGI 16 rating. The 5-10 seconds I mention above would have upped our rating to a PEGI 18, so it made perfect sense to make these two VERY minimal changes to get our planned 16 rating.

I can assure you that this does not affect the game’s story at all, and that if you didn’t know these scenes had been amended, you wouldn’t even notice.

Hope the above helps to allay your concern.

Thanks,

Ross”

Well, if they want to make the game available to as many people as possible why not get it on PSN? Whoever these non-gamers buying the game Beyond Two Souls are they would still have to be a large enough group to make Beyond Two Souls profitable, and I would think some might have liked to pre-load it on PSN and play it day one.

That is something I hadn't considered. If that is the case should we be worried about their ability to handle online services on the PS4 too?

I guess that would be a second point, if it had been on PSN day one I might have downloaded it before I could be dissuaded by the general talk surrounding the game. Not really directly positive but in terms profit I would have thought it to be in their own interest.

I am probably just going to wait as I already got a lot on the games I want to play list.

The last of us was like 20gigs, ps3 games don't seem to be that optimized for download honestly, probably because of all the bluray space developers don't bother to compress as much. It could just be a delay for techincal reasons, or they could be trying to get people into the stores to check out the ps4 hardware etc in case they haven't preordered

@oursin_360: It's not that PS3 games aren't "optimised" for download, it's just that games are getting that big these days. Most of the hot releases I download on Steam probably average ~10-15GB, with some games like Max Payne 3 hitting ~30GB. Heck, last I heard Killzone: Shadowfall is going to be a ~50GB download. Whether or not your Internet connection is up the task, games are getting bigger and going digital.