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"Shawk" <shawk@clara.co.uk.3guesses> wrote in message
news:1114943313.40582.0@iris.uk.clara.net
> "John Lewis" wrote
>
>> Now maybe the
>> CD will be replaced by an even more convenient physical medium, or CD
>> music prices will fall due to competition from download but the need
>> for the purchaser to have a tangible container for his entertainment
>> will still be there.
>
> I disagree John. People will get used to it. I know it's not gaming
> software but to give a personal example of how attitudes change I've
> bought McAfee online for years. At first it *was* wierd not having a
> CD and I just had to order a backup CD (at additional cost). Now - I
> really like the convenience of it. I dropped a new 160GB disk in the
> PC yesterday and put a fresh install of XP Pro on there. Then I went
> to the McAfee site, signed into my account and downloaded my AV and
> firewall - nice and easy. Then I did the same with Mailwasher Pro
> and, of course, HL2. Much easier than going through all the disks I
> have on the shelves. I now have a lot of software with no physical
> medium - for me it has become normal - I buy a lot of software online
> now.
>> Also, what will replace the marketing impact of a
>> pretty wrapper for the casual purchaser ?
>
> Good question - be interesting to see how sales are affected when
> they lose the casual/browser buyer who sees the game in a shop and
> buys on impulse. They must be pretty confident though.
>
>> How do you wrap up a
>> downloaded game and put it under the Christmas tree...
>
> Bought members of my family d-loaded software a number of times now.
> Last one was a copy of Mailwasher Pro last month for a birthday gift.
> No-one has complained yet
>
>> oh, by the way
>> if you wish to play this game you will need to log-on, open a Steam
>> account, hope the authentication server is up when everybody else is
>> also trying to enjoy their downloaded gift and futz around for half a
>> day downloading irrelevant updates ............
>
> Installed my retail HL2 and after 15mins of d-loading files to unlock
> it I was playing. This was the day of release back in November. Never
> had a problem since.
While "Internet2" isn't exactly in the sights yet for the general
consumer (which can outrun my system), when it IS available to the
consumer, look for huge differences in 'web pages'. A game like HL2 you
could stream live. So, advertisment, online shops will have a whole new
fully 3D appearance I think. The 'casual shopper' of games and
software in general simply has more coverage in the venue. Shops will
register your purchases online as you make them, same as at home
visiting the online shops.
And since both advertising industry and consumers are railing with such
a hue and cry over privacy/NO privacy; I think we can expect to see
dedicated advertisment channels with none actually ON web pages and NONE
allowed at all via email. People (even me) will still want to shop, so
we will *have* to go to the ad channels. And I say that would be fine,
as long as it doesn't follow me 'home'
Since last summer I've known for sure that we can watch a film at the
cinema 'live' as it's streamed over the internet2. Some of the
auditoriums have 35mm film projectors as you'd expect, and some have LCD
projectors. So this isn't so far away.
I think it's a laughable irony that the US lags seriously behind
practically every other nation in consumers with broadband connectivity
even now
Or for that matter, connectivity period!
In this area, "Back to the Future" was a pretty good predictive example
of what this might look like.
Now we need some of that non-fossil fueled energy they predicted! And
cars that fly!
In the meantime, I seriously doubt that Valve is going to suffer greatly
at the momentary loss of the 'casual shopper'. I think Valve will
still put some kind of physical product on the shelves in shops, but
even if they don't, I don't look for them to fold at all. Steam can and
will be improved. It will be made even more convenient to use and the
*only* thing I've seen Steam looking at on my system is Steams own
stuff.
The only thing I can see "wrong" with Steam at the moment is that
absolutely everything you can purchase and use via Steam isn't able to
be used absolutely OFFLINE. Or, even with Steam running, to simply
choose and keep Offline. This *should* always be the consumers choice,
even to the end of whether or not to get updates for any or all items.
McG.
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