Xbox = Finished

[vi edit]

You're an idiot, thanks for identifying yourself.

You probably said the same thing when CDs went out of style. People prefer digital, get over it and stop living in the boonies if you care that much.

It might not happen this generation, but its coming for sure.

Games aren't music. Movies aren't music. And comparing other entertainment formats to music distribution is idiotic at this point.

A ripped album under moderate compression is under 100 meg. That's pretty minimal requirements of storage and download needs. Even a 1mbs DSL connection can reasonably work with that.

A game can be upwards of 9 gigs for an Xbox, or approaching 50 for a PS3 game. That's A LOT of space to download and store. Unless you are on some of the fastest connections out there you are waiting hours for that to download.

Plus with games, I might move them back and forth between two consoles in my house. Or I might take them over to a friends house to play them over a weekend. All totally within my legal and reasonable use of that product. Now that is either not going to happen at all because of the lockdown in code/registration of device...or at the very best require me re-download *AGAIN* to the device I want to play it on.

And that's not even being to scratch the surface on cable companies implementing usage caps.

And much the same arguments exist for movies and physical media for them.

Many of these problems either do not exist, or are largely mitigated in the music industry. Between portable players, streaming audio options in cars, and subscription services you are actually at an advantage with music.

Games and movies are light years behind this.

 

[boochi]

Games will be available on a flash drive. What is the problem?

 

[PimpJuice]

Games aren't music. Movies aren't music. And comparing other entertainment formats to music distribution is idiotic at this point.

A ripped album under moderate compression is under 100 meg. That's pretty minimal requirements of storage and download needs. Even a 1mbs DSL connection can reasonably work with that.

A game can be upwards of 9 gigs for an Xbox, or approaching 50 for a PS3 game. That's A LOT of space to download and store. Unless you are on some of the fastest connections out there you are waiting hours for that to download.

Plus with games, I might move them back and forth between two consoles in my house. Or I might take them over to a friends house to play them over a weekend. All totally within my legal and reasonable use of that product. Now that is either not going to happen at all because of the lockdown in code/registration of device...or at the very best require me re-download *AGAIN* to the device I want to play it on.

And that's not even being to scratch the surface on cable companies implementing usage caps.

And much the same arguments exist for movies and physical media for them.

Many of these problems either do not exist, or are largely mitigated in the music industry. Between portable players, streaming audio options in cars, and subscription services you are actually at an advantage with music.

Games and movies are light years behind this.

True about the music/games difference but the change is inevitable which was my argument, as well as the absurdity of calling xbox "Finished" because of the move towards digital. Steam is very successful and it was started when broadband speeds were upwards of 10 times slower than people have now.

I don't need a CD/DVD, instructions, or a case. I'd prefer to download it personally.

 

[vi edit]

Games will be available on a flash drive. What is the problem?

Added cost. Pressed disks are cheap. Plus storage on the console itself if you are required to copy it local. To be able to store games you'll need to add on more storage space, again driving up costs and eliminating budget minded (like the arcade version) models.

But consoles are quickly falling out of favor to. What was once to me a very nice escape from the PC world hastle of install, patch, update, play has now become an issue of update a dashboard, install a game, patch, play. The forced installs on the PS3 have almost made me stop using it for a gaming device. I can't even remember the last time a game went into the thing.

I'm a casual gamer and there is nothing casual about consoles anymore.

 

[JackBurton]

Eh, stamping so many discs that will only be used once sounds like a waste to me. I think we should get past what PCs have been doing for decades.

It is a very cost effective solution, and the reality is, game makers really only care if it is used once by one person (the initial buyer). It's a perfect interim solution until everyone has a 1Gbps internet connection in 2050 where downloadable games are a viable solution.

 

[alent1234]

True about the music/games difference but the change is inevitable which was my argument, as well as the absurdity of calling xbox "Finished" because of the move towards digital. Steam is very successful and it was started when broadband speeds were upwards of 10 times slower than people have now.

I don't need a CD/DVD, instructions, or a case. I'd prefer to download it personally.

very few people ever took PC games to a friend's house to play like consoles. they were always per machine.