I fear a future where retail game stores do not exist

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RJay_64

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Edited By RJay_64

Hello!  Well I am new.  From what I have seen, the structure of this website looks superior to anything I have seen from other gaming websites.  I am very used to Gamespot, but the mods there are a bit harsh on me, so now I am here!
 
I would like to take the profile I have on here seriously, maybe write some reviews on games, and update this blog frequently as possible.  
 
My first gaming-related topic will be the future of how games are purchased, and how this will affect the industry.  I believe a time when games can only be downloaded from the official Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft store will be the death of video games.  Okay the use of the word "death" might be harsh, but this will be a mistake if it ever gets to the point that all games are downloaded only.  Yes, I realize the used game industry is the anti-Christ to game companies who work hard on their games.  But to eliminate the used game market just because some companies are angry they are not getting new game sales is crazy!  
 
First of all, without the used game industry, some people would never be able to afford video games.  The PSP Go has proven that game companies are willing to rip consumers off by offering games on their store that should be at least $10 cheaper.  That takes me to my next point, having one official store to buy all your games for a certain console eliminates all competition!  So Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony would have monopolies on their game prices.  You HAVE to buy the game at their price, whether or not you think the game is overpriced, because it is only available online and there is no competition from the used game market to offset the price. Most casual gamers will not consider that certain games should be a lower price for what they are getting.
 
Notice that Nintendo never lowers the prices on their online shop.  I mean, must EVERY VC game stick at the same price point always on the Wii?  Couldn't there be some sale to attract new buyers?  Even a Christmas sale where certain Super NES and N64 games become 500 points for two weeks would be great in terms of promoting the service.  
 
 I am not a Wii hater.  The only console I possess is a Wii.  But I am worried.  Are all those WiiWare and VC console games going to transfer over to the next Nintendo console?  If not, then if I want to keep those games, I must never get rid of my Wii?  I like to keep one console at a time, as it keeps things neat and organized in my room.  If I end up buying $200 worth of downloadable titles that cannot be transferred to the next Nintendo console, it might discourage me from upgrading early on.  
 
At the very least, I am hoping for a gaming industry where retail and download co-exist peacefully, even if my games do not transfer over.  I do not want great places to buy games, like Amazon and eBay, to not exist as an option anymore.  
  
Thanks for reading my first blog!

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RJay_64

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#1  Edited By RJay_64

Hello!  Well I am new.  From what I have seen, the structure of this website looks superior to anything I have seen from other gaming websites.  I am very used to Gamespot, but the mods there are a bit harsh on me, so now I am here!
 
I would like to take the profile I have on here seriously, maybe write some reviews on games, and update this blog frequently as possible.  
 
My first gaming-related topic will be the future of how games are purchased, and how this will affect the industry.  I believe a time when games can only be downloaded from the official Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft store will be the death of video games.  Okay the use of the word "death" might be harsh, but this will be a mistake if it ever gets to the point that all games are downloaded only.  Yes, I realize the used game industry is the anti-Christ to game companies who work hard on their games.  But to eliminate the used game market just because some companies are angry they are not getting new game sales is crazy!  
 
First of all, without the used game industry, some people would never be able to afford video games.  The PSP Go has proven that game companies are willing to rip consumers off by offering games on their store that should be at least $10 cheaper.  That takes me to my next point, having one official store to buy all your games for a certain console eliminates all competition!  So Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony would have monopolies on their game prices.  You HAVE to buy the game at their price, whether or not you think the game is overpriced, because it is only available online and there is no competition from the used game market to offset the price. Most casual gamers will not consider that certain games should be a lower price for what they are getting.
 
Notice that Nintendo never lowers the prices on their online shop.  I mean, must EVERY VC game stick at the same price point always on the Wii?  Couldn't there be some sale to attract new buyers?  Even a Christmas sale where certain Super NES and N64 games become 500 points for two weeks would be great in terms of promoting the service.  
 
 I am not a Wii hater.  The only console I possess is a Wii.  But I am worried.  Are all those WiiWare and VC console games going to transfer over to the next Nintendo console?  If not, then if I want to keep those games, I must never get rid of my Wii?  I like to keep one console at a time, as it keeps things neat and organized in my room.  If I end up buying $200 worth of downloadable titles that cannot be transferred to the next Nintendo console, it might discourage me from upgrading early on.  
 
At the very least, I am hoping for a gaming industry where retail and download co-exist peacefully, even if my games do not transfer over.  I do not want great places to buy games, like Amazon and eBay, to not exist as an option anymore.  
  
Thanks for reading my first blog!

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mosdl

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#2  Edited By mosdl

Welcome to GB, come for the news, stay for witty banter.
 
To your point - online stores have sales all the time - Steam/psn/xbl all do this.  Plus, a $60 downloadable game would become cheaper as time goes, so folks who can't afford it can wait.  Also, in theory piracy would go way down, and kill DRM!

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BraveToaster

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#3  Edited By BraveToaster

If that ever happened I'm sure that the companies will lower the prices of games as time goes by. With that being said, once the price drops then people on a budget can afford the game. Also, not every gamer has the best internet to download full games so they could lose consumers if they changed to download only.

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ImperiousRix

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#4  Edited By ImperiousRix

Hey, heck of a way to start your GB career.  Welcome. 
And to your post, I too have had these fears on occasion.  Not only do I dislike the threat of a future where I cannot simply walk to a store on release day and pick up a game with cash, but I also dislike the idea of games all being memory based.  It's bad enough nowadays if memory of game saves and the like get corrupted, but when you've got multi-gig games all on a single harddrive, the slightest thing going wrong could mean not only is it bye bye saves, but bye bye games themselves. 
I do think price-gouging is a problem as well, but I believe third-party support should make it so that monopolies on games shouldn't happen.  At least, this is my hope.

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Siris

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#6  Edited By Siris

I welcome a future where all video games are not only downloadable, but entirely free.

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shirogane

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#7  Edited By shirogane


As much as people worry about this happening, chances are it won't.

Gamestop and other large retailers that specialise in gaming won't let it happen. Also, moving to full digital distribution would essentially remove the need for publishers. They're not gonna let that happen either. Could you imagine Activision letting MS and Sony control prices and stuff for their games?

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Red

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#8  Edited By Red

I'd love a world where I can download everything, as long as everything was backed-up in a steam-like manner. 
I mean, I hate having to go out and shop for games, or to switch disks or to organize games. 
I love digital media, and I feel it is the future of games. Yes, companies like Activision or EA can abuse it, and lowered prices would be harder to come by, Steam has proven that deals can be done online.

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NickL

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#9  Edited By NickL

there will always be retail versions of games because alot of poeple like to get a physical item when they go out and spend 60 bucks...

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RJay_64

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#10  Edited By RJay_64
@mosdl said:
" Welcome to GB, come for the news, stay for witty banter.  To your point - online stores have sales all the time - Steam/psn/xbl all do this.  Plus, a $60 downloadable game would become cheaper as time goes, so folks who can't afford it can wait.  Also, in theory piracy would go way down, and kill DRM! "
Admittedly all I have is a Wii (lol), so my knowledge of PSN and XBL isn't as good.  I'm glad to hear they do have sales though.  I have heard great things about Steam, and browse through the site myself sometimes, so I had an idea about them.
 
But still, isn't the PSP Go struggling because the price on their games is higher than what you can find in stores?  It's possible I misread information on that.  
 
Sonic 4 in particular is going to be in episodic content online, and there's only 3 places we're going to be able to buy it....I hope they price it reasonably.
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torus

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#11  Edited By torus

I for one haven't bought a game on disk since 2005. It's not a big deal. I will probably buy a hard copy of Starcraft 2 (for the art, manual, etc), but I use Steam and similar services for everything else.

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TobyD81

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#13  Edited By TobyD81

Sony and Microsoft have a tense relationship right now with retailers. They price their big downloadable games the same as their disc versions so as to not undercut retail. That's in the case of PSP games that are available both online or on UMD, or in cases like Fallout 3, Burnout Paradise, or Street Fighter 4 to name a few. In turn, retailers agree to keep putting their hardware on the shelf. The retailers keep selling the hardware so that they maintain a fighting chance to make more profits on software. Wii doesn't suffer from this because none of its disc games are also available as a full download. Why Steam excels at this download model is because no retailer has a hold of the PC market; you can get PC parts or full machines anywhere. Steam on Mac will still work because Apple is making so much money with their own hardware and iTunes sales that they don't need to compete in the game software market (at least, not in that way.)
 
Bottom line, as long as retailers continue to stock Playstation, Xbox, and their future successors, they'll expect a competitive share in the software market as well.

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JJOR64

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#14  Edited By JJOR64

I think retailers with video games will be around for a long time.  Maybe game retailers will die out some day, but places like Walmart will be around for ever for video games.
 
Also, I love your avatar.    :)

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Skald

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#15  Edited By Skald

That's absurd. If game companies ever did that, I'd simply stop buying games.

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Shadow

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#16  Edited By Shadow

Never gonna happen.  A significant amount of game sales come from retailers buying games from publishers and then not selling them.  Besides, people will always feel the need to have something physical for the larger purchases.

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#17  Edited By iam3green
@extremeradical said:
" That's absurd. If game companies ever did that, I'd simply stop buying games. "
even if u had a fast internet and knew that the game could be played on the next console? 
 
it might happen sometime in the next decade or two. PC gaming is gone to that. when i go to gamestop a lot of times i see crappy older games that have been out for a while there. i usually buy all of my PC games on steam. there are some great sales on that. i bought pysconauts for $2, somewhere around that cheap. the graphcis are great compared to it on xbox. 
 
i can see something happening when games become digital. it will have a lot of people not buy games anymore. i for one have a slow internet. it takes a while to download  a couple hundred megabytes. a lot of times i will download it over night because it is the time when internet can be fast and i will not be impatient.
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DanceDanceKennypants

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Disks aren't going anywhere for a while, broadband penetration (ouch) isn't as high as we on game websites might think.
 
It'll happen eventually, though. 
 
People (like me) who yearn for something to have on the shelf will forget about that once they see an awesome new trailer for some ridiculous new game.

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#19  Edited By Pinworm45

I don't. Gamestop and nearly every other company can go to hell for all I care. All I need is my Steam.

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CenturionCajun

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#20  Edited By CenturionCajun

I live in West Virginia which is a black hole of all modern technology and culture once you leave the few cities. You go out maybe five miles or so and cell phones, internet, cable television, and in some cases paved roads disappear. I live in the third largest city in the state and have high speed internet and it still takes me eight or ten hours to download the couple of gigabytes of the Dragon Age Awakening expansion. Add on top of this that storage space to house an entire collection of video games is still a problem and it's going to be years before a fully digital solution is viable. Even then I don't believe that physical disc media will vanish. It will simply become what CDs are today. They exist as the alternative for those of us who don't completely trust digital distribution.

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CaptainCody

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#21  Edited By CaptainCody

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF TOMORROW!
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#22  Edited By EpicSteve

We still have CD stores, so don't worry. By the time the general public evolves from physical media, you probably will too. It's far away, if it ever happens.

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#23  Edited By nintendoeats

I fancy my room a game museum, so I defenitely share your fears. No company should have unilateral control over a cultural product, even if they payed for it.

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deactivated-590b7522e5236

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As long as games arent sold exclusively by platform holders its fine, there is no need for physical game stores anymore as the online counterparts are always muich better.

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s7evn

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#25  Edited By s7evn

Welcome to GB. Digital Distribution is the wave of the future.

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#26  Edited By DarkGamerOO7

 Video Games becoming totally download only is rather impractical. It may work for handhelds, and it may work the computer demographic but for home consoles it just won't work. Can you imagine some 4 million people all trying to download a 6.8 GB file at once? And games are growing in size, by next generation they may be 12, 15 or even 20 GB in size for the average game.

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#27  Edited By nintendoeats
@DarkGamerOO7: But then HDD size and bandwidth are also increasing, its hard to judge these things.
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#28  Edited By mosdl
@CenturionCajun said:
" I live in West Virginia which is a black hole of all modern technology and culture once you leave the few cities. You go out maybe five miles or so and cell phones, internet, cable television, and in some cases paved roads disappear. I live in the third largest city in the state and have high speed internet and it still takes me eight or ten hours to download the couple of gigabytes of the Dragon Age Awakening expansion. Add on top of this that storage space to house an entire collection of video games is still a problem and it's going to be years before a fully digital solution is viable. Even then I don't believe that physical disc media will vanish. It will simply become what CDs are today. They exist as the alternative for those of us who don't completely trust digital distribution. "
Out of interest, do you have a decent game store within short driving distance?  if someone lives remote enough, 10 hours is faster than waiting for a mailed package.
 
Its somewhat ironic that the fastest speeds are in the high urban areas where you can easily walk/drive 10 mins to get most stuff and those who would benefit the most from online have the worst connections.
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#29  Edited By swamplord666

Welcome to GB :) 
About your post, it would be sad to see games stores go. But to be honest, Until they can compete with online stores which all have inferior prices for the most part, They won't be getting money off me.  When i go to a store and see a used copy of a game for £2 or £3 less than a new game I get very annoyed. But yet I go on ebay and I find used games at a price that i deem very respectable. Same thing with full price games. £40-45 in store and less than 40 on amazon including shipping. 
Until they rival online purchases, they will not be getting my money. bear in mind, I would rather go in a store locally to get a game than haave to wait for it to be shipped to me.

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CenturionCajun

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#30  Edited By CenturionCajun
@mosdl:  I work as an Assistant Store Manager at one of no less than three Gamestop's in my city. There are also two Wal-Marts. So, access to video games is pretty well covered as it's one of the few recreational activities we have. We're insanely busy but most of that is taken up with PS2 merchandise sales believe it or not. We also sell a whole lot of Cabela's and Nascar games. It comes with the territory.
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mosdl

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#31  Edited By mosdl
@CenturionCajun said:
" @mosdl:  I work as an Assistant Store Manager at one of no less than three Gamestop's in my city. There are also two Wal-Marts. So, access to video games is pretty well covered as it's one of the few recreational activities we have. We're insanely busy but most of that is taken up with PS2 merchandise sales believe it or not. We also sell a whole lot of Cabela's and Nascar games. It comes with the territory. "
I can totally see video games work as they provide a better entertainment value vs say going to the movies.
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CenturionCajun

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#32  Edited By CenturionCajun

This is very true. Especially considering that some people live an hour or so out in the middle of nowhere where a trip to the movies or mall is a big event. It also creates an interesting problem in that people want games that you can play local multiplayer and co-op alot more since they don't have internet access to play against people online. Since games that feature these locally are few and far between it makes things interesting when trying to recommend a game.

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#33  Edited By jmrwacko
@Red said:
" I'd love a world where I can download everything, as long as everything was backed-up in a steam-like manner. I mean, I hate having to go out and shop for games, or to switch disks or to organize games. I love digital media, and I feel it is the future of games. Yes, companies like Activision or EA can abuse it, and lowered prices would be harder to come by, Steam has proven that deals can be done online. "
Problem is that retail stores going out of business reduces pricing competition, which will increase the costs of digitally distributed games. The way things are at present are why Steam can sell games for so cheap.
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#34  Edited By neoepoch
@RJay_64 said:
But still, isn't the PSP Go struggling because the price on their games is higher than what you can find in stores?  It's possible I misread information on that.
Welcome to GB.
 
It isn't just that, but it is also because the PSP Go is priced way higher than the PSP which essentially has more features. You can download from the Playstation Store, for convenience or sometimes for reasonable pricing, and run UMD games. (Sony has a bad habit of removing features that may or may not be important, i.e. backwards compatibility and Linux installs).
 
The PSP Go is just way too expensive for less features, and there is a lack of education for people and downloading games. It may seem relatively trivial to us enthusiast game players, but for the mainstream they don't know squat about the internet. I was at the Sequelitis PAX panel earlier today and Dan Teasdale was saying how people didn't know that Queen was downloadable for Rock Band and was asking them to put the songs in the next Rock Band. For the PC market this is less of an issue, but for the console market there is a lack of education on how DLC and downloaded games work.
 
It will be a long while before digital distribution of a game will ever overtake going to the store, and arguably it may never happen....maybe.
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#35  Edited By Red
@jmrwacko: True. I just hate going to buy games at a store. You have to talk to the moron cashier, tell him what game you're buying, have him make a dumb comment on it, listen to the idiots behind you mope about how they almost got a nuke in MW2 but then some noobs pwnzor'd him. Game retail is one of the few things that makes me think twice about me being socially open about me playing video games. If somehow that was all destroyed by a well-run online store, I'd be all over that. 
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Pinworm45

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#36  Edited By Pinworm45
@Red said:
If somehow that was all destroyed by a well-run online store, I'd be all over that.  "
Steam. Unless you meant a well run online store which still ships a box. In which case, I hear good things about Amazon. 
 
But Steam.
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#37  Edited By JoelTGM

If it's done like Steam it would be great.  And I buy more because it's so convenient.

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#38  Edited By InsanePotato

As somebody who has a good 30 games purchased on steam and impulse it doesn't really concern me terribly much i suppose. Steam has not only given me weekly deals on tons of games but also allowed me to re-download and play games when i move country without carrying a single physical disk/box. As someone who has a 360 and a ps3 i'll admit i appreciate the fact i can trade in a game if i'm tired of it or want a change but for the most part i don't really care. If it went away I wouldn't notice. Publishers still make money through online vendors just like they get when they go through a brick and mortar retailer, only difference is now with online they dont have to pay for packaging and i don't have to wait for a store to open or even bother leaving my place. I can get things in the comfort of my home. It really is just a change in the means of delivery. I see people on the nintendo store getting ripped off it seems by not adjusting price but Steam has things down pretty much perfect right now. Only thing i don't like about steam is that the games through it are tied to it forever but for now it seems a non-issue.
Physical media will disappear without a doubt, it's time is almost at an end. The used game market will dry up soon thanks to DLC that only comes with original purchase. Maybe one more console generation will have physical media but I'm thinking that largely the Microsofts and Sonys and Nintendos will start pushing stuff through there online stores because they can make more of a profit that way.

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animateria

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#39  Edited By animateria

Let them die...
 
I prefer Amazon.com for physical copies any day.

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Red

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#40  Edited By Red
@Pinworm45: Yeah, I know. I mentioned it earlier in the thread. I just wasn't saying Steam because they aren't on consoles.
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#41  Edited By napalm

Anything to put GameStop out of business, I am all for.

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Pinworm45

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#42  Edited By Pinworm45
@Red said:
" @Pinworm45: Yeah, I know. I mentioned it earlier in the thread. I just wasn't saying Steam because they aren't on consoles. "
Oh right, I forgot about those pesky consoles.. my name is green for a reason :P
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#43  Edited By JJWeatherman
@RJay_64:
Welcome to Giant Bomb. As Sam Jackson would say: If you absolutely positively have to interact with every other banned Gamespot user that exists; except no substitute.
 
But no really, were glad you have left the dark side. Nice first post and I hope you have many more.
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Burns098356GX

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#44  Edited By Burns098356GX

As much push has been put on digital download stuff, I'm not 100% sure it'll ever fully replace owning a physical copy. From a marketing prospective, they know that people 'want' that actual tangible good. I'm sure they'll offer both digital and physical, but I really don't think physical media will go away, not in the foreseeable future anyways.

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#45  Edited By xMP44x

Personally, I think that a future without retail stores for games is a real possibility. And it would be a shame to lose such a thing. Because if gaming goes all 'digital retail', you can say goodbye to sharing with friends. 
 
"Want to borrow my copy of Bad Company 2? Oh, sorry.... I can't because you can't really transfer downloaded content very well." 
 
Well, you can on a PC anyway, but that's beside the point. Losing out on gaming stores would mean losing out on great deals, Limited Edition games, pre-owned titles, and all those tempting "Buy one get one free" deals you see. I hope it never becomes this way. I do think the future will be digital in complete entirety, but should it happen it could be the end of gaming as a past time, and the beginning of gaming as a franchise. I know games are franchises themselves, but imagine the whole idea of gaming becoming a franchise. Imagine having to pick your console based on the fact that one developer can offer EA's games cheaper, and so on. It's a sad thought, because the arcade has all but been killed off entirely. And the same could eventually happen to gaming stores. 
 
Steam is a brilliant service, and you can't fault it for what it does. Personally I feel digital could only really work on PC. It makes piracy much harder I think, and piracy isn't rampant on consoles in the same way that it is on PC. As for consoles, I always have a feeling that my download would be faster on my PC than my 360. Surely the same goes for other people as well. Steam has a bit of a hybrid between digital and retail, and that could work. Imagine something like EA's 'Ten Dollar Project', where any game you buy new comes with additional content. You could actually screw pirates over with this idea - make online multiplayer an exclusive for those who legitimately get a copy of the game. And you could charge the second hand buyers for the opportunity as well, again, like EA did.
 
I apologise if this rambled on, but it seemed like the best thread to discuss all this stuff in. So thank you for listening to my inane ramblings and stuff. Feel free to show me any mistakes I made so I can learn from those as well.

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mosdl

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#46  Edited By mosdl
@CenturionCajun said:
" This is very true. Especially considering that some people live an hour or so out in the middle of nowhere where a trip to the movies or mall is a big event. It also creates an interesting problem in that people want games that you can play local multiplayer and co-op alot more since they don't have internet access to play against people online. Since games that feature these locally are few and far between it makes things interesting when trying to recommend a game. "
So does that mean that game cafes (do those still exist in the US?) where you would pay by the hour to game would work in those markets?
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CenturionCajun

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#47  Edited By CenturionCajun
@mosdl:  Funny you should mention that. They tried one of those in the mall and it failed miserably. Only lasted for a few months at most.
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FullmetalPopo

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#48  Edited By FullmetalPopo

your point does make a lot of sense but part of the reason games are so much is because the production value.. like next gen games could easily drop from $60 to $40 just from the elimination of dvd's, plastic cases, and paper manuals. I'm not pro downloads but I'm not against it either. I've bought over $100 in XBL arcade games but haven't purchased any full games because I could go spend $5 at gamestop for something that I'd have to pay $19.99 for on the internet.. And if everything was strictly downloadable money would go straight to the companies well for microsoft at least with the whole microsoft point deal and would end up making people shop at stores for points and cards so they could download games they just needed to go buy expensive hard drives to put on anyway.. Unless you bought a system with a big hard drive to begin with then I guess there really isn't a space problem. But it would also send many people out of jobs and would destroy our economy a bit more than it already is by getting rid of so many manufacturing jobs.. So that is the main reason why I don't think this nightmare of yours won't be coming true any time soon