Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has spoken of his dislike for digital distribution and says he feels “reassured” by physical media.
The comments came in an interview with the developer. He believes that the format creates “opportunity for a lot of different developers”, but stressed how he doesn’t think game downloads will kill off the physical aspect.
“Personally, I’m one of those guys who, even if I have all the songs from iTunes, I want the CD as well. I feel more reassured with that physical media.”
Miyamoto also noted that there are some entertainment experiences that can’t be delivered digitally.
“Entertainment is something that will not just become digital. If I look at Wii MotionPlus, this is something that you’re not doing via digital distribution.”
Miyamoto then referred to what could be Nintendo’s strategy on digital distribution.
“The thing for us is we really don’t see the future of video games being merely confined to digital distribution or moving solely or even to a majority of our products being distributed that way.”
With Miyamoto being a spokesperson for Nintendo as much as a games developer, this is an interesting outlook for the company in a time when downloads are killing retail. Nintendo have already plugged into downloads with WiiWare and DSiWare, but does this mean they won’t follow Microsoft’s Games-On-Demand route?
Despite Shig’s comments, I’m 100% sure they’ll be keeping an eye on GOD – who, coincidentally, isn’t Miyamoto.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Mario Cheated On His Own World
Explaining Starcraft to FarmVille People
The Cake is a Lie!
and his past gen Wee w/out HDD and online.
Digital downloads are convenient for small network games, but i always have and always will buy the physical version of a big title.
Downloaded games available are cheaper that those in retail so of course they’d sell better in a comparative manner, but most of them are also smaller and in no way compare to the sort of thigns you’d get currently in retail. I don’t see anyone downloading PS3 games that take up 25GBs or more. Plus politics and relationships with retail stores matter in many ways so there will always be physical products.
Also Miyamoto is not alone in his preference for a tangible product over a virtual one. Many of us prefer that psychological comfort. Digital distribution will of course grow, but it will not replace the need for physical matter with concern to games and films which can continue growing in quality, technology and content space for the forseeable future, unlike music which has pretty much plateaued in what it can be.
This is one instance where I’m happy for Nintendo to stay in the past, long live physical media!
I saw this coming from miles away. When the PS4, XBOX 720 & Wii HD all come out both the PS4 & XBOX 720 will most likely move to a mostly digital distribution model while the Wii HD will stick with Physical Media such as Blu-ray or some other format. Yes the PS4 & XBOX 720 will still have some physical media around but they will be trying to phase that stuff out so it can be pure digital distribution.
Once 80-90% of the world is connected to the internet the next consoles will go into the Cloud Computing realm where we are just connecting to servers 100′s of miles away to play our games and have absoulutly ZERO CONTROL of what we can do with our games. So this is the Future I see, what do you guys see?
I like still like to get big budget games in their physical form. Otherwise i may have a game that sits on my HD and i can’t trade it in.
I still like : EDIT
Wolf26pack. I was fine until you said “we will have zero control over cloud computed games”. I screamed so loud that I scared my dog.
Johnno and Wolf – good points. I’m sure Nintendo will be watching OnLive too.
If all consoles followed 80-90% digital distribution, gaming stores like EB and Game would go bankrupt because they wouldn’t be able to resell traded in products, which is where they make all their money.
Bill – It would remove the used market though…something game developers and publishers would be happy about.
See it’s all about keeping control of their content and unfortunatly their is nothing we can do about it. Unless everyone that bought games refused to buy digital downloads, then & only then would they stick with physical media. As of now though they are slowly weening us into accepting a all digital future which I don’t like at all. You can see this with the PSP GO!, now obviously the next PSP will be completely digital, no discs at all.
Now of course there are both good things and bad things with each form of distribution.
Physical Discs
Good
- Can be Backed Up with the right software.
- Can be lent to friends
- Can be rented
- Can be Traded & or sold
- Can be lowered in Price to get rid of overstock
- Doesn’t Require Internet Connection
Bad
- Can be Damaged
- Not Easily Portable when carrying a lot
Digital Distribution
Good
- Ability to carry whole library with you in your pocket or on your system
- Should always be downloadable
- Loading less significant due to being on the HD
- If damaged they can be redownloaded
Bad
- Cannot trade in or sell unless whole system is sold with account info (Dangerous)
- What happens if they take it off the server to make room for other games?
- Cannot share with friends
- No renting, does that mean all downloads will have demo’s in the future?
- Much less likely to see price drops since there is no shelf space.
- If your System fails in any way you lose the ability to play the games until it returns
- Requires internet connection to download
- *Software can be remotely removed or disabled on your system if publisher or the developer feel or find out you have done something in or to their game they don’t approve of or like
Digital Distribution
Bad
- No Control what so ever over the game because it will be located on a server possibly 100′s of miles away on a server
- Requires Internet Connection to play
- Access can be blocked if you don’t follow the rules
* Here I am going to post a link to a story about something that happened to a Amazon Kindle owner.
Link: http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/17/amazon-remotely-deletes-orwell-e-books-from-kindles-unpersons-r/
This my friends is what we can look forward to with an all digital future.All I have to say to that is Count me Out!
Oops on that 2nd Digital Distribution I meant to put Cloud Computing