Sony to make big push with full game downloads?

[Queasy]

This article from Videobusiness.com states that downloads for video games will increase faster than downloads for movies. In the middle of the article they state, "Sony plans to roll out PS3 games priced at $39.99 download/$59.99 physical disc, according to Hoang. The company is expected to add several extras, such as wallpapers and trailers, to the premium disc version."

Exciting if true. Gabe Newell of Valve spoke at DICE yesterday about how games are too expensive. After putting Left 4 Dead on Steam at half price, that title saw an increase in sales of 3000% and sold more copies than it did at launch while the retail store sales stayed steady.

Hopefully, this is a trend the entire industry will pick up on.

 

[gorcorps]

Pretty cool idea. What would be even cooler if they allowed an 'upgrade' program where if you initially downloaded it then decided you wanted the disc later you could just pay the difference. I would definitely choose this for a couple games and save $20 when I wouldn't have otherwise paid full price.

 

[Kabob]

Very interesting idea, although HDD space is gonna become an issue.

 

[sswingle]

PS3 is SO easy to upgrade the HDD though

 

[JoPh]

id rather d/l

then i dont have to get up to change disc.. much easier. just give me a lifetime d/l or something.

 

[Thraxen]

This is exactly how it should work. Choosing a cheaper download versus the more versatile physical copy (retail packaging, easily transported, can be resold, etc...). One of my biggest complaint thus far with services like Steam is that the download copies have generally been the same price as the physical retail copies. That has never made any sense at all. I really hope Sony does this, it would great to be able to choose.

 

[jman19]

:thumbsup:

 

[me123]

This will kill the resell market.

 

[R Nilla]

Great idea, and would be really tempting for me to move away from purchasing physical copies, as much as I love having them.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: me123
This will kill the resell market.

I'm sure that breaks Sony's heart

 

[Dari]

The only reason why they haven't done this earlier is because of pressure from retailers. You obviously can't download the console and accessories so what incentives do retailers have when they're getting treated as vassals?

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: kabob983
Very interesting idea, although HDD space is gonna become an issue.

We're not talking about a Xbox 360 here, you're encouraged to upgrade your HD on a PS3. There's an official guide on how to do so on the official PlayStation website.

 

[mesthead21]

I would think the sheer size would be an issue. Arent Blu-ray games huge? And they are starting to put caps on how much people download (at least time warner is). I dk how well this would work

 

[Fingolfin269]

Great idea now that we have bandwidth caps pretty much everywhere.

 

[lupi]

Originally posted by: me123
This will kill the resell market.

I've made similar comments about other related developments that have been discussed but a majority seem to think it will be no big deal.

I for one would be very interested when a company like sony puts out a top of the line must have title as d/l only. Right now you can walk into gamestop and find a couple dozen copies of a title like GT4. How will the general populace feel if they can no longer recoup some money by reselling unless there is a significant price difference. Also what happens to the many below grade titles that will be left on the virtual shelf because you no longer have mom just picking up some boxes for the kids.

And not least in this, what are the companies going to do to try and sell their actual consoles. Why would the regular retailers be as interested in selling them if they no longer can stock up on the software which gives them a better return margin.

 

[herkulease]

Originally posted by: Queasy
Exciting if true. Gabe Newell of Valve spoke at DICE yesterday about how games are too expensive. After putting Left 4 Dead on Steam at half price, that title saw an increase in sales of 3000% and sold more copies than it did at launch while the retail store sales stayed steady.

Gee what a shocker? Selling a game at half the price the sales sky rocket. Who would've thought that the near empty box and disc costs 25 dollars.

 

[beat mania]

Originally posted by: gorcorps
Pretty cool idea. What would be even cooler if they allowed an 'upgrade' program where if you initially downloaded it then decided you wanted the disc later you could just pay the difference. I would definitely choose this for a couple games and save $20 when I wouldn't have otherwise paid full price.

Doubt it. People would just sell the disc at gamestop or ebay while they still have the full version on the PS3. All these game downloads are to stop 2nd hand game resales anyways.

 

[Bman123]

This is good for pc but not good for the PS3 at all.
The retailers like eb games are gonna get beaten by this badly.They make so much money off of trade ins that they sell again to someone else.

The only good thing about the actual disc is if people want to get rid of the game they can just sell it off for a loss.If they make the price of games only $39 then I will D/L everything.It is easier since you dont scratch or have to change the discs at all.
Plus if you wanted to sell a game that you bought what are you gonna get around $15-$20 avg from a game store.This way the $20 you get back from selling will break you even and you have no game.It just makes sense to D/L at that price.

If they actual make the games all $39 is what I wanna see

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Bman123
The retailers like eb games are gonna get beaten by this badly.They make so much money off of trade ins that they sell again to someone else.

Gamestop raked in something like $8.8 billion in 2008. A couple of months ago, I read that almost 50% of their revenue came from used game, system, and accessory sales, and that figure was going up slowly.

 

[Deeko]

Sony is already doing this on PS3. Two of their biggest titles - Warhawk and GT4 - were downloadable.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Originally posted by: beat mania

Originally posted by: gorcorps
Pretty cool idea. What would be even cooler if they allowed an 'upgrade' program where if you initially downloaded it then decided you wanted the disc later you could just pay the difference. I would definitely choose this for a couple games and save $20 when I wouldn't have otherwise paid full price.

Doubt it. People would just sell the disc at gamestop or ebay while they still have the full version on the PS3. All these game downloads are to stop 2nd hand game resales anyways.

Just have it so it deactivates the downloaded version like 5 days after you send in for the physical media. That way you can run off the disc or off HDD, but not have two copies.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Originally posted by: Baked

Originally posted by: kabob983
Very interesting idea, although HDD space is gonna become an issue.

We're not talking about a Xbox 360 here, you're encouraged to upgrade your HD on a PS3. There's an official guide on how to do so on the official PlayStation website.

Well seeing as Sony really wanted to make Blu-Ray look essential for games, there's developers that went crazy with lossless audio tracks and other stuff to fill up that space. I suppose they could trim that fat off most games, but then it would be come apparent that most PS3 games would fit on a standard DVD (gasp!). Besides 2.5" HDDs are still not cheap so space is an issues. The next gen if they go downloadable I would hope for at least a 320 gig drive.

HDD space will still be an issue. Price per gig will be substantially lower than on an Xbox360, but the cost still exists.

 

[destrekor]

If they do this, it won't be on all games. Only the games that are less data intensive.

So really, it might almost end up being scam-like. Something like where a game would really only sell for $40, but include cheap fillers to bump the retail disc to $60.

And you know Sony isn't going to want to upgrade server centers to the max to handle an increased load of 10-20-30gb downloads.

This tactic will work with games that fit the bill of the games they have already released using this method.

 

[pennylane]

Downloads would be "greener" in that they wouldn't require production of the disc, packaging, instruction manual, etc.

 

[thilanliyan]

Hopefully you can redownload anything you lose...I've heard certain things from PSN can't be redownloaded. Is this true?