Consoleation Reaction: The Digital Download Trend

There’s no question that digital distribution of console-based video games is a successful business. Services like Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Store, WiiWare, and the Wii’s Virtual Console all serve as evidence of this. Not only can consumers buy smaller-scope titles like Rocket Riot, The Last Guy, and Tetris Party… but games that once required a cartridge, floppy disc, or optical disc to play, like Final Fantasy VII, Secret of Mana, and Fable are also available. As far as the latter kinds of games go, chances are that the purchaser either owned the original game at one time or still owns it and would like the ability to play it on this new console without having to go back to the “old way”. The smaller games generally have demos (at least in the case of XBLA) so that consumers can try them out before committing the funds (and hard drive space) to buy them outright.

I generally have no problems with how digital distribution is handled; however, with the unveiling of the media-less PSP Go at E3 and with recent news of a previously-announced disc-based game for the PSP now forgoing the disc and instead being released exclusively by digital distribution, I think that this trend is beginning to become worrisome. Consumers are gradually losing the tangible nature that video games have always had. Instead of having a cartridge or optical disc to let a friend borrow or to decide to sell if you don’t like it, digital distribution limits the accessibility of the game. If your friend wants to play it, he needs to buy it… or visit you at your place.

If my console breaks or my hard drive fails, it’s also a lot simpler to put a disc in my replacement console. Having to download digitally distributed games again consumes time and bandwidth. If you’re downloading a full game, which is usually several gigabytes in size, you’re talking about a considerable wait time before you can actually play it. Sure, download speeds are getting faster all the time, but that still doesn’t replace the immediacy of sliding a disc into the console and playing right away. With bandwidth caps gaining momentum among internet service providers, it’s also possible that going with a digital distribution system may wind up presenting conflicts with these caps.

Hard drives will also have to become much larger. If you were to go download-only on an Xbox 360 Elite, which sports a 120 GB hard drive, you’d be able to have 15-20 games at a time before erasing them to make room for others and them perhaps downloading the games again for replay purposes. Keep in mind that this is the Elite that we’re talking about. If you have a 60GB hard drive, you can have access to only 7-10 games at once. These limitations will lead to fewer games being bought; why buy a game when I’d have to basically throw away another one to make room? With discs, you can buy as many as you want and swap them in and out at will. With digital  downloads, you have decisions to make and will eventually wind up sacrificing games for others.

Here’s my biggest personal gripe with this trend: If I am going to spend $60 on a game, I want a safety net. If I don’t like a game, especially one of many that I tend to buy on impulse, then I like having the ability to trade it in at a game store. I make something back on it and can use that towards purchasing something else. With digital distribution, if you buy it, you own it– no exchanges, no returns. While some may think that removing the tendency to impulse-buy games is a good thing, I don’t think it is. When the ability to trade games in or sell them after playing them or beating them is lost, chances are pretty good that that consumers are going to be a lot more selective with what games they spend their money on. I know that I would be. It’s one thing for $5 and $10 games to be offered via digital distribution. It’s easy to take a chance on a few of these because it’s a lesser amount of money… so if a game doesn’t turn out as good as advertised, the sting is less painful than if you drop $60 on a game that you wind up not liking.

Before the proliferation of GameStop, and their assimilation of the mainstream used game marketplace, there were independent stores that engaged in similar practices… along with individual retail chains like FuncoLand, Software Etc., Babbage’s, and so on. As the popularrity of console gaming increased, publishers seemed to have no problem with this. Now, in this console generation where consumers are spending more money on video gaming than ever before, publishers and developers want to shut used games down. One example of this: EA basically instituted a “used game tax” on NBA Live 09 by charging for the game’s NBA Live 365 function if you didn’t have the code for it when the game was bought new. Mike Capps of Epic Games has spoken out publicly about the evils of used games, all but equating them with piracy.

The unfortunate thing about this console generation is that digital distribution gives these companies a realistic way to put an end to used games in the future. Sure, we’ll still be able to fill in holes in our retro collections, but as time goes by and if digital distribution takes hold, consumers will have to buy downloads at whatever price the publisher sets, rather than an independent source. Moreover, retail companies like Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and others could very well lose out on a portion of their revenue since hard copies of games would no longer be available in-store. I cans ee a scenario where you could buy a download code while you’re out and about, but you still have to come home, enter the code, and wait for the game to download before you can play it.

I understand and realize that a full-on move to digital distribution is not imminent at this point in time, but I honestly believe that the industry will be watching the PSP Go as a device that doesn’t support any tangible media. If consumers buy games and accept the fact that there won’t be UMDs any longer– and thus no way to trade, borrow, or sell games– then it’s likely that we’ll see a move forward in this direction. We’ll also get to see how Xbox 360 games sell via digital distribution. Granted, they won’t be brand new releases, but it will be interesting to see how consumers take to downloading full games at several gigabytes each.

No matter where this current trend leads us, it’s one that troubles me greatly. Perhaps it’s fear of change, but I think that the reasons stated within this entry lend at least some perspective on why I’m not a proponent of digital distribution. Call me old-fashioned, but when I spend my hard-earned cash on a new game, I expect to be able to play it with as little delay as possible. I expect to be able to open the wrapping (unless I buy the game at GameStop, where their new games are already opened for their customers), read the manual and get excited for the game, and then pop it in and prepare to hopefully be satisfied with my experience. That’s the way it’s been for decades, and there really aren’t enough good and viable reasons why this should change. If publishers and developers want to stem the cycle of used games, perhaps they need to release better games and attempt to use the DLC system for what it was intended for– to extend the lifecycle of a game by adding things to it– instead of microtransacting consumers and giving us yearly sequels that make past games expendable.

The retail system is fine as it is. It’s the developers and publishers who are breaking it, and that is what needs to change.