If you are stuck in a hellhole where your only option is dialup or some wretched dsl connection or if you are on a high speed but metered connection then disks have some value. But as broadband gets more ubiquitous it becomes harder and harder to justify the trip to the store.

If game companies want to keep boxed games relevant they need to add value outside of a bunch of bits on a piece of plastic. Think back to the olden days of cloth maps, bound, letter sized manuals with real art, not just screenshots, tshirts, poster and tchotchkes. In all the boxes not just suckers collectors editions that cost twice as much as the game by itself.

Check this out as an example of what should come in a game box:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ultima-V-Warriors-of-Destiny-PC-Big-Box-Coin-Cloth-Map_W0QQitemZ390159871342QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Vintage_Video_Games?hash=item5ad7572d6e

I remember the old days when the only way to figure out which game to get was to look at the box art and hope the game was half as cool. Now we have the internet with all its previews, reviews, and demos. The thought of buying a game with out a good review or playable demo has become a considerable turnoff.

*they still need to
What's with all the spelling and grammar errors in articles lately? You can call me pedantic but the Escapist calls itself a magazine so I'll hold it to the same standard as any publication.

chief operating officer of EA, John Schappert

I would love to talk to this man and learn more about him and gaming industry from his point of view.

He's a business man who knows how to gather amazing talent and knows how to keep his 1st party IP strong.

He himself must know that game design,art etc.. take time and he knows how to make money from it as well. A powerful man indeed

rembrandtqeinstein:
If you are stuck in a hellhole where your only option is dialup or some wretched dsl connection or if you are on a high speed but metered connection then disks have some value. But as broadband gets more ubiquitous it becomes harder and harder to justify the trip to the store.

If game companies want to keep boxed games relevant they need to add value outside of a bunch of bits on a piece of plastic. Think back to the olden days of cloth maps, bound, letter sized manuals with real art, not just screenshots, tshirts, poster and tchotchkes. In all the boxes not just suckers collectors editions that cost twice as much as the game by itself.

to go outside and meet like-minded indviduals?
having a physical copy instead of an online licence is reason enough to keep discs?
TO ACTUAL OWN THE GAME.
those are reasons enough.

Getting burnt from stupid DRM implementations is a huge reason why I *have* to research games before I buy. I used to buy whatever struck my fancy back in the day. Y'know, like four, five years ago?

I am glad to hear someone say physical media will be around for a while. Guess it's the ownership thing. But I won't buy any more if it won't run right out of the box, not even a one-time authorization. I haz drawn my line.

I'll stop buying games when they become digital only.

I've already seen what happens when other people have control of my property.

I don't want anything I buy vanishing legally from my ownership.

MR T3D:

rembrandtqeinstein:
If you are stuck in a hellhole where your only option is dialup or some wretched dsl connection or if you are on a high speed but metered connection then disks have some value. But as broadband gets more ubiquitous it becomes harder and harder to justify the trip to the store.

If game companies want to keep boxed games relevant they need to add value outside of a bunch of bits on a piece of plastic. Think back to the olden days of cloth maps, bound, letter sized manuals with real art, not just screenshots, tshirts, poster and tchotchkes. In all the boxes not just suckers collectors editions that cost twice as much as the game by itself.

to go outside and meet like-minded indviduals?
having a physical copy instead of an online licence is reason enough to keep discs?
TO ACTUAL OWN THE GAME.
those are reasons enough.

Actually you just own a license on a disc. Think about it.

I like discs, & since it's going to be a loooong time before highspeed unlimited broadband becomes ubiquitous enough, & the consumer base "educated" enough to take advantage of that, discs should be around for some time yet as he says.

BlindMessiah94:
snip

You could do a lot of shit with the data on a small USB-drive you can download extras onto.

BlindMessiah94:
But I'm sure the next fad will be "Red Ray Special Ultra High Definition Discs" or something.

aka the HD-DVD :P

Nah, Sony paid a lot of money to get blu-ray the next big medium and they won't allow any other competition (together with the other inventors) any time soon.

Greg Tito:

"We have a more educated [customer] base than ever before. The days of folks walking into a store, picking up a game based on what the box looked like, turning it over and saying ok I'll buy this, I don't think that happens anymore. Instead folks are reading reviews, reading previews, they're watching videos up on YouTube, they're a very well educated bunch," Schappert said.

I remember the days, well nights or whatever.. going into blockbuster to rent a ps2 game. making my choice with my brother, only looking at the back cover of the game. It was fun you never knew if your were gonna get a goodie or something else..

Khell_Sennet:
I am absolutely surprised that this guy works at EA. He makes sense, and seems to know his shit.

Discs aren't going anywhere anytime soon because gamers in general tend to be very fond of physical media. We like to hold purchases in our hands, and we love the hardcopy backup. Steam is but a fad, and Ubisoft is (unintentionally) driving home the realization that "online" is not always reliable. Add to that, the inability to package decent "extras" with a digital copy, you lose the avid collectors if you stop selling box-retail. No, CD and DVD will eventually fade, and some other physical media will replace it, but digital will never be 100% of the market. I'd even hazard to say that it would never get as high as 50%.

$10 says the next media is solid-state USB drives where the game is a pre-installed run-from-the-disc contraption. Plug-n-play gaming, all the convenience of consoles, none of the limitations.

Pretty much this. But the real challenge of your USB drive ownership idea is having to secure the actual game from being pirated.

rembrandtqeinstein:
If you are stuck in a hellhole where your only option is dialup or some wretched dsl connection or if you are on a high speed but metered connection then disks have some value. But as broadband gets more ubiquitous it becomes harder and harder to justify the trip to the store.

If game companies want to keep boxed games relevant they need to add value outside of a bunch of bits on a piece of plastic. Think back to the olden days of cloth maps, bound, letter sized manuals with real art, not just screenshots, tshirts, poster and tchotchkes. In all the boxes not just suckers collectors editions that cost twice as much as the game by itself.

Check this out as an example of what should come in a game box:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ultima-V-Warriors-of-Destiny-PC-Big-Box-Coin-Cloth-Map_W0QQitemZ390159871342QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Vintage_Video_Games?hash=item5ad7572d6e

I love buying CDs feels like I have more control over if I was to lose some certificates to digital media, where am I then? 30 quid down and with no means of retrieving it. Although this is probably a rariety I'd still rather buy solid boxed games than download them all.

If I have 100 games on steam, if I lose my HDD (Not physically but the data on the HDD) I'm going to have to download them again, Heck... that would justify a trip to the store.

2MBp/s on steam or 12MBp/s and above off a disk, then you could be installing multiple games at that speed with two disk drives xD.

The man have his statements right. His reasons wrong.

Also his touch with reality is obviously lost.

If you don't shuffle in millions upon millions of currency into a single game that is, in the end a mediocre sequel to what was a mediocre game, you really don't have to hit top 30% to make money.
This is true by the same argument that Johnny Cash would make money on sales figures that'd have just about every big pop musician consider suicide.
Simply because of lower budget, higher quality, more passion and less greed.

The age of the disc might not be over, but damn is it convenient to just download something rather than waiting for the post to arrive or schlepping it all the way to the shops.

Hybrid systems of physical and digital distribution are the way of the immediate future, where one license is transferrable between both systems. (Some games can be registered like this on Steam, and all of Blizzard's titles back as far as the original release of StarCraft can be registered on Battle.net for digital distribution)

I refuse flat out to pay full price for digital distribution I would rather get a physical copy to put on my wall and at least get something that can be traded or sold. If they chip out the costs of manufacturing and taking away my ability to trade or sell the game from the digital price then maybe I would buy.

John Schappert:
The days of folks walking into a store, picking up a game based on what the box looked like, turning it over and saying ok I'll buy this, I don't think that happens anymore.

I still do this but only if the price is right (i.e. if it's less than $10).