25th March 2006, 8:32 PM
Downloading games won't be feasable on a big scale for a long time. I know people keep saying 'the age of buying games is doomed", but I don't see it. Hard drives? That won't work! Games are big... have a few games and it fills up. Like I've got 110GB of HDD space on my PC and that's not enough for all of my PC games to all be installed at the same time unless I strip it of most everything else, which I can't do... games these days are BIG, multi-gigabyte, and it's just absurd to expect them all to fit on a harddrive. You'd need several, and unless they were external or easily switchable (and external HDDs are slower, and HDDs aren't easily switchable), that would get messy fast and you'd run out of space inside your box... and stuff like flash cards and stuff won't work for real full console games. Nowhere near big enough in a reasonable price range. No, I don't see disc (or something like it)-based media going away anytime soon... oh, many games will be downloadable as an option, but not as the default. Space and other issues demand the ability to have the game on something other than just your harddrive...
And also, people like actually owning their game, and not just having it on the harddrive... it's just not the same...
Now, PC games have been gradually becoming more and more focused on downloading games as a central part of the system, and retail sales are flat at best while total PC sales are going up nicely because of pay download games, but much of that is because of online games (MMORPGs, etc) and stuff... but yes, digital distribution is here. But for many reasons it will not replace physical distribution, at least not for a long time.
Downloading works great when you aren't downloading many games (like MMORPGs, where most people don't want to pay many subscriptions, so they'll only have one or two), or for small games (virtual console of cartridge games, the stuff on Live Arcade, etc), but it doesn't work as well for larger stuff (full-size CD games on live arcade/virtual console/etc, full PC game downloads (yes, they're here, and people use them, but how many can you get before your HDD is full? And it's not as easy to just delete the game and reinstall it later when you've got more space when you don't actually have the discs!)...
To state it mildly.
The voice chat is a nice addition, but it's limited to friends only, and not ingame, so it's badly crippled... but at least now you can TALK INGAME in some form (Mariokart!)... not a sign of change of the main problems, though.
This is the fault of how small game boxes are, not of the uselessness of manuals... console manuals have always been useless, for the most part, but PC manuals used to be great... now they stink and are as useless as console ones because of cost saving and these lame miniboxes that now all PC games sell in.
Of course, PC games shipping without manuals (or manuals just on CD) to save money goes way back, 1996 at least, but even so, at least back then those games were the exception, not the rule... sadly that has not been true for some time now. And even the games which COULD have good manuals are sabotaged by the requirement to make them about the size of a postage stamp to fit in those tiny boxes... (Warcraft III's quite underwhelming manual, for instance, when compared to WCI/II/SC)
And also, people like actually owning their game, and not just having it on the harddrive... it's just not the same...
Now, PC games have been gradually becoming more and more focused on downloading games as a central part of the system, and retail sales are flat at best while total PC sales are going up nicely because of pay download games, but much of that is because of online games (MMORPGs, etc) and stuff... but yes, digital distribution is here. But for many reasons it will not replace physical distribution, at least not for a long time.
Downloading works great when you aren't downloading many games (like MMORPGs, where most people don't want to pay many subscriptions, so they'll only have one or two), or for small games (virtual console of cartridge games, the stuff on Live Arcade, etc), but it doesn't work as well for larger stuff (full-size CD games on live arcade/virtual console/etc, full PC game downloads (yes, they're here, and people use them, but how many can you get before your HDD is full? And it's not as easy to just delete the game and reinstall it later when you've got more space when you don't actually have the discs!)...
Quote:However, as both ABF and myself mention, there are a few usability features they need to include with future games.
To state it mildly.
The voice chat is a nice addition, but it's limited to friends only, and not ingame, so it's badly crippled... but at least now you can TALK INGAME in some form (Mariokart!)... not a sign of change of the main problems, though.
Quote:Oh yeah, I've been thinking instruction manuals are outdated for some time. That can easily be done via tutorials, and has been in a number of the games I have.
This is the fault of how small game boxes are, not of the uselessness of manuals... console manuals have always been useless, for the most part, but PC manuals used to be great... now they stink and are as useless as console ones because of cost saving and these lame miniboxes that now all PC games sell in.
Of course, PC games shipping without manuals (or manuals just on CD) to save money goes way back, 1996 at least, but even so, at least back then those games were the exception, not the rule... sadly that has not been true for some time now. And even the games which COULD have good manuals are sabotaged by the requirement to make them about the size of a postage stamp to fit in those tiny boxes... (Warcraft III's quite underwhelming manual, for instance, when compared to WCI/II/SC)