Rainless, I told you so... buh-bye physical media

[sHape oF gReY]

Resale goes STRAIGHT out the window with digital distribution. HELL... actually, physically owning anything goes out the window.

Thats not so bad when everything you're getting is free.. but not so good when it all costs 60 bucks.

+1

I have a substantial DVD/BluRay/x360 library. The physical media is MINE, I'm not renting it nor leasing it. I can watch/play any of them at any time, one time or one thousand times, for a one time price (and if I so desire, re-sell them). Additionally, it's helluva lot harder to restrict (the use of) physical media than it is digital.

I really hope physical media will still be around in the foreseeable future.

 

[ou_phidelt]

I am on the "it will be a while" bandwagon. Yeah, the technology is here but between parents that are not adept enough to figure it out and kids that are two young you have an issue. Second is a large portion of games are bought as gifts, you can't really wrap up a download. Try as you might convincing a mom that a little gift card that tells little johny he do go download mario brothers just isn't going to fly. Dual distribution systems will be around for a while.

I know MS i loving the idea and are already counting the money they are going to make off of their sky high HD accessory prices.

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

Not eveyone who has a console has high speed internet'

also, bluray for movies, physical media will be around for a long time to come still.

 

[rainless]

Not eveyone who has a console has high speed internet'

also, bluray for movies, physical media will be around for a long time to come still.

True. 25GB is still a BIT of an issue for even the best of internet connections.

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

Ya, sure if everyone had Verizon FIOS would be a none issue, but they still need physical media and will for i would say the next gen consoles as well.

 

[Trombe]

Let's do some basic math

The connection speed in the average U.S. household is about 2-4 Mb/s down.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2007/05/survey-average-broadband-speed-in-us-is-1-9mbps.ars

While the blue-ray spec defines 1x speed to be 36Mb/s (for watching blueray quality w/o a disc):
http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/

Now you tell me how well that's going to work out.

As for downloading that 10 GB game you're too lazy to go out and buy:
(10 gigabytes) / (2 (megabits per second)) = 11.3777778 hours

Solid State media isn't going anywhere.

 

[Springbok]

Pre-loading, anyone? Lets not forget this will be determined by pure capitalism, and right now Steam is already crushing everyone in the digital distribution arena. I don't doubt we'll see a slide over to purely digital media, but only as individual companies make the switch like we're seeing now.

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

Pre-loading can be nice, but then it is still sucking up your internet connection meanwhile, and that is the issue, some people like to use their connection and not just let it download 24/7 to get something, when you can run to the store, get it, be done with it.

 

[rainless]

Pre-loading can be nice, but then it is still sucking up your internet connection meanwhile, and that is the issue, some people like to use their connection and not just let it download 24/7 to get something, when you can run to the store, get it, be done with it.

+11111

 

[LufbraDan23]

It would happen in Europe or Asia loooooong before it happened here. And I'm not talking months either... I'm talking YEARS from now.

I'm thinking there's another ten years before that changes. (Depending on legislation and presidents of course...)

I have news for you my Yankee friend...our internet sucks much worse than yours does!

Most ISPs take a London centered view, meaning that in the City you can get awesome speeds, however, if you live out in a small rural town like i do then the fantastic AOL will only give you 2MB broadband.

Honestly, that's all i can get in Suffolk, 2MB. Here at uni i'm near three or four large cities (Nottingham, Birmingham, Derby, Leicester) so i can get 20MB (but it costs a fortune).

What i mean is that for most of the UK this sort of technology wouldnt be practical. Also, the further you go from the cities the worse the internet is. Some places still don't have broadband.

There needs to be a guarantee by the UKs biggest service providers (BT, Virgin, AOL) that they'll strive to provide a minimum bandwidth across the nation (5 or even 2 MB would be a start). But that won't benefit them financially so instead theyre all trying to out do each other (Virgin can provide 50MB now) so the wealthy, self sufficient computer fan can chuck £100 a month at them. They don't care about the villages and rural communities, lets face it, people like my mum arent going to pay more than £15 for the net.

France and Germany are pretty much the same. So don't expect Europe to be keen on this either.

 

[hafa]

Even Microsoft application and operating system installation software for MS Partners will now be delivered online. Like it or not, distribution of software over the internet is rapidly overtaking physical media on all fronts. As for me, I can't say that I'll miss buying more shelf space for yet another set of updates.

 

[hafa]

Honestly, that's all i can get in Suffolk, 2MB.

Good lord! I'd kill for 2MB. The most we get here is 1.5 down, 712K up. All for the bargain price of US$150/month. Keep in mind that there are vast swatches of the rural US that are still on dialup.

Here are some interesting stats. Look at it overall, then per capita then by GDP.

 

[LufbraDan23]

Good lord! I'd kill for 2MB. The most we get here is 1.5 down, 712K up. All for the bargain price of US$150/month. Keep in mind that there are vast swatches of the rural US that are still on dialup.

Here are some interesting stats. Look at it overall, then per capita then by GDP.

I mean it's advertised at 2mb, its not actually 2 down. Since my '20mb' broadband gets 11 down on the speed test its likely that my Suffolk connection is the same as yours.

Dial up is slowly dying but still about, but we dont have 'vast swatches' as far as i know

Looking at that graph is eye-opening (ignoring Greenland lol! = population less than 1 million but leans on Denmark's coffers) your American net really does suck. I take it back. I guess you have the same thing with fast speeds in your big cities, LA, NY etc and neglect for the countryside.

 

[don'tknow]

Don't forget the big obstacle that the US has to overcome first; getting head out of *** on the issue of monopolies. And promoting competition instead.

Still way behind on that nationwide Docsis 3.0 implementation. Some are speculating it'll be almost done by 2013, but considering how things usually turn out, it could take until 2015.

 

[hafa]

I mean it's advertised at 2mb, its not actually 2 down. Since my '20mb' broadband gets 11 down on the speed test its likely that my Suffolk connection is the same as yours.

They do the same thing here; the actual VS advertised speeds can vary widely. One thing to note, however: I'm not in the US, although my post may have implied so due to context.

 

[xtkxhom3r]

wow 2mb connection...i wouldnt even want to get on the net with something that slow lol... i have a 20 meg connection and its not fast enough.... i wish i could get Fios in my area i would love a 50meg connection but i cant complain i guess since time warner doesnt have a cap

 

[LufbraDan23]

They do the same thing here; the actual VS advertised speeds can vary widely. One thing to note, however: I'm not in the US, although my post may have implied so due to context.

Yeah, sorry i should've looked at your sig. Ignorance on my part. How are internet speeds in southeast asia? It's been suggested on here that Europe and Asia are far more ready than USA for digital downloads. I'm not convinced Europe is, at least not my corner of it.

 

[LufbraDan23]

wow 2mb connection...i wouldnt even want to get on the net with something that slow lol... i have a 20 meg connection and its not fast enough.... i wish i could get Fios in my area i would love a 50meg connection but i cant complain i guess since time warner doesnt have a cap

50mb has started rolling out over the UK. I have 2mb at home (farmer country) and 20mb at uni (small town in the middle of big cities, we reap the benefits)

 

[FudgeNuggets]

Also notice the difference between 20MB and 20mb. I have a 17Mb connection and I usually average a bit over 2MB a sec download speed.

Also, I'm not saying that physical media will be gone tomorrow but in a few years when the Xbox3 and PS4 are out then I can honestly see people having a choice between getting the physical disc and downloading it directly to the HDD. You can still buy PC games on disc but even a big retailer like Microcenter has very little games or apps on the shelves these days. I think it's going to be like that. I'd also be shocked if the next gen consoles didn't have at least 1TB drives.

 

[rainless]

I have news for you my Yankee friend...our internet sucks much worse than yours does!

Most ISPs take a London centered view, meaning that in the City you can get awesome speeds, however, if you live out in a small rural town like i do then the fantastic AOL will only give you 2MB broadband.

Honestly, that's all i can get in Suffolk, 2MB. Here at uni i'm near three or four large cities (Nottingham, Birmingham, Derby, Leicester) so i can get 20MB (but it costs a fortune).

What i mean is that for most of the UK this sort of technology wouldnt be practical. Also, the further you go from the cities the worse the internet is. Some places still don't have broadband.

There needs to be a guarantee by the UKs biggest service providers (BT, Virgin, AOL) that they'll strive to provide a minimum bandwidth across the nation (5 or even 2 MB would be a start). But that won't benefit them financially so instead theyre all trying to out do each other (Virgin can provide 50MB now) so the wealthy, self sufficient computer fan can chuck £100 a month at them. They don't care about the villages and rural communities, lets face it, people like my mum arent going to pay more than £15 for the net.

France and Germany are pretty much the same. So don't expect Europe to be keen on this either.

I just moved back from France (after 5 years). I had 40megs for 30 bucks a month.

And even in your small, rural, back of the woods town you've got 2mb and I only have 1mb... and I live in Chicago.