Jetpaction

Nijmegen, Netherlands

Not sure if the issue is on my side but speed has been dramatic for me since the move, especially downloading videos take ages with speeds that max out around 250kb/sec. Not even enough to stream a video. I'm on a 50/4 Mbit connection in Europe, and trying to download the QLEX from Galak-Z in HD format but it's not going any faster than 250kb/sec and I had to resume the download a few times already because it times out.

Smart move. Early Access, Alpha, Beta, these are terms that are more common then ever in the videogame industry nowadays.

Looking forward to the multiple Unfinished: Star Citizen video's where Drew and Vinny show their hangar and ships. I feel those guys are interested in that game and this new video format is perfect for that!

I've noticed loading times for Last Of Us are really short with an SSD. I did bought the digital version so no reading from the disc. I can imagine it has the same sort of impact on the PS4. It'll be a bit more smoother and faster overall, but the biggest win for me is no HDD read/write noise but pure silence. The original 80GB HDD in my PS3 was very loud.

Is there a disadvantage in terms of available bandwidth for people living in Europe when streaming video's?

I have 60/6 internet connection but on a regular base the video player won't buffer enough causing the video to stop after a couple of minutes. However, if I choose to download the video to my harddrive i get decent speeds ( 4 to 5 MB/sec).

OS: Mac OSX 10.8

Browser: Safari

RAM: 16 GB

Type of player: HTML5, Flash - HD quality

Adblock: On, Off. Doesn't matter

Unbelievable. The guy was only 2 years older than I am. I can't imagine dying so young...

Ryan, I will miss you. The site will never be the same without you. I cannot imagine how the next podcast is going to be without you hosting it. Heartbreaking.

Rest in peace, buddy.

@chose said:

Thanks for your kind words. I guess you didn't read the article

But if you really look at their family sharing plan, it's basically the same thing that's already happening in an offline mode now; People lend out their physical copies to friends and there's no stopping that from a publishers perspective. The advantage of Microsofts digital loaning system is that there's more income for the publishers since there's no more involvement from shops like Gamestop. And they can limit the amount of games you can share with your friends online as where with physical copies a game can be given to multiple peoples or trade in at stores like Gamestop.

Yes, I like your thinking. This is what I was thinking about as well. Let the consumers decide if they want the physical version of the game or the digital one. Microsoft (or Sony for that matter) and the publisher should work together on making the digital version more appealing for the consumer, add some incentives.

Let me give an example: The Xbox One is released and Battlefield 4 is out as well. The consumer could buy the physical copy of the game for 59 Euro (although if you search online you should be able to find it for 45 - 50 Euro). All is well for the consumer, he has a physical copy of the game and can play it offline (The single player campaign of course), lent it out to a friend or sell it to someone. But what if Microsoft and EA agreed to also have a digital version of the game for, let's say, 55 Euro but it includes Premium or a Season Pass. Would the consumer still buy the physical disk? If he wants all the DLC he'll have to purchase this separately, which would make the total cost of the game around 75 or 80 euro, thus making the game more expensive than the digital copy.

Very good article Alex! I'm with you for 100%.

The digital-only videogame age will come eventually, but with baby steps. How many baby steps will be decided by the consumers and not by Sony or Microsoft.