When it comes to video games becoming available only through download, Pachter says there’s “no chance in hell.”
His opinion comes to us from his series, Pach Attack, on GameTrailers.com:
Quite an interesting opinion you have there, Mr. Pachter. Especially when compared to your opinion on Ubisoft’s new DRM, which you praised, even though it requires gamers to have a persistent internet connection to play – even if that cuts out all the people who don’t have good internet connections, or who don’t have wireless routers. Blizzard recently did the same when they announced that StarCraft 2 has no offline LAN connectivity.
“We’re not going to ever have a mandated download as long as we have any device that’s not connected to the internet. … It’s all the gamers that are not connected – that’s the 35% of Xbox 360 owners, the 65% of Wii owners – that are going to keep games from being mandated downloadable. … There is a reason why you wouldn’t have a device that’s connected to the internet. One is, you don’t have a router. You don’t have wi-fi in your house. … That’s half of all households.”
The penetration of broadband internet in the United States has been growing at a ridiculous rate since its inception and creation as a public service. Every year, a large number of people worldwide jump on the internet bandwagon, and with people like Google pushing new internet technologies, the date that download-only becomes a reality seems not too far away. It’s also way cheaper than distributing physical game copies, and with more and more companies pushing DLC, the idea certainly isn’t far-fetched. This writer says, why not?
Ranters, would you ever buy a download-only game? If your favorite game was download only, and you didn’t have the internet, what would you do?
Source: GameTrailers.com
