Topic: A Hypothetical about Wii Digital Distribution

[KDR_11k]

Iwata said about digital distribution that while he can't predict what'll happen in 20 years he's pretty sure customer habits don't change fast enough to make purely digital distribution viable this generation.

Kraken makes an interesting point, when the Conduit was released several people on this board where scouring the local retailers to try and find a copy ASAP to play online. Are we all going to go throught the same thing when The Grinder is released?

I hope that by then retailers will have realized that there's a massive market for FPSes on the Wii and order more copies.

[Smash_Brother]

I was just concerned about the price.  I am against Digital Distribution because it only benefits publishers who wanna slice off a little on shipping and deprive customers the rights to their products.

It's more about selling games and concepts that no one will take a publishing risk on. Who would pay $50 for Megaman 9?

Or about indie devs not wanting to have their game ideas beast-raped by a publisher.

[KDR_11k]

WiiWare is an experimentation platform first and foremost, make things with little investment to try it out.

[Smash_Brother]

It's like Iwata said: Tetris probably wouldn't be able to find a publisher in this day and age.

[BranDonk Kong]

The Wii can play retail games off an SD card or USB HDD already. I don't see the cost being any different for downloaded games though, at least not by more than $5 or so. Sure shipping costs would go down, but dropping the price by $20 would kill retail stores.

[KDR_11k]

And dropping the price by 20$ would make Wal Mart kill the Wii.

[NWR_pap64]

To those that are worried about digital distribution taking over conventional shopping; chill.

While I do see all companies embracing digital distribution it will take YEARS before everything is done through digital distribution. People still rely on conventional shopping methods and there might be methods that would royally screw the consumer over. Its going to take a while before we find a digital distribution method that is quick and everyone can agree with.

Why do you think many people think the PSP Go is a rip off?

[BranDonk Kong]

Because it's $250.

[Mop it up]

While I do see all companies embracing digital distribution it will take YEARS before everything is done through digital distribution. People still rely on conventional shopping methods and there might be methods that would royally screw the consumer over. Its going to take a while before we find a digital distribution method that is quick and everyone can agree with.

And by that point there will probably have been hundreds of thousands of games released on physical media so I'll just stop buying new games when that happens.

[ShyGuy]

How long did it take music? about 15 years?

[Deguello]

But digitally distributed music is pretty much free.  Just go to youtube and type in a song.  Sure it might not sound the best but it's better than paying $.99 for the same amount of product.

[KDR_11k]

That and retail music still exists.

[BlackNMild2k1]

& you have the ability to pay for your music, download it, then burn it to a disc to take with you anywhere.
Nowadays you don't even need to do that since you just put it on your MP3 player and you can share it with friends and there is almost nothing restricting your use of the content you just paid for.

With games, it won't be that easy.

[Smash_Brother]

With games, it won't be that easy.

Then again, why not?

The DSi has DSiware, which is basically the same concept as an MP3 player but for games. The iPhone has tons of apps, games included, that only exist digitally.

I think it's all very possible.

[Stratos]

Kraken makes an interesting point, when the Conduit was released several people on this board where scouring the local retailers to try and find a copy ASAP to play online. Are we all going to go throught the same thing when The Grinder is released?

Conduit is the first game I have run around like that for. I like to order my games from Amazon. I only ran around for Conduit because that night was the Wi-Fi night for it. If not I would have ordered it online like any other. I've kinda lost the thrill of hunting for games and line camping on game launch days.

I don't even pre-order games unless there is an interesting enough prize for doing so.

Though system launches are a different matter.But I still don't like doing stuff like that alone. Waiting in line for Star Wars and Lord of the rings was only fun because I went with friends. Same with game/system line camping.