If you’ve already got enough crap laying around your house and are looking to keep things nice and tidy moving forward, you’ll be happy to know that Sony recently confirmed that all games appearing on the company’s upcoming NGP platform will be available for digital download.
Speaking to MCV, SCEE’s Andrew House talked about the lessons learned from the PSP and what gamers can expect in terms of content as it pertains to physical and digital distribution.
One thing we learnt from PSP, is that we want to have simultaneous delivery in digital and physical for NGP. Just to clarify that, all games that appear physically will be made available digitally. Not necessarily all games have to be made available physically. And having the option of a digital-only method affords more creative risk-taking, and that’s because you don’t-have that in-built risk of physical inventory
What I’d like to see is a hierarchy of different games of different sizes. So at the high-end you’ve got these big, premium games, which by and large will be available physically because that is the most convenient way to access them. And then there’s an opportunity for digital-only, where we might see more experimentation.So, how many of you prefer physical copies of your games as opposed to digitally downloading them? Do you think this is a good strategy for Sony in terms of getting content through to the NGP crowd and furthering the ability for less prominent developers to reach their target audience? Digitally distribute your thoughts below!
via Gamespot
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR VGH's founder and El Jefe. Lance is a longtime 'gaming connoisseur', indie music junkie, recovering asshole and video game enthusiast. His main objective is to develop Video Game Henchmen into a gaming site known for its intelligence, timeliness, originality and integrity. Lance spends part of his free-time in the virtual world and has a lot of gaming experience since he started at a very young age. |
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Sounds good to me! Though I prefer tangible media myself (for gaming that is.)
Then again I’m a graphic design major and love print design so that could be a factor haha. Everything’s going digital now though, so I’m not sure how long that will last.
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That just sounds like the big games will be available both physically and digitally and the lesser “indie” or “casual” games will only be available through download.
It’s sounds actually quite nice for a console, but this method of distribution has been available for the PC for a couple of years now (Oh hi Steam). Consoles just have the hd drive size limitation before this becomes common place.
Considering the main reason for the PSP Go failing is because there was no reason to buy one if you already have a PSP. But the NGP is a major upgrade. From the sound of this article is seems that some titles will also be able to be bought from a store (aka you still have the option to have the physical game)
I’ll put it this way, titles like Uncharted, Heavy Rain: gotta have an heirloom (physical) copy. Something like say, Stacking, PixelJunk, perfectly happy with my digital.
This should be interesting to see the pricing structure of games that are released in both formats, like if they release at the same price (which is an interesting *if*), which price comes down first?
I read the title and thought “digital-only games” and my initial reaction was negative. I for one like my physical media, being able to sell it, trade it, pop it back in long after the platform is supported. It will take a very long time (5 years or more) and Steam staying consistently trustworthy before I’m OK buying most of my games digitally.
This also raises the question that Brent brought up the the axe factor about not really owning the games we buy. The story he mentioned is about a guy who complained in the BioWare forums about DA 2 and he was banned from game access because of the EA account.
After reading that all games will also have digital releases, and that they seem to be leaving the device open to smaller indie developers is what really turned it around for me. Let’s hope someone finally realizes that Digitally Distributed titles should cost less than their physical dopplegangers. We can dream can’t we?
I don’t mind IF the publishers realize that digital copy is NOT 1:1 with a physical copy. Physical copy has a re-sell value, you can lend it to your friends and it takes actual money to manufacture and ship that thing (and it looks nice on your shelf) and doesn’t hog all of your digital storage space (hard drive, memory cards).
Who in their right mind would pay €60 for a digital copy of Mass Effect 2 from PSN store? I got a new (physical) copy of the same game for €30. Like was said in the previous EBC, right now they cannot sell digital versions cheaper than physical ones, because of BestBuys and Wallmarts and such. But this HAS to change. I will not buy a digital copy at the same price as physical. And I usually get better deals with physical versions.
That’s great news. This just means more accessibility at all times. I don’t have to worry about going to the store to see if they have it in stock, I can just download the games I want when i want.
That’s great, but I would never download large games because Sony doesn’t have the reputation or support that Valve does. I don’t think Sony even allows you to re-download movies yet. The incident with Bioware banning a player for mouthing of about Dragon Age 2 on their support site has made me even more skeptical about digital media.