Before I get started, I just want all readers to know that I have no preference when it comes to gaming and consoles. I love both HD consoles equally and think the Wii has the great classic games that I yearn for from time to time.
Here are my thoughts. I was racking my noggin today about digital distribution, and how many people think it's far off in the future. Nonetheless, I realized that most innovations in this industry of gaming technology have to be aggressively and actively marketed and supported by the companies who wish to make these innovations standard.
If we look back in the history of console features, we can see that the gaming industry has paved the way for media storage technology for the entire world.
In 1994 Sony's Playstation had a disc drive instead of a cartridge drive. Now, there may have been other companies that had consoles with disc drives (they failed, I assume), but Sony was a market leader in the entertainment industry, and what Sony decided to do was aggressively and actively support the CD-Rom drives of the PS. And it did this by having it as the standard device reader. That's the way you support technology. You don't feature it as an add-on and hope the public will pick up on it. You have to make it a standard feature in the device you are selling in order for it to have any chance of success.
The same thing happened in 2000 with the launch of the Playstation 2. The PS2 had DVD drives as a standard with full DVD playback capability so that the consumer could easily watch DVDs on the PS2.
In contrast, Microsoft's Xbox did not feature the DVD playback as a standard. Sure, the Xbox's games were stored on DVD discs, but the Xbox itself does not play DVD movies. You have to buy a separate add-on which at the time cost me 35 bucks and made me wonder why Microsoft didn't include it as a standard?
Anyways, most of you gamers know all of this, especially on this site, so let me cut to the chase.
Sony has once again aggressively and actively supported and pushed the Blu Ray technology as the industry standard for entertainment. During the format wars, the two closest competitors were Blu Ray and HD-DVD. And sometimes I wonder, if Microsoft had pushed the HD-DVD technology, wouldn't it be the standard instead of Blu Ray? Evidently, Microsoft was not interested in taking that risk. Microsoft did not actively support the HD-DVD technology. Instead, the HD-DVD player was a featured add-on for the Xbox 360. The possible reason why Microsoft chose not to actively support it was because Microsoft didn't want to have a standard feature on the 360 that might fail. If the HD-DVD failed in the long run, then the price of publishing games on the HD-DVD discs would become more expensive, as it would be only used for the 360.
Here's the problem, though. Microsoft should have realized that it had the power all along to help HD-DVD win the format war. The Xbox 360 launched a full year ahead of the Blu-Ray standard PS3. If Microsoft had been as aggressive as Sony in terms of standardising the technology, then HD-DVD might have had a fighting chance.
Anyways, it's merely that I see a trend in this whole storage medium thing that I decided to comment on this aspect. A lot of people say that Sony took a risk by making the Blu Ray player a standard feature. It certainly was very costly back in 2006, but I think most people are missing the point. Maybe Sony wasn't really taking a risk. The fact is that Sony's powerful influence over both the gaming and entertainment industry means that Sony's support of the Blu Ray would guarantee its success and acceptance by the public. Although Microsoft's power resonates equally in its own industries, Microsoft didn't even bother supporting the HD-DVD.
But, here's where the whole point of my blogs title presents itself. Microsoft is powerful. This is not something that's debatable, in my opinion. You can hate MS or love it, I don't care. But anyone would admit that MS is powerful and influential this generation.
So, what I'm talking about here is how Microsoft can take advantage of it's position right now and try to aggressively market digital distribution. For me and many other people, digital distribution is not a competitor to physical media. What I want it to be is an appealing alternative. We have seen the success of the STEAM network on the PC. What sets digital distribution apart from buying content in physical disc form is the fact that certain aspects are immediately cut out of the loop, and thus the cost of the product is likely reduced. Think of the fact that when you buy a game from the store (on a disc), you are paying for two or three things here. Firstly, the physical disc's cost is added in. The publisher of the media probably has to pay for the discs, and in return ups the price of the content. Secondly, the retail store you are buying from also wants to profit from selling you the product. Hence, they will raise the price as well. Third, and this is the most ludicrous, the guys who transport the products to the retail stores are also adding a price, and you probably end up paying for that too. The point is that buying the game on the disc includes many variables other than the developer and the publisher.
It's no wonder that games cost less on STEAM. Other than the fact that Steam gives consumers good deals, the content costs less for them to obtain so they don't have to charge you extra cash to cover their asses.
But, some people like buying the disc version because they like ownership and portability and tangibility. I can respect all of these points and on most occassions I would prefer the disc over the digital download. But the future is coming and digital downloads are growing in popularity. PSN and XBL are encouraging smaller downloads for now, but as soon as certain obstacles are taken care of, we can start seeing larger sized downloads.
Here's how Microsoft can aggressively market Digital Distribution.
Number 1: Make Large Hard Drives a Standard in the Next Xbox console. One or Two Terabytes ought to do it at launch, but provide people with open options to upgrade.
Number 2: Negotiate deals with ISP providers who place downloading caps on their consumers. Comcast is notorious for doing this. Digital Distribution will not take off unless everyone feels safe in downloading as much content as they want in one month without fear of getting charged extra dough.
Number 3: Make the Next Xbox a media hub in the same fashion as the PS3. This gen Xbox has made statements alluding to their goal in making the 360 a gaming console, and nothing more. Obviously we have seen MS doing more with the console nowadays in order to keep up with the PS3, but MS needs to step away from its initial goals and admit flat out that they want to make the Xbox franchise the center of the living room.
Microsoft can push downloads of movies and tv shows already, but by next generation Microsoft needs to market this more actively in commercials and during industry conferences and such.
Number 4: Hardware. Microsoft is going to need to add some nifty specs to increase streaming speeds in the same fashion as the PS3. This alludes to faster types of RAM like XDR, which work wonders with speeding up operations in the hardware. Also, built-in Wifi must be a standard.
I know, from the above many people will say that the next Xbox is going to be a lot like the PS3 is now. Yes, that is true, but Microsoft needs to push the idea that people will no longer ever have to buy a disc again. Still, MS needs to include a Blu Ray player. The idea is not to compete with Blu Ray, but to offer something more appealing to those who have the convenience and ability of downloading content directly instead of buying it at the store.
There are people in other countries like Austrailia who do not have the highest speed internet available, and they won't be able to take advantage of DD until they build their own infrastructure. Nonetheless, nations like Japan and Korea have some of the best connections available. It would be very advantageous for Microsoft to actively pursue DD in said markets because MS has never been able to gain a foothold in Asia. American consumers with high bit rates may also be able to take advantage.
The fact is that the technology necessary to standardize digital distribution exists today, and the only catalyst left is a company like Microsoft or Sony to push forward with it. I feel that as of right now Microsoft is the company that can most likely do this or would do this because Sony has invested a lot of time and money on Blu Ray and the format is becoming a success for them so it would be unnecessary for Sony to purse Digital Distribution just yet.
Sorry for the long blog, but I had a lot on my mind.
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Do we want to be totally dependent on downloads and the restrictions the content providers put up?
Digital downloads are coming, but it won't completely take over for some time. Not all consumers want it yet. It's great for rentals and such, but nothing beats having a physical media and not be reliant on your Hd not croaking...
DD has been here for ages on PC. DD Will and is working together with Hard Copies (Like STEAM for PC). Sony pushes DD more then MS
Game downloads have been going since 2004 with Steam and Direct2Drive.
I personally can't live without Steam. It's my vice. The last time I bought a retail game was Crysis before it came to Steam and that was 2007.
I can't see DD coming to consoles really any time soon. Sony and MS are too uptight about this kind of stuff.
Good post, by the way.