Comments on: How fast will plastic and cardboard game distribution die out?

By: Robyrt

Robyrt — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:04:52 +0000

The lion’s share, sure, but there will always be a niche market for boxed games, just as iTunes shows no signs of utterly destroying CD sales.

Also note that AAA games’ digital distribution is more problematic because of their sheer size. Most Xbox owners must pay $100 for a new hard drive if they wish to go digital, and there is no instant fulfillment as there is on the App Store or PC.

By: Jurrie

Jurrie — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:11:54 +0000

I agree with the enormous potential of tapping into online distribution. On the other hand I also have a firm belief in people wanting to hold stuff, build a catalogue, show(off)their products to friends etc… (not in the last place with great limited edition with nice artbooks/packs/goodies)

I also believe in ‘shopping’ staying in people’s habits and go out and see games in all their various packs etc leads to (more) sales (impulse buys?)

Third point is for the gifts, it is much nicer to give a game in a nice packaging than a download coupon code.

I firmly believe that when well done, these markets will grow eachother and make the total entertainment consumption (share of wallet) bigger.

By: Mark Buchholz

Mark Buchholz — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:50:24 +0000

Steven, i think your concern is fair. But i believe with digital distribution the business model will also change to not let the customer pay in advance but on demand for additional content. That’s how we handle it: let the user pay for what he consumes.

By: Steven Leicester

Steven Leicester — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:23:51 +0000

This is a fine balace for me as a consumer. On one hand Bruce you state that removing plastic and cardbaord distribution will cut costs.

I certainly hope this is the case, as if game producers keep charging £40 for new titles as downloads then my game buying power will decrease massively. At least now I know in my own mind when I go to spend that sort of cash I will be able to trade the game in at a future date for half its value means that games at present are really only £20.

So for downloads to be attractive to me, they would have to be around this price point to make up for the denial of trade in value.

I also rent a lot of games, where they have been reviewed as fun titles, but with a very short lifespan (5-6 hour main storyline in some cases these days!). Any digital distribution model would also have to offer a ‘rent’ option where the game would automatically delete from your HDD after say a week.

One thing I would like though with digital is perhaps the option to pay a couple of pounds for a day’s trial, so you can dip your toe in the water before committing. Sometimes demos don’t have enouygh scope.