Digital Distribution Isn’t For Me - rudyjuly2's Blog

rudyjuly2's Blog

Digital Distribution Isn’t For Me

Posted on November 19, 2008 at 01:43 PM.

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Video games have existed on many formats. We’ve had cartridges, compact discs, DVDs, Blu Ray discs and now the ever-increasing Digital Distribution format. Companies are starting to push direct sales to the consumer through paid downloads. This method is being used to sell a lot of older or lower priced games. It was an option for gamers buying Gran Turismo 5 Prologue as well.

But who really prefers a downloaded game when you can actually own a disc, the instructions and the packaging that comes with it? Publishers might prefer to cut out the middleman by selling you a download directly. You will probably get a discount as well. While this may look good initially the long-term value of this game is zero unless you continue to play it. Many gamers buy new games knowing that in a couple months they might sell it after they get bored. I look at buying the latest action or shooter game not as a $60 purchase but rather an extended rental for $30 after trade-in. I can’t do this with a download, which will quickly clutter up my hard drive.

I just don’t see full digital games sales becoming the wave of the future. My future still includes the old fashioned buy, sell and trade options. Maybe the video game industry will start offering rentals as part of the digital download future. Everyone is trying to squeeze more money out of an industry that gets more and more expensive to make games. For now I will continue to enjoy having real instruction manuals and a real disc I can always sell down the road. My bandwith agrees with that and so does my old school personality.

Comments

# 1 HechticSooner @ Nov 19

Unless of course the purchase price drop down to your overall net loss. Then it would be a win-win, especially if you could burn the game to CD yourself. Then you could still have all the benefit, with little to no difference. Just my opinion.

# 2 rudyjuly2 @ Nov 19

If a full priced game was half off then I would consider it. But they would never let you burn it to a CD. The piracy market would be huge.