MS: shift away from discs will happen sooner than any of us think

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The console war intensified this week, with senior Xbox exec boss Chris Lewis branding disc formats a thing of the past as Microsoft slashed the price of 360 in Europe ? with the entry level model now half the price of Sony's Blu-ray supporting PlayStation 3.

With the entertainment format stand-off ostensibly ending last month - when Toshiba, creator of the Microsoft-backed HD DVD, pulled out of the market - analysts are predicting a significant boost to PlayStation 3 in its wake.

As speculation continues on whether Microsoft will now move to support Blu-ray as the industry standard, however, Europe boss Chris Lewis has re-emphasised the US giant's commitment to digital downloads, dismissing the significance of Sony's format victory.

"Going forwards, digital downloads is really where it's at," Lewis told GamesIndustry.biz. "More and more people's ongoing and ever-increasing downloading of music and movies is becoming the de facto. I think that's going to happen in very short order; people want to consume that way. Before very long we will look back wistfully at shiny discs as something that was somewhat a historic phenomenon in a way that we kind of think about vinyl or VCRs today."

While Microsoft's belief in the long term potential of downloadable content over physical storage media is well documented, Lewis claimed that, despite Blu-ray's victory, the shift away from discs will happen "sooner than any of us think".

"That's the future direction, and I think that's going to be the case in the next 12-18 months," he predicted. "I think we're going to be talking much more about that than anything else. Do I think that this Christmas will somehow be defined by DVD playback? I genuinely don't think that will be the case. I do not think that [the demise of HD DVD] will have any material impact on our console velocity. And I think other factors, specifically our architecture around downloads, is far more advantageous and important for the future."

He added: "We are best placed to offer that, we already offer that, our online pedigree is such that we will offer the best and most seamless experience."

Lewis's comments follow remarks made earlier this week by Xbox 360 product manager Aaron Greenberg, who said in repsonse to speculation: "Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience. We're the only console offering digital distribution of entertainment content."

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer had previously suggested that the firm was considering supporting Blu-ray with its Windows platform.

Microsoft this week cut the price of all three of its 360 SKUs in Europe, with the Arcade pack now retailing for GBP 159 and Premium for GBP 199, with Elite at GBP 259. Xbox 360 currently offers downloadable HD movies for rental via its Video Marketplace Store.

Following Toshiba's withdrawal from the market last month, SCEA president Jack Tretton said: "The emergence of Blu-ray as the de facto high-def standard is one more reason why PS3 is a great value to consumers. The combination of strong sales, Blu-ray dominance and widely-anticipated games all point to 2008 as a breakthrough year for PS3."

The first part of the GamesIndustry.biz interview with Chris Lewis can be read here, with part two to follow next week.

Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=34141 via http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=26082

[Neo003]

You kidding me I like my disk, I am not ready to download couple of gigs every f**king time I want to see a movies. Might as well just drive down to a video store and buy the damn thing.

I agree that downloadle contend is great but the download limit with some ISP and the speed they are not the perfect thing yet.

[theyarecomingforyou]

You kidding me I like my disk, I am not ready to download couple of gigs every f**king time I want to see a movies. Might as well just drive down to a video store and buy the damn thing.

+1

I am happy to buy some content online (I bought Office 2007 online, though also ordered a disc as well; I also buy a lot of games through Steam) but not hi-def movies and not console games. I do NOT want to buy movies online and wait for them to download - I want to buy a disc and carry it around anywhere I want, easily transferring it between players / televisions and having the nice artwork on the front (rather than a crappy DVD-R with dodgy handwriting on the top). I'm sure a lot more content will go digital in the future and the management system will make it more appealling but with bandwidth caps on most ISPs Microsoft is simply blowing hot-air to discredit the PS3 opting for the winning hi-def format.

[Remysaus]

not gonna happen unless they give me a bigger HDD :p

[Huleboeren]

not gonna happen unless they give me a bigger HDD :p

and not gonna happen unless fiber optic internet is more widespread :p

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

You kidding me I like my disk, I am not ready to download couple of gigs every f**king time I want to see a movies. Might as well just drive down to a video store and buy the damn thing.

I agree that downloadle contend is great but the download limit with some ISP and the speed they are not the perfect thing yet.

+1. It's just another thing for ISP's to complain about, especially if they are going to limit us

[Ayepecks]

If it comes to that, I simply won't buy movies anymore.

They said the same thing with MP3s... I still prefer to buy the discs and rip the MP3s myself.

[Evolution]

So if I bought every single game for microsoft's future console, would there be enough room on the hd? And I guess friends can no longer swap discs to play on each others consoles....

[JustGeorge]

DRM will have to go before I start buying movies and Games online. I was ****ed when I found out SSFII Turbo HD Remix was DL only. Not even considering it now...

[maeby]

in japan this could work. not here, not now. (or even close to 12-18 months)

[TruckWEB]

in japan this could work. not here, not now. (or even close to 12-18 months)

With downloaded games/movies, how can you go to a friend and play that game or watch the movie? Are you going to carry around your HDD all the time?

How soon will it get full?

Another thing, for movies, are we talking about "buying" the movie or just "renting" it? Because right now, it's only about rent, not buy. And looking at the "vast" :wacko: choice of movies on Xbox Live, and the poor choice in HD, the high price, no extra stuff, .... I'll prefer to rent my movies on Blu-Ray for much less money.

[JustGeorge]

Software/Movie companies are wanting to go straight digital DL because it means the end of reselling and more sales since you won't be able to let friends borrow games or be able to take them over to play. Like it or not, thats where all this is heading......

[Sranshaft]

I'd rather see a move to solid state media before moving to digital downloads first. I really think that's where the market is heading. Instead of discs, we'll have movies and games stored on read-only flash media. They'll still have all the benefits of discs today - sharing with friends, tangible objects to hold, etc - but they'll last longer and won't be as prone to damage as discs are.

You read it here first...SSD media in 2009!

[Cormier6083]

Physical formats will be here for a long time to come. There is no way in hell I'm getting anything over 1.5 MB/S anytime soon.

[libertas83]

Who would have thought sending DVDs in the mail would kill Blockbusters when it was quicker just to drive to the video store to rent a movie? Digital downloads is Netflix on steroids, same concept better delivery method.

It is also interesting that digital downloads and Blu-Ray are still at their infancy. Blu is not going to take off until players become cheaper. Downloads still have alot of obstacles to overcome but it has a good chance to win. People care about convience over quality (mp3 vs CD).

[JustGeorge]

I'd rather see a move to solid state media before moving to digital downloads first. I really think that's where the market is heading. Instead of discs, we'll have movies and games stored on read-only flash media. They'll still have all the benefits of discs today - sharing with friends, tangible objects to hold, etc - but they'll last longer and won't be as prone to damage as discs are.

You read it here first...SSD media in 2009!

I disagree. Flash media requires money spent on materials, factories and man power. Shifting to a DL model eliminates most of that, plus they will DRM the hell out of the data so as to restrict what you can and (more so) can't do with it.

[sundayx Veteran]

not gonna happen unless they give me a bigger HDD :p

Not going to happen if I have bandwidth caps for my ISP.

[Berserk87]

the only thing limiting things like this right now are the ISP's.

there holding back HD video too, government should give them a set date to get there equipment upgraded, so that it can handle hd video streams for all of its customers.

[vincent]

Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=34141 via http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=26082

It'll save on gas driving to the store...

[Berserk87]

It'll save on gas driving to the store...

lol

true!

[spaceelf]

I'm all for it and agree with em. The simple fact is within a year or two we'll have WiMax in the mix so you'll have craploads more options for broadband ISPs in a lot more places than before. If one is limiting you because they can, pick from the other twenty/thirty...

The only real limitation in ISPs is the physical cabling and equipment, and once you get the cabling out of the picture a lot of people will get a lot more choices, and expansion will not be as expensive for the ISPs...

Of course, once it is finalized, it'll still take time to get the equipment out there and so on, but I imagine a lot of the ISPs that already do wireless internet are very well situated to take advantage of the shift when it starts.

A lot of us will be freaking ecstatic to not be held hostage to the cables (or lack thereof.)

[WelshBluebird]

One thing people have forgotten. The normal high street game shop. No way are Game / gamestation / gamestop / EB etc going to let this happen. MS and the other hardware companies have to realise that they still need a way to get the hardware (console, controllers, accessories etc) into homes. If they stop making disks for the console, then I'm sure that the game shops will simply do all they can to inconvenience the hardware companies in terms of hardware sales.

[JamesCherrill]

IThe simple fact is within a year or two we'll have WiMax in the mix ...

Yeah, at 2 - 10 Mb/sec. So how long to download a multi GigaByte film? get real.

[George P Global Moderator]

The thing with bandwidth is not much about having to wait for it all to finish, if you have enough speed you can stream it. It'd be like on-demand. They have a system that works right there more or less. It doesn't seem to be full HD yet but in time it will be.

The other thing is that if you download the game/movie you should have the option to make a disc copy if you want like you can with music downloads right now. I can see why everyone is bringing up DRM but the way things are going now, with regard to music first, movies will follow soon after.

For me, the option to have both would be the best start for now. No one will just up and drop disc games/movies just like that until as many have said the bandwidth problems are gone. That could be a few years or more, but the fact is digital downloads is where we are going. XBLA is just the first sign of what things will be like. Steam is another example. It would be good right now if I could just download 360 games legally online and burn them to disc because there are some games I just can't find here in Greece.

[spaceelf]

A disc copy or a console to PC backup feature would certainly be good. Especially considering you can do that with Steam already. If Steam starts selling media I'll be interested to see how they go about it.

Hell I'll take 2mbit over my current unstable 56k modem conn@40k anyday.