Digital Distribution: My fears and concerns

[Cdaddy]

If THQ and EA could have their way all games would be Digital Downloads only.
But there are some real issues with Digital only that we all should be concerned about.


1. The price.
When I buy a full disc copy of a game I can understand the price point of R599-00. There are certain costs involved in getting that game onto a disc and onto a store shelf.
Manufacturing, packaging and transport. But when we download a game NONE of those costs are involved, thus the publisher is saving a ton of money. Now should some of that savings not be passed on to us – the consumer?

No… The price is going to stay the same as a store bought game – if not MORE. I find that very unfair.
The proof of this is already out there. One only has to look at the PSN Store to see the ridiculous prices new releases go for on Digital Download.
Example below – Prototype 2. R699-00 on PSN!!!!! Then look at the same game on disc from Takealot…
Something is wrong here. We are getting ****ed!




WTF!!! (pictures taken with a camera directly off my TV)



TAKEALOT:

Disc copy = cheaper than download? What is wrong here?




Battlefield 3. Again – Disc copy R50-00 cheaper? Why?



TAKEALOT:

And this price includes delivery straight to your hands + saves you ADSL download costs for those guys with caped ADSL accounts.



2. You cannot sell the game.
This is actually the main reason EA is pushing Digital only. So that they don’t lose out on new game sales. But little Johnny only gets R400 a month pocket money so he needs to be able to sell Mass Effect 2 so that he can have enough cash to get Mass Effect 3. Johnny selling his copy of Mass Effect 2 enables him to buy a new game – thus creating a new sale for EA.

What is Johnny going to do now that he will need to get an uncapped ADSL account and have to save 2 months to be able to buy Mass Effect 3?
Now what if a guy at a flea market tells Johnny that he can get his console chipped for him and then he only has to pay R 150-00 for the game and they will load it on his hard drive for him?



3. It’s not really your game.
That’s right. Read the fine print on the terms and conditions on Xbox Live. Any game you buy right now from Live Arcade is not really yours… MS reserves the right to pull any game from the Live Arcade library and should you have already downloaded it, you would not be able to do so again if something happens to your hard drive..

Case in point; When I first joined Live I bought Double Dragon from Live Arcade because that game has such cherished memories for me as a kid playing it at the corner café for hours after getting a handful of 20 cent coins for bringing in all the empty coke bottles that my dad would finish over a weekend with his brandy.

However MS has since decided to pull the game from Live Arcade. Should my hard drive die or my console get stolen, I can never download it again.



Bought it – Not mine. Can lose it any day and never get it back. Will MS give me my 400 points back? Nope… read the terms and conditions. “**** you, please address your complaints to the brick wall outside”



So, I am against Digital only. Look it probably wont happen soon. Its ok having the option, but again, having the option should be made appealing to gamers by offering them new releases for say R200 cheaper than the disc copy. Will the do that?
No. So why the **** should I download Prototype 2 for R160-00 more than the disc copy + ADSL data costs?

**** them.

[Quentin360 SA]

If its something like the game download codes that Evopoints sell, I'm fine with it but I'm not paying R500 for a Digital game.

http://www.evopoints.co.za/index.php?cPath=260

[SinisterHealer]

If there are literally no other means to acquiring games, and if Digital download is the only way to go, then I am sure it will be cheaper. If not, then I might end up pulling a 'Noman Kaapie'.

[Abn0rm4l]

1. Price is a concern but not because of the reasons you stated. The actual costs of making and distributing a game is probably around R5 per game, so saying digital has to be cheaper because of costs is just counter to the facts.

The argument you should be focusing on when it comes to digital is COMPETITION, once everything goes digital Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo become the sole avenues to purchase games on their hardware. That is a huge, huge issue since they can effectively charge what they want and negate many market forces which drive the costs of games down over their lifespan. The control platform holders have over game prices is already a problem, even with disc based games, just look at how long it takes console games to lower their price compared to PC games, so digital will just make this so much worse.

2. Boohoo, it's an entertainment product, not a commodity, so I don't believe you should have the right for resale BUT I really don't care enough to go into that argument again, so I'll just say you could argue against this point.

3.This is another big issue and it's an issue with very little supporting legislation so it's very much a grey area when it comes to the law. Exactly how people treat your digital purchases also varies from store to store, company to company. Companies like EA and Microsoft seem to be very happy with just completely banning you from your entire account and all your paid for games, where guys like Valve treat that far more seriously and very rarely issue account bans. Even still though, they all reserve the right to revoke your access at any time, which in my opinion is complete bullshit. Even if you do something legitimately bad like hacking a game or cheating or whatever I still don't see how that can warrant them negating all the games you have bought.

As I said though, this is a very grey area and at the moment the power is all in the hands of the platforms BUT it will be interesting to see if their assumed powers will actually hold up once someone puts a serious challenge in a court of law.

[bokka1]

Why did you delete your post? I thought it was very well written.

[KenMasters]

Ha, you did it again!

EDIT: An opinion piece like the one you posted encourages debate, you should expect competing arguments. You remind me of the character Colonel Cathcart from Catch 22, life as a series of feathers in your cap and black eyes. It's not personal, if anything the fact that your post generated thoughtful responses is a compliment.

[Abn0rm4l]

Goodness F*$k you are annoying. You completely miss the point of a discussion forum, TO DISCUSS THINGS. If the only reason you make posts is to have someone stroke your **** and give you a thumbs up then maybe you should just go to Teazers.

The topic is interesting and pretty relevant to us gamers hence why we decided to contribute but if you can't be mature enough to convict to your opinions or to respect the differing opinions of others then why should we bother to take the time and effort to engage with you in discussion.

[SauRoN]

Sad I missed CDaddy's opinions yet again because he's too sensitive about having them contested.

In light of not having anything to work with, I'll simply say WAIT AND SEE before jumping to any conclusions.

[Potty391]

Sad I missed CDaddy's opinions yet again because he's too sensitive about having them contested.

In light of not having anything to work with, I'll simply say WAIT AND SEE before jumping to any conclusions.

You're an admin, you should be able to view each edit of a post. Unless that's a tool restricted to super admins?

[Grofft]

looked like an interesting discussion from the title...

my main worry is bandwidth and cost. being stuck on 3G I may end up on my own little island of despair, oh wait...