The all digital future is not plausible.

@believer258: I'm in the same boat. Downloaded Deadly Premonition on the PS3 the other day, and it was an all-day/night undertaking. Easily took upward of 12 hours. It's just not viable for me because I can't do that for every single game. I don't mind it as an option, but the death of physical media would be extremely detrimental to me.

Killzone: Shadow Fall has been said to be a 50GB download. There is no way I could exclusively download games of that size going into the next generation. Being able to play a game while it is downloading could help, but I agree that this future is implausible anytime soon if it means eliminating physical copies.

Today i downloaded BF3 including all addons which is like 30 GB in less than 25 minutes. If i would just go out, buy and then install it it would take me like 2 hours. Even just installing everything would have taken longer than these 25 minutes.

Also with the new consoles you can play it instantly and it downloads in the backgroun while you play the game. So yes digital is the future for many people including me.

I'm wasting away from the lack of Google Fiber in my diet, seriously.

@dystopiax: I really wish I knew. I mean, logically, these companies wouldn't be pushing for the all-digital future without thinking about this. The inability to add new storage to a console seems like a major design flaw if they are really trying to get people to buy all their games digitally. So I'm sure that, if they don't have a mechanism for doing so now, they will have it eventually. Like I said, buying new hard drives as needed is obviously not the ideal solution, but if MS and Sony can deliver a distribution model similar to Steam, your savings will essentially pay for that new hard drive (again, not ideal). With respect to the potential cloud computing solution, I would assume that the subscription price for XBL and PS+ would go up, but then you don't need to buy new hard drives, so it would probably balance out. Personally, I'm really curious to see how they encourage people to buy all their games digitally and then how they deal with this problem. I suppose only time will tell though, because all I or anyone else can offer is speculation. Definitely gonna be an exciting few years though.

I'll have some of whatever it is you're on, sir.

Until satellite and cell tower data providers remove their data caps, no an ALL digital future is currently not plausible.

I live in the country, but I'm lucky, I have a decent WISP tower just a mile away. While my DL speeds cap out at 600kbps, my pings are around 70ms, and with Free Download Manager I'm able to download large files fairly quickly.

But not everyone in a rural area can be so lucky.

@greggd: I don't pay for cable, but I do pay for 100 mbps internet. I think it's a pretty good trade. When BF3 first came out I downloaded it in around 12 minutes on a PC. I'm on Charter up here in Wisconsin, which is just the normal cable provider.

It's true that current-gen consoles have abysmal download rates, but that might be rectified by the updated hardware and server infrastructure of the next generation. I think the all digital future is totally plausible for some of the consumer base, since I'm already there on the PC.

If it weren't for the ability to play Blu-rays, I'd half-expect a future revision of one of the consoles to come without a disk drive.

The all digital future has been mandated by my xbox's refusal to open the disk tray. It's been working out ok so far. Haven't bought a PC game at retail since 2005, and the few 3ds games I buy are download.

My 3G connection runs at 32 KBs after the first 5 GBs and seems to be the best thing money can buy :( . I'm hoping that will change soon. I'm just out of range for some slightly better wireless options. Wired is never going to happen though.

I'm dreading the inevitable day one PS4 patch.

I think i have cable? It is 10 MB a second and together with a phone flat it costs me 30€ a month with no limit. The only good thing in Germany^^

There are pro's and con's to each form. Depending on where you place the most value on, it's a matter of preference.

That said, disc based has more pro's than digital does. I'll probably forget something but basically:

Digital:
* No need to swap discs, easy access
* No need to go out and buy something, easy to obtain
* Never sold out on release day
* Pre-load saves time and ease
* Can get really cheap if a game has been released a while

Physical:
* Almost always cheaper, especially in the first month
* Doesn't require HDD/memory space
* Often sold earlier than digital
* Can be imported to obtain the 'best' version (lack of Japanese voice over, censored or edited bits etc.)
* Can be traded in > enhances the cheapness even further if you're into that
* Second hand games > even cheaper
* No need to (re-)download (saves time)
* Saves HDD/memory space
* Not reliant on an internet connection and service whether or not you can (re-)download games.
* Can lend out to friends (actual, real lending; not family sharing with loads of restrictions)
* Doomsday proof: in the unlikely event anything should happen, you always have your games. Even if they have a system in place to allow you to download your games for a while, you're limited to unconvenienent HDD/memory space that costs additional money. In case of the Vita, for instance, this isn't financially viable even.

There is still too much reason to go physical I think. I don't even go digital on the Vita, the one where it would make some amount of sense. But it's just not worth it.

Hmm... I think your math isn't right there. 30 * 1024 MB = 30720 MB ; 30720 MB / 1500 sec = 20.48 MBps ; 20.48 * 8 = 163.84 Mbps

Its not full 30GB. But it was pretty pretty fast less than 30 minutes is that at least possible?^^

I'm very much considering my future PS4 to be completely digital like I have been doing with my Vita. The only question will be how big the games are gonna be in relation to the harddrive and how easy / convenient it'll be to re-download games in case I run out of harddrive space.

@jz: People said the same thing about watching movies online before the internet caught up. I download 20GB games all the time. Sure not everyone has a super fast connection yet, but we're getting there.

Yes, for you and "many" other people it might be.
But here's a fun little story, you and your little group there aren't the only people in the world(thank fuck for that, right? :P)
So as long as the option for physical media is still there, everything is fine.

If not, you and your people will have a pretty boring life playing with each other all the time and nobody else at some point :P

Oh i would never think or even want to go digital only for such big retail titles and this wil not happen for a long long time. But it is a great service in my opinion and I don't want to live without it anymore on PC at least. For my console I will probably still buy stuff in retail maybe because I can not trust Sony as much as I can Steam and amazon regarding this.

Well 20 gig on a PS3 with those PS3 network speeds is too slow yes... but on steam it's like a 3 hour download on a normal cable connection. If sony gets their shit together with how they deliver content, then it will be no problem.

I would say an all-digital future is plausible, because I've been living it for three years now on PC.

Could you imagine games like, well mostly MMOs now I guess but regular ass games are getting up there when it comes to the size of them. But having games downloaded to something like a PS4 with a 500GB HDD and said game is around, let's just go extreme and say 50gb? What would be the point of that even

@zeforgotten said:

MMOs aren't necessarily as big as you think, since most of the game is server side. I have FF14 on my PS3 right now and it's less than 10 GB. To be fair, I also tried playing DC Universe awhile back and that was something ridiculous that took half the day to install.

@jz:

As a person who does not believe the hype for all digital i don't think you even gave a compelling argument. Just like you have to plan to order online and wait for shipping or drive to a store and pick it up. You would have to plan to download these games, add the fact you will need a bigger hard drive or external drive if you are going all digital. Not everyone will be able to go all digital because not every has the same setup. I just find the online ecosystem for consoles have to improve some more before i'm sold on all digital.

Killzone Shadowfall is a launch game and already a 50GB. For the new PS4 you can replace your hard disk to a i think max 2 TB one so that really should be no problem at all. With the time digital sales will out sale retail ones but retail ones will not go away for a long long time. Personally I would have no problem with downloading as much especially with pre-load and also be able to play instantly while its downloading.

I'm ok with all digital for PC, but I'm not entirely on board for consoles yet. There's always going to be some enthusiast making patches/mods/etc so old PC games will continue to be playable. But once servers get shut down, that's it for the availability of XBLA/PSN games. If 10 years down the road you pick up a 360, you probably won't be playing Super Meat Boy or Braid on it. On PC, that'd be no problem.

Maybe the permanence of a collection isn't a big deal to a lot of people. I just want to know I can fire up a game I bought today in 20 years, just like I'll still be able to enjoy books and music I've bought today in 20 years.