While Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello thinks digital distribution will finally outstrip its physical counterpart in 2011, he stops short of predicting the demise of retail packaging. In the second part of an interview conducted by Industry Gamers, the EA bossman sings the praises of the disc and debunks trendy cloud computing-based notions of gaming's near future.
"Sometimes you're not going to play because your internet connection is down and sometimes delivering a game by streaming is a really inefficient way to do it," Riccitiello says, in what might be music to the ears of gaming luddites dismayed at the thought of renouncing actual ownership of their collections. Riccitiello goes on to posit that services like OnLive will struggle with latency-dependent titles (your average first person shooter, for example) and ultimately concludes that the days of 100% digital delivery are pretty far into the future.
Reader Comments (20)
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 1:08PM Daala said
I love my game boxes!
No fan of downloading games, with a download limit :/
No fan of downloading games, with a download limit :/
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 1:09PM paraLogiki said
I don't see a connection to content delivery and latency in a game. If the game has latency issues it will have them regardless of how the content was placed on my machine. Even a system like OnLive isn't streaming a "average first person shooter" map while I'm already playing on said map.
As physical distribution gets more an more crappy, as far as actually in-box materials, I'll probably continue going digital. Over the past several years game manuals have gotten to worse than fortune cookies.
As physical distribution gets more an more crappy, as far as actually in-box materials, I'll probably continue going digital. Over the past several years game manuals have gotten to worse than fortune cookies.
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 1:22PM WonderPenguin said
@paraLogiki the problem is compounded latency between your connection to onlive and their connection to the game server. Not exactly related to game delivery, but I would still call it a disadvantage to players subjected to it.
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Posted: Jan 12th 2011 1:11PM Bearcon53pointsix said
I've always felt like those predicting total extinction of disks in the very near future weren't very bright anyways.
I mean, Downloading games is great and all, but theres many people out there in situations like me, where my only broadband isp offers top speeds for my area that make any gb+ game take days to download.
I don't know about most gamers, but I for one would rather stop gaming, than have to spend 3days to a week downloading each time I want to play a new game lol.
this is one of but many issues I forsee......I'm just glad not everyone in the industry is so foolish.
I mean, Downloading games is great and all, but theres many people out there in situations like me, where my only broadband isp offers top speeds for my area that make any gb+ game take days to download.
I don't know about most gamers, but I for one would rather stop gaming, than have to spend 3days to a week downloading each time I want to play a new game lol.
this is one of but many issues I forsee......I'm just glad not everyone in the industry is so foolish.
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 2:37PM MotionX said
@Bearcon53pointsix
If you look at PC gaming though, retail boxes pretty much are going extinct (I assume most people on an MMO game site are PC gamers). Gamestop usually has a single rack of games, as do other retailers. At the same time, digital distribution on the PC platform is booming. Yeah, console gaming won't go towards the digital distribution side of things any time soon, but they've always been years behind the PC crowd anyway.
No offense to your broadband options, but you are in the minority when it comes to connection speeds. I live in the US, where the broadband pales in comparison to the rest of the developed world, but can still download a 5GB game in under an hour (usually average 3.7MB/sec through Steam).
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If you look at PC gaming though, retail boxes pretty much are going extinct (I assume most people on an MMO game site are PC gamers). Gamestop usually has a single rack of games, as do other retailers. At the same time, digital distribution on the PC platform is booming. Yeah, console gaming won't go towards the digital distribution side of things any time soon, but they've always been years behind the PC crowd anyway.
No offense to your broadband options, but you are in the minority when it comes to connection speeds. I live in the US, where the broadband pales in comparison to the rest of the developed world, but can still download a 5GB game in under an hour (usually average 3.7MB/sec through Steam).
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 3:02PM Aberhams said
@MotionX
that is a fantastic broadband speed, but i would venture to say that it is WELL above average. I think i read somewhere the the average download speed in the USA is around 1MB/sec. I personaly pay through the nose for the best (read: ONLY) internet available in my area so that i can download at a blazingly fast 1.5MB/sec.
USA has a serious problem when it comes to broadband infrastucture and providers. most cable companies are the sole option when you want real speed, and they have had monopolies for so long, they aren't bothering to upgrade thier service or innovate at all. the free market only breeds innovation when there is competition. but thats getting into a whole other discussion entirely.
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that is a fantastic broadband speed, but i would venture to say that it is WELL above average. I think i read somewhere the the average download speed in the USA is around 1MB/sec. I personaly pay through the nose for the best (read: ONLY) internet available in my area so that i can download at a blazingly fast 1.5MB/sec.
USA has a serious problem when it comes to broadband infrastucture and providers. most cable companies are the sole option when you want real speed, and they have had monopolies for so long, they aren't bothering to upgrade thier service or innovate at all. the free market only breeds innovation when there is competition. but thats getting into a whole other discussion entirely.
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 1:24PM Aganazer said
Maybe its time Riccitiello gets his head out of the sand. Many of us (me included) haven't used a disc in years. As far as I'm concerned, discs have already gone away a long time ago.
They must be referring to console systems exclusively.
They must be referring to console systems exclusively.
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 1:35PM DemonXaphan said
That was a no DUH! Digital won't totally replace the box until broadband has no limits on it. Right now there needs to be revolution to improve the internet beyond what is currently available.
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 2:02PM Aberhams said
@DemonXaphan
theres some truth. digital distribution IS the future, but not until it is more widely available at better quality. in the USA, at least, we have a long ways to go and it won't happen as long as giant corporations have monopolies on so many areas where the consumers choice is to either pay high rates for slow service, or not have internet access at all.
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theres some truth. digital distribution IS the future, but not until it is more widely available at better quality. in the USA, at least, we have a long ways to go and it won't happen as long as giant corporations have monopolies on so many areas where the consumers choice is to either pay high rates for slow service, or not have internet access at all.
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 2:13PM Aberhams said
"Sometimes you're not going to play because your internet connection is down..."
this line makes me wonder if he really knows what he's talking about... it may be the case for streaming services like OnLive, but I think those are quite a ways from being anywhere near the mainstream.
however, digital distribution platforms like Steam all (as far as i know) allow you to play a game offline so long as you activate it online once after the download. any further restrictions requiring a connection to play are placed there by the publisher and so are a nother discussion all together. Since the vast majority of digital distribution comes from steam-type platforms, citing an always on internet requirement seems like he's just setting up strawmen.
this line makes me wonder if he really knows what he's talking about... it may be the case for streaming services like OnLive, but I think those are quite a ways from being anywhere near the mainstream.
however, digital distribution platforms like Steam all (as far as i know) allow you to play a game offline so long as you activate it online once after the download. any further restrictions requiring a connection to play are placed there by the publisher and so are a nother discussion all together. Since the vast majority of digital distribution comes from steam-type platforms, citing an always on internet requirement seems like he's just setting up strawmen.
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 2:24PM Stormwaltz said
@Aberhams
You may be forgetting the vile form of copy protection used on recent Ubisoft single player games, where if you're not constantly connected to the internet, you can't play. At. All.
Between the Starforce debacle and always-online authentication, I sometimes wonder if Ubisoft is actually trying to annoy all their customers away.
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You may be forgetting the vile form of copy protection used on recent Ubisoft single player games, where if you're not constantly connected to the internet, you can't play. At. All.
Between the Starforce debacle and always-online authentication, I sometimes wonder if Ubisoft is actually trying to annoy all their customers away.
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 2:25PM Aganazer said
@Aberhams
Not to mention that internet outages don't seem to be hampering the MMOG market much at all.
I think I lost my internet one day out of the last 4 years. You're more likely to have power outages and those effect discs just as much as the internet.
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Not to mention that internet outages don't seem to be hampering the MMOG market much at all.
I think I lost my internet one day out of the last 4 years. You're more likely to have power outages and those effect discs just as much as the internet.
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 2:40PM DemonXaphan said
@Stormwaltz
Actually companies like EA and Blizzard are already moving that way, it's an inevitable move that just will be.
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Actually companies like EA and Blizzard are already moving that way, it's an inevitable move that just will be.
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 2:51PM Aberhams said
@Stormwaltz
"You may be forgetting the vile form of copy protection used on recent Ubisoft single player games, where if you're not constantly connected to the internet, you can't play. At. All."
actualy, i said right there in my post: "any further restrictions requiring a connection to play are placed there by the publisher and so are another discussion all together."
Its got nothing to do with digital distribution, you got the same DRM whether you bought it on Steam or at Walmart. It has everything to do with bad publishing practices, though.
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"You may be forgetting the vile form of copy protection used on recent Ubisoft single player games, where if you're not constantly connected to the internet, you can't play. At. All."
actualy, i said right there in my post: "any further restrictions requiring a connection to play are placed there by the publisher and so are another discussion all together."
Its got nothing to do with digital distribution, you got the same DRM whether you bought it on Steam or at Walmart. It has everything to do with bad publishing practices, though.
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 3:28PM Duulin said
Times are changing. When I was a kid I remember walking to 7-11 in a blizzard with a role of quarters to play Double Dragon.
Posted: Jan 12th 2011 5:19PM Triskelion said
In other news Riccitello also went on to mention that water is wet.
Posted: Jan 19th 2011 12:45PM Space Cobra said
You know, judging from the earlier article about EA stating single-player games connected to the internet are "what is coming!", this is a bit of corporate double-speak, IMO.
I like my game disks, but it looks like EA is concerned by Cloud Gaming and the competition, so they released this statement. Again, EA is just releasing some news to "crow" about and try to make themselves look good for their own bottom dollar.
I like my game disks, but it looks like EA is concerned by Cloud Gaming and the competition, so they released this statement. Again, EA is just releasing some news to "crow" about and try to make themselves look good for their own bottom dollar.







