For a few years now we have heard a similar trend where more and more people are suggesting we may see physical video game titles become a thing of the past. It’s not far off compared to Frontier CEO David Braben’s thinking as he made a statement about the digital world taking over in just a couple of years. If he is right, we may see physical video game titles leave stores and become accessed strictly online with digital purchases.
Frontier Developments has been around since 1994 and the have made a plethora of video games such as the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise, Elite Dangerous, to their latest release, Planet Zoo. The CEO of the development studio, David Barben, spoke during the Gamesindustry.biz Investment Summit Online, where he alerted listeners that we are seeing a trend going away from physical releases and if this continues we’ll see an all-digital format release.
The problem here is that there are still a ton of collectors and casual gamers that purchase physical releases. Additionally, while an all digital state seems like a trend more people are getting on board with, there is a problem with those that have to deal with bandwidth caps. Depending on your ISP, you may have a limit to how much data you’re able to actually use. This would ultimately prove to be a big issue when it comes to downloading big-name titles that take up a ton of storage space.
This is a similar issue some are dealing with when it comes to streaming video game content. The amount of data required could easily put gamers over their bandwidth limit, resulting in higher fees or simply a restriction to gain access online until that next month hits and the cap is reset. While there are big companies making games accessible online through pre-loading which would give players access to the game right away at launch, the thought of going to an all-digital release might not be as soon as David Braben believes.
