http://www.allrpg.com/rpgnews/news_show.php?newsid=2490

 

Not too surprising. Mixrosoft got the jump with the new XBox Live and people seem to love it. And Nintendo is definately heading in the right direction by offering their library for DL (even if it is pay per DL). So really, Sony doesn't have much choice but to counter with their own download service. I guess we'll know for sure soon.

 

That will be fun to read about on message boards.

 

Why do you say that?

 

Digital distribuition is both inevitable and going to be *big* this generation, it's quite exciting as the business models involved means great value for consumers.

 

I have to wonder whether their plans for getting the massive amounts of data required to download PS2 games are going to be good enough. If they can pull it off, then awesome. I would definately go for this, there are a lot of classic PS1 and PS2 games that I'd spring for if they were affordable downloads.

 

So the requisite hard drive to make optimum use of this service will be an add on, are any of us suprised??

I also love the fact that the article side steps mentioning how much it's going to cost to download these games.


(sorry but i felt like having a gripe)

Is that you or the marketing dept speaking??
 

 

Hey, jump on the hate wagon all you want. I couldn't give a flying one. Microsoft were bang on the money getting the 360's arcade online, Geometry Wars is a massive hit, were it released on a disc, nobody would have bought it. Cut out manufacturing costs and these smaller homebrewed games become a reality, and not only that, but profitable too.

There is no confirmation of the PS3 having or not having a hard disc, so I would stop griping about hearsay and rumour until something concrete comes through, until then it's just a waste of time.

And as for game size on Downloads, crackers have been stripping discs of garbage to make them quicker to download and burn straight from the internet for a long time.

 

Which involves losing or degrading game content in almost all cases. Anyone want to pay to play an existing PS2 game with the music and cut scenes removed? For free is one thing (legal or not), but I'm never going to pay for a downgraded game.

Anyway, assuming that this is more than just a rumor, it's being announced awfully late in the game. Anyone else get the feeling that this will be something that was just tacked-on to the system at the last minute? And if that's the case, then it's likely going to have problems.

 

Yep, that's why I say, it's going to be fun reading the message boards. People are going to bitch to no end about being cut off while downloading a map, or whatever other problems that seem inevitable.

 

I think it's more the case that Sony aren't particularly intent on making a huge hubub about it if it's true. Let's face it, as big as a fan of Sony as anyone coul be, it hardly competes for the sheer "OMG WOW!" factor of being able to download Excitebike and play it on a Revolution. I think it's more of a "Hey, this is possible, we can do it, it's a feature but not the be all and end all of what the machine is about".

I think this is the first time ever 3 machines have been *so* similar in terms of genuine features, it's going to be very interesting to see how they all play the game. Nintendo are certainly playing to their strengths this time round, and that back catalogue is HUGE. Microsoft have online sewn up totally right now, which leaves Sony with a big question mark over their heads on what exactly it is they are bringing to the table.

Tomorrow should be interesting to say the least.

 

Have you not used... the internet? When has being cut off downloading something been a problem in the past couple of years? Damn, when I was downloading Halo 2 maps I got cut off and it resumed exactly where I left off.

Here, I found this straw.

 

I dont think the downloads from Sony are going to be degraded in any way. Steam downloads Half-Life 2 to a harddrive with no problem at all, and it is (or was) a very high quality game.

But hmmm downloading classic games. Where did I hear about that before? Now Im really wondering if this will be a reality:


 

But in all fairness, MS brought the idea of an acrade to the table first, but Nintnedo was the one to offer clasics. However, it is nice to be able to download PS2 era games here. Hopefully they will put games like Rez and Ico up for download.  

And one more thing. I REALLY hope that Sony makes the HDD standard. Thats what really pissed me off with the 360. Even Nintendo is putting onboard memory for game saves and such.

 

Man you are defensive.

You do realize people complain when a website is slow, or doesn't work, right? Now imagine when someone has paid for a game and they can't even access it.

I'm not saying it will happen(well, yes I am, jokingly), but it's a very real possibility that you should put down your fanboy goggles for a moment and acknowledge.

 

Since when are the Live Arcade games Gauntlet, Defender, Joust, Robotron: 2084, Smash TV, Paperboy, Mortal Kombat, Root Beer Tapper, and Street Fighter II not classics?

That's the last insult I want to see in this thread. Everyone keep it civil, or down comes the lock.

 

That's a good point, but Sony's intent still seems to mirror Nintendo's more than Microsofts. Rather than "classic" games (Only the oldest PS1 games are even a decade old and PS2 games are WAY too young to be "classic" yet) what's being suggested here is that Sony will offer games from their previous consoles for download. I'm pretty sure the classic arcade games you mentioned didn't make their debut on a Microsoft system.

 

You'd expect that. Sony and Nintendo have been around a while, so they have a huge backlog of shit they can put up, a good chunk of which is first-party so no one else can touch it. Microsoft doesn't have that luxury and has had to use arcade classics plus universal games like chess and backgammon, but Live Arcade has still been a resounding success. In fact, I'd say that such a lineup could have more mass appeal than a library of previous Sony/Nintendo games, depending on how successfully they can target and grow their key demographics.

 

Maybe, but the point Gigatron was making was who's ripping off who, not who can be the most successful with their download service.

Although really, both classic arcade games and classic Nintendo console games are both far better suited for downloading than PS2 or even PS1 games. It does seem like Sony's system would inevitably be the least effective, and maybe that's why, as TT suggests, they don't feel like hyping it the way they inflate every other last detail about their system.

 

I bring up points as I see fit.  

Frankly, I'm not convinced that even Sony knows exactly where it wants to take its download service. They've already said that they want to beat Live, not match it, but I really doubt that taking from their old library - a large portion of which is primitive 3D games that would just be an instant turn-off for today's public - is the way to do it.

 

I've never felt that Sony knows very much about games to start with. They know hardware (even if the hardware they put into some consoles isn't always very good) and they know marketing, but when it comes to catering to gamers, all they seem to know how to do is rehash what already worked in the past, but with newer technology. Should it be a shock that they don't know what direction to take this in?