[Magic_Al]

The industry is moving toward digital delivery: EA expects its digital sales to overtake boxed games

I don't have a big problem with the idea of GTA being only a download someday, but I think it will mean the loss of classic GTA box art.

A downloadable game's "cover" is more like an app icon. A simple image that's recognizable at a tiny size. The classic GTA multi-panel comic strip/collage won't survive because it has too much detail for something that's not going to be printed.

The simpler, more ordinary style of Rockstar's art for TBOGT DLC may be the future.

[Audiophile]

This will probably piss people off, but I ain't even mad. I already buy the majority of my games off Steam. No box art for GTA is a shame tho. They always have awesome box art.

Also EA's Origin sucks. They still find a way to overcharge you even on there. I bought BF3 from there and seriously, they still charged me taxes as if I was buying the game in a store. Doesn't happen on Steam.

[Spider-Vice]

It eventually will be the future of gaming as generations pass. Solid media will start to get "old" and people will start to prefer downloads, all games will suffer from this and I guess GTA isn't an exception. The artwork could be kept to the in-game menus and general art, but eventually all games will lose their "box art", people start to prefer downloads.
There's a lot of parts where artwork can go to keep the GTA feeling so maybe it wouldn't be such a big problem.

[kid23455]

First off, that prediction WAS by EA, and we all know how great their "Worst company in America 2012" predictions are.

Second, until everybody has the kind of high speed connection that will be needed to download 20GB+ games in a reasonable amount of time, Retail isn't going anywhere.

That said, I'm willing to accept GTAVI as digital distribution only, IF publishers stop making DD such a rip off. They need to make the games cheaper (As production and shipping costs are completely nonexistant), and give us some kind of backup plan if their system goes down.

[The_Anti-tragedy]

Are they changing the box art for the consoles too? PLEASE TELL ME THEY'RE NOT CHANGING THE BOX ART FOR THE CONSOLES!

[Johacamigames]

Pretty sure they will still sell the physical copies either way, they'll do it both ways and I'm sure other companies will do the same.

[BlackLightning]

That would be awesome because I'm sick of exclusive preorder bonuses. Digital distribution can't come soon enough.

[finn4life]

Well hopefully nobody is shocked by this because it's been coming slowly for a long time.
Yes one day we will probably not have discs, or they will be a rarity, gaming stores will be gone, a thing of the past, they are dying out as we speak with a few that have gone under recently.

But we won't be totally disc-less for a long time yet, there is still a large number of people who don't have access to the internet.

In 2011 78% (if this Source is to be believed and i read it correctly) of North Americans had access, that is the highest rate in the world, and it only decreased from there, only 60% of Europeans, and only a mere 26% in Asia, according to these stats only 32% of people in the world have internet.

Yes many people who do not have internet would not have consoles anyway, but those stats are only the number of people of who have internet. I bet less than half of those people have the internet capabilities to be able to download games, hell in Australia (a developed first world country) only 30 minutes outside the capital city the best available runs on average 2-3Mbits, costs close to a hundred dollars a month and you end up with about 12GB of downloads per month.
Only By 2020 or later (I can see delays in a government funded roll-out plan costing billions) that started 2 years ago will be completed rolling out premium internet to all Australians. Peak speeds on the Fiber-Optics will be 1Gbit and 12MBPS average wireless for everyone else. Here in Australia at that time downloading whole games online will be a 100% viable option and perhaps discs will be phased out here and in other countries that may be doing similar things. This is for a country with only a 25million population (but large distances) and is fully developed and it is taking more than 10 years to complete, other countries that are less developed probably won't have decent enough internet until even later down the track.

So once the Digital really starts to take over they will probably cut-out the use of discs and box-art in countries that are actually suitable for all digital, and then do the same with the rest of the world, but it's going to be a damn long time, i could see myself being 30 years older before that happens, so this won't be the last GTA with Box-Art, let's assume the next GTA is 2016 or 2017, or somewhere in that time frame, it will probably still have a disc version.

Font Colour opinions? White seems so bland.

This post has been edited by finn4life on Tuesday, Aug 14 2012, 03:53

[73duster]

LOL, Box art is the last thing i'm worried about. The REAL impact is going to be on USED games being sold second hand. THIS will be the reason that drives game companies to go with downloadable only products. This will also virtually eliminate Gamestop, and other video game outlets.

[Acetaminophen]

It's not.

[gta_aus]

I hope not, I love flicking through the pamphlets looking at the fake funny adds. And it smells so good when its new =)

[j.hunt]

who cares

[rodneythesavior]

Making games 'Digital Only' severely neuters potential sales. I doubt that we will see this happen within the next 10-20 years. There will always be an option to choose between digital and physical, at least for AAA titles.

Not everyone who buys an Xbox/Playstation/PC/Nintendo will have an internet connection. Unless these systems are going to be offering some sort 3G/4G/Whatever type of wireless service with the system. And then what do we have? A whole lot more hate about how we're paying even more for video games than we are now.

I just want to add that this post isn't biased, because I have a great internet connection and plenty of harddrive space. I honestly believe Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo/What-have-you, will be shooting themselves in the foot by making home consoles digital only. (and in turn making Games DD only)

[redx165]

I hope PS4 doesn't do that. The thing I like about Discs are that you can just put it in the game and be done with it. Instead of waiting to download. The only good thing about this is no more special DLC preorder.

[Cha Boy Jesus]

I wouldnt mind digital. But hopefully the costa will drop since the dev will get the majority of the money. Theyll just have to pay, say, microsoft for putting it on digital download. So no having to pay to get discs printed and etc...

[mrsurferdude]

I hope not. I don't give a sh*t to downloadable games. I'm ok with DLCs but i do prefer to have the damn game on my hands. i don't want to buy a license to play a damn game from their servers. Let's say that you can save it in your HDD. So what??? if you burn the HDD you'd have to download the game again and i know that you won't find it anywhere. Simply cause it takes space and money to keep material available online. It goes again making profits. If it goes digital then you'll buy the license, play the game and kiss it goodbye in a year or so. There will be no replay value cause it's not available anymore. They can even make you pay monthly to play the next amazing GTA.

Download the next GTAVII free and pay the monthly $99.99 to play it. Kiss my @#$$% AS!!!!

Edit: Oh by the way they WILL NOT drop the prices. If anything they will raise it cause:"it costs more to keep the servers updated with all the games..." Stupid

This post has been edited by mrsurferdude on Tuesday, Aug 14 2012, 05:31

[GrandMaster Smith]

I honestly hate digital media.

Yes it is nice to be able to download a game from your couch, but what about when you get tired of that game?

You can't trade it in, you can't swap it with a friend's game.. it just sits there being completely useless.


This is the industries way of taking out our option of trading games for cash or other games.


Honestly, f*ck you EA. You're the biggest whore to video gaming ever. FFS in skate 3 they made you pay ten bucks so you could play party play, a feature that was in Skate 2 and Skate 1 I believe for free.. They even have it now so you have to pay for a code if you buy a used game to access online features. Once again hitting below the belt for the second hand gaming business.

They are sluts only out for money. They love money so much they would cheap shot their own loyal customers who without, they as a company wouldn't even exist. Once again, f*ck you EA.

[Chukkles]

QUOTE (Magic_Al @ Tuesday, Aug 14 2012, 02:58)

The industry is moving toward digital delivery: EA expects its digital sales to overtake boxed games I don't have a big problem with the idea of GTA being only a download someday, but I think it will mean the loss of classic GTA box art. A downloadable game's "cover" is more like an app icon. A simple image that's recognizable at a tiny size. The classic GTA multi-panel comic strip/collage won't survive because it has too much detail for something that's not going to be printed. The simpler, more ordinary style of Rockstar's art for TBOGT DLC may be the future.

I like some of the XBLA titles but these full game downloads take up too much space on HDD, it will never be advantageous to make these big titles download only because people will limit themselves to what they can fit on their Space (wether thats 8MB card or 250MB HDD). If thats the way next gen consoles are going they better have tons more space.

[mrsurferdude]

QUOTE (GrandMaster Smith @ Tuesday, Aug 14 2012, 05:45)

I honestly hate digital media. Yes it is nice to be able to download a game from your couch, but what about when you get tired of that game? You can't trade it in, you can't swap it with a friend's game.. it just sits there being completely useless. This is the industries way of taking out our option of trading games for cash or other games. Honestly, f*ck you EA. You're the biggest whore to video gaming ever. FFS in skate 3 they made you pay ten bucks so you could play party play, a feature that was in Skate 2 and Skate 1 I believe for free.. They even have it now so you have to pay for a code if you buy a used game to access online features. Once again hitting below the belt for the second hand gaming business. They are sluts only out for money. They love money so much they would cheap shot their own loyal customers who without, they as a company wouldn't even exist. Once again, f*ck you EA.

I agree. I do understand the argument that the brick and mortar (gamestop, play N' Trade, etc...) stores cash in the used games and the Dev and publishers don't see a single penny of it.

i believe a better solution to this issue would be to have the stores pay a percentage of the revenue back to the Devs. That would force the retailers to rethink their prices, i mean if they charge as much as a new game we, or at least I, would buy a new one. It would make the big ones like EA shut the hell up about loosing revenue.


EDIT: Now i do apologize for my post being so out of topic. I do still think that digital games is a horrible idea.

[Xcommunicated]

QUOTE (kid23455 @ Monday, Aug 13 2012, 22:16)

That said, I'm willing to accept GTAVI as digital distribution only, IF publishers stop making DD such a rip off. They need to make the games cheaper (As production and shipping costs are completely nonexistant), and give us some kind of backup plan if their system goes down.

Well there is the cost of servers, bandwidth and the percentage taken by the digital distributor like Steam and Amazon. But yeah, it's still cheaper than the cost of printing discs, covers and booklets and the cost of shipping supplies.

Digital distribution has its pros and cons. It may potentially destroy the second-hand market, but not if the EU Court can set a precedent.

For me personally, Steam has made gaming a lot simpler and accessible. It's so easy to buy games on sale and have them sit in my library ready to download whenever I get around to them.

But when it comes to things like printed artwork and box covers, about the only substitute is if developers offer an ebook featuring artwork for the game, although in this day of DLC madness, don't be surprised if they include it in a "deluxe" version and charge you extra for it... I'm looking at you Mafia II.