“Physical games will be around a lot longer than some people think,” according to Sony’s SVP of PlayStation brand marketing, Guy Longworth.
“Vast majority of games don’t want to buy the games online right now.” In an interview with GamesIndustry, Longworth was asked “how will Sony balance the needs of retailers with what’s good for the gamers?”
He replied: “I think the reality is this: Our digital business is growing fast, and we have incredibly strong partnerships with our key retail partners as well. What we try to do is offer a relatively level playing field and let the gamers decide.
We’re not trying to advantage them, we believe in consumer choice. It’s clear that the vast majority of the people want to go down to GameStop or Best Buy, they don’t want to buy it online right now.
How that might change in the future is kind of hard to predict. People might be quite surprised, I think physical games will be around a lot longer than some people think.”
Xbox One and PlayStation 4 games will be available digitally at the same time as they are available in stores.
Do you pre-order the games online or walk down to the store?
PS4 is expected to launch in the fourth quarter of 2013.
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I buy the physical game.
The digital media is like buying a car without the inner design, the car is there but you can’t feel the exclusive factor.
I just love to have my games on a shelve. I never trade them, nor i want to sell them. I just love looking into my shelve and seeing collections of games I’ve beat ! Maybe someday I will have a son & will give him to play all these incredible games I’ve collected over the years ! Playstation Since PSONE ! ! !
We can still buy CD’s, DVD’s, Blu Rays’s and even vinyl records. And the fact that they are still for sale means there is obviously still a demand for them. Pretty much every major PC game is still available on disk as well, despite the popularity of Steam. Physical media still has it’s benefits, I wouldn’t pass it off just yet.
I do both I really don’t care. As long I can play the new releases but for some people can’t afford a huge HD space left with no choice to buy games from gamestop or best buy. XBOX360 HD goes as High as 350 gigs where PS3 sky is the limit I heard of people installing terra bites in their systems but a lot gamers arent electrical wiz kids with trade in being PC technician figuring out how. Once you can start saving material Cloud save and pay for storage space face it that amount of data and security isn’t free face it. Once that happens DL games will be the wave of the future. I see cell phone games becoming the wave of the future
At least you don’t trade in the games you buy. It annoys me when people do that.
Yeah poor people are the worst. Why doesnt everyone have all the money they need to buy games? Money just grows out of my ass, why cant poor people grow ass money.
Digital Download & GameFly. I am a minimalist. I only own retail copies of games that have a soft spot.
Do you really expect those games to still be on the service to download 10 years from now? lol i am almost willing to bet gamefly does not even exist 5 years from now
buying the actual disk and keeping it safe is probably the only guaranteed way you would still have that game years to come. Digital media is not forever because they can take the servers offline at a moments notice
Some of us just upgrade our PS3’s internal hard drive so that we can download a lot of titles… I think mine has a 2TB HDD. Nevertheless, I believe that as long as Sony and the PlayStation Store are still around in 10 years, then yes, the downloads should still be available.
They remove games from the PSN all the time to make room for newer titles. and Wayde makes a decent point you can have the biggest Hard drive in the world and once they turn off activity from ps3 PSN to focus on PS4 Those games will no longer activate seeing how most games you purchase online the psn requires you to contact the server for ticket exchange to make sure that you even bought it. Making that two terrabye hard drive you installed into your ps3 about an extra pound of weight to hold your door open
Yeah and with DRM, once a service is gone you cant ever use the console again :D
Having physical games feels glorious.
I prefer to have the physical copy of the game on my shelf.
Let the gamers decide? What a novel idea! Why didn’t Microsoft think of that?
For me, it depends on the system. My Wii and PS3 are primarily physical games, but on my PC I’ve almost exclusively switched to Steam purchases. They just have a lot of deals that are way too good to pass up, and it’s far more convenient… especially since consoles have all but taken over the game stores.
Having said all that, if the PlayStation Store offered daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal deals the way that Steam does… I would probably switch exclusively to downloadable games. I can rarely justify dropping $60 on a new title, so I love deals and gently used newer titles. And when I can get a title on my PC for $30 because Steam has a it 40% off, even if I’d prefer it on a console, that $20-30 savings will trump my desire to have it on PS3.
I totally agree. $60 bucks for a game is expensive. I am paying the PS Plus and I hope in the future. I get a huge discount and free game of the day or something.