President of SCEE predicts 'fall' of optical disc

[rabbitc]

Tech-Ex: Optical Disc-Based Media to Succumb to Digital Delivery: Sony

What happens when an entertainment division of a manufacturer doesn't even believe optical disc has a long-term future?

David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe was recently quoted as saying that the Playstation network is the future of delivery for gaming and the need of a disc-based delivery system will 'fall.'

While I obviously partly agree with this theory (as do many industry experts) - it does seem quite interesting that even Sony executives are now downplaying the need for technology such as DVD and Blu-Ray.

While this certainly doesn't put any weight behind replacement products such as solid-state media, it does fly in the face (yet again) of a long-term strategy for Blu-Ray and casts doubt on how committed Sony really is to the winner for the format war.

The average speed and coverage of Broadband in Europe totally voids his arguement.

FAIL.

[remixFA]

Originally Posted by shane32Eire

The average speed and coverage of Broadband in Europe totally voids his arguement.

FAIL.

YEA SHANE.. do you ever remember any arguement that your in, or do u just bla bla all day??

we had this conversation before. Verizon Wireless in the US, and Vodaphone( parent company) are releasing the "4g" network sometime in 2010, with steady streaming of around 100-150mb/s w/ bursts of almost 300, and uploads at over 100mb/s. vodaphone was a main developer of it, so they own the rights to distribution. When that network gets turned on, digital downloads will take but a few seconds. Would you still go rent a movie and waist all your petrol, if you could have like a 1tb drive on the cheap, filled with movies nearly instantly instead?

[Boost King]

Owned!

[blu_yu_away]

I still do not like the idea of digital distribution. Call me old fashioned, but damnit, I like having something to show for my purchases. I like going to the store pickin up something physical and bringing it home. I would hate to have to download every movie, game, song, etc. Not only would I need a massive storage device but even with broadband it would take a great deal of waiting. Plus electronic technology never seems works how its suppossed to. And the thought of losing all of my purchases when my hard drive crashes is not very appealing.

[Blasterpez]

Originally Posted by blu_yu_away

I still do not like the idea of digital distribution. Call me old fashioned, but damnit, I like having something to show for my purchases. I like going to the store pickin up something physical and bringing it home. I would hate to have to download every movie, game, song, etc. Not only would I need a massive storage device but even with broadband it would take a great deal of waiting. Plus electronic technology never seems works how its suppossed to. And the thought of losing all of my purchases when my hard drive crashes is not very appealing.

i'm with you blu. i don't like the idea of not having the original media. add ons, patches, upgrades, fine with them being just downloadable. but the original disk i like to have, as well. maybe if you could download it and burn it for a backup, or something. i just see a lot of issues with customer service.

[Pepper Jack]

god damn optical media threads! ENOUGH!!! i can't take it anymore!!!!

but i do like having downloads, but i also don't wanna have up owning something that i can hold in my hands

[ElderScroller27]

I am SURE that the industry will try to move towards Digital Distribution in order to make more profit with the Primary Tactic of FORCING EVERYONE to pay Full Retail in order to have access to a copy of a Game, DVD, or CD.
If your only access to a Game or DVD is Digital Download Direct from the Source then you are FORCED to pay whatever their asking price is, there will be no USED game/DVD industry anymore, You would only have to buy the actual Hardware/Accessories.

In effect you become cattle for the entertainment industry, They ask a price and you pay it and have no chance to sell the game if it sucks ass... you're stuck with it forever, all you can do is delete it and tell yourself that the pain will fade in time...

The entertainment industry has tried soemthing like this before in the form of Disposable DVD rentals.. they would have gladly killed the DVD Rental market by making them all disposable so that the data on the DVD degraded 72 hours after cracking the seal on the case.. Luckily MANY groups protested the gross amount of wasteful garbage this would introduce into landfills and the rental companies backed off the idea..

DIGITAL ONLY IS A SUCKY SUCKY IDEA that in NO WAY is friendly to the consumer. mabye they can totally do away with the drive in your console and thus extend it's lifetime ALOT but then you're stuck with every purchase, you have no access to renting games.... etc etc etc..... just sucky all around.

Originally Posted by remixFA

YEA SHANE.. do you ever remember any arguement that your in, or do u just bla bla all day??

we had this conversation before. Verizon Wireless in the US, and Vodaphone( parent company) are releasing the "4g" network sometime in 2010, with steady streaming of around 100-150mb/s w/ bursts of almost 300, and uploads at over 100mb/s. vodaphone was a main developer of it, so they own the rights to distribution. When that network gets turned on, digital downloads will take but a few seconds. Would you still go rent a movie and waist all your petrol, if you could have like a 1tb drive on the cheap, filled with movies nearly instantly instead?

Oh I'm sorry i didn't realise we were talking 10 years in the future I thought we were being realistic and using logic, my bad.

Get back to me when Germany,Spain and France get them silly fast BB speeds. As it stands the average BB speed is 2 Megabits d/l in Euro zone, with low coverage especially in southern & eastern europe.

I think commen sense may benefit you remix.

[rabbitc]

Originally Posted by shane32Eire

The average speed and coverage of Broadband in Europe totally voids his arguement.

FAIL.

Shane the fanboy disagrees with a Sony Exec - SELF PWN!!!

[rabbitc]

will be no USED game/DVD industry anymore,

CORRECT!! Give that man a pink cigar!

[Blasterpez]

Originally Posted by ElderScroller27

I am SURE that the industry will try to move towards Digital Distribution in order to make more profit with the Primary Tactic of FORCING EVERYONE to pay Full Retail in order to have access to a copy of a Game, DVD, or CD.
If your only access to a Game or DVD is Digital Download Direct from the Source then you are FORCED to pay whatever their asking price is, there will be no USED game/DVD industry anymore, You would only have to buy the actual Hardware/Accessories.

dang, there are some good points in there, elder. what would i do if i couldn't rent anymore? there is so much crap out there now. it would be like buying cd's, once you bought it, it's yours, regardless if it was totally sucky, you can't return it. and you can't rent them. you can download the 1 song you may want, at a crappy 128bps.

[Boost King]

Just to add, many have argued DD will lower the cost of a product to you, ie games, movies etc.

Maybe this is true in the short term, but longer term those gains will be lost and less obvious.

Tangible products can always continue to lower production costs through better technology and manufacturing processes, plus economies of scale as well.

With Digital Distribution, apart from servers, we are all at liberty of our ISP's and infrastructure carriers to improve our networks and connections. I just cant see this improving that much without impacting consumers via a cost in some way or another.

And I am sure those production costs, of books, cases, discs and transport costs, will be eaten up by online licensing fees, website maintenance costs, international agreements, as well as a host of other costs, which will essentially balance things up over time anyway.

Personally the biggest loosers are all the used markets. No more buying and selling etc, or cheap deals, or trade ins. Sorry, its yours forever.

Its kind of like itunes, all my music I own, I cant sell to anyone when I am through with it. I am stuck with it. And I dont like that.

Boost

[rabbitc]

Just to add, many have argued DD will lower the cost of a product to you, ie games, movies etc.

Absolutely - but that doesn't mean the consumers will benefit from lower prices. They may offer a token discount to get everyone on board - but after that, full price I would think.

Tell you what this will upset - traditional retailers like EB, Walmart, etc.

[ElderScroller27]

I'm fearing a really bleak future for gaming as far as I can speculate.
They will try to screw us over for sure. The net result of having only digital downloads is that I would Buy only a very very few games and only after seeing extensive game play footage/Demo/reviews. I have been screwed over by buying so much total CRAP over the years...

The company making a Console (Sony,M$,Nintento) doesn't care about the actual quality of the games hitting the shelves but rather the quantity that Sell, because they always get their cut right off the top. By going strictly to Digital Download they cut out 100% of the physical Costs of the game and it becomes just a simple download, their only cost would be the nominal amount of maintaining Software, Websites and Servers.... and the consumer is stuck carrying th cost of Internet Provider, and also limited by the qualty of phone wires in their home. Personally for me the highest Download Speed I have been able to maintain is about 200kps, and this is with standard phone lines and Broadband highspeed internet. Unfortunately alot of people in the US ave OLD OLD phone wiring and low internet speeds

[rabbitc]

that's quite low, Elder - I'm fortunate to have a 750kps pipe here so i regularly download sizable demos in excess of a gig without an issue.

I had heard that the US was lagging behind in broadband - but that is terrible if that's the best you can get.

[remixFA]

Originally Posted by shane32Eire

Oh I'm sorry i didn't realise we were talking 10 years in the future I thought we were being realistic and using logic, my bad.

Get back to me when Germany,Spain and France get them silly fast BB speeds. As it stands the average BB speed is 2 Megabits d/l in Euro zone, with low coverage especially in southern & eastern europe.

I think commen sense may benefit you remix.

hmm.. 2010.. if its now 2008... thats only 2 YEARS, not 10. That free government education is doing u wonders. Also, just to help negate your arguement even further, the preliminary testing was done in downtown Berlin. Again, my parent company, vodaphone is developing the technology (in partnership with nokia and a few other companies).

So back to using logic and realism now that ur point was made mute ..again..
2 yrs from now, OTA downloading will be faster than cable/broadband. It will be launching in the EU and America at the same time. It will also be incorperated as the new phone-data standard for both CDMA technology and GSM (which makes sence, Vodaphone is GSM, Verizon is CDMA).
Digital downloading cannot become mainstream until the DL speed is reduced to nothing. People hait waiting, even if its less time than going to the store and back.

While I totally agree with the validity of the arguements of holding a retail box in your hands and the things you can do with it, and though i dont see it probably ever completely ending in our lifetimes, i do think that it will eventually become a 2ndary product to downloads.

Originally Posted by remixFA

hmm.. 2010.. if its now 2008... thats only 2 YEARS, not 10. That free government education is doing u wonders. Also, just to help negate your arguement even further, the preliminary testing was done in downtown Berlin. Again, my parent company, vodaphone is developing the technology (in partnership with nokia and a few other companies).

So back to using logic and realism now that ur point was made mute ..again..
2 yrs from now, OTA downloading will be faster than cable/broadband. It will be launching in the EU and America at the same time. It will also be incorperated as the new phone-data standard for both CDMA technology and GSM (which makes sence, Vodaphone is GSM, Verizon is CDMA).
Digital downloading cannot become mainstream until the DL speed is reduced to nothing. People hait waiting, even if its less time than going to the store and back.

While I totally agree with the validity of the arguements of holding a retail box in your hands and the things you can do with it, and though i dont see it probably ever completely ending in our lifetimes, i do think that it will eventually become a 2ndary product to downloads.

lolz, so what if its rolling out in 2010, by the time the average household has it and can be used mainstream you know your adding years on.