Idea for future of PC games

[davva]

I was talking about the user and his ability to use the product.
What I've seen and heard, almost everyone complains that their CD's and DVD's are all scratched, either by themselves or when they borrowed it to a friend and when (if ever) got it back, it was scratched or broken.

how the hell borrows PC games?
90% (not a actual calculation) of all PC games have a CD-key, so it's better to buy a copy of the game instead.

and people need to be more carefull about their own stuff, the last time i had a scratchy DVD/CD that was on playstation 1 (the game was Crash bandicoot)
and that was when i was ~12 ( my favourite game on the PS1 infact )
its only the users fault for scratching their own games/albums (etc)

[hollowleviathan]

Yeah, stupid friends and family. Always scratching my CDs.

Although the dual-sided CD/DVDs I've had all seemed to scratch themselves inside the player. Never buying those again.

The first complaint brought up is the biggest. Yes there are some software companies who have put their auto-playing software on a USB, but the real problem is that a USB stick costs 100x more than a CD.

[Yuhaney]

But the idea is still good, eh?

[davva]

or you could just buy a CD-key and get a download link to the game (like WoWs gamecard that you buy in stores).

just type in the CD-key and get the download link, that idea seems more plausible than the USBstick.

[hollowleviathan]

The main service Scraper wants to provide is plug and play, instant game without install or download.

That could possibly be worth the extra 5 dollars production costs passed onto the consumer, who doesn't want to bother with HDD space &c.

[davva]

That could possibly be worth the extra 5 dollars production costs passed onto the consumer, who doesn't want to bother with HDD space &c.

I don't see how a small indie dev. team could afford that + regual CDs/DVDs (or if even one of them) sure they have gotten a lot of sales but not nearly as much as they need for getting retail off the counter copies in Europe, North + South America
(well i don't know that, just assuming, because there is no retail in the store copy, except for Russia)

[hollowleviathan]

Since this is the off-topic forum, I assumed he was floating the idea as a packaging solution in general, not specifically for Frictional/indie. It would obviously work a lot better for bigger name-brands.

Heck, the business model might make the most sense as a second-party solution, licensed brick-and-mortar stores producing them as alternatives to boxed games. There's no running out of pre-orders if Gamestop has a box of USBs in the back they can burn via DRM-whatever in 2.5 minutes for a customer. USB 2.0 takes 140 seconds to transfer a 8 gig game, USB 3.0 takes 14 seconds.

[davva]

oh yeah, i didn't think of that, it's an awesome idea for bigtime developers.

they should totaly make USB sticks that you just plug in n' play

[CHANCEPHOENIX]

But the idea is still good, eh?

it"S good but OLD ...

With a program called tiny-install you can make most games portable (no need to install , just plug and play from a usb-stick).

I have fully working version of Crysis made portable running of a 16gb usb-stick ...

My newest portable games are james Bond Bloodstone ,Fallout: Vegas , new Medal of Honor and darkSiders ...

Amnesia can be made portable also ... , i"m sure of it.

btw. only thing that i can"T work around are the savegames , so when playing of a usb-stick , make sure to also back-up your saves.


Er .... the only thing that might be illegal is that you need a no-cd fix/crack for each game ....BUT if you OWN/BOUGHT the game it"s okay to use that i think