Cliff Bleszinski- Im done making disc based games

richymcdermott

http://ie.ign.com/articles/2014/02/18/cliff-bleszinski-says-hes-done-with-disc-based-games

Not trying so sound pretentious but what is the difference between a disk based game and digital game ? Why do developers such as cliff spew claims like this saying the industry is on its last legs when all you have to do is look at the sales of the ps4 and xbox one and see that the industry for consoles and pc as a whole is healthy and that the demand is still there.

And why does it matter if you want to put your game on a disk or not even matter ? Your artistic vision of a game wont change whatever way to feel like you want the game to sell. And if all that matters to you is you get full funds for the game you make than the artistic experession you want to engage with players and you said then by all means put your game digital only but stop the doom talk and making aload of noise just so you can stay relevent cliff.

Maybe I am missing his point as I fail to understand what he said in the article so maybe someone can help me out if they wish to read the article.

Grumpypants

It is more a statement on the industry than the actual disk. He is saying the Rust/Minecraft model of getting a game out there building a relationship with the fans and continuing to improve the game in real time is where he see's it going rather than the old model of building a finished disk product that ships on X day and needs a huge publisher to promote it, a magazine cover story and a E3 reveal to get sold to shops.

He is kinda right.

Shiminay

I'm guessing he actually means a big "pushed out by the publisher with massive marketing hype and pre-order tie-ins with the retailers and so on" sort of thing - you know, the sort of terribly average rubbish that he was responsible for churning out before he left Epic

It's fine for a man like Cliffy B to make these sorts of statements, he's got the bank to do so and enough of a name to guarantee that no matter what he does, it'll probably break even because it's got his name on it.

thorbarry

Some of the best games ive played over the past few years have been indies. Released digitally

Relevant

http://kotaku.com/bioshock-studio-irrational-games-is-winding-down-all-1525186316

Irrational Games, the studio that makes BioShock, is shutting down. BioShock creator Ken Levine said today that he plans to move on to smaller, narrative-heavy games that will be released digitally

Outkast_IRE

This is mostly motivated by the need for developers and publishers to shut down the 2nd hand market for games.

Microsoft got it wrong by trying to do the work of attempting to shut down the 2nd hand market themselves, they should of got the games developers to do it for them, that way the big bad corporation isn't to blame. They can spin it as giving them more freedom etc, which it does to an extent anyway. But this is motivated by profit too.

Randall Floyd

I like having a tangible copy of a game with the box and that, maybe I'm living in the dark ages.

richymcdermott

I dont feel comfortable Buying games digitally for multiple factors but the thing that worries me the most going strictly digital is that someone can easily hack your profile account and you lose everything or if a company goes bust you lose everything.

I also like owning the game disk and cover so I feel like i own it and not having to be worried what will happen if someone took my password or started hacking in to a network from their homes through a computer.

I know people will say but sure someone can break into your house and rob you but I trust the locks and bolts on my doors in my house plus its more risky breaking into someone house than hacking a network, I dont trust these companies that much to keep everything secure. Sony and microsoft proved this last generation

johnny_ultimate

I'd be surprised if we don't see more big name developers going this route - indeed, as mentioned Ken Levine doing so is a pretty strong indicator of that.

The benefits are innumerable. Primarily consumer demands are much different for digitally delivered games, allowing developers to make more offbeat, experimental titles and release them into a friendlier marketplace where they have a better chance of attaining a receptive audience. Look at the countless strange and wonderful titles that have become major hits over the last few years. Offbeat disc-based games, meanwhile, struggle, with only the lucky few attaining even a niche market. Players might not take a risk on an experimental €40-50 game, but they're much more likely to do with a lower priced download. Hell, even the ease of downloads makes it a much more welcoming proposition - I know for a fact I've often read about a digital title that sounded interesting and had it ready to play literally minutes later.

I can also imagine the developer gets a healthier chunk of the proceeds. That and the costs are so much lower anyway. That, and sidestepping the second hand market entirely.

AAA game making is increasingly unsustainable for all but the lucky few. Even when you look at the games that are being released on discs, you often find even the more ambitious titles conforming to very specific perceived market demands. Games like Tomb Raider or Remember Me are two of the games I've played recently that IMO would have benefited from a leaner approach rather than emerging as big budget blockbusters that felt compromised by the sad demands of an aggressive market.

It's been quite a while since I've played a physically released games that genuinely felt revolutionary - even excellent games like The Last of Us or GTAV are more refinements than completely new experiences. Digital marketplaces, though, have provided me with a nearly boundless supply of exciting and imaginative experiences. With Tim Schafer, Blezinski and Levine leading the way, I'd be amazed if we don't see more 'auteur' developers focusing on smaller, digitally released titles. I like having a games collection as much as the next gamer, and yeah the future proofing is always a cause for concern. But right now, gamers and developers alike are getting so much more from digital that physical releases just can't keep up with.

Fnz

Printing and packaging discs is also kinda wasteful, and more expensive than digital delivery.

Being able to cut out some middlemen and do more with less helps alleviate the gaming equivalent of story gravity.

“Once you spend more than $100 million on a movie, you have to save the world” - Damon Lindelof

MadYaker

I think he is right. I haven't bought a box and disc since I got Skyrim a day after release. I would guess most PC gamers are the same since most shops have a sh!t selection of PC games. They are obsolete anyway since 90% of the time when you put the disc in it just downloads the game through steam or origin or whatever anyway so really the disc might as well just be the product key.

It also saves on packaging. In a few years it will be all digital. Account security doesn't worry me in the slightest. I've had my steam account since 2005 and I can't remember even one serious security breach, I use paypal to buy stuff so they don't have any card info.

I really like the minecraft/rust/dayz model of game development/release. It gets the community much more involved and it gives the developers a much better idea of what consumers want and more time to develop the game properly. Loads of games have awesome communities, just look at some of the amazing mods available for Skyrim and Minecraft, or the thousands of custom missions for Arma 2 and 3. I think what were going to see a lot of in time is developers coming up with an idea more than a finished product, then selling that idea to gamers and seeing what we can create or do with it.

Sand

I lost interest in what Cliffy B thought about gaming many, many years ago. I recall he made some big claim a while back where he said he would never make games for PC anymore, that consoles were where it was at. Now he seems to have emerged from his slumber to recognise that Steam and other digital distributors might actually be on to something. This is not news in 2014.

His claim that Gears of War didn't turn out as he intended struck me as a fairly damning statement - he was the lead designer, it was his baby. Either he had a poor vision, or he was poor at implementing it.

Temptamperu

release digitally and crush the second hand sales.

Nody

richymcdermott wrote: »

I dont feel comfortable Buying games digitally for multiple factors but the thing that worries me the most going strictly digital is that someone can easily hack your profile account and you lose everything or if a company goes bust you lose everything.

Same is true with requiring you to verify/log into their company servers to play in the first place which is quite common today. The exceptions to this tend to be indy games released with out DRM (and this is before we go into losing the disc/scratching it/unreadable etc.).

Personally I only buy disc games for the codes these days and put it into Steam (or what ever) to play. It's very rare I bother to pull out old games to play that are not on Steam simply because it's so much easier to simply download it from GoG/Steam/What ever instead.

Potatoeman

I can see why many people dont want to change. You cant lend digital games to a friend so swapping cant happen.
A friend of mine lost his internet access and cant play any of his steam games anymore. It locks after a few weeks. Its handy to download them but there are still many downsides.

MadYaker

My steam account has been idle for months at a time and I was never locked out. When you try to log in for the first time in ages they email you a code that you have to enter before you can log in. Whether people like it or not digital distribution is the way of the future. Everybody has internet access now and speeds are increasing all the time so it just makes sense. Developers are going to push it because it will save them money on distribution and packaging, just don't expect them to pass those savings on to us.

Vicxas

I love the way that hes trying to set a trend.

Steam have been doing this quite successfully for years.

Potatoeman

MadYaker wrote: »

My steam account has been idle for months at a time and I was never locked out. When you try to log in for the first time in ages they email you a code that you have to enter before you can log in. Whether people like it or not digital distribution is the way of the future. Everybody has internet access now and speeds are increasing all the time so it just makes sense. Developers are going to push it because it will save them money on distribution and packaging, just don't expect them to pass those savings on to us.

I still use the service as I have a highspeed upc connection but If I had to move somewhere with no coverage this would be an issue. Its not an issue now but if you have a large amount of games and for whatever reason you lose internet access it would be an issue.