XBox One AND PS4 Discussion

[Leebo33]

My local Costco had a pallet with about 50 Xbones selling for $479. My wife told me about it on Thursday morning and there were still 5 left on Sunday.

[greggsand]

I haven't seen shortages (or reports of shortages) of either console - though a lot of sites seem like they're trying to push bundles.

[Macca00]

I paid $500 for a next-gen console so I could play....Peggle 2. And yes...I recorded some clips.

[sportdan30]

The mail lost my Gamefly rental of Lego Marvel Superheroes. I alerted Gamefly and the US Postal Service and they're investigating it supposedly. In the meantime, they mailed me out a copy of AC which I'm excited about receiving.

It makes me wonder how many of these games that get mailed out get stolen by someone who works for the postal service or individuals who claim they didn't receive the game, or those who just go around and seek out games in people's mailboxes.

[TCrouch]

The good news is (and this is where my "industry nerd" credentials show), most of the mail is trackable nowadays. The barcode you see for the past year or two has bars that are tall, short, and up/down, rather than the "flat edge" barcode these pieces used to have. My software can tell you where any piece you mail is at any given time in the mail stream.

So when it comes to stuff like that, we can tell if the piece made it from the Gamefly facility to the local PO, or up to the SCF facility/NDC, etc. They'll have origin scans and then another scan saying it's out for delivery whenever it makes it to your carrier. So if all of those scans were in place, then they know it's some yokel stealing stuff out of your mailbox or the subscriber (not meaning you here) is lying about it, so they can make a note of it. Usually investigations like that don't take much time. They just have to look up the scans to see where it went south. If there is a particular facility where it's going missing a lot, that is usually pretty easy to track down the culprit.

Not that you care, but it's just sort of cool. Those barcodes are unique to every single piece in the stream now, allowing us to find any piece anywhere

[sportdan30]

Interesting. Thanks Terry. I didn't realize how much tracking information there really was for a mailing such as that.

In all honesty, the missing game is partly my doing. I forgot to update our new address until it was too late. We have been receiving mail here and there forwarded from our old address so I assumed the game would show up. This past weekend, I stopped by our old residence and spoke to the homeowner. I told him what had happened and asked him to call me if he received it. I've yet to hear from him, so I presume the game is lost, destroyed, or being enjoyed by a PS4 owner. Too bad Gamefly can't put some kind of tracking sensor on the game, but I guess that's an invasion of privacy.

[Spooky]

I paid $500 for a next-gen console so I could play....Peggle 2. And yes...I recorded some clips.

lol. How is it? I am intrigued. I dabbled a little in the first Peggle and thought it was fun enough.

[Pete1210]

The physical game disc really does put a damper on the whole vibe of the XB1. I'm looking forward to making more digital purchases down the line, but not for most games now at $60.

[greggsand]

I paid $500 for a next-gen console so I could play....Peggle 2. And yes...I recorded some clips.

lol. How is it? I am intrigued. I dabbled a little in the first Peggle and thought it was fun enough.

I loved peggle 1 (played on it on 360, ipad, iphone). Will prob dload it as soon as I wrap up nba 2k.

[Spooky]

The physical game disc really does put a damper on the whole vibe of the XB1. I'm looking forward to making more digital purchases down the line, but not for most games now at $60.

I went ALL digital downloads and couldn't be happier for this exact reason. It is SO seamless when my entirely library is available by command.

[Leebo33]

The physical game disc really does put a damper on the whole vibe of the XB1. I'm looking forward to making more digital purchases down the line, but not for most games now at $60.

I went ALL digital downloads and couldn't be happier for this exact reason. It is SO seamless when my entirely library is available by command.

I would love to do this as it would make it easier to play remotely on Vita but just can't justify the cost right now. If new games were available digitally at $40 I would seriously consider it. I have purchased retail versions of 6 PS4 and XBO games on or close to the release date for an average of $43 per game. This doesn't include any benefits of reward points plus it also gives me price protection in many cases up to 45 days. Forza is the only one of the bunch that I would consider playing for longer than 3-6 months. I usually have 2-3 in heavy rotation at a time so it's not a huge deal to switch. If I can net $20 for resale on each that means I only paid $23 to play each game for a few minutes of my time to list and a 5 minutes every couple weeks stopping at the post office I drive by every day. Purchasing digitally at the current prices would just limit my purchasing. I would buy less games and one of the reasons I love gaming is to try a lot of different games. I have the money to make digital purchases, but one of the reasons why I have the disposable income is that I try not to throw away money. Buying digitally in this market just seems like throwing away money. But as always...everyone's mileage may vary.

[dbdynsty25]

I would love to do this as it would make it easier to play remotely on Vita but just can't justify the cost right now. If new games were available digitally at $40 I would seriously consider it. I have purchased retail versions of 6 PS4 and XBO games on or close to the release date for an average of $43 per game. This doesn't include any benefits of reward points plus it also gives me price protection in many cases up to 45 days. Forza is the only one of the bunch that I would consider playing for longer than 3-6 months. I usually have 2-3 in heavy rotation at a time so it's not a huge deal to switch. If I can net $20 for resale on each that means I only paid $23 to play each game for a few minutes of my time to list and a 5 minutes every couple weeks stopping at the post office I drive by every day. Purchasing digitally at the current prices would just limit my purchasing. I would buy less games and one of the reasons I love gaming is to try a lot of different games. I have the money to make digital purchases, but one of the reasons why I have the disposable income is that I try not to throw away money. Buying digitally in this market just seems like throwing away money. But as always...everyone's mileage may vary.

My mileage is the same. The only game I've purchased digitally is Assassin's Creed...and that's because I had $25 in PSN credit, bringing the cost down to $35. I could handle $40 for new games a well, but anything over that, the resale hit is just too big.

[RobVarak]

If a game is $60 digitally and $40 for the legacy version, I'm happy to pay the $20 for the added convenience and domestic tranquility resulting from fewer games cluttering up the estate.

[Aristo]

The physical game disc really does put a damper on the whole vibe of the XB1. I'm looking forward to making more digital purchases down the line, but not for most games now at $60.

I went ALL digital downloads and couldn't be happier for this exact reason. It is SO seamless when my entirely library is available by command.

Not going ALL digital yet, but will for many titles I expect to play long term. This let me get rid of Madden for a decent price. And I will sell BF4 as soon as another shooter I prefer comes out. Forza was an easy digital sale, as I will play that long term. I keep BF4 in the drive, so it is basically digital for me right now.

I really prefer digital versions, so I am hopeful the store prices will get better. The 360 started to show some signs that games will go on sale. I got Tomb Raider for around $40 digitally. As I grow a stable of games, I will find it much easier to wait for sales. Heck, that's what I am waiting on for both Dead Rising 3 and ruse. Both look like solid games, but I'll wait for that $30 price point.

[sportdan30]

For those considering going solely digitally on the X1....available HD space is really only around 362GB.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/report ... 0-6416654/

[GameSeven]

If a game is $60 digitally and $40 for the legacy version, I'm happy to pay the $20 for the added convenience and domestic tranquility resulting from fewer games cluttering up the estate.

Sadly, not me at present. Which is why the X1 "plan" wasn't *all* bad. You could buy retail, with accompanying pricing, and get the benefit of digital convenience. But that ship has sailed, for now.

[webdanzer]

If a game is $60 digitally and $40 for the legacy version, I'm happy to pay the $20 for the added convenience and domestic tranquility resulting from fewer games cluttering up the estate.

Just under 400 games in a closed entertainment center cabinet. (WiiU/360/PS3/PS4/Xbox) No muss, no fuss. $40 for both cases.

No way in heck the drives on the next gen platforms can handle that.

/I'm in on digital when it is more useful/convenient/practical than disk gaming. No where near there for me yet.

[greggsand]

I went digital with Madden 25. Madden (and a lot of sports games) really lose their resale value quickly. 6 months for now, Amazon will only want $10 as a trade-in. So I figured what the heck. I also had a couple cocktails that night and it was just TOO DAMN EASY. The impulse part is what's the most concerning. If I get bored one night, wham: a new game to play!

[Pete1210]

For those considering going solely digitally on the X1....available HD space is really only around 362GB.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/report ... 0-6416654/

All games are installed, so you'll be using the same amount of HD space with discs. I suppose if you played a lot of games at the same time redownload speed versus disc reinstall speed would be an issue. With some games coming in at 40GB already (and add DLC) instant access could be limited to a dozen or so "retail" games.

[dbdynsty25]

For those considering going solely digitally on the X1....available HD space is really only around 362GB.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/report ... 0-6416654/

All games are installed, so you'll be using the same amount of HD space with discs. I suppose if you played a lot of games at the same time redownload speed versus disc reinstall speed would be an issue. With some games coming in at 40GB already (and add DLC) instant access could be limited to a dozen or so "retail" games.

All the more reason to get the PS4. Easily replaceable/upgradeable hard drives. Throw in a 2TB drive for 100 bucks and voila...quadruple the space. Yes, you can replace the XB1 drive, but not without voiding your warranty. It's strange that Microsoft designed their system initially for only digital games and crippled it with a 500gb drive. Storage is cheap.

[sportdan30]

For those considering going solely digitally on the X1....available HD space is really only around 362GB.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/report ... 0-6416654/

All games are installed, so you'll be using the same amount of HD space with discs. I suppose if you played a lot of games at the same time redownload speed versus disc reinstall speed would be an issue. With some games coming in at 40GB already (and add DLC) instant access could be limited to a dozen or so "retail" games.

For me personally, I only usually have between 2-5 games so this wouldn't affect me. But, I'd imagine 10+ games might be an issue.

[Pete1210]

The physical game disc really does put a damper on the whole vibe of the XB1. I'm looking forward to making more digital purchases down the line, but not for most games now at $60.

I went ALL digital downloads and couldn't be happier for this exact reason. It is SO seamless when my entirely library is available by command.

I would love to do this as it would make it easier to play remotely on Vita but just can't justify the cost right now. If new games were available digitally at $40 I would seriously consider it. I have purchased retail versions of 6 PS4 and XBO games on or close to the release date for an average of $43 per game. This doesn't include any benefits of reward points plus it also gives me price protection in many cases up to 45 days. Forza is the only one of the bunch that I would consider playing for longer than 3-6 months. I usually have 2-3 in heavy rotation at a time so it's not a huge deal to switch. If I can net $20 for resale on each that means I only paid $23 to play each game for a few minutes of my time to list and a 5 minutes every couple weeks stopping at the post office I drive by every day. Purchasing digitally at the current prices would just limit my purchasing. I would buy less games and one of the reasons I love gaming is to try a lot of different games. I have the money to make digital purchases, but one of the reasons why I have the disposable income is that I try not to throw away money. Buying digitally in this market just seems like throwing away money. But as always...everyone's mileage may vary.

My thinking as well. I was also able to buy 4 launch games at $40 (2 were used). Once we start seeing the sales/discounts I'll buy more digital.

[TCrouch]

That's yet ANOTHER thing that sort of irritates me about the XB1. When I look at my installed games on the next gen platforms so far, I've got:

PS4:
Assassin's Creed 4
Madden 25
Killzone
CoD Ghosts
DC Universe Online
Knack
Need for Speed Rivals

XBox One:
Assassin's Creed 4
Madden 25 ($10 trade in deals on both of those)
Battlefield 4
Ryse
Dead Rising 3
Forza 5
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
Zoo Tycoon

I'm already filling up that hard drive pretty quick. Having it void the warranty and give us no alternative storage method (who knows when the "USB 3.0 External Storage" will be ready), it's just irritating. Everything except the digital-only DCUO is a physical disc. I don't mind swapping, as that's what I've had to do for years anyway. But requiring those mammoth installs while still having a physical disc is crazy.

[pk500]

The physical game disc really does put a damper on the whole vibe of the XB1. I'm looking forward to making more digital purchases down the line, but not for most games now at $60.

I went ALL digital downloads and couldn't be happier for this exact reason. It is SO seamless when my entirely library is available by command.

Selling digital downloads for the same price as retail games amounts to ripping off customers, regardless of the convenience. Game publishers have no packaging costs with digital downloads. No printing costs. No brick-and-mortar distribution costs. Yet they're passing NONE of those savings to the consumer.

F*ck you, Sony and Microsoft. F*ck me. As long as I can trade in a game for dough, I'm buying physical discs. I only buy digital downloads of games that aren't available on disc in the U.S. (F1 2013 at launch) or when they're on sale. To be fair, there are some hot sales on Games on Demand on XBL.

I don't NEED the money generated by trade-ins. But I like stretching my dollars as far as possible. And it's a matter of principle. I can't stand seeing publishers line their pockets with even more dough while passing none of the savings to the consumer, especially in this era of stripped-down games augmented by DLC, another cash cow.

[RobVarak]

The physical game disc really does put a damper on the whole vibe of the XB1. I'm looking forward to making more digital purchases down the line, but not for most games now at $60.

I went ALL digital downloads and couldn't be happier for this exact reason. It is SO seamless when my entirely library is available by command.

Selling digital downloads for the same price as retail games amounts to ripping off customers, regardless of the convenience. Game publishers have no packaging costs with digital downloads. No printing costs. No brick-and-mortar distribution costs. Yet they're passing NONE of those savings to the consumer.

Hate to break this to you, but they only have to pass the savings on to the customers if the market demands it. If I were a shareholder I'd have just the slightest problem with EA (for instance) saying, "Well jeepers, we think we could get $60/download, but that wouldn't be fair since we don't have any packaging costs and our distribution is a fraction of what it was. Let's just charge $x and give those consumers a break!" I'd be sure to get to the next shareholder meeting after that particular pricing choice. lol