i hate digital distrubution , hell i love xbox live arcade , but thanks to the failure rate of them , i can only play those games oline , and yes i did the drm thing , but then it died so im back again as it was.... plus don't we all love going into the gamestops of this world , retail gamestores are fantastic , cause its like going intoa treasure trove of games, im sure im one of millions of people who doesnt keep every game i have ever owned , i trade them in . Digital distrubution will take that away .

id hate the idea , that once i paid £40 for Bioshock online lets say , or on the marketplace , then thats it , no more , once i played through it , i wouldnt be able to sell it towards my next purchase , i wouldnt be able to have it on my shelf if i decided not to sell it sitting amongst my pride and joy of a collection, i want the physical item , yes like i said xbla games are great , but they are only £6 (800ms) in the uk , so i dont mind spending that once and not ever seeing a return should i not want to play it again . Plus lets face it retial piracy for home consoles is not common place apart from the PSP , which when they are charging £40 for a portable game anyway i consider that daylight robbery , but anyway , microsoft havnt stopped piracy for xbox but they have pretty much stopped piracy on xbox when playing online , you cant do that on xbox , yes hardcore pirates will always exsist , but the casual wont put up with that , and they'll just do it proper. theres no need for microsoft to go fully digital , lets look at it , we've had some of the best game launches ever this generation , HALO 3 is the best launch a game has ever had , so clearly people liek to buy games on disc.

keep digital distrubution away from retail games , or we are only going down a road of problems , like hard drive failures and hundreds and hundreds of pounds down the loo,

i cant play my games i paid £200 or more for , oh thats because you have installed them so many times , or you have moved them on too many systems, but thats because the system failed , right well theres nothing i can do bye

down with retail digital distrubution for consoles

sorry for the huge rant , i just needed to get that out of my system , it doesnt make much sense but hey phew , DAM i feel better lol

That sounds more suited as a blog. I agree with you a little, since I like to own a copy of my game, but if they go this way, you will have to buy it with a credit card, which I don't have.

Digital Distribution would save a huge number of discs and materials needed to make them. Backups would also be much easier to make without using space (although you could burn backups if you wanted), and a centralized content availability system would mean sales would never be lost due to not having stock. Combine that with the ability to rate them (hopefully), among other social-oriented features, and you've got the way of the future. It's a better method for all. I'm sorry if you don't like keeping a games collection.

i hate digital distribution. firstly i have a rather shitty connection and secondly spending all that money on a FILE just doesn't cut it. whereas paying all that money to walk out with a disk in a case with some nice box art in a tiny bag and that "oooh i can't wait to get home" feeling and that taking off the seal and smelling that smell of "fresh newness" is all irreplacable for me. plus having entire shelves of games is just way better than having a shitty hard drive. besides what happens if you don't have a credit card? you need to buy XBL-like "codes from... guess what? the retail store!

I don't think you have anything to worry about all THAT soon. I think the statistic is somewhere around 60% of 360 owners are on live. That would mean MS would be cutting off roughly 40% of their customer base. I say you have at least another generation before enough people are connecting their consoles online to warrant doing away with physical media.

It is down to the consumer. I dont want discs to go away.
What about christmas gifts and things like that

"It is down to the consumer. I dont want discs to go away.
What about christmas gifts and things like that"

Given your complaints, OP, I say the real problem is with developers not making games worth playing more than once.

Give Bioshock 2 replay value!

Does the size of these games matter? What about all the huge games?

"Does the size of these games matter? What about all the huge games?"

Yes I do prefer to own a hard copy of games and if one is available I will always go for that instead of a download title. There's just less hassle in me owning a disc (meaning physically me not an account that the game is tied to).

Digital Distribution > Retail copy

DD is immediate, at the power of your fingertips and you have the security to know you are guaranteed a copy of a game upon release and if you use Steam or D2D you can preload a game before its release and then just play it straight away upon release. Retail however costs more usually than DD and you have the added annoyance of having to travel, sometimes long distances, to aquire the game. This not only involves the added travel costs onto the games price but means you have to wait in line in some overheated store with sweaty teens and have a clerk try to sell you all sorts of crap as you purchase a game aswell. Then of course there is the the fact stores run out of stock meaning if your local games store is empty you have to travel further to find that desired game in another store.

Honestly with technology how it is and how the internet has been rapidly evolving what it can offer to people i'd say its silly to be anti-digital distribution. Don't hate progress but rather accept the change in the way games are being sold.

i won't accept it , what is the human race coming to , that you cant even walk to a store , or in did travel by car to the freaking store to get your game , the game that will have you sat on your arse anyway once you get home again , dont be so fucking lazy , honestly it truly does scare me how far some people will go to save themselves from excersise. playing games makes most people put on weight and become unhealthy , not every1 but most , this is just allwoing those people to become even lazier .     

theres a line between something being convenient or promoting laziness, this DD crosses it.

the above is something i left out from the original rant : )

No i hate going to gamestops etc.

you can talk shit about lazyness, but i work 11 hour days on my feet, i dont need to be on them any longer. Not to mention there is one gamestore within 60 km, which is 20km away.

Some games on steam cost %50 of what they are at retail here in Aus.

Aside from the fact i would have a hell of a time trying to find half the games on steam in a retail store.

"p4ddym1607 said:

"Does the size of these games matter? What about all the huge games?"

Storage solutions are largely becoming multi-hundred-gigabyte affairs. Well, on the PS3 anyway, where you can get 250 gigabytes for like 80 or 90 dollars.

As for Microsoft and Nintendo, they're both retarded not to make hard drives standard and large. And easily replaced. With a 2.5 or 3.5.

Storage won't be an issue in the next generation."

"i won't accept it , what is the human race coming to , that you cant even walk to a store , or in did travel by car to the freaking store to get your game , the game that will have you sat on your arse anyway once you get home again , dont be so fucking lazy , honestly it truly does scare me how far some people will go to save themselves from excersise. playing games makes most people put on weight and become unhealthy , not every1 but most , this is just allwoing those people to become even lazier .     

theres a line between something being convenient or promoting laziness, this DD crosses it.

the above is something i left out from the original rant : )"

Digital Distribution is great of old games but generally bad for newer games.

"Digital Distribution is great of old games but generally bad for newer games."

I agree that DD is good for old games but bad for new ones. But when I buy a new game I want to have a physical item in my hands, something I know won't disappear when my harddrive or console breaks or dies (along with plenty of other stuff). I also love collecting stuff and having them on display on a shelf, you can't do that with downloaded copies.

Oh, and about the chore of going to an overpriced store to buy your game...I couldn't agree more. That's why I buy my games online and recieve them in the mail (omg yes, physical copies). It's not like I don't have other games to play while I wait a few days for that new one to arrive. In fact, I already have too many unplayed games waiting to be played...

"i hate digital distribution. firstly i have a rather shitty connection and secondly spending all that money on a FILE just doesn't cut it. whereas paying all that money to walk out with a disk in a case with some nice box art in a tiny bag and that "oooh i can't wait to get home" feeling and that taking off the seal and smelling that smell of "fresh newness" is all irreplacable for me. plus having entire shelves of games is just way better than having a shitty hard drive. besides what happens if you don't have a credit card? you need to buy XBL-like "codes from... guess what? the retail store!"

The only Digital distribution i ever liked was Steam. If more people followed Steam I would be down with digital distribution.

I know what you are saying, I really take my pride in my collection but as I'm going along the idea of a digital copy of a game doesn't seem like a bad idea.

I agree with this fact for consoles, but for PC it perfectly makes sense for digital distribution to become the normal, and it really already has.

Even if I have to pay more for a hard copy of a retail game - I would. I absolutely despise it for video games, unless they're small like in the XBLA. Maybe I'm just old-school, but I love my discs.

I still can't get with DD, I just have to have a hard copy in my hands. Maybe some odd years down the road I'll most likely change my views.

"I still can't get with DD, I just have to have a hard copy in my hands. Maybe some odd years down the road I'll most likely change my views."