In 5 years you will see a fairly mature digital distro market. Steam is already a huge success, whether people want to believe that or not. The days of decent hard copies has come to an end. Back in the day they used to include a really good manual with games, and the box was fairly large in size. Something to really display. Not to mention all the other goodies they used to include. These days you get a little pamphlet as a manual, and a game disc. Its just not the same. And people are really liking the convenience factor of being able to download and play games. No preorders or any of that crap. Plus the problem you face with downloading time is corrected by offering predownloading like steam, so the game is ready to play when it is released. You will see a lot more steam like interfaces in the future, its already happening on the consoles. Its Gaming on demand, and its already working very well for the motion picture industry.

You tell em' Iwata. A purely digital market will result in pure piracy for me.

Iwata sounds like a dumbass... I bet in 15 years you won't be able to find a CD on a store shelf anywhere without a long search.

You guys are forgetting that not everyone has a online connection so hard copies will always be made to sell to that market. Plus who the hell would want to purchase games from Live or PSN only, talk about eliminating the competition. Right now there is a war going on between Bestbuy and Gamestop that all gamers are benefiting from. Why would someone want to get rid of those options for DD. What if you want to take your games to someone elses house? are you going to re download all your games on that system and sacrifice one of your 5 downloads. Plus a hard copy has trade in value.

" the PSN store links all purchases to your account for redownloading anytime on use to up to 5 systems."





Yeah but when you've used those 5 systems up, sony wont reset it for you.



(so when your ps3 breaks, thats one slot gone forever)



Digital downloads is just a way to con more money out of people and destroy the used game market



comsumers dont stand to gain anything out of it and can only really lose. imo



this is partly why piracy is a good thing.. its the only way we can get back at the thieving bastards

I don't know, nor do I care, about digital distribution at all what-so-ever. Nothing is better than actually owning a hard copy for yourself. I don't care WHAT the records say. If I buy a game online, who owns the game anyway? Not me. It's on my PSP or PS3 or whatever, sure, but what if it gets deleted? Okay, re-download it..."Oops! Sorry valued customer! Our PSN store is offline for tech support!"



There is simply nothing like the feel of actually owning a physical copy of the game in your hand. To play whenever you wish.



And also, hard copies are a god send for me. It take me exactly 47 MINUTES to download 100 megabytes. Yes, I DID type that correctly. Only one hundred megabytes in 3/4 of an hour.



PS3 games get up SUPER high in size. Blu-ray disks can hold 40 GIGS (Sometime 80 if dual-layered!) If I was to download, say, a game that is 25 gigs (A game this big has already been released, so don't complain about how that's impossible) it would take me between NINE and TWENTY DAYS!! 9-20 DAYS!I do not now, nor will I ever, like digital distribution, but it's not even the download time that gets me.



There is just some form of attachment you get from a game. And it also has sentimental worth, like it's more than just a game.



TRUE gamers will not stand for this. The market for hard copies will stay open for REAL gamers. GOOD gamers. TRUE gamers.

i think the reason Iwata said 20 years because he was talking to investors



im betting in 3 years we will have a very large digital distribution market, with consoles for kids the only ones that have physical copies

But i still have and play games from over 20 years ago and some of them are actually worth some money now, modern consoles just aren't as reliable as in the old NES days, so 5 consoles isn't that much when you never actually own the digital games and can't resell.

Just think of the PSP Go as a waste of money better spent elsewhere. Just because games are distributed online doesn't mean they can't be cracked or patched. Plenty of commercial programs which are years ahead of Sony in security get cracked.

Obviously it will be cracked but every time someone cracks Sony's security Sony finds a way to improve it, the fact the Psp 3000 hasn't been fully hacked yet shows they are learning, and Sony getting in early with digital downloads means they will have a big headstart in security.

Can you say xbox 360? BTW those break by theirself. Dont worry in the future we will get more crappy consoles that break wayy before their ten year lifespan. Thogh their features will be outstanding.

Digital only is lame and like Musev said its just there to con more money. You wont get no "good" online deal in which they lower the price. The only good deal online could ever have is 50% off.

Not to mention 90's console are wayyy more reliable. As a matter of fact all of mine still work and never had a issue unlike my 360.

Dont be a fool and fall into the trap. Consoles break, hard drives fail. No body wants to download gigs, and who the heck cares about steam. Take care of your freaking disc then, and put them back in their cases duh.

what happened with xbox is different. it was their fault, not the user's.



if your ps3 malfunctioned because of some sh**ty design error, i bet a lot of consumers would want their 1/5 system back and i bet sony would give it back.



developers are losing a lot of money with reselling and piracy, digital distribution is just a necessary move for them to make money.

Thanks for the update on that Billylee.



Yeah, luckily Sony's DRM is is nothing like Amazon's. That's not to say other companies will necessarily adopt a similar method or that future sony consoles will always have these DRM methods that the PSP Go has. But at the moment, that seems fair enough.



Until then I'll wait and see.



Either way, nothing for me will replace having something to show, like with a physical game I enjoy, something I physically own, it's hard to explain but I'm sure some people will understand what I mean.



Whether this system is technically better, or that system is technically better, is irrelevant to me. All that matters to me is that I can choose the way in which I want to purchase my games in future.



Whether or not I, and indeed others, will get that right, I don't know. Let's wait and see. But as far as I can see it doesn't look likely.

I think digital downloads will eventually be the main way of getting software, but discs wont be phased out.



on certain occasions, we will NEED a physical disc, and that constant need will continue the life of the physical disc.

But it wasn't actually mention in the article. Digital Download is one domain that a lot of users are going to have trouble in. It all comes down to bandwidth and and storage space. I have a 60 gig, if i was to DL games i'd maybe get 2-4, depending on the games. Also, that 2-4 games would cost the same (or maybe $10 cheaper per game) but it would take me up to 36 hours to download all that, and cost me around $70 more in bandwidth. if i had the option, i'd go and get it at the shop (unless the file was free :P). Also Payment, i don't buy anything online, cause i don't got a CC, nor does most of the gaming market, or at least the ones who spent the most time on the machines, the kids.



I guaged the timing on a 13.1 GB Movie that i downloaded on torents. It was cached by my isp, so only took around 5-7 hours (full Speed, 7.5Mbit approx). The internet is getinng faster, but i think we'll need to see gigabit internet in every home before any of this will be truly viable.

I agree, it's got a long way to go before the infrastructure is mature enough. As it stands broadband penetration isn't 100%, whereas everyone has access to a store, or at the very least access to an online store where they can order physical copies.



What we need is fast, constant connections to the whole country (which you think would be easy in England...). Until then it's going to remain where it is.



Any online service also needs to reflect what Steam currently does - keep prices low and have frequent sales and deals. It's actually cheaper here (UK) to buy games from the shop or online than to buy from the PSN. I bought Dissidia new and sealed for £11 from Gamestation. The usual price in stores is £17-19. How much is it on PSN? (real question, I can't access the PSP store on custom firmware)

"To me digital stuff has no value to it, but them hard copies sure do."



Sad that this is the majority view in our materialistic world. I mean, even I feel that way to a certain extent :(

20 years ? More like 5 and it's already happening (Steam, Apple Store). But why so expensive ? Digital content is way easier to distribute. Hard copies have to be labeled, packaged, shipped, handled, etc.



If we could buy games 4x cheaper than they already are, why the heck not ?

I very rarely buy new games and generally wait for them to be cheap second hand, dd would kill that market which would be a huge benefit to sony/mikerosoft etc as they currently make zilch from the used game market

As has also already been mentioned bandwidth, isp's setting download limits and not everyone having an internet connection.

No I'll take the disc everytime thanks

Iwata was not commenting on whether DD will be a "very large market in 3 years", he was talking about when it will totally replace retailers. And that will take at least 10-15 years.



I hope it doesn't happen even by then, but it seems inevitable at this point. The day I'm forced to pay $60+ for every game and have no physical product to resell when I'm done using it will be the day I stop gaming. Not to mention if my account were to get stolen with $1000+ worth of games on it... I would never trust it.



100% DD would ONLY benefit the companies selling the games and the publishers, who already make a killing on game sales. It would not benefit the people who work hard to make the games (who average about 35k yearly for 60-80 hour workweeks + weekends BTW) and certainly would not benefit the consumer.

Not sure what your point is billy. Also you helped to prove cade's point.



"no game that would take a full Blu-ray disk would ever appear on the PSN."



BINGO!!! I guess that means hard copy will be around forever then.



Games are going to get bigger and bigger. 20 years from now a 3D game, not requiring glasses might I add, could take up 100GB+. Who the frack is going to download that?



Also, that is NOT why piracy isn't on the PS3. You don't have to burn BD discs in order to copy the games. You would either play the game in ISO form or just have the entire game laid out on a HDD and play from that.



There's no piracy on the PS3 because Sony got it RIGHT before everyone else.

How the hell do you figure that? Digital content is pirated all the time.