Digital Gaming

[StarBound]

Apparently, Nintendo is gonna have all of their first party titles on the WiiU digital. If you don't know what I'm talking about, this basically means that we have to download Zelda WiiU or Mario WiiU whenever those games come out. I am not entirely sure if this is 100% true, but I knew that digital games will take over the gaming world. However, I didn't expect to see this soon. My question for you guys is do you like this idea? Do you think digital gaming should take over the gaming world?

Now, there are some pros. For one, we could wait at home and download the game right away. We don't have to wait in line, we don't have to look all over for the game, we can just get the game right away.However, I do not like the idea of digital games, in fact, I hate the idea of digital games.

Now I know that there are some people that like this idea, but there are a lot of flaws with digital games. Now, I do not have anything against WiiWare,Virtual Console, XBox Live Arcade, ect, I just hate the idea that the first party games are gonna be digital. I don't know about you guys, but I am a collector. I like to buy physical copies of games. I actually like to buy the cartridge, the case, the CD you name it. I want to actually hold what I bought because I want to feel like I bought something special with my money. With digital games, that will be crushed. We will not get a case, we will not get a CD, we will not get a manual. We will just get a download. A lot of people might not care that we don't get the actual copy of the game, but I do.

Now lets talk about price. I'm pretty sure that the price will remain the same for all of these games. That means we might buy the new games for $60 or something like that forever. Will there ever be a price drop? Lets think back to physical copies. In a lot of cases, physical copies of games can actually be cheaper than the digital game. Now I know that this isn't the case for old games, but with modern games this happens to be the case. With pre-owned games, we will get a cheaper game. The point is, more people buy physical copies than they do with digital games. The reason might be is because of the thing I said about actually holding an actual copy can make you feel good, people don't want to use their credit cards, physical copies might be cheaper, or like me, nobody isn't huge on digital gaming.

I heard that the games will be downloaded into the system. If that's the case, then how will we be able to trade or borrow games? What happens if we don't like the game and we want our money back? With the Virtual Console and whatnot, this isn't a huge deal but when it comes to $60 games, it is. Imagine a friend wants to try Zelda WiiU. How can he/she if the game can isn't physical and that the download is in the actual system. Now what happens if our system breaks? That means that we will not only lose our WiiU, but also all of our games. This will create more problems and un needed drama. Speaking of games, how many games can the system hold? Even if this is on a memory card, exactly how many games can we hold?

In conclusion, digital gaming might be more convenient in some cases, but in my opinion, it is not a good idea. We will not get an actual copy of the game, the price might be an issue, friends will not be able to borrow or trade games and overall, it's not that beneficial. What do you guys think?

 

[Ventus]

I'm pretty sure Nintendo was implementing digital as well as physical media for Wii U game distribution -- downloading will not be feasible since games will like have a lot of customers and that will easily overload the servers (just look at WoW -- it needs maintenance like every Tuesday).
I really don't care for digital media. It's convenient in many ways, you know you won't have to worry about scratches or repair or having to rebuy the game because your angry father decided to crush it on reaction of losing 100x times or anything, but like you StarBound I like to be able to hold what I purchase. It just isn't the same buying something online as it is going to the store.

OH, let's talk price drops. Price drops really only occur when a store wants to get rid of it's inventory, not when the game has "died" or whatever. With the games being digital only, copies will never run out, and with an infinite supply as it is essentially just a bunch of data, there is no "inventory" to get rid of. $60 games will stay at the $60 price range unless the game has been out for like years (or the game meets bad reception like Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City). That means we can't rent games and thus cannot see if we like the game enuogh for a purchase. That means we have to spend quite a lot on oldie games for little to no reason. That means we can be gimped out of our hard earned cash, or easy earned for the childrens and the money possessive.

Obviously digital only will cause a bunch of problems since through there it's likely that Nintendo will be the one controlling prices and stuff. Super Smash Bros Brawl still costs $50 and $45 used, despite being out for well over 4 years whereas Twilight Princess which has been out for ~6 costs $20, is a Nintendo Select and so on. I'm worried if the Wii U infact will be digital only, but I'm sure they'll pull through with physical copies.

 

[SNOlink]

I agree with you completely. I have nothing against digital games, but they definitely have their downsides. Of course physical copies do as well. For one, they can get stolen or scratched up. These don't stop me from getting the physical copy. Downsides of the digital copies is that if the system gets stolen, then the theif also has all the games already there while with physical copies, they'd have to get all the boxes and CD's which takes up more space. Also, if there's a glitch or other problem with the digital game (I mean in production, not for the system itsself), it happens to all of those copies of the game while a physical copy would only have that one or few copies with that error.