How Do You Feel About Downloading Games?

[Scourge]

We know Sony wants their next platform to be the heart of the living room for home entertainment, and that Microsoft seems to want the same, while Nintendo wants to provide a pure game playing experience. I’m kind of put off by what Sony and Microsoft seem to want to do. I’m fairly certain that PS3 and Xbox 2 will both have HD's built in, as well as built in broadband and maybe dial-up access out of the box. My problem here lies in the prospect of dowloading games.

The idea of buying games from Sony’s or Microsoft’s websites and downloading them from their servers, in incremental parts or in whole is, quite frankly, a scary proposal to me. Ownership of the game would never seem to be on my end of the court. An HD isn't a bottomless pit; it's got limits and so dumping would have to occur. As much as I own games to play them, I also collect them for future play, by myself or my son, and possibly even his future kids. While future emulation may grant me access to those games, I want the systems they were made for to be viable to me, as the owner, for as long as possible.

There’s a whole slew of potential issues I think of regarding dowloading games. Security issues, downloading times, storage, ownership, glitches... It makes me sick to my stomach to think that this is the direction the industry might be headed. Maybe I’m just getting old and it’s the leap in technology and the somewhat newness of the idea to me that puts me off on it, but I can see me not playing games anymore when the only software available is for download. Sure, I may be looking way into the future, relatively speaking, but I think Sony and Microsoft are planning to make headway on this in the next generation, and according to them, that starts in 2005.

This could be a big boon for them. Gamer generations coming up certainly aren’t going to be as put off by this idea as I am, and sometime in the future, the idea of having games on discs may even seem really old school, like vinyl records or something. Everyone has moved up from cd to dvd, and I’m guessing DL is the next evolution. Ick.

With proprietary players and server side control of distribution, I guess they can work around the issues the music and movie industries have with downloadable content, but still... I want it in my hands and on my shelf to look at and touch and.... Oof. This depresses me. In this respect, I’m counting on Nintendo to be the sticks in the mud they are known to be, to their detriment or not. It’s all about me, damn it!

--Scourge .

[AaronChance]

It is a stupid, stupid idea. I think it'll even encourage the making of even more sloppy and mediocre games since they won't have production costs anymore. So things that would have normally get shelved would be put up for download sales.

I'm not touching a download only console.

[Jeremy]

I have no desire to download games as the sole means of playing them. Plus, if you have anything less than a broadband connection, it would take eons to download a single game.

[Diff-chan]

Ammadeau, I think youre looking at this from the wrong angle. A lot of really great games, more along the lines of mods but still - Desert Combat, Team Fortress Classic, Q2Pong, Day of Defeat, Jailbreak, CounterStrike, etc. - have been FREE DOWNLOADS. And they're fucking great, original products. I would take any number of these free mods over 99% of actual shelved pay-for products.

Look, to get a game on a shelf at EB nowadays, you need a huge company like EA to shell out enormous wads of cash to get it on the shelf. And when EA is doling out loads of cash to get your game just to be seen, it means they tell you whats happening in that game.

Not cool.

I actually think that a lot of companies would love a console like that, because it would break this ridiculous stranglehold that the EBs, GameStops, etc., have. And I think it will encourage smaller developers to put out stuff, which may or may not actually be quality.

I mean, the PS2 library, the GBA library, and to some extent, the Xbox library, is already loaded with swill. All these horrible nonsense games like Pryzm Chapter One and XTREME D00DSAQ RACEEN DELUX! Could it really get THAT MUCH WORSE? Lets be honest.

And if the games were downloaded, at least you dont have to sift through them while you look for the good games.

[Shin Johnpv]

Originally posted by Ammadeau
It is a stupid, stupid idea. I think it'll even encourage the making of even more sloppy and mediocre games since they won't have production costs anymore. So things that would have normally get shelved would be put up for download sales.

I'm not touching a download only console.

pretty much how i feel

and like Jeremy said even on broadband it would take awhile to download games at least with todays broadband



I think downloading content is a bad idea

people like having something physical when they put their money down

and how are you going to charge people credit cards

theres a shit load of people out there with out such things


Its just not a viable solution right now

maybe in 10 years or something

but for the next systems coing out its not a solution IMHO

[Opaque]

I want a hard copy of a game (Read: a disk) or I dont wan't anything at all... downloads are to risky...

[raystorm]

I read in the newest PC Gamer that Valve plans on selling Half-Life 2 through downloads using their Steam technology.

I dont really think its a bad idea as you could buy the game online..download it...then burn it to CD-R. Of course thats just for PC games as consoles have protection in them so I'm not sure how this will work.

[FX]

Originally posted by Box Drink
I want a hard copy of a game (Read: a disk) or I dont wan't anything at all... downloads are to risky...

[AaronChance]

Hmm, diffusionx is right. I was looking at it from the wrong angle since game mods are an edge that console gaming lacks. I think now I'd wait and see what results from this and then form an opinion on it. Until it's done, especially in some kind of console context, I don't think I can fully understand what it might be like to me.

Originally posted by raystorm
I read in the newest PC Gamer that Valve plans on selling Half-Life 2 through downloads using their Steam technology.

I dont really think its a bad idea as you could buy the game online..download it...then burn it to CD-R. Of course thats just for PC games as consoles have protection in them so I'm not sure how this will work.

If you have a fast connection you wouldn't even need to burn it. I'm sure they would set up an account for your purchases so if you buy a downloadable game you can download as many times as needed.

[UndeadKing]

I could sit here for hours going on about how stupid download only games are, but I won't.