Internet

I have accumulated many DVD’s, Blu-rays, HD-DVD’s (yes I have a few of those) and Computer Games over time, and they are now just clutter in the lounge and something for the kids to try and grab and knock over.. I think I probably have around 600 cases sitting on shelves all containing movies, games and such. I think it is about time we all got a little more digital in our homes and download content via the internet and store on HDD.

Microsoft are trying in on the Xbox 360, Apple have been doing it with music and movies for a while now, PS3 has started doing it with games and movies as well, Direct2Drive has a pretty good library of PC games for download as does Steam and to be fair Direct2Drive and Steam at least have recent titles but it is deemed to be easier to distribute PC games, but I feel they are not pushing this enough. The games you can download for example on a console are old and have been around for a while. I would like to see new games available on day one of release in a digital format on a console. I would also like to see a price reduction in digital distribution as currently there is no real incentive to use the digital distribution channels unless you just physically can’t be arsed to either get to a shop or order online for delivery.

We don’t need boxes, we rarely read manuals (at least I don’t) so by distributing in a digital format surely there is a cost saving to the producers of the titles. There is no jewel case, there is no printed inlay, there is no printed manual and there is no disk. These must cost in terms of production and therefore there must be a saving when these are not produced. I can also pick up a movie from an online store or shop with all the above for less than I can by downloading it through iTunes, Zune Movies or PS3 Store. So why would I pay more for less, and at the convenience of saving the distributer some money? This does not makes sense to me.

The games available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for example are old titles and all priced at £19.99. WHY? GTA IV is £19.99 at the time of posting this blog I can buy this from Game or EBay for as little as a half of what Microsoft are going to charge me through the Games on Demand.

Digital Distribution of Movies and Games saves money for the producers of these titles, if they were brave enough to actually put some weight behind the distribution of titles on digital channels and pass on the saving to us the consumer then I believe more people would adopt this method of obtaining their media. I for one would happily download my games as this would prevent my shelves from the inevitable collapse they are due to have.

Internet speeds are becoming quicker and quicker allowing more and more data to be transferred in a shorter period of time, I believe the infrastructure is ready for this move to a digital download society, just not sure the masses are ready and I am not sure the greedy distributors are ready yet either.

My suggestion would be try it, why not release a “AAA” title on Digital Download across all platforms a week before the box hits the shelves. Find out how much appetite there is. But offer some value to the consumer, by making it cheaper for example.

I would buy all my movies and games online if I could, would you?