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Digital Won’t Overtake Boxed Product for Years
The bosses of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft's UK arms have each said that digital products won’t overtake sales of boxed, retail products for some time to come.
As part of an MCV feature all three platform heads said that retail will remain the driving force behind game sales.
Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton began, “I don’t think that digitally distributed product will overtake our boxed product for a long time. Consumers have taken up downloading content in some areas but we still see retail being a vital and valued partner for some considerable time to come.”
Sony Computer Entertainment UK MD Ray Maguire added, “Whilst it may be convenient and straightforward to download relatively small files, it’s unrealistic to expect the vast majority of consumers to access and store the 25GB or 50GB of data that make up a Blu-ray release. Therefore, whilst the popularity of and demand for bite-size content will continue to grow, there’ll still be a need for a storage medium that’s both convenient and accessible to the majority, not the minority, for some time to come.”
Microsoft’s director of entertainment and devices for Northern Europe, Neil Thompson, said, “I expect digital distribution of game content to explode in the next three years as more publishers encompass the value of Xbox Live.”
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The infrastructure isn't there for bluray movies anywhere in the world. At present 50GB is going to take days no matter where you live & what internet connection you have. I think digital distribution of music can work well as long as its priced around the £5 per album mark as £5 is what i would term, 'impulse buy' / 'beer in the pub' money. However for games costing £30 and up i want a disk, a disk has resale value and isn't going to be lost if i have a harddrive failure or the supply company goes under.
Imagine if the Megadrive (Genesis) had been digital distribution only. By now you would have upgraded hard drives etc and the compaines that made & distributed the games would have gone under etc. Theres very little chance you would still have your collection.
I feel that until speed and usage allowances see significant increases digital distribution is just a pie in the sky fantasy in any meaningful way for video and gaming distribution for the medium to long term- European or not.
The pricing strategies aren't very competitive either.
Very true about the pricing. For movies, without the packaging and not getting any of the extras (not important to everyone, but it should still be factored into the price), these downloads should cost less than retail copies - not the same.
Both MS and Sony aren't pricing the games at a point where they make sense yet either, although there has been a slight downward trend recently with some specials. Having said that, Steam had an unbelievable sale over the Holidays which I hope was successful for all parties involved (so more companies follow their example).
In the US, speed and access are already pretty much there now (the areas that don't have it are low population areas that are insignificant in terms of sales anyway). Reading this thread, I suspect things might be different in the UK. I can watch an HD movie on Zune marketplace (360 Live) while it's downloading after only a few seconds; unlike the unfortunate horror story below about taking three days to download a movie in the UK.
ZuneHD works very well in the uk too as for the downloading a film via psn i have never tried tbh so can't comment.
I think it's worth pointing out that all three execs were from the European divisions of these companies. I suspect the online strategies for each of these companies varies depending on the territory in question. (i.e. - in Japan, the emphasis may be on bite-sized digital downloads via wireless for handhelds, whereas in the US, it will be on larger game downloads for home consoles via broadband).
@DubsTF All three are basing their arguments for retail on their own agendas, which as I see it go something like this;
Nintendo: They rule the waves at retail, and are finding it far more profitable to sell huge numbers of the same half dozen items for years and years on the highstreet than the traditional development, publishing and retail cycle.
Sony: Blu Ray content is too large for most internet connections, certainly as far as the UK is concerned. I haven't used the PSN online film service but wonder if the films are the same filesize and picture and sound quality as Blu Ray discs.
Microsoft: Xbox Live is key, also HD DVD failed and probably don't want to endorse Blu Ray so need downloards to really take off or be stuck with DVDs.
I downloaded an HD movie from the PSN video store. I have 18mb broadband with Virgin. I wanted something to watch that evening as I had had a big night before and wanted to veg out. It was three days before I watched that movie and I had to leave my PS3 on to get it. The quality was rubbish (only 720p). I will only download movies from there if I don't really care about the quality but otherwise it is blu-ray all the way. Digital distribution of HD content is still a pipe-dream in the UK. Most people have around 8mb or less. O2 wanted to sell me 4mb. Can you imagine?
I find the download speeds on PSN to be very slow compared to XBL. So Im always inclined to download game demos and movies for the 360 despite only having a 13gb HD on it (as appossed to 250gb in my PS3).
XBL seems to be much much quicker in general. I use wifi for both machines (I have the 360's wifi adapter).
Anyone else notice this difference?
Yep, PSN is slower when downloaded things. It's a pain in the arse when you're updating games for example that you haven't used for a while. I would use my 360 for demos but it's nearly broke again and I need to squeeze as much out of it as I can so I can finish Tales of Vesperia.
As far as using the movie services I'll stick to boxed product as it's way cheaper, better quality and I can lend it to family/friends.
Yep, same here in the US (I use ethernet cable on both my 360 and PS3 though). To satisfy my curiousity, I've actually downloaded the same demo one after the other on both platforms and XBL is nearly three times as fast to download and install than PSN.
To be fair they are going to think what's best for them is what will happen.
Until the US starts getting broadband all over the US (or the US market gets ignored) then retail will rule because broadband is still non-existent for too many people.
I expect digital distribution of game content to explode in the next three years as more publishers encompass the value of Xbox Live.
What does that even mean? That doesn't make sense.
Also: way to turn being sourced for a quote into an Xbox Live commercial, douchebag.
And the Sony exec's quote wasn't a commercial for Blu-Ray?
Sure it was! I guess my comment about turning this into a self-serving commercial was kind of an afterthought. I'm still stuck on that thing about 'encompassing' the value. WTF.
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