Gamestop Threatening not to Sell Next Xbox

[Guest]

It's a piece of shit. It's crashed, locked up, you name it, I don't know how many times. Plus my account was hacked somehow.

And no, you don't own shit with digital downloads. Keep telling yourself that. Are you trying to tell me that you haven't heard the myriad horror stories of people that had issues with iTunes or their computer hard drive itself where the info was wiped and the iTunes showed no record of them ever downloading any of the shit? It happens daily. What about people that but a new 360 and can't re-download XBLA games they fucking bought? Whereas if that bullshit happens to me I still have the trusty cd and can load it back onto my PC if need be.

The only way I think digital downloads can prosper is if there is a significant price reduction from what we are paying now. But MS especially hasn't shown that. Just look at their Games on Demand. Not only are they not reasonably priced but they are overpriced. It's a joke.

I agree with you on XBL services, but I had to have my hard drive replaced on my Mac and I was able to download everything again from iTunes. It took FOREVER but everything came back.

[Guest]

i think people are getting hung up on the cost being reduced. i highly doubt we will see a significant decrease in cost

Exactly. What is the incentive? People will still buy games whether they are $60 or even higher. We will see a price increase way before a decrease, even if companies do move to a digital model. It is all about the money.

[BrntO4Life]

No you didn't.

You just provided proof that there was a sale on Steam that allowed you to get the game for $40 around Christmas. Toys R US ran a similar sale, $40 for the physical version of the game around Christmas. What's your point? Anyone who is patient and willing to do some research will be able to find a sale or good deal. This is true for buying anything. Trying to use a sale as evidence that the game is much cheaper on Steam is pretty LOL.

Right now it's going for $60 on steam over 4 months after it was released. It's not much cheaper it's the same as buying it on XBOX/PS3. No cost of having to put the game on a cd, package it and put it on a shelf in some store...same price.

People who try to argue that all digital systems = cheaper games for us are out of their mind. Must have forgotten who you're dealing with.

Perfect. As leaf stated, anything outside of a AAA title is often $10 cheaper, at the least. Big titles will always be expensive -

But this isn't the real issue here anyways. The argument is that not having used games would destroy the market. That's laughable at best. The people who aren't buying games (that count towards sales) won't buy them anyways.

[leaffan]

Perfect. As leaf stated, anything outside of a AAA title is often $10 cheaper, at the least. Big titles will always be expensive -

But this isn't the real issue here anyways. The argument is that not having used games would destroy the market. That's laughable at best. The people who aren't buying games (that count towards sales) won't buy them anyways.

And big titles are usually more expensive because obviously they will sell regardless if its $10 cheaper or not.

[leaffan]

I want to see things like Assassins creed sell their single players for $40 and then have the multiplayer be an add on for $20 more. With digital you can do that and quite easily.

Will MS force and issue like that I highly highly doubt it.

[BrntO4Life]

And big titles are usually more expensive because obviously they will sell regardless if its $10 cheaper or not.

Exactly. They'll go for as high as people will buy them for, which is fine. If GTA sells 10 million copies at $60 each, why the hell would they sell it for any less?

[JeremyHight]

I don't see a home console going fully digital any time soon. Like it or not, people like to have something in their hands. You can point to Steam, but do you really want to talk about PC video game sales as a good market to duplicate? The same goes with music. I think last year was the first time total music sales (CD, Vinyls, digital, etc.) actually increased in 7 years. Considering inflation, that is absolutely terrible.

Grandparents want to give their grandkids a box with something in it, same with parents. The kids might not care as long as they get their game, but the people with money actually do. The same goes with people who like to buy, sell, and trade their games. Remember when kids actually would bring their game over to their friends house and play it. That wouldn't be possible if it was fully digital and locked to a single console.

I just don't expect a console to go fully digital. I foresee companies offering more things via digital download such as full, big-market games, but to completely cut out physical media seems extreme.

[BrntO4Life]

I don't see a home console going fully digital any time soon. Like it or not, people like to have something in their hands. You can point to Steam, but do you really want to talk about PC video game sales as a good market to duplicate? The same goes with music. I think last year was the first time total music sales (CD, Vinyls, digital, etc.) actually increased in 7 years. Considering inflation, that is absolutely terrible.

This is a perfect reason as to why console manufacturers SHOULD consider going digital. Stay ahead of the curve, not behind it like the music industry has...

[JeremyHight]

This is a perfect reason as to why console manufacturers SHOULD consider going digital. Stay ahead of the curve, not behind it like the music industry has...

The industry is staying ahead of the curve in terms of piracy. Compare how easy it is to pirate movies in comparison to pirating games. Ya, pirating games is pretty easy, but you still have to do some computer work and flash a harddrive and the like. Pirating a cd takes seconds. Add in how MS bans consoles and changes their disk formats, they are far in front of the curve. BTW, being fully digital doesn't make it piracy-proof. Look at the PC market, for example.

I think the best things MS could do is to go with a modified SD card format that would be difficult to pirate. It won't be impossible, but it will delay the inevitable like the PS3 did.

Also, a fully digital market rules out a lot of gamers as there are plenty of places where the amount you download is actually limited. Downloading a 10 GB game is about all you can do for a month, not even playing it online. Imagine if they wanted to buy 2 games? Oh well, too bad.

[BrntO4Life]

The industry is staying ahead of the curve in terms of piracy. Compare how easy it is to pirate movies in comparison to pirating games. Ya, pirating games is pretty easy, but you still have to do some computer work and flash a harddrive and the like. Pirating a cd takes seconds. Add in how MS bans consoles and changes their disk formats, they are far in front of the curve. BTW, being fully digital doesn't make it piracy-proof. Look at the PC market, for example.

You do realize piracy is incredibly more difficult on Steam than it is on 360, right?

[JeremyHight]

You do realize piracy is incredibly more difficult on Steam than it is on 360, right?

Piracy on the PC is incredibly easy and easily the most common medium for piracy. Yes, on Steam itself, it can be tough, but if you play offline, almost all PC piracy is simple.

[jms493]

i think piracy has become less of an issue because of services like steam. Hmmm lets see....pay 5-20 bucks for title x and have it downloaded in a few mins or have to search for some pirate website and hope you find the version that works and don't get a virus to boot. Most people do't know where to go and will ending going to a torrent site and fuck their computer because they download a trojan horse. Also it is never a problem getting a new computer or reinstalling windows. Just reinstall steam and go.

[jms493]

We can argue this to the cows come home but we are going to be at all digital gaming world soon.....i am ready, lets jump in now!

[Sven Draconian]

I don't think anybody is saying consoles should go full digital tommorow.

But within 5 years? I think it'll be closer to 80% digital.

Technology is moving at warp speed. 10 years ago facebook didn't exist and high speed internet was still a novelty. People were downloading music to burn onto CDs. There was no text messaging. People were using that annoying ass nextel "chirp" feature.

Within 5 years facebook was close to 100 million users and Ipods were the norm. Smartphones were still more concept than reality.

Another 5 years later and CDs are antiques and facebook is over 500 million users... which everyone checks with their android phones, by google, which was still competing with ask jeeves and yahoo 10 years ago (lulz)

And the arguement is that people want something to "hold" and soccer moms won't be able to find games? GTFO.

[Bear Pand]

You must not know the system then because outside of AAA games being the same price as the console version the digital versions of most games are at least $5 to $10 cheaper.

So what advantage does this offer to someone like me who buys 3-5 video games a year, with the majority of them being big titles? The last 5 games I bought were Mass Effect 3, NBA Jam (EA), Skyrim, Madden (smfh) and Saints Row 2. And I bought Saints Row two digitally off of Xbox way after it was released and looking back got ripped off on the price, plus I'm unable to ever resell it.

I couldn't give two shits if Malachi's Quest that two dudes cooked up in their basement is cheap.

The larger titles should still be cheaper if they're being sold digitally, but as you said companies have no reason to offer a discount because people will buy anyway. I fully agree with that and it's a problem.