-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
GameIndustry.Biz: Major shift to digital happening in UK
- Thread starter Mpl90
- Start date
That's a lot higher than expected and really changes the whole UK market is bad argument. A few of these games did predecessors and makes the situation look a lot less bleak. Wolfenstein most likely sold less than the original but if it did something like 30% vs say 15% that's a better outcome. Digital adoption is in full swing I did not think titles were doing about 45% there. This makes me wonder what Destiny 2's digital percentage was in NPD.
I won't pre-order games because I want to see how they turn out. Reviews, bugs etc. But because I do this, if I buy physical, I have to wait at least 3 days after release until I can play the game, while the package is being delivered. Then another hour to drive and get the package from pickup location. That is, if stores still have the game stocked.
Or I could click click click the interface, do other stuff while game downloads for an hour or two and then play the game.
The bolded part suggests that you live in the Outer Hebrides, so I'm not sure how your Internet connection is that good?
I think if Sony and Microsoft both continue to use AMD systems on a chip for their future systems to maintain BC Sony is going to get a huge benefit from having a larger install base with a bunch of digital games tied to those accounts.
It hasn't been 15-25% for a long time
Well maybe 25% sure. But 15% being in the average hasn't been a case for a while now
They say in the story it was estimated at 15-25% last year. The jump seems unrealistic to me and they've given nothing to support it except the vague mention that "some" games have sold 45% digitally.
Why do people say this as if this is the only reason people go digital?
Well they can estimate what they want but 15% hasn't been the standard for a while now.
Something like 20 or 25%, sure
It was a joke. I thought that would be obvious, apologies if not.
This.. People saying it is a crazy price just because people are lazy..there is more to it.
My bad.
A lot of evidence comes from the publishers themselves. Whilst not specific to the UK, a number of publishers have talked about the rise of digital full game downloads over the past year.
Electronic Arts said yesterday in their earnings call that the average for them is now around 36%. Up from from 30% in the same period last year.
I haven't bought a single physical game for ps4. Good riddance to those stupid game cases and discs. The convenience makes it worth it and no, I don't feel like I don't "own" the game. It's data sitting on my hard drive either way. More flexibility actually since if you buy digital you can have the game on multiple consoles.
And let's be honest here. You're not going to get much value out of selling a physical game later on. This isn't some kind of investment. Most games are becoming "digital" anyway with DLC. Your plastic game disc is nothing more than a glorified launcher.
And let's be honest here. You're not going to get much value out of selling a physical game later on. This isn't some kind of investment. Most games are becoming "digital" anyway with DLC. Your plastic game disc is nothing more than a glorified launcher.
If you break your disk you're are screwed as well, that's a factor people forget...Plus gameshare. There are numerous benefits. Disk Drives also break and wear down, and cause more wear on the system.
It's pretty clear they are looking at the retail/digital splits of those recent specific games they mention in the article. So no.
Yeah, but that 36% is a worldwide figure. The UK is generally expected to be lower as the pricing is so ridiculous. I find it strange that they've been so vague about where this 45% has come from. "Some" games? What if it's just Destiny 2, where you'd expect a high digital figure?
Yeah. If anything I feel greater ownership and safety by buying a license to download the game whenever I want instead of buying a disc that has the data on it.
I was originally against digital, I even still buy physical CDs. I got ONE digital game and it changed everything. Now I consider myself too lazy to switch out the discs so I've gone all digital. Plus I have a child that won't keep his little fingers off every case he can find.
Living in a (lovely) semi-rural area, we only had 3.5mbps until the beginning of this year and it was painful. Especially when you have a 4K OLED and no way to watch Netflix content in 4K on it. But luckily now we've got wireless line-of-sight broadband in our area which is surprisingly fantastic and we now get a reliable 60mbps download and 30mbps upload.
However, the BT site says that we will be getting FTTP, which will be even more glorious, but there's no timeframe given.
I mean, Ive bought digital out of pure laziness. Helps that there is no sales tax and sales help.
Though so far, I deeply regret spending a full $80 on games like persona and dragon age and wish I could sell them. In Canada here
Though so far, I deeply regret spending a full $80 on games like persona and dragon age and wish I could sell them. In Canada here
The UK is expected to be lower than the US.
I'm not 100% certain where the UK would be when looking at the global average.
You're right though. The article doesn't list a specific source, but this is from a trusted industry outlet. I have heard similar things to what the article states.
Ultimately, the games that perform best via digital download are usually the best selling games of the year.
This is good to hear, digital should be better for publishers which means more games for us... Thriving industry is great.
And we should not be surprised when Sony announced their results and it showed big jump in digital revenue
for all MP games that i know i will spend a lot of time with i always go digital. Titanfall 2, Destiny 1, upcoming Anthem.
For single player games always disc so i can sell it to gamestop and the money goes towards my next pre-order.
For single player games always disc so i can sell it to gamestop and the money goes towards my next pre-order.
It was 10-15%, but 2 years ago. I think these digital sales are moving up faster than most publishers can even react to.
Pro Tip: I gave up on BT to do anything, I have had it up to my neck with their bullshit and service. There's this new service in town - G Network. They started out as fiber for businesses only but due to high demand from residential areas they are extending their business to all these areas where BT just refuses to go, like my area and they have been a GODSENT. They are more expensive than BT, but I personally find internet always worth the money and their speed is better than BT.
I mean it's great if sales are healthy, we knew that retail being down wasn't the whole story, but weren't really sure by how much. Titles being actually up overall is a positive. However, baffles me why anyone would ever want to pay those prices when retail has far more benefits and significantly cheaper, plus potential return rates.
I've never paid more than £35 for AAA day 1 retail prices for as long as I can remember and I know I can sell them for the majority of that back if not actually make profit, upon completition. "Inconvenience" (or to me, taking a disc out once I'm finished, to put the next game in) isn't worth it one bit to me. But each to their own.
As long as retail offers those benefits and I can continually buy them at retail, digital to me is simply not in consideration.
I've never paid more than £35 for AAA day 1 retail prices for as long as I can remember and I know I can sell them for the majority of that back if not actually make profit, upon completition. "Inconvenience" (or to me, taking a disc out once I'm finished, to put the next game in) isn't worth it one bit to me. But each to their own.
As long as retail offers those benefits and I can continually buy them at retail, digital to me is simply not in consideration.
I'm surprised the shift to digital is that slow honestly. I have two physical games for my PS4: Killzone as it was bundled in, and Wolfenstein TNO because I bought the UK version (I'm from Germany and wanted the uncut version). I "own"so many games on Steam and PS4, if they were all physical I would need an aditional room to store them.
Obviously, retail is still significant. If a kid wants a game for christmas, not many grandparents grab some PSN-Cards so the kid can buy the game digitally.
Obviously, retail is still significant. If a kid wants a game for christmas, not many grandparents grab some PSN-Cards so the kid can buy the game digitally.
Read all the posts where people mention gamsehare that tells you the biggest reason i just checked and from amazon itself South Park: The Fractured But Whole was £45 you could get cheaper but that was from them with prime, digitally on xbox its £54.99 but if your gamesharing that's 2 copies with one costing 27.49. If you and a friend are sharing the cost of buying games that's a big saving
You can shop around for digital points/wallet top-ups and get things cheaper than retail games.
I picked up £85 of PSN credit for £74 yesterday, that means I got the WW2 Digital Deluxe edition cheaper than retail.
I don't live in UK, but I thought I was OK to reply in this thread because I felt like some were overestimating just how important 20£ is (edit: after a certain point in income. It's all relative is my point). It's a pain to buy 80£ game and find out it's a bad game, but the extra 20£ is a premium I gladly pay for getting the game exactly when I want. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, today after work after cooking and stuff is done.
I would say this even if I had a guaranteed next day delivery to home and waiting for me when I arrived.
Last edited:
Yep, which makes some of the posts in this head even sillier. Lots of reasons to go digital.
I've made the switch to digital only on several platforms starting from 2011. Sometimes I've still bought physical, but since a few months I'm 100% digital. Even though some prices are still ridiculously high in the PS Store a lot of games now start at least with the same price as their physical counterparts. Since there are sales on PSN all the time you don't have to wait long to snag your favorite game for cheap. Horizon for instance was available for 39,99 only three months after its release.
Since physical is just a plastic box with disc which only holds the status of the release (Day 1 patches and DLC say hello...) I don't see the necessity nor do I hear the collector inside me screaming for piling up plastic garbage. I love to have all my games available right there without having to get up and swapping those discs. My shelves are filled with beautiful stuff now instead of those plastic garbage. I also love the thought that I'll do something for the environment with going 100% digital.
Since physical is just a plastic box with disc which only holds the status of the release (Day 1 patches and DLC say hello...) I don't see the necessity nor do I hear the collector inside me screaming for piling up plastic garbage. I love to have all my games available right there without having to get up and swapping those discs. My shelves are filled with beautiful stuff now instead of those plastic garbage. I also love the thought that I'll do something for the environment with going 100% digital.
I do wonder what % of overall digital sales were at full price vs. a heavy sale price.
I thought there were way too many games down on sales from the predecessors. Now it makes sense even though for a while people in the PAL charts were adamant that digital sales weren't big in the UK due to the price (Which is what keeps me away from getting them).
It means the success stories this year like Horizon, Crash , Uncharted must have done even better and that's really good to hear.
It means the success stories this year like Horizon, Crash , Uncharted must have done even better and that's really good to hear.
I never took much stock in this argument personally, they were always anecdotal. Even then I do admit they're expensive but no moreso than GAME in the first place and people will pay for convenience too.
I'm more shocked though to see that in some titles that we thought were down are actually up cos of downloads!
With no timeframe on the numbers we dunno if they including old games in cheap PSN sales either.
Could have got it physical that price day one, and even cheaper physical after 3 months.
