Myth of physical turning into online downloads

[shotblue]

I think recently read somewhere who works for ps3 who made a statement that cds will still be realible for years to come.
Cds aren't as medium aren't going away soon. I couldn't agree more.

Aside of the notion physical ownership, and what comes along with containing a form as opposed to storing data from download.It obviously can handle much more than anything else today and is still the best way to distribute

Flash drives, sd cards, usb have no provent realible or strong to enough to navigate/hold/distribute media.

Cds are not old they peaked as musical medium in the late 80's and as a software and game medium in the mid 90's.

contrary to popular belief dvd still hold advantage to digital downloads for various reasons and cds still contain better sound (based on tech. info) than any mp3 file to date.

When you think about they aren't even old compared to how long records and tapes lave lasted, ( and even those are still produced today).

What are your thoughts

[maD_mAN1983]

for the music part, in my opinion LP's sounds better than any CD as far as im concerned, but for gaming they are a little to easy to scracth and such, but if you are careful and don't leave it in the sun and stuff like that, they can last a very long, as long as they are produced in a good way, not like those cheap cd-r discs that are ruined within a year or so

[BuckoA51]

Flac and various losless codecs beat CD's too, wish more places offered them.

Frankly though the videogame industry can't wait to go download only to completely kill second hand sales. Not a question of if but when.

[shotblue]

and various losless codecs beat CD's too, wish more places offered them.

Frankly though the videogame industry can't wait to go download only to completely kill second hand sales. Not a question of if but when.

Cds are still better than flac and osless codecs. Flac would have been bigger or taken over like 10 years ago but it didn't.

http://www.audioaficionado.org/digital- ... -cd-2.html

http://digital2disc.com/index.php/news/ ... sic-albums



Are you the spokesperson for the industry?

read these:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Physical ... 5929.shtml

http://www.slashgear.com/sony-playstati ... i-2699166/

[gamesgaryjp]

If they do move to digital only, they can get bent as far as im concerned. i wont buy into it. Even if they do this so called used game prevention im out.

Ill just carry on with the current gen, if i dont play it i dont know what im missing and games these days are so far along they wont look very dated

[Wizbiscuit]

Yer digital downloads are a shame, as you don't really own anything, if I look through my XBLA games I find a bunch I hardly touched and then forgot about.

Digital downloads just work for modern life though, "I want it, and I want it now", people like Amazon must know that, as amazingly most CD's are cheaper than the MP3 equivalent, that's pretty shocking really.

I still buy most of my music on CD as I have a real nice separates Hi-Fi, and MP3's do actually sound pretty rubbish, FLAC is lossless right? so that should be the same as CD, what download services now offer a lossless format for download, as sometimes I do download stuff (cuz I want it now ) so would like to know of somewhere that offers a lossless format.

[gamesgaryjp]

Totally agree with wizbiscuit, cds are cheaper than downloads, the same will apply to games too. There is no way in hell im paying £39.99 for a digital download, if it isnt on disc im not interested.

If ps3 and the new xbox both have this nonsense, ill probably just buy the wii-u. It will be ****, but its still better than not gaming at all

[BuckoA51]

Cds are still better than flac and osless codecs. Flac would have been bigger or taken over like 10 years ago but it didn't.

FLAC should be the same or better than a CD, audiophiles will argue that a gold plated USB cable sounds better, I'm talking from a purely scientific standpoint.

Are you the spokesperson for the industry?

Is some bloke from Sony? We're talking about an industry so desperate to get rid of second hand they think cloud gaming will be more profitable.

Edit - Just to be clear I think it'll be another console generation before we're download only (i.e PS5 and Xbox 3/Wii 3).

[shotblue]

Flac cannot be possibly loaded into mp3 players. Very few offically released albums exist. Beatles collectors usb is flac 24-bit. The flac sound is supposedly adds extra glare that either is too much or can't be really heard compared to various files. It also takes up way to much space. You will find some sites occationally offering digital download by popular groups or remasters scattered around the net . It is also dependant on unethical file sharing and people who randomly upload to share their flac -cds and vinyl. Cds sound range is more appropriate, better and give you all that you need. Flac has more dymanic sound in some respect depending where you listen to it, but cannot beat the cd. Vinyl recorded from the master tape sounds the best next to the analog master tape (better than master digtal file)

[Random Hero]

This could be completely bias coming from someone that works in a game shop, but I feel I should poke my thoughts in too.

My main worry about things going digitial is that it could kill off what I class a 'B Class' game. All those games in between casual and triple A basically. I think a great deal of why these games survive is due to the trade in business. People nowadays sadly are not willing to take the risk on something they are unfamilar with (It is very depressing selling only Fifa/CoD on a daily basis). However, if they are able to trade them in if they don't like it/exchange it for something else within 10 days, then they're willing to give it a go. Without the facility to do this, I can't see many people stepping outside their comfort zone whether it's a triple A game (e.g. Halo) or a casual game (e.g. Angry Birds). Now I'm not silly enough to think this would completely kill them off, but I think it cause some serious problems with these games, and I for one don't want to see the Bayonettas of this world not getting a chance.

On a much more factual note, we simply son't have the infrastructure yet to support such a system. Broadband speeds are currently not high enough not to mention bandwidth limits which also affects cloud gaming to a much larger degree (i.e. downloading Skyrim = 5.5GB, streaming Skyrim for 120 hours = christ knows!).

From a personal point of view I like actually owning something I buy. I will always buy a physical copy over a digital copy wherever I get the choice. I think the best compromise would simply be to offer both. There's also a bit of a problem with pricing which needs to be sorted, although apparently won't be an issue with Wii U. £40 for a retail copy or £60 for a digital copy... well let me just give that a moment thought.

TL:DR

I think digital only has some problems at least as it is now, I want a choice of a physical copy too and I would not want to see second hand games disappear (not from my bias point of view I might add! ).