Ruslan Kogan enjoys his time in the limelight. He also enjoys a spot of Gerry Harvey bashing. But I can’t help but feel that his comments about digital distribution of games is way off the mark.
In response to Harvey Norman’s toe dip into direct importing on the internet, Kogan sent us this statement:
“It’s good to see that Gerry is starting to accept that the Internet works and is here to stay. I am slightly baffled by his latest business move though. I have no idea why he would dedicate time and energy to a category that likely won’t exist in one year. Very soon, all games for your Xbox and PS3 will be downloaded directly onto the device over the Internet.”
Now, Serrels over at Kotaku is probably much more an expert on this than I am, but the idea that there will be no physical media for video games in the near future seems absurd. Sure, digital distribution is going to grow in leaps and bounds, with technologies like the NBN helping it along the way, but to completely do away with discs? No way. Even with the NBN, there’s no way you could (or would) download something like Metal Gear Solid 4 which takes full advantage of a Blu-ray disc’s massive capacity.
Then there’s the console factor. If we are going to distribute huge games on the internet, we’re going to lead a lot more storage capacity than the current consoles provide. Which means new consoles. Aside from the Wii U, we’ve only heard rumours and speculation about what Microsoft and Sony might be planning. And it’s highly unlikely that either company would be game enough to risk having digital distribution as the only way to download games. Sony especially after the disaster that was the PSPGo.
In short, I reckon he’s way off. I think we’ll be playing games off physical media for at least another decade, although in about seven years it will begin to taper significantly. What are your thoughts?
Simon
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 1:56 PMGiven that trading of games drives over 60% of AAA game sales this is just stupid. Industry would kills itself from the developers to the retailer.
Steve Ador
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 3:09 PMDo you still buy music CDs? The music industry is still doing OK. It’s just a matter of 1′s and 0′s…already some connections in Oz are good enough for HD streaming!
janon
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 3:27 PMMANY people still buy CDs, go to a JB store and watch them do it.. Though you are right CD sales I believe are not what they were, but music sales in general are not that great and they are complaining about it..
Hmar9333
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 8:59 PMAre the Music CDs you download many gigabytes in size? I thought not. My Internet is slow as anything, I sure as hell won’t be downloading my full size games thankyouverymuch.
Andy
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 3:33 PMI can’t wait until I can buy all games I want for my PS3 without getting off the couch. They are already starting to do this and I use this service all the time. I think this will all happen in less than a year! I don’t usually agree with everything Mr. Kogan says but I totally agree with Ruslan Kogan on this one.
RocketMan
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 3:37 PMRuslan has a very good point here. There are far more efficient ways to distribute media than to have physical discs. The customer will be the ultimate winner here – games will be cheaper and there will not be any middle men.
Adam
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 8:56 PMThe world’s not ready for digital distribution being the primary method of game distribution for consoles.
Just see the PSP Go, which failed on such a premise.
It’s not just a matter of internet ability. There is also issues with storage (games are going to get a lot bigger as time goes on), ease of use, digital rights management etc.
For those who think it would reduce the price of games, think about what would happen to game prices if there was only one retailer per console.
Cam
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 10:41 PMWrong place, my apologies
Cam
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 10:40 PM” The customer will be the ultimate winner here – games will be cheaper and there will not be any middle men.”
What parrell reality do you live in? Prices are set by the publishers not the distributors, if you think games would be cheaper if everyone went to digital distribution take a good look at the prices on Steam or Origin, no boxes, DVDs or paper manuals but we still pay anywhere from $70-100 AUD for AAA games
AnthonyP
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 1:58 PMAnd then you have to consider the extra cost of the download on your ISP bill if they don’t exclude this from your normal download limits.
BetaMax
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 3:18 PMISPs will lift there game especially with the extra competition the NBN will bring. All it takes is one to offer an unmetered service and its on for young and old. OK so it might not happen in 1 year but 2-3 for sure, 90% of us won’t be using discs
Mitch Bus
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 4:12 PMiinet, internode and others offer unlimited on various services, yet you don’t see anything like that on Bigpond outside their walled-garden offerings. which suck anyway.
Ian
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 2:01 PMKogan is as much of a fool as is Harvey. I won’t buy from either of them until they stop trying to hog the limelight and talking crap.
janon
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 3:28 PM+1
Franz
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 7:32 PMAnd again.
Can we sue Kogan if he’s wrong? pretty pointless to make outlandish comments that are obviously way off the mark.
We’re still working on sending Harvey Norman bankrupt, that’ll teach him to open his mouth.
The problem with digital only is that the power is wholy in the developers hands, there are already programs which, upon secretly using your internet connection, ‘commit suicide’ and force you to download the update in order to continue using it, that is WRONG.
With the Disc in my hands, I decide my destiny, and if/when a game becomes corrupted, I can readily reinstall and fix the situation, not have to download everything again, provided my internet connection is working at the time, as internet connections are dangerous thing to rely on.
lambomann007
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 2:01 PMWith the next gen of consoles coming out over the next few years, there will definitely be a bigger focus on digital distribution, but I don’t see it completely replacing physical distribution for some time yet.
Martin
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 2:02 PMI dont think game discs will be dead in a year. my reasoning is that there are still some consoles out there (Xbox360, Wii, WiiU) that have not so big drives on them, now im talking about the ones that were originally released not the recent models.
my 360 still only has a 20gb (which is what it original came with) hdd. as convienent as digital distribution is, its not ideal. working in IT i see all sorts of problems with reliance on the internet, especially when external forces interrupt the internet connection. Your stuffed pretty much until it can be fixed. With physical discs (minus the always connected drm) regardless of whether you have an internet connection or not you can still play the game.
moo
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 2:08 PMInterestingly enough, This isnt the first time they have tried Online Game sales:
Meet Harvey Norman Online Game store
http://downloads.trymedia.com/?aff=t_25ul
DarthDVD
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 2:10 PMIF everyone had the NBN tomorrow… i could beleave Kogan’s assessment that retail discs will be dead… but only if PS3,xbox, pc games were not counted in the download limits…
light487
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 2:14 PMUntil I can download 4 to 8gb (the usual size of a PC game’s installation files, however even that is being ramped up to multiple dual-layer discs now) in a few short minutes or even 30mins with consistency and on top of that not have to pay for the brandband quota I just used and so on.. Physical media ain’t going the way of the dinosaurs for a little while yet…
Sam
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 2:23 PM1. Spend billions on NBN
2. Buy games online and save 30%
3. ????
4. PROFIT!!!!!!
Pete
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 2:28 PMI downloaded BF3 (14gb) in 2hour off origin is that fast enough?? I don’t agree there will a year but soon the majority of media will be online..
Hmar9333
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 9:02 PMGood for you. I get about 200kb/s down, if that. I’ll pass on the digital distribution of major games thanks.
LucasF
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 2:20 PMI have no problem with what Mr Kogan is saying. I play plenty of PC games, and haven’t bought one on physical media for……errr……….at least the last five years!!!
StephanL
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 2:23 PMif you use CD’s as an example we still have them even though the iTunes store open 8 years ago. so i think games disc will be around for years to come but less popular and stores like eb games will eventually be extinct.
IMO the future isn’t digital downloads, but streaming services like onlive.
veddermandan
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 2:26 PMI’ll never buy a digitally downloadable game. i bought a PSP-Go and have never played it. For $200 was worth adding to my collection.
My games collection is worth in excess of $20k – a digital game collection is worhtless
Ruslan Kogan
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 3:28 PMWhere can I buy tickets to your museum? ;)
Me
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 3:39 PMYour games collection is actually worth almost nothing – what you mean is that you paid $20k…
Stu
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 2:35 PMDigital distribution does have it’s advantages, but I’ll never be completely sold on it… no Collector Editions!!
janon
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 3:24 PMKogan loves his media whoring…
I agree in five to ten years he may well be right, but a LOT of Australians live 3.5km or more from exchange buildings and therefore have ADSL no faster than 3-4mbps (or less) add to that download caps and the fact Telstra won’t push out more cable and it certainly isn’t universal, then I can’t see digital downloads for games being a major threat until the NBN is rolled out.. The NBN is FAR FAR more than 1 year away…
So usual exaggerted media whoring comment from Kogan to seek attention.. meh..
The Gremlin
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 3:38 PMAh… gotta love the hyperbole.
The next console generation is pretty much certain to be media based. Which means, we’ll be still buying discs 6 years from now if not more.
That is not to mention our download speeds and caps. Anyone sees this changing in less than a year? Didn’t think so.
JT....
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 3:41 PMMaybe he just means for mobile devices!
Anti
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 4:08 PMIf I’m not mistaken, a largely contributing factor to the failure of the PSP Go was that many stores refused to sell it, or stocked very few. Game stores make most of their money from selling, and reselling software, not the hardware. If a major console went entirely digital distribution, I could see major retailers boycotting it to discourage other console makers from doing the same.
RB
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 5:19 PMRuslan hinting at them releasing some cheap Chinese made Steam clone?
*grabs popcorn*
Charley
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 5:26 PMFunny Gerry talking about how internet shopping is killing retail stores, what did he do about 20yrs ago…… opened huge department stores around the place that basically spelt the end for many small shops that were in the same area who couldn’t compete.
A bit of Karma for Gerry maybe…..
Antonia
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 6:10 PMHave you ever had a computer die? Oh what fun it is to try to just remember what all the software you had installed was, let alone to reload and configure it all. It would be even worse with nothing on physical media.
paul
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 7:57 PMAhhh.. People still but records also?
paul
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 7:57 PMAhhh.. People still buy records also?
MD
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 12:08 AMDVD, Blueray, whats with those…
Why should we even need disks these days…
With Portable solid state storage (high speed memory cards etc) the distributors Should all be selling games in that format if at all…
Disks are limited by the speed at which they can be spun up…SSD’s are limited to the speed at which electrons can bump into each other (not move that’s a lot slower)
If you want the physical game on chip, go to the shop, they dump it onto the memory device and you walk home with it…. (or for those further than 3.5 km from an exchange, catch the bus)
Or better still have it in a vending machine… It can laser print the label and stick it on…. Slip it into a case with info etc…
Husky
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 4:18 AMI rent and don’t have a landline. I use 3G and live on 12gb a month. So I’ll be buying discs in a year. And anyone who thinks it will bring prices down needs a reality check. Look at games on demand for the 360, many games are double or more there In store cost, and it would only get worse if you remove the competition.
Mat
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 8:32 AMLet me see now, pay $80 to download a game from Steam that will take me a day because I can only get wireless, or pay $40 and have an actual disk shipped from the UK. Decisions decisions.
BCK
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 6:43 PMFor once i agree. Not in a year, but certainly i can see all discs becoming software downloads in the not too distant future.