EA Declares Digital Distribution as the Future
Since the ancient beginnings of the gaming industry, games have been purchased in physical (disc or cartridge) form. Most consumers have become accustomed to the process of purchasing a hard copy of a game and placing it into the gaming hardware. However, digital distribution exploded onto the scene only a few years ago, and since then it has continued to grow as more consumers continue to embrace it. Most surprisingly, a few predictions have stated that digital distribution will become the standard form of distribution in the future, which to many is very surprising.
Among those that claim that digital distribution is the future is EA Sports president Peter Moore. In a recent interview, he stated that the current distribution model is a sinking platform, and that it is clearly on its way out. On top of that, Peter Moore also stated the following:
“As digital distribution becomes more and more, we’ll continue as an industry to work with retail and to ship discs, but more and more of the content will be in the ‘cloud. More content will be delivered daily, weekly, or monthly, and less will be of the old model of cartridges and discs.”
Surprisingly, he does mention that discs will still be shipped by gaming companies to retail, but it seems that more games will be readily available through online distribution. The real incentive for companies to jump onboard is the simple fact that used copy sales do hurt the gaming industry, and digital distribution seems to solve this problem. However, there is no arguing that millions of consumers around the globe prefer to own a hard copy, and for that very reason it’s hard to imagine a scenario where its form goes extinct.
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20 Responses to “EA Declares Digital Distribution as the Future”
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October 21st, 2009 at 4:37 AM
I like to own a hard copy and also I understand that cash is needed for development costs. Digital only is dangerous – if your hardware crashes you could could lose software if the digital rights aren’t managed properly. Often this is managed by a licence of some sort that is hosted on your hardware. I bought some tunes from iTunes a few years ago and after a new computer and iPod reformat couldn’t get them back again. I still have the same user name and iTunes account details – yet I own those tracks. These were only a few pounds – if I had spend £20-£30 on a game I would be pretty savage!
I can see the point that developers need the money to continue developing, but is there a need to sell discs at £45 or $60+?
If gamers are series about a game they will buy it. I buy new for games that I really want. In less than 1 year of owning my PS3 I have bought 10 new titles and maybe 2 second hand. The ones I have bought second hand were franchises that I wanted to try and haven’t really played that much anyway.
Bottom line – if i buy a new game i get more for it when I trade in!!!!
October 21st, 2009 at 7:27 AM
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October 21st, 2009 at 8:20 AM
I don’t want my collection replaced by a series of fonts.
October 21st, 2009 at 9:17 AM
I would rather go all digital. the best example for how this works is Burnout Paradise. Its always available on my PS3, I never have to switch disks (which due to scratches have a short life anyway) to get the game going and I have 100% of what anyone else has with the game. Digital is the way to go for games and movies and music, lets get rid of the disk.
Actually, if it is worth it, keep the disk for the people who prefer that format (just like cds) but I think in the next few year it will be 100% digital anyway.
October 21st, 2009 at 9:19 AM
what if your system crashes?
October 21st, 2009 at 9:23 AM
I’m afraid that it’s the customers who determine what the future will be, not the suppliers. If they had their way, all CD’s would now be replaced with DVD-A’s and SACD’s, and the landfills would be filled with DVD’s as we’d all be watching everything on Blu ray now. Taking things away from customers, like used game sales, isn’t something you can just push on people. The whole thing sounds conniving and underhanded. Like, maybe we can somehow trick gamers into doing something that will cost them more money in the long run.
Besides, internet speeds in the majority of the world aren’t fast enough to allow for downloads of tens of gigabytes in any sort of acceptable amount of time. And imagine trying to download a AAA title on the day of its release, along with a million other people who are anxious to get their 30 – 40 GB as well.
October 21st, 2009 at 9:37 AM
And another thing to keep in mind with the bandwidth problem: One possible – and quite probable – solution would be to just make all the games smaller. Xbox 360 games fit on a standard DVD, it’s only those darned PS3 games, with their gigantic Blu ray disks, that are causing all the problems. Why don’t we just get rid of them, and give everyone the Xbox version of everything? I mean, if it’s 20 hour downloads vs. lower graphics quality, hey, I think we know which one we can push on consumers. Cheaper for the distributor as well – just imagine how much those gigantic servers are going to cost.
October 21st, 2009 at 10:11 AM
I read somewhere that over 1/2 of all PS3’s aren’t connected to the internet, fix that problem,
if that even is a problem, then worry about your silly predictions EA.
October 21st, 2009 at 11:28 AM
as long as they continue to make discs or some other form of “hard copies” I’m fine with any amount of digital distribution. I just never want things to get to the point where you can only buy digital copies because that means every cent I spend on video games is gone. Sure if I buy a good game then you can say I got my money’s worth, but the ability to sell my games used when I’m done with them helps me to be able to afford more games or just better afford the hobby of gaming altogether. If we see everything turn digital I will never be able to sell any of my games ever again. Just like the PSN titles I buy now. There are some I don’t play anymore, but I can’t do anything with them but delete them or let them sit on my hard drive forever.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:03 PM
digital distribution is future and l love it. If your system crashes u can e-mail them about the problem u know
October 21st, 2009 at 5:09 PM
I have friends in the industry and DD is all they talk about. They go off at parties and talk about how it’s the future and it can’t be stopped and then I ask them what speed their connection is at work (blazing fast) and home (blazing fast). Then I smack them with the hammer of reality.
Everyone else doesn’t have a super-fast connection, most people are really not that tech savvy, they want to be able to watch their movies when they want (not withing DRM restrictions) and they want to be able to borrow/sell/ and trade what they buy.
They usually sit there confused not knowing what to say. The problem here is that these people live in a bubble and the really think the whole world is like the inside of that bubble. People like to have control of products they spend money on….not be controlled.
October 21st, 2009 at 6:04 PM
If your system crashes? wait so your computer has never crashed? ever? and when it did you lost every piece of software you had on it? all you music, photos, videos, and programs… all gone lost in the cosmos never to be reinstalled again, unless you dished out the bucks for a new copy?
Crashes happen from time to time (hopefully less often than not) and software is re-installable (even without a disk). I dont know about you, but I can even delete games from my PS3 and get them again if I ever feel like playing again. its amazing how they gave me (and only me … insert devilish laugh here) the ability to look at things I downloaded and download them again.
far as I know, the only people who can not do that are those who shared their PSN ID to many times.
Oh and what about selling games back and trading? you people DO know that doing so is actually a form of piracy and the game companies have been trying to get rid of that for years. As long as they dont get a cut in the sale … the companies are being stolen from.
lastly, the issue about bandwidth…
over the past few years alone (nevermind the last decade since 56k has gone away) connection speeds have gone up drastically and prices have dropped at the same rate. Sure, nobody has a T1 connection, but fiber optic is the next best thing and its growing fast. The people who are not connected (generally) are not gamers either. People my age and younger (Im 35 BTW) KNOW the world is online and need to be so too. It wont be long before the people who have no need for the internet are extinct. either way, this is a discussion about “the future” not “the next week” so those who are still living in the 20th century have some time to catch up with the rest of us.
October 21st, 2009 at 7:42 PM
All I have to say is that they gotta get around the Wal-Mart problem they have so that they can release content cheaper through the PSN than retail. I mean we shouldn’t really have to pay 60 dollars in retail if we’re going to get charged another 10-20 or more in DLC right?
The market could slowly become a much larger profiting system, or it could just as easily destroy itself. Wal-Mart better not fucking interfere. The reason Sony said that they can’t undercut competition digitally is because Wal-Mart will stop selling the devices that can be used to undercut their game sales, and they aren’t happy about that. So Sony would have to decide between pleasing Wal-Mart, or losing the store that sells a huge portion of their consoles which would plummet console sales for Sony because idiots are too stupid to shop around.
October 21st, 2009 at 8:46 PM
Going digital would suck for me, because I have Dial-up, which from what I know of can’t get on PS Store, and even If it could, I would never get any DLC since my COMPUTER only downloads about 2mb in ten minutes…..so I would let rot and die….I would only have UT3, Dark Sector, Shatter, and Demon’s Souls (plus my PS1 games) to play, and when I (hopefully) beat Demon’s Souls, what happens then? I already beat UT3 and Dark Sector. I would get bored….forever
October 21st, 2009 at 8:51 PM
@MakaiOokami
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh wal mart makes too much money waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I don’t like how the real world works waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Holy fucking cats it annoys me when people complain about companies having common sense.
October 21st, 2009 at 9:11 PM
This isn’t going to happen for a while. Aside from the already mentioned fact that people like having that physical copy in their hand, there’s also bandwidth issues as well as penetration to consider. it’s hard to believe but not everyone is connected to the Internet! So there are a number of hurdles to overcome before DD takes a firm hold as a true replacement for physical media.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:26 AM
Does Wal-mart even exist outside the US?
@JohnnyTruant – HAH! – “holy fucking cats”
Anyone who has real friends knows that its nice to have a hard copy so you can go to your friend’s house and still play. Those same people are like me and hate that most games are releasing now with no local play features (why can I hook up 7 controllers again?!). Also, anyone who has had a hard drive formatted for whatever reason knows that this sucks. Redownloading everything sucks. and knowing that you can only do it 3 more times before repurchasing the game sucks. I don’t care if they want to push digital, as long as they don’t stop supporting hard copies.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:07 PM
@BigWoop if you even read this haha
My geography teacher in grade 9 said holy cats all the time in serious situations and it cracked me up every time.
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:23 PM
I for one will not pay $60 for a digital game EVER, that is ridiculous, one reasoning behind digital format was a way to save costs? shouldn’t that mean a cheaper selling price point? as it is now its just more profit for the Company
I only see the benefit in this going to the Profit Margins of companies, in all the years prices of games have arbitrarily gone up in price even as the cost of disc production should have gone down, the cost to make, press and package should have gone down in the past 10yrs enough to allow a better deal than $60
If companies are not careful there will be a repeat of what happened to video games before the market will fall and the next fad will come to take it’s place.
October 27th, 2009 at 6:42 PM
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