Codemasters co-founder David Darling, who is now head of mobile gaming company Kwalee, believes that the next-generation of games consoles will fail unless they are digital only. Darling looks towards things such as Steam, Facebook, and Apple’s AppStore as proof that boxed games are now history.
“Consoles have become like dinosaurs heading for extinction as their natural retail habitat begins to change. These ancient beasts must now adapt to a new environment where platforms like Steam, Facebook and Apple’s App Store are pushing innovation. People are already playing more games through digital download than physical media. For instance, Angry Birds has had more than one billion downloads, a sales figure totally beyond what can be achieved by boxed games sold in the likes of Game and GameStop.”
“With digitally distributed games we can cut out physical production, warehouses, distributors and retailers. We can publish our own games, reducing our costs so that we can deliver fun experiences to players for far less cost than a console game. Therefore it is no longer necessary to charge people huge prices to play video games.”
HAHA.. Yeah right…
When the only make digital releases then I am going to buy games.
THAT MAKES SENSE….. NOT
Sorry I ment to say
HAHA.. Yeah right…
When they only make digital releases then I am not going to games anymore.
I was kinda pissed of so I just typed some bullshit without checking it before posting it.
c’mon blackabe, I love the nickname but your spelling errors are making me twitch. Fix those and you got a perfect account.
English is not ever bodies first language you know.Lets see you try to type in German for instance. Grammar Nazi
Just kidding, no offence.
How did you know I am German?
Oh. Sorry.
I guess my ain’t the best. I am German and my main language is German too. But thanks for the compliment!
hey man everyone makes mistakes the differences is u get to amid it unlike the trolls here.
STILL DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why?
If they start to only sell digital releases then I am not buying any games anymore.
Lol agreed! I don’t even buy things online D;
David Darling is lying. Look at the digital/retail stats:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17qkd974kmhmwjpg/original.jpg
What I want to is how many Copies would Angry Bird sell if it was a 3DS retailed at $39.99.
Let’s see, how many people work at Ravio again? Yeah that’s how many might sell.
Rovio … blah!
COMPLETE BULLSHIT
i currently live in New Zealand a small country were the Internet is the biggest load of shit we have 10GB a month coming from a satellite and it can take days to download a single game witch is why a digital only will never succeed (sorry for riding the top comment its just that this is the biggest load if ignorant drivel to come out of anyone’s mouth for a long time )
10GBs a MONTH!? We used to have 60GB (Canada + Rogers) and even I started going over that (luckily we switched over to Teksavvy). You must not be able to watch any videos online then, or, really do ANYTHING online.
David Darling.. is he related to Alistar Darling. The guy with different coloured eyebrows to his hair? if so… awesoooooooooooooome!!!!!!
-David Darling is lying. Look at the digital/retail stats:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17qkd974kmhmwjpg/original.jpg
I would never and I will never buy a digital game in my life.. Thats why piracy is so much increased… And I will never buy a digital only or restricted console in my life… ur goal..
Piracy… If a person has to download a game… They might as well do it for free ;)
steam… got a game 12 pounds on there. It’s 20 in shops. Enjoy getting ripped off
Steam is for the PC, and you can’t possibly compare a PC to a console. I know Steam will eventually appear on consoles, but you’ll bet your ass it will be nothing like it’s PC counterpart.
Idiot… Steam is already on consoles, games made by Valve can connect to Steam for achievements and playtime history like Portal 2 does.
but you cannot buy games at their prices
LOL O LAWD!
You’re right on the price difference, but you’re forgetting one crucial fact: If Steam ever goes down, ever gets hacked, ever gets a glitch, or “glitch” called a glitch by the company in order to rip off its customers, you can kiss your data, your credit card info, your personal information, and all those games you paid 12 pounds instead of 20, goodbye, and the steam bigwigs will not lose even a minute of sleep over it. Sorry but physical data is like having a piece of paper stating “I own this”, and with it you can do whatever the fuck you want. You can’t trust a digital company with your digital data, and fact of the matter is, power over your customers leads to corruption. I’ll stick to paying a few bucks more for a sexy disc with the game’s cover art on disc and box, with instruction manual, and any extras added for getting a collector’s edition, any day.
the bank will give me back my 12 pounds ;) They are prepared for any kind of cyber crime :P Did it before and will do it again!
you cant eat digital downloads
eh thats only a rare scenario and mostly for older games. steam is normally $ for $ for aussie retail until several months later or on their sales, and even then its “competitive” with physical, not better.
Shop..got a game for 20 pounds, sold it 2nd hand for 10, enjoy being stupid
Don’t you see this is oh-so-convenient? 1 guy, 1 game
I never sell my 2nd hand games… unless they are terrible. But I always buy games I know I will like :)
You also got to remember Video game stores can have sales too!
You get it! Now just think of not being able to play used games.
If they do that I am going to stick with my consoles that play used games.
shoutout to all the idiots commenting on this post that dont know anything about digital distribution, cloud gaming, hacking, and piracy….id like you all the shut up and go educate yourselves instead of talking abut things you dont have a thorough understanding of
—David Darling is lying. Look at the digital/retail stats:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17qkd974kmhmwjpg/original.jpg
—Modern Warfare 3 made $1 billion in in 16 days while the whole angry birds franchise made 100 million in all of 2011
… Yeah… Nothing beats a game you only play once in your lifetime… I couldn’t imagine downloading a game like elder scrolls or something
just like the Wii failed because it wasnt as powerful. And just like CD’s failed because they had longer load times than cartridges. Never believe any statements like this predicting failure, no one can predict the future
CDs are still going strong despite downloadable music… I know you were being sarcastic I was just making a point…. Some Stores still sell records
I think he means CD’s as in data storage compared to floppy discs.
actually, he could mean music CDs. overall, their sales are down; but people who appreciate music the same way that gamers appreciate games also love physical media. there are areas where music CDs sales are still strong. i still buy 5-6 new vinyl records per month at a music store that sells a ton of records and CDs.
Correction* the Wii didn’t “fail.” Sure, people didn’t really use it, but it out sold the other consoles for most of its cycle.
Are you guys being ignorant on purpose or you just don’t know how to read? He was saying all of that with sarcasm and opposition to David Darling’s statement that the consoles are going to fail since they are not adopting pure digital sales, and leaving their physical media ones. Learn to read for fuck’s sake and maybe you won’t look as a dumbass and a douchebag at the same time.
One thing to be learned on this site: Don’t use sarcasm with kids; they just take things too literal.
I’m surprised there is no sarcasm font yet..
I don’t think there is. I’m fairly certain I’ve seen italics used before on this site though.
One second. [i]Potato[/i]
Damn. Nope. Didn’t work.
‘just like the wii failed’>
you’re kidding right?
God you’re dumb. Learn to read!
@ Pope, Dan, and Bowser:
I believe the term is called “sarcasm.” Learn what it means.
Wrong.
There are quite a lot of people who play videogames who don’t have the means to go digital. PC could go 100% digital, but not consoles. I know lots of people who buy boxed products because they don’t know about digital distribution. Plus the fact that the internet isn’t reliable enough to support a completely digital market. The game industry is just trying to force everyone to go digital so they can earn more profit from sales.
if they make the internet free for everyone it might be possible but that will never happen the truth of the matter is that any next gen console that goes 100% digital will fail prime example look at the pspgo and how that flopped and just cause your digital dont mean your safe from pirates for example look at iphone all the apps on iphone that are pirated everyday
buy only retail keep gaming alive
Wrong.
The Internet is reliable for game downloads from online stores like Steam.
You do realize steam got hacked last year, right? NOTHING is safe on the internet.
Actually, you’re wrong. Some people do have problems with internet or can’t have it, believe it or not.
Really I only buy retail games.
I cannot think of how horrible a world would be if they only had digital releases.
I collect games (well mostly just Pokemon games.. I got over 40 Pokemon games with box and manual) and my life would be like shit if I could not have the box.
Okay my life would still be great but I am never switching over to digital.
NEVER!
I buy both, I’m not even bothered if they go 100% digital game downloads, it’s still the same as buying boxed games.
Except no box or disk
So?
People like having a pyhsical copy of a game. Most of the people on here would agree with me. Not just because they can trade it in, but because it’s there, they can pick it, look at the disk, enjoy the nice box artwork and appriciate it. Did you ever take a new game to your friends house, and be like, “hey check out this new game i bought!”
Did you never have that feeling when you go to the store, an buy a game, and anxiously hold the game in your hand on the way home, and you flick through the manual getting excited, and it build up, and then you get home and play the game. Thats what people like, thats why digital will only be an option
I agree.
*cry*… You are right sir.
Do you still live in a cave? Open your mind, geez. It’s inevitable that the world is going digital. You will eventually have no choice.
^ THIS! ^
I agree with you! – Finally someone with common sense! ^^
The world is already digital, it’s just a select few bigwigs like this who see the profit of selling purely digital for their own gain since they will not have to invest anything on physical media. It’s more of a selfish view than anything, and you can tell because they all use the same bullshit of Angry Birds. Angry Birds is a game that is free to download across every Android, iOS, and maybe soon to be Windows mobile devices, yet they always mention the gazillion downloads it brings because it “prints money”. Bullshit, if you add up the amount the game actually SOLD from its launch till now, selling at 99 cents a pop, the most you’ll probably get is a bit below $1.6 million. Maybe even less, I actually don’t know many people who actually paid for that fucking casual shit, scratch that, I know NOONE who paid for it. As far as consoles go I will buy indie games digitally if they never made it to physical media, but if there is a physical media option, you can bet I’ll get that instead.
David Darling is lying. Look at the digital/retail stats:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17qkd974kmhmwjpg/original.jpg
Modern Warfare 3 made $1 billion in in 16 days while the whole angry birds franchise made 100 million in all of 2011
You reminded of Sovereign and the Reapers from Mass Effect.
“Digital gaming is inevitable, all physical forms of gaming will be extinguished”
And we’re all Commander Shepard and the rest of the universe.
I will move to cave if it means I can buy all my games with box and manuals.
Are you FUCKING retarded? I have the choice to continue purchasing games or not. I can guarantee most of you who accept 100% digital are socially inept freaks or fat fuckers who can’t get out of their fucking house. Go die you socially challenged morons.
You really need a life if all you do is collect game boxes…
It’s called a hobby for some. I bet he’s still young, let him do what he wanna do.
But what should the video game companies do then?. If they choose to make digital only, there would be pirating, but if they choose to make physical copies then gamers will borrow, sell, buy for secondhand, etc. (I know this is convenient for gamers, but the video game industry loses money from it)
Wrong! There are a Lot of people who play games and don’t have Internet. I know that’s hard to believe… But it’s true. And you loose that market going digital only. Not to mention people will buy less games if they can’t trade they will be more picky!
He counts Angry Birds as a factor? Okay, is there a game for free in every available console to download? No? So shut the fuck up!
LOL, when Angry Birds was used as an example, I was on lollerskates. Really, I rather have a choice. Hopefully, If i were to buy it digitally, it better be cheaper.
-David Darling is lying. Look at the digital/retail stats:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17qkd974kmhmwjpg/original.jpg
Modern Warfare 3 made $1 billion in in 16 days while the whole angry birds franchise made 100 million in all of 2011
I disagree and this is one of reasons why a demand that Nintendo re-releases the gold of NES. No internet, addons and whatsnot, just gaming strip to basics. Anyone with me?
I am.
Meh, im fine with it just being a gaming console, but online gaming is good, if the game is good.
That’s a awful idea
why this? why not just buying the console and a game, than put the game into the console and start playing it. no installing, no calibrating, no permenent internet connectivity… just playing.
nope.avi
Stop living in the past.
You know, humans have been breathing for thousands of years. How about you stop living in the past and stop breathing “ASS DOUCHE!”
Of course he’d say that, he work in mobile gaming. What a retard, not everyone has access to the internet, why do people not know this.
And, digital should only be an option. If it gets to the point where, over 90% of games are baught digitally, then the change could happen, but its not like that, mobile games are ALL digital, because they all have internet connection these days, or access to wifi hotspots. If the country was a Wifi country (they do exist, theres one that has Pikachu on its dollar, no shit) then id understand too, but its not, so why do people keep saying dumb shit like this?
bought*
you’re welcome.
* prick
You’re also welcome
Lol Where did I say prick? Silly troll.
You didnt, i was just calling you one. If anyone’s a troll it’s you. You had arguement worth saying to go against mine, so you went to troll town and corrected my spelling.
Whether i spelt it good or bad, im still right
You included an * sign. Means a correction. Especially if the * is next to a word…
think before you type BS.
I was taking the piss out of you, moron
Try harder next time. It’s obvious you were not even trying ;)
Actually, I found he did quite a good job of taking the little piss that WAS in you out.
i dont get it
What? Dont get what?
forget it
0_o alrighty then
Correction: Next Gen will fail if it’s all digital. Do you think that anybody wants to download full games when they can go out to the store (or go to a online store like Amazon & Newegg) & to buy themselves a physical copy of the game? Especially when most of those in the U.S. doesn’t exactly have good internet or no internet at all?
How about bandwidth caps, bad internet speeds, etc.? Give me a break with that. The majority of gamers like myself doesn’t want DD only.
Get net.
Seriously bro, why are you having invalid arguments against every one that just wants a physical copy of a game? Get. a. fucken. life.
It’s because he’s an idiot
#firstworldproblems
Not to mention some stores have different deals to lure us in. I like a little shopping around and researching. Someone mentioned the PSPgo as an example, that was all digital.
Who is this fucking idiot, oh, Co-Founder of Codemaster, well if the current Codemasters head thinks the same way, Codemasters will fail.
It would be the complete opposite, I have a Vita, I’d love to purchase games digitally, but surprise surprise, Sony doesn’t support that in my country, and I don’t live in Africa dammit (That was just as an example of a place in which video games aren’t all that popular, and I know Africa is not a country, it’s continent. There, I think I covered it all.). Point being, in the current state of gaming, everyone can enjoy gaming, as long as they have the money to spend on their hobby, but if everything went digital only, a LOT of people would be screwed, and they’d have to give up their hobby.
If people would make digital downloads more popular, than surely you would get that support in your country. Is there really any other reason why it wouldn’t work? Let me ask you something, is the iTunes store supported in your country?
I have tons of friends who have the same problem, just not on the Vita. So there’s that, I don’t really know about ALL the other gamers in my country.
I don’t know, I don’t use iTunes, the majority of today’s music is utter shit, and I just go to YouTube to listen to music from the 20th century, since that was the time when the music we produce today, had it’s peak.
Your opinion.
*fact
He is really just after money in the end. Digital downloads lift retail boxing and shipment costs and removes profit split between retail and development companies. Digital only is not the future, it is just the dream that all these financially struggling videogame companies are pushing for. (Ea, activision, and sony and others have said such things)
I completely agree. Not that it will fail, but digital downloads really are the way to go. The music industry, smartphone apps, they’re completely digital. Discs are a dying format, just accept it. I understand that some prefer retail due to some paranoia that companies will screw them over somehow. It’s a shallow reason. I see a future where I can just boot up my console, and access a virtual library to find my game, and just play. Plus, you would be able to download the game again for free after buying it.
what if you friends gets the new cod game and you want to play it. that means he has to bring his console to your house. what if you want to borrow a game from your friend and he want to borrow one from you that means you have to swap console. and that’s why going digital sucks. why would you want to go through all that.
The thing with games is the price of AAA games goes up around the £40-50s in many countries. Music only reaches £10s at most, apps even less. People only trust digital now with music because there’s much fewer risks involved in terms of pricing.
I’m not paranoid of anything, I just don’t feel like waiting for a 25-50GB download of a huge AAA title. I can order or purchase a physical title and just pop it into the system. Then when I don’t need the games I can just resell them. Hell I don’t like purchasing online because I’m stuck with it, after beating it in 10 hours. I’ve purchased online several times and end up deleting the game a week later
Pingback: Game Clock » Blog Archive » Next Gen Will Fail If Not Digital Only
“Angry Birds has had more than one billion downloads”
yeah well then start selling it for $40 like Nintendo does with their games.
I think Angry Birds would go down… But Mario wont. Because Mario is a quality game. It is not because digital is so great.
Angry Birds also only costs £0.69. Thats about as expensive a can of coke in the UK.
You’d have to sell about 60 copies to make as much as a full £40 game.
Yes. I mean it is a nice deal for a lot of people that use mobile phones.
True, ive bought it, but i pretty much only played it when i took a dump, or was on break at work. Its not exactly a revolution in gaming. I dont see people saying, “hey wana play this AAA Zelda game?!” “no, im on Angry Birds and Cut The Rope”
I have :(
^This
-David Darling is lying. Look at the digital/retail stats:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17qkd974kmhmwjpg/original.jpg
-Modern Warfare 3 made $1 billion in in 16 days while the whole angry birds franchise made 100 million in all of 2011
Angry Birds isin’t even a game, it’s just some shitty ass birds on crack flying through the air
Doesn’t mean it’s not a game.
Nintendo fans when defending their games: people shouldn’t judge games because they’re considered ‘casual’ to some people. You need to actually play the game to judge it.
Nintendo fans talking about the Iphone: LOL what casual games. They suck ass.
Here’s a perfect review to judge Iphone games on
Remember how all you guys talk about how people back in the NES and SNES days had to innovate through gameplay because they didn’t have graphics to fall back on? Well that’s still around in the place most people don’t really look to, Iphone games. They don’t have the processing power that the 360 or PS3 has, hell, they don’t even have buttons. However, because of those limitations, people have to find really creative ways to make their game stand out from the rest, instead of who has the best graphics
Is it me or is EVERYTHING going digital? Next we’ll know, we’ll shit digitally, and eat digitally.
The Matrix…..
Lets hope you get your mind digitized so then we can lock you away for good.
Same for you.
Yes I want to get angry birds for my next gen console. What a joke😳
“Like the dinosaurs…”
I hate that statement, they lived for about 160-170 million years combined vs barely quarter of a million on humans and probs like 0,00002% of those 250.000 years have retail games existed while game boxes around 3 times longer. yeh…they will last for some time still…
The only thing that is gonna get extinct are idiots that thi k they know the future ;D
Geez, Fat. Sounds like someone had too much coffee in his Cocoa Puffs this morning. lol
I like the fancy new navigation bar.
Same, although on the mobile site, at about the 5th reply, the comments just turn into single letter lines….
Uh why should I trust the co-founder of a company with a notorious track-record of bad game design during the NES era?
Exactly, first word i saw, “Codemasters”, is just thought ” pfft lol whatever”
Stupid.
Go take a digital dick up your ass seeing as you love it so much. Digital is good, but only as an option, not as mandatory.
This is utterly ridiculous….physical media for gaming is not going anywhere anytime soon. I can see things going digital AND physical but not ONLY digital. There are still way too many consumers out there who prefer physical over digital. The issue of lost data when things go wrong needs to be addressed as well.
Plus lots of parents monitor kids when they shop at stores. Those kids don’t have access to buying digital, I won’t allow mine, who knows how much they’ll waste.
lol ancient beasts
yeah right
hmm someone wants to make profit and give us shitty drag and release games. I’d buy more games if they didn’t price gouge Australia so much. They price gouge us for download on steam too compared to US prices.
in NZ we use the US prices but most things are more expensive here
I’m guessing this dude had a PSP Go. That sure showed the world how to go all digital.
PSP is crap… just saying
The PSP isn’t crap but the PSPGo is.
actually, i have a phat psp, a slim and a go, and my go is a great system. i am 100% against a totally digital system; but i do like to throw a few movies, some music and a game or two on my go and take it with me “on the go”. it’s very handy and it works as well as any of the many systems i have. it’s easy to throw “this or that system sucks” around on the net; but there aren’t any systems that actually are terrible systems out there. none of them are perfect, but they all have issues.
Well when I say crap, I mean it’s the worst model out of the PSP line as you don’t even have the option of retail games
LOOOL that’s a good one
DIGITAL ONLY HA!
No seriously, it’s not going to happen.
They forget that not everyone has the internet and the internet isn’t free!
If it was so, Digital distribution could work but, not yet; not now.
When the world decides that everyone is entitled to free internet or Internet becomes dirt cheap and stupidly fast then companies can talk business but to think and tell me that Digital Only is the way forward for next-gen consoles is complete bullshit.
The way forward is to stick to what isn’t broken, CDs & Digital. but also bring in the infamous Cloud System into the fray.
I think it’s reasonable to compare games to books in this situation.
When E-books were at the very start, people thought they’d eventually take over the place of physical books. Did they? No, of course not, because there will always be people who want a physical copy of something. Same goes with videogames.
Well, with console games, you usually get what you pay for (if you’re not an idiot who buys every movie tie-in.) Super Mario Galaxy 2 seems as if it would be a pain to download digitally, plus then I’d have to do the Perfect Run again. Man, that was a nightmare (Hammer Bros.!!!!!!!!!)
Like how Mass Effect 3 is still £50 on PSN and about £20 in the shops? Right.
Ikr…sometimes theres really good deal on PSN, like the Deus Ex:HR deal that has the game and a the DLC for about £20 or something (if you dont have it, buy it, awesome game), but they still sell Black Ops for £50…Black Ops!! Thats like, 2 years old isnt it?!
Wrong. COD is *insert Cod 1’s age here*
Same game. Rehashed to death
Thanks for making my opinion more relevant. Still paying £50 for a good that came out 2 years ago, it just makes it worse that it’s a piece of shit, and the same game as it was since COD started
*game
i will never buy a digital games if its available in stores. This guy is smoking weed.
Wow. a guy who works in digital distribution thinks consoles will fail if they’re not 100% digital. Who would have thought? There’s always somebody claiming the end of consoles (especially Nintendo), and they’ve always been WRONG. They’ll continue to be wrong because they’re speaking from their own biased point of view.
Not everybody has high speed internet, not everyone had access to a credit card to purchase things online. Some people don’t even like online gaming and prefer long fleshed out single player adventure games.The industry may go 100% digital, eventually, but that won’t happen for a long time. They’ve already started laying the groundwork for it, but it’s still a long way off from being the standard method of distribution in the industry. Leave luck to heaven.
–David Darling is lying. Look at the digital/retail stats:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17qkd974kmhmwjpg/original.jpg
Modern Warfare 3 made $1 billion in in 16 days while the whole angry birds franchise made 100 million in all of 2011
Good find. Darling’s definitely talking out of his ass here.
All in all, I don’t think “next gen” is going to fail if it’s not digital only (meaning the WiiU is dead on arrive), but eventually, the world will be digitally owned. More and more people are doing transactions and whatnot through digital means. At one point, everything will be digital and we’ll just have to get with the times or be left behind.
Though I don’t endorse digitally downloading all video games and not having the options for a physical copy, it’s inevitable that it will happen, not only to video games, but the world as a whole. Just keep your physical copies while you can now, as they may be worth a fortune later on in life.
Strange, I had a similar thought but mine went like this;
“Next gen will fail if it is digital only”
It’s like somebody added the “not” part just to aggravate people.
Screw Digital.
doing so would cut out a ton of jobs, and here in America, we kinda need those
nah, downloads take so long even on super fast broadband it should go back to cartridge and try to make sure there are at least peripherals that allow backwoods compatibility, that way if they’re bothered about making the console smaller they can. (also not everyone lives in an area with decent or even any internet but even there they play games)
This man is an ignorant moron. They will fail? Not even. I read an article that said that retail games still make more money than digital games. Also angry birds with one billion downloads? Are they real downloads or some of the fake ones that companies use to up the rankings? I know it’s popular but still. I bet they include the ones that come preinstalled on phones as downloads. Besides a games doesn’t have to make 1 billion sales. Games aren’t $1 each so to reach a billion dollars you don’t need to sell a billion copies. Also he makes it sound like video games never reach that much. Look at call of duty.
They’re probably counting every Angry Birds game out there, all the versions, theres about 6/7 i think. Dare someone to add up how many Mario games have been sold since Mario Bros
that son of a *****………..
I work in a shop, I will lose my job when all the games will be DD only
The invalidity of this statement doesn’t stem from the accessibility of the internet or the abundance of smart phones. The industry is based around the majority of consumers, therefore saying “not everyone has internet, or a smartphone” is an irrelevant point, because almost everyone has access to the internet or to the aforementioned app stores.
The fallacy of Darling’s comment stems from the insinuation that gaming is devolving. Angry Bird’s is a simple game that has little depth to it. It is no different in my opinion, from the free flash games you find on websites here and there. The truth is, app store games are simple, mindless experiences that can only appeal to the masses by their availability, and their price tag, at least that’s my impression, which is probably a little harsh to be fair.
If Darling’s statement was true, then the gaming industry wouldn’t have developed the way it has. We have games that have a ton of content, and depth; and without question, we are willing to pay for that level of commitment. I have never played Angry Birds, or any app store game for that matter, because for the most part, I want a game that I can invest in. It sounded like he was implying that games would be cheaper if they went digital. When I visit Steam, I see games that are selling for regular retail price all the time. Of course, Steam does have some great deals now and again, but that doesn’t change the fact that most of their distributions are at a level price with retail.
So naturally, companies who make games for the gamer, aren’t going to make cheap app games. Nintendo is wise to test the market and see what the consumers want. There is also the marketing aspect of retail games. But of course, Darling wasn’t just mentioning games, it sounded as if he believed that consoles would go extinct. It seems ridiculous to think that anyone who actually enjoys games, the people who support actual companies who are committed to releasing valuable content and innovative experience, would want to support phone games they can play online for free, or play exclusively on a PC.
The undeniable truth is that, consoles are far from extinct. Their complete absence would only turn into an unfilled void in the market. Those who buy smartphone games aren’t the same people who purchase frequently from Steam. It’s a totally different demographic. It is true that one may be larger than the other, but it’s a separate market. Nintendo made the Wii a success by taping into that market. App games don’t convert console gamers, if anything, consoles convert app gamers.
This may be the smartest thing I’ve read all week. Spot on.
This guy CAN’T be serious, No one is going to not buy a Wii U, Xbox Next or PS4 game because its not a virtual download…these people need to realize the crap they put on aps and ipads is nothing like the video games that are made.
—David Darling is lying. Look at the digital/retail stats:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17qkd974kmhmwjpg/original.jpg
Modern Warfare 3 made $1 billion in in 16 days while the whole angry birds franchise made 100 million in all of 2011
I usually come fairly close to my cap without downloading games, let alone if I did. Until high-speed internet with either unlimited or incredibly high caps come at an affordable price, gonna pass on digital downloads. Who knows how large next-gen games are going to be anyways. You have a perfect solution now, releasing both boxed and digital to satisfy all your fans.
Exactly, its why cloud gaming is such a fail atm, internet is limited
And any time you have internet problem… you know what, f**k you. You shouldn’t have had internet problems.
Idiot developers don’t always see the big picture. Some people don’t do as much on the internet.
–David Darling is lying. Look at the digital/retail stats:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17qkd974kmhmwjpg/original.jpg
—Modern Warfare 3 made $1 billion in in 16 days while the whole angry birds franchise made 100 million in all of 2011
Cant wait !
I want all my games in digital form.
You’ll always have that choice, especially with Nintendo’s initiative (same day physical and digital release). But it can’t only be digital.
No…it won’t so shyut up david darling
Angry birds sold a lot because it’s on a phone and very cheap.
That doesn’t mean that people actually play it alllllll the time or that people prefer it over AAA retail games. People will be pissed off if 30+ hour long games cease to exist.
Just because you can tell a story in 11 minutes, that doesn’t mean that feature length films are irrelevant.
have you ever tried to use steam it a joke, it is one of the worst things i have ever used. the first is the constant crashing when trying to get it to start also you can not play games while it is updateing and if you have a conection below 190kbs then you are waiting days to download anything at over inflated prices. when in the same time i can go to a shop and buy the game and come back an install it. and i have to go over 35miles to buy it and its still quicker .
Yeah….ok…..
Not everyone has data plans that can support downloading large next gen games
Look Sikr, Alba, stop posting these really, really fucking pointless posts. We got it, people think Nintendo is going to fail. Stop posting this shit. It makes Nintendo fans seem like whinny bitches who can’t take someone talking bad about their beloved Nintendo. The worst part is that you’re just doing this shit just to gain more traffic and comments. Stop.
LOL you are a fucking moron. YOU’RE THE WHINEY FUCKING BABY!!!!!!!!!!!
Lots of love,
Nintendo Fan too
As I posted below, WiiU AND 3DS can do Digital Only if necessary.
Nintendo is just fine. Settle down my friend.
I know Nintendo is fine. I’m just tired of Sikr and Alba posting “news” of people thinking Nintendo is doomed. I don’t care if some random person thinks Nintendo is done for. The majority of news from this site is just people talking bad about Nintendo, and I’m really sick of it. Because of this news, it really makes commenters seem like they think Nintendo is the only good game console and everything else is shit. I know that isn’t the case for most people, but the posts bring out the worst in Nintendo fans and they begin to talk shit about other companies because they’re angry about what one person said of Nintendo. Its stupid and really gives Nintendo fans a bad rep.
correction: the next gen WILL FAIL if its digital only. give it until gen 9. people will be more accepting then.
Why would a developer of mobile games who gets his primary source of revenue from digital downloads say something like this if it wasn’t true?
Facebook?
Seriously?
No love for Farmville?
I kinda dont like strictrly digital games. As long as Nintendo says they will offer both than I dont see a problem in the near future.
1. Not everyone has a super fast computer capable of running the latest games, and the initial cost of PC gaming drives many people away from it.
2. Facebook? Seriously? Every single Facebook game isn’t nearly as fun as ANY Nintendo-published game. ANY.
3. Touchscreen-only controls are horrendous. Ever tried playing Pacman with just your finger? It is awful.
Exactly!
Wow. I beleive that people like their Collectors Edition copies and that ‘new game smell’ too much to let it go digital. As for freakin angry birds…. Its $.99 or free… Hmmm, $60… Free… Kind of obvious why it would have so many downloads.
WiiU AND 3DS can do both. They could continue to do both, or move to digital only.
Regardless, Nintendo is covered, so no worries here.
Thats retarded. Not everyone has an internet connection, and at lot that do pay by the gigabyte or have a sluggish connection. Go digital only and you’re cutting off a lot of customers. Lol i love the logic that because we have a net connection and use fb therefore everyone else does.
Wat is this cloud or steam shit
Cloud gaming is where you literally stream a video game and play it like you would with a video (yes, no joke), but its also use for something called Cloud Storage, which is were you can basically save your games online, kind of like how online games save your data, which is good, means it never takes up space and you should never loose a save file.
Steam is a digital store made by Valve for PC’s.
How much Internet does it take to stream something like skyrim?
awesome. personally, i think this is a great idea. digital only would be great, the only downside is that you wouldn’t be able to buy used games. but if you look at sales on steam, the prices on really good games fluctuates. fir instance, i got L.A.NOIRE with all of the dlc for $7 and the next day it was back up to $25.
If Steam ran the digital gaming world for PC’s and consoles, i could get into it. But internet isnt available enough, nor is it unlimited so no not yet, maybe in 10 years.
Da fuq? comparing angry birds? A freakin free game they adapted to pretty much every phone, tablet, PC and mp3 player out there? geez its just really because it’s out there more than how fun it is the reason why everyone has/had it.. Nothing like a nice physical copy of the game you OWN! That you cant trade, lend, and borrow with friends! And its true, if we ever have to download all our games in the future, might as well just do it for free~ they’ll hack the brains out of the new systems, and then we’ll see if it was that much of a badass idea to “adapt” to what’s popular
My God I can’t stand these guys from Codemasters of Fail. Their games suck. Hardcore. THAT’S why they make no money. Not because they make retail packages games.
Greedy bastards just want to take buying power away from the consumer in an effort to nickel and dime people with crappy pocket games like Angry Birds.
I love how the industry always if they go to all digital, they can pass the savings off onto the consumer. The last time I checked, the games cost the same for physical and digital. Even when a game goes down to $19.99 in the stores, it’s still $39.99, in a lot of cases, on the net digitally. It’s like the self checkout at Walmart is supposed to be so that they, too, can pass the savings to the customer. I never get a discount for ringing up and bagging my own purchases.
And I guess Gamestops and other retailers will just get rid of their gaming sections. No need for them, right? We’ll just put more mattress stores in or something, and markets will extend their blu-ray section…
No.
hahaha dumbass. that shit will not happen next gen and the gen after that. I still can’t believe there are morons out there who still compare horseshit like angry bird to console gaming. tsk tsk tsk.
lol. did you know that there is an angry birds board game? haha. sounds like the board game version would be fun for about 3 minutes, too.
Haha digital only = garbage. I will never buy a console that is digital only. I love my hard copies.
This couldn’t be more wrong. Piracy would take over.
This is far from the truth. I refuse to buy games anymore if they are digital download only. I like having hard copies of games. And in fact companies will lose money if all their games are digital because people will just pirate them, or just not buy at all. Buying games at retail is not ancient. And besides, if something should go wrong with the console, I would rather have hard copies of the games so that I can still play them as soon as the console is working again. I don’t want to have to re-download anything.
Refuse buying games that are digital download only? Granted I can’t tell you what to do and I’d understand if you’d always buy the retail version if you had the option, but there are some absolutely fantastic games available on XBLA, PSN, and the E-shop that are download only. You are missing out on fantastic games if you limit yourself to retail only. Also, if you are worried about the console going bad, that’s why they have accounts, so if your console breaks down, you can redownload free of charge
It only takes a few minutes to redownload something
in some cases, that’s true. i have bought a few games and movies that have taken longer to download than they should because i have time warner cable, which SUCKS. it’s all that’s available to us. i hate the fact that when you buy a new game, there’s always an update opening day because i always have to try about 10 times to get it to load, so that i can play the frickin game i just overpaid for.
i totally disagree, i don’t get the same feel of ownership having digital copies of games, much rather have the hard cover, especially if I’m still going to be paying the same $60
So consumers will only buy games digitally, hmm? Then riddle me this: Why does a recent poll show only 1/3 of players prefer their games to be available digitally?
Sure there will probably be a point in the future when the video games market goes completely digital, but that time isn’t right now or the coming generation.
I vastly prefer digital over physical, and I find this guy’s comment incredibly freaking dumb.
does he even believe this
Who ever thinks this is a fail.
I have downloaded a game a few months ago online, It was about 5GB which is typical for a game. It took 6 hours for the game to download and 30 mins to install.
I AM NOT SPENDING 6 HOURS EVER AGAIN TO BUY A GAME.
If Next gen was only about digital games it would fail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K68P14NCL
Couldn’t resist. And no, I don’t think 100% digital would be a good idea.
Don’t know what happened the first time…
>Therefore it is no longer necessary to charge people huge prices to play video games.”<
hahahaha yeah right, like the consumer would benefit from this. That's why the Digital New Super Mario Bros.2 was listed for $ 39.99 at full retail price. Friggin liar.
Its very dumb to compart an app to regular game sales. Angry birds is only a couple dollars and can be purchased on like any phone. A $60 game thats 4-50gb just doesnt have that kind of appeal.
I will say one thing about digital distribution, the only way it will surpass physical media is if the digital copy of the game costs way less then a physical copy would cost. So if a disc would cost the public $60 the digital version should cost them no more then $40 or less. Otherwise digital is a bit pointless since you arent paying for publishing a retail costs.
Listen Codemasters,
Dont start-up with your “download only” shit again.
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If this happens I will never buy video games again and I will stick with my “ancient” physical video games. My issue with it is, is that I am not always with high speed internet believe it or not. I currently reside in San Diego where I have high speed but when I move back to my rural home town it’s hard to get the internet that I do here. Plus what will happen to all the cool limited edition sets that come with games? While I’m at it, I hate this generation. I hate going anywhere and seeing everyone from 5 years old on up using an iPod touch or cellphone or some form of “smart” medium. I hate all the graphics brats that think that good graphics make the game good. I’m sure some little tween or teen will steam roll my comment but I could care less. It’s how I feel and if you don’t like it, tough. You can have your digital downloads, count me out! If push comes to shove I have plenty of games to keep me entertained that were made from the late 80’s to now.
I actually agree with you. In the past six months or so, I haven’t bought any new games. I hooked up my N64 to my big screen hi def tv and have been playing the original Quake and Goldeneye. If you wanna see some impressive graphics, kids, check out Quake’s blood red Armageddon-like sky on a big hi def screen. I even started collecting bookcase board games again, as I did in the 70s. I still want the new systems, but if they’re expecting me to pay full price for games for them, especially digital, they need to win me back. I have been extremely disappointed by the whole digital experience, so far. They haven’t convinced me at all that they can do this right yet; so, if they are going all digital anytime soon, it will be really easy for me to go backwards without them. There! I feel better. lol