EA Boss Claims EA Will be 100% Digital in Near Future

[HEXiT]

"We have great relationships with our partners there. " erm lol... no you dont...

"Gibeau believes that analysts are getting the wrong idea about EA and the videogame industry from the figures that NPD releases" typical... he's told the truth and he ignores it...
numbers only lie when they get fudged to increase a margin NPD have no reason to fudge the numbers.

there will always be a place for an actual medium over digital only. they are 2 sides to the same coin. if a coin has 2 heads then its nolonger a coin but a device to rip people off. most of the people i know who play bf3 aint happy with origin, they aint happy with e.a's eula and most of all are unhappy with e.a. money is the be all and end all with em and people are now seeing it with there latest premium for bf3... thousands bought it b4 they saw that they were being ripped off. especially people who bought B2K seperatly. e.a basically said buy the same product off us twice or you can save any money instead of the £20 saving we save £8 and for that saving we have to take a massive leap of faith that we will want all the dlc and not just part of it. not only that each separated dlc fractures the bf3 community. e.a have decided to divide and conquer but the joke is on them. the vast majority havent bought the premium and of them not many will but the dlc's separately... why? because they pissed off the community with there blatant money grabbing...

1 good thing for the e.u a judge recently ruled that you can sell on your digital downloads regardless of things like e.a's eula.
http/www.gamepolitics.com/2012/07/03/european-court-justice-ruling-digital-games-can-be-resold

 

[memadmax]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]Not to point out the obvious, but if you get home from work on a Friday and plan to buy a game from a store you go to bed, wake up the next day, travel into town, go into the store, buy the game, travel back home, then install the game....With digital, you get home on Friday, start the download and if you have fast enough connection you could be playing it within a few hours and get a bit of playing time in before sleep - and even if if doesn't finish downloading by bedtime it will have done by the time you get up and you don't need to go out in the rain/snow/meteorites.[/citation]

Where do you live? In the frickin boonies?
A DVD/CD-ROM install will beat even the fastest internet download install any day, hands down...

 

[xyriin]

While I do understand the appeal of getting a physical copy (I still do that a lot myself) the argument about running into town and picking it up being faster is laughable since practically every major release as of late has allowed pre-downloading before launch. If the game install files are on your computer and only need an unlock driving into town is going to lose every time for install speed.

Also look at the increased cost you're going to pay for retail. Tax plus gas (which has only taken a momentary downturn in cost). Sure in some states you're screwed and still have to pay tax, but digital download on average is going to cost less.

Now I'm not a fan of most publishers, but buying retail means less money gets funneled back to the original game company/publisher. Typically a retail store buys an item for about half the retail price (or wholesale price). So if Best Buy sells a game for $60, the publisher/game company made $30 off that copy. If they sell it on Steam they still only get a partial cut. If they sell it direct they get the full $60. Plus there is a greater profit margin for them by selling digital since they avoid packaging and destination costs.

 

[john_4]

Fine by me then I will never buy anything EA, wait I'm not buying any PC games from that Fed up company anyway. Hey EA, take Origin and shove it up your collective asses.

 

[shahrooz]

F**K EA

 

[A Bad Day]

[citation][nom]DroKing[/nom]"the ultimate relationship is the connection that we have with the gamer." BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA yeah ok EA try again.[/citation]

Let's see:

-DRM, check
-Terrible customer service, check
-No regards for privacy, check
-Publishing half-baked games, check

Am I missing any other lovely descriptions?

 

[craig_1000]

This breaks a basic principle of capitalism. You need people with money to buy your stuff, if no one is working in shops as in 'digital distribution' then you have another set of people with no income to buy your product. Same principle fits with outsourcing to cheaper economies (where they are not currently rich enough to buy your expensive services or products). Saving money for short term gain, why the western economies are slowly grinding to a dead stop. Rant over....

 

[teh_chem]

Quote: "we're going to be a 100% digital company, period. It's going to be there some day."

Sure..."some day." When will truly fast and universal internet access be available for everyone...? There are a lot more people without fast internet than you might think...

I haven't bought a physical-media disc for a game in a long long time--usually use Steam or Amazon digital download (never used Origin, thank god you can still activate EA game digital downloads without having to install Origin). But it all depends when "some day" is. Tomorrow? You're a moron. In a few years? Maybe...

 

[classzero]

[citation][nom]hakesterman[/nom]They can try to force it down our throats, but in the end they will lose. 80 percent of all Console owners want a hard copy, if they don't give us one, then their Sales will drop dramatically. If theywant to lose millions and millions trying to force it, let them try. I can't wait to hear them cry lilke little Girls........[/citation]
Really? Do you think people will choose to boycott over something as trivial as digital only? If the only means of play COD 13 is Digital Download you bet your butt it will still be a hit!

 

[Plasmid]

[citation][nom]craig_1000[/nom]This breaks a basic principle of capitalism. You need people with money to buy your stuff, if no one is working in shops as in 'digital distribution' then you have another set of people with no income to buy your product. Same principle fits with outsourcing to cheaper economies (where they are not currently rich enough to buy your expensive services or products). Saving money for short term gain, why the western economies are slowly grinding to a dead stop. Rant over....[/citation]

This is the reason why capitalism will fail in the future. Hopefully it'll be replaced before we end up with a huge unemployed mass. As time advances humans will be needed less for labor and that is that.

 

[venur]

Well they will do it without my money because I've stopped to buy digital download. Its so freacking annoying to waste over a week re-downloading every single game that I have everytime I must formate.

 

[tomfreak]

So EA, u removed recording company, shipping company and retailer's profit and claim the extra income for urself? I hope u stop selling games @ $60 after going fully digital. Get it down to $20.

 

[eddieroolz]

Hooray for EA and Blizzard charging $30 for a 5-year old game!

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]Wolley74[/nom]going digital is going to lose sales, not everybody has the patience to wait 8+ hours for a game to download, and most cannot get faster speeds due to ISPs being asses[/citation]
well lets put it this way.

a developer gets about 7$ from a game when all is said and done.
wallmart gets 7-12$ depending on the price,
publishers get 7-12$
marketing gets some of that slice too
and the remainder is packaging and shipping costs.

even if they lose sales from in store purchases, they can more than double their profits.

 

[matt_b]

They're loving this direction because they get to cut distribution costs considerably, and still charge the same old $60 price tag.

 

[bigdragon]

Who still buys EA games? The future is digital only if the ISPs like Comcast and Time Warner agree. These companies have been pretty aggressive about making sure that digital future doesn't take place. They don't want you downloading a 16GB game unless they get a cut of it too. Comcast and Time Warner are right there to take the place of Gamestop and Best Buy. It's a shame that digital future isn't here already. It really should have been ready by now given the fast pace of internet development in places around the world who don't let their ISPs railroad consumers.

I agree with EA. I'm still not buying their games. Too many bad experiences.

 

[slabbo]

Monopoly on our ISP's thanks to government regulations and the ISP companies, makes going all Digital laughable. We don't have a good choice of ISP unless we pick up and move to an area where your ISP has a decent speedy connection for a reasonable price, and that's not gonna happen, unless you're super rich...and if you're super rich you probably won't care about moving just to get a decent price on for your internet.

 

[john_4]

[citation][nom]venur[/nom]Well they will do it without my money because I've stopped to buy digital download. Its so freacking annoying to waste over a week re-downloading every single game that I have everytime I must formate.[/citation]
Steam has a useful backup feature that you can use DVDs or a hard drive (preferably a external back up) to back up your Steam games so you don't have to re-download them. Have not used it to restore yet but the backup part seems to work just fine to my USB external HD.

 

[venur]

[citation][nom]john_4[/nom]Steam has a useful backup feature that you can use DVDs or a hard drive (preferably a external back up) to back up your Steam games so you don't have to re-download them. Have not used it to restore yet but the backup part seems to work just fine to my USB external HD.[/citation]

These option use my own money when I get a physical copy I pay the same price but I don't have to spend anymore money on backup while getting a few extras.

Also online buying cut a lot of jobs. Then we are wondering why our economie is bad.

 

[Guest]

My concern with all digital like steam and origin is what happens when those companies disappear? And I'm sure it'll happen one day. If all of your games are on steam what happens when valve or steam go bye bye? It's pretty crazy that every game you own will suddenly become unplayable. At least with physical media you can always have it around. I can play games from way back in the early 90s, heck I can even still play games from companies that have long disappeared and as long as our computers will be binary based I'll still be able to play those games..