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Microsoft “Not Anywhere Close” To Simultaneous Retail, Digital Releases
Shane Kim, VP of strategy and business development for Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, has moved to assure retailers that the new Xbox 360 Games On Demand service isn’t likely to cannibalise physical sales.
According to Kim, Microsoft is a big believer in both digital and retail distribution. "... Everything we've done in digital distribution spaces has expanded the market, [and] has not been a share-shift between retail and online. And we think the effect will be the same thing here.”
The new Xbox 360 Games On Demand service is due to launch on August 11 as part of the system’s fall dashboard update. It will debut with a library of more than 30 older titles to buy and download, including Mass Effect, BioShock and Assassin’s Creed. While the platform holder has promised that new titles will be added on a weekly basis, they’ll likely be older games for some time, as Kim told Fast Company that simultaneous retail and digital Xbox 360 releases are some way off yet.
“There are a lot of complex issues to deal with here, especially if you start talking about day-and-date release with retail availability - which is not something that we're talking about at all, today. And publishers have to do some technical work in order to enable this. There will be decisions that publishers have to make from a business standpoint. But when it comes to us saying we want Games On Demand to enable day-and-date release of new titles, then there's certainly a lot of work we would need to go through.
“We're not anywhere close to that world today. We have great relationships with the retail channel - they're important partners. We sell a lot of hardware and software through retail channels. We have to be smart about how we approach this business.”
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Unless companies raises the cost of hardware so retailers can make a profit off of it rather than break even or lose money. They will not sell their hardware without games. It would be stupid.
So unless MS, sony and nintendo jack those prices or do online direct from manufactuer, they can't do online only distribution.
Kim told Fast Company that simultaneous retail and digital Xbox 360 releases are some way off yet.
Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo haven't got the balls to go down a total digital distribution path as they are terrified of the consequences that retail will stop stocking their hardware, accessories,etc, should they do so.
The only platform that has an almost 100% digital distribution platform is the PC. The iPhone on the otherhand is 100% digital, a major platform indeed. The PC and iPhone are many miles ahead in terms of digital distribution.
Being a primarly PC gamer, 96% of my games are bought via Digital Distribution. And yes, i don't give a shit about boxes, printed manuals and discs as they only take up space in my living area.
With Digital Distribution i've got access to my games anytime, anywhere, any PC, any country.
Except where there is no internet. My gaming PC isn't connected, for example.
That's the reason you have a console!
Hmmm I understand the implications that having downloaded titles means, DRM, difficulty to transport games to other console etc. However it offers one upside, you don't have to change discs. I find I play the downloaded titles on my PS3 more often than my disc based titles, just a few tracks on Wipeout say as I switch between games. However if I had to switch the disc out in out then in again to change games 3 times, I probably wouldn't bother as much so yeah, that convenience of not changing discs is definitely a good thing. I don't know how it would change my playing if they offered more traditional full length games for download, currently Burnout Paradise and Warhawk are the only titles available on disc as well from PSN (In my country at least). Do you have to have a gold membership to buy games from the store on XBL?
No a silver account is fine. The only difference between gold and silver (for the most part) is online multiplayer and the occasional early demo for gold memebers.
The silver account is fuckin shit! You can't even get access to new demos on a silver account as they are reserved for gold account members only, plus you need to have a gold account to play online, i mean WTF, it's so 1990's, Dreamcast era material.
Microsoft need to stop being a bunch of fuckin fascists and give these services for free to everyone who buy their less than stable console!
Oh calm down barla. It's rare for a demo to be gold only initially, only the really big games are and that's not even everytime. Yeah, do have to pay for multiplayer though, but didn't we all know that already? That horse has been dead for about 5 years could we stop beating it?
Oh calm down barla
I don't think so mate, you know it's the truth. The truth is a bitch init!
The fact is you need gold to play some fuckin stupid demo of a game.
MS need to get their act together, as i said XBL is so 1990's, Dreamcast era material.
Gold accounts pay the "lion's share" of XBL's service fees.
They aren't screwing silver members any more than boxed-seats at a sport's event screw general admission, & cable companies aren't screwing subscribers by streaming HBO to premium customers.
There are hundreds of examples you could make in this vein. It's just a different kind of platform than a PC. Comparing the two is impossible. You could buy an entire Xbox just for the price of a PC's operating system. PC gamers are just getting screwed in different areas.
I think it shows the 360 as a whole is an over priced investment for MS because they need ot milk their customers more than anyone else just to make small profits.
In the end it's a poor business model and doesn't appeal to enough people to support itself without milking its smaller but loyal fanbase.
They know know the only thing people *really* want from internet on a gaming console is multiplyer gaming so they're more or less forcing you to pay out extra to get the most out of your games. The system doesn't even come with a browser to let you surf the internet because it's so locked down.
People should be concerned that a company that has already been found to be a monopoly by the US and EU and has proven to abuse its power and use shady business practices wants to create a system that is more closed and expensive than the competition.
If Nintendo can be done for being a monopoly over the NES then MS better be hung out to dry by their balls if ever they obtain the number one spot with a sizeable userbase.
Nothing happened to Nintendo for being called a monopoly, in the states, they just weren't allowed to force exclusivity on their console without compensation.
Microsoft now has offer competing browsers on their own operating system. Nintendo never had to say, "You like Street Fighter 2? You should try the Genesis version."
Gold-standard isn't a great model, but it's not a new one. There are plenty of people who have cable that say the only reason they have it is for HBO. With so many similar models in place in other areas of entertainment, that nobody complains about, I can't imagine they'll feel the need to change.
The rare time the gold demo thing happens is definitely lame, but as far as paying for live multiplayer and it being Dreamcast era it seems a lot more people are willing to pay for online multiplayer than they were during the "Dreamcast era". So MS is doing something right that Sega didn't.
Doing something "right" or "profitable?"
Successful?
So you mean "profitable."
Well, at least more successful than the Dreamcast was when it came to a paid online component and console sales in general which was my initial point. Wouldn't you agree?
Yep, Xbox Live is more profitable than Dreamcast online was.
Are they afraid of pissing off their retail partners? I don't think it'll hurt sales too much as a lot of people on this site have voiced concern over not having a box or disc in-hand and they don't want to lose the ability to trade the game in, or to trade the game with a buddy or something. Those individuals could be the minority, but I can't imagine enough 360 owners vying for digital release day and date, not at least enough to hurt retail sales. Plus, retail could just sell download codes for the games that way you'd at least be able to still trade up towards the download code and that would keep retail in the loop. Shoot, they could figure out a way to make the rights transferable so you could trade your download code in but trading in your license too (which would be no different than trading in the actual disc). I don't see why it'd be that difficult to make day and date digital downloads, I think it's more of them not wanting to piss off retail. Just my thoughts though.
I could care less if I have the disc. I would rather not, cause now when I want to play a different game, even though it is already sitting there comfortably on my 360's HDD, I still have to get up to put the disc in. I'd love the day when I could scroll through all my games and just pick and choose what I want to play, instead of swapping discs (and my wife loves putting my kids' stupid movies in there and not putting my game disc back in). Maybe I’m just really lazy. The thought of not having to find my controller when natal comes out and just telling my Xbox to turn on, then scrolling with my hand. I want to be able to just think I want the Xbox to turn on and it does, then just think what I want to play and it starts up lol.
I'm one of those who'll buy downloadable titles if that's what they're available as, but would rather have a physical copy.
- Digital games don't go on clearance, and I'm the cheapest of the cheap.
- If a licensing agreement goes sour, or the company dies, all those games aren't redownloadable.
- You can't just bring it over to a friend's house and play.
So I can't see myself using this 360 downloadable game service anyway, even if, you know, I had a 360.
Full retail downloadable games, might not go on clearance i.e. $5-$10, but they do go down in price. Just last night I bought and downloaded Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. In June the title dropped in price because it became part of the PS3 greatest hits (or whatever the equivalent titles are to Xbox Platinum Hits), and the price dropped from $39.99 (which was a bit too much for me considering it's just a slice of the real game) to $29.99.
I also saw that Burnout Paradise is down to $19.99 or $29.99 for the DLC bundled in.
I think if MS and Sony are smart, they'll follow Steam's lead, with their weekly sales and bundle deals (both MS and Sony do this here and there for the smaller DLC games).
Personally, if the system was like Steam, and my account will always own the rights to re-download a game, I'd definitely use it for some games, but I'm too much of a packrat/"collector" to not buy the physical copies of games that I'm really hyped about. I also read the manuals, and even enjoy them when they're well done (which pretty much excludes Activision and EA manuals, those are the worst, so bare bones, and some EA manuals don't even have all the information you need to play on anything but the most basic level). And being able to lend games to friends is a definite plus. I have a lot of friends that have 360, quite a few that didn't have any previous gen consoles, and it's great to be able to introduce them to great games they probably would have never purchased themselves.
Well Burnout Paradise has been $8 (used, $15 new) at Blockbuster for a while now, and GT5: Prologue was at Target for $10 a couple months ago. Not even close. :P
I can see both your points and I am pretty much torn. What I would prefer the most I think is being able to play games installed to the HD without having to have the disc in. So, in effect turning your 360 into a pc using a no CD cracks. I like having the game cases so I can look at them and admire all my games, I'm a geek like that! But I only like looking at them, I hate swapping games out the Xbox or PS3 all the time. I always have one game constantly on the go, like Fifa 09, and then play different games in between so it's annoying having to change all the time. Just cycling through a list of games on the HD like Live Arcade games would be brilliant. So, that's my ideal solution. Plus, like Jack_ says, digital games don't go on clearance and you can't trade them in. Have digital downloads, sure. But make sure it's not the only way to buy a game, like the PSPGo!
Well said my friend.
That's pretty much the sentiment I hear from other people. But you could bring it to a friend's house if you brought your HDD as long as your profile was still on that HDD. One thing I'm concerned with is if you have for example 2 360s in one home and you want to play on your bedroom 360 so you hook up your HDD and get ready to play. Well, one of the problems with the way MS does their saving games from the disc to the HDD is that it will only work on the CONSOLE you saved it to. So you put your HDD on another console with your profile on it and it says that the game can only be played on the console (when playing it from the HDD I mean) it was originally ripped to. So I wonder if that will happen with the full game downloads? That wouldn't be good.
Your concerns are valid and I think a lot of people feel that way which makes me think it wouldn't hurt sales much at all by allowing same day and date releases. Oh well. I'd love it, but that's just me.