Why can’t we run our games from the HDD?

[Double07]

*Looks at Amiga version of Rise of the Robots, 13 Disks in the corner*

These guys dont know how lucky they are!

Beneath a Steel Sky was 15 iirc. I still have my havnig Fate of Atlantis which is 11.

 

[hornetstinger]

We already can when we install and play digital copies of games. I suppose the argument to keep discs are for people that can't download a 100GB game over the internet, or that they don't even have internet in some areas of the world. Having said that, what areas of the world can afford to buy/own consoles and TVs and houses to play them in without an Internet line. I suspect still quite a few places but...should we care? Should we limit progression to be more inclusive worldwide?

Having discs for console manufactures means they have more points of sale in shops so there is that in terms of advertising and awareness bringing more profits but....most people buy online anyway even if it is a disc, so why then not digital?

Space is an issue on hard disks still, despite storage being cheap. Games are huge, and we prefer SSDs for load times which are still costly, although even mechanical HDDs are still faster than reading off of the bluray discs surely, not to mention less taxing on the console with less to go wrong. Also less noise.

The thing that is still frustrating is when the digital version of a game costs £20 more than the disc version. Why!?

EDIT: discs are good for second hand market when recouping money spent on your purchases, but surely the console manufacturers don't care about that.

I have consoles and computers but don't have internet connection.

 

[KraniX]

The thing that is still frustrating is when the digital version of a game costs £20 more than the disc version. Why!?

A lot of stores would go out of business if the price of a digital game was always cheaper than the high street and not just during the sales.

I'm not sure Sony etc. would care besides the fact they need them to flog their consoles, I'm sure the proportion of online vs offline is shifting more and more to online but there must still be a heck of a lot sold over the counter.

 

[stoofa]

A lot of stores would go out of business if the price of a digital game was always cheaper than the high street and not just during the sales.

I'm not sure Sony etc. would care besides the fact they need them to flog their consoles, I'm sure the proportion of online vs offline is shifting more and more to online but there must still be a heck of a lot sold over the counter.

Sony's figures from early last year indicated around 45% of games sales were now digital, worldwide. Still growing year on year, so will surpass physical soon.
At the beginning of this year, the ERA said that digital games in the UK now accounts for 80% of the sales.

 

[Sasahara]

Sony's figures from early last year indicated around 45% of games sales were now digital, worldwide. Still growing year on year, so will surpass physical soon.
At the beginning of this year, the ERA said that digital games in the UK now accounts for 80% of the sales.

But that 80% probably includes mobile and PC gaming.

 

[mikeym]

Reading comments about 3.5" floppies brings back very fond memories of the monumental change that came from going from tape to this double 5.25" bad boy!

Oh the reassuring clunk of closing the latch and hearing that lovely chattering sound rather than the bloody awful screeching of tape loading and the errors requiring that you restart the process!