Bethesda's upcoming Elder Scrolls expansion pack on the 360, available only by download, will be double the cost of existing Xbox Live titles.
The Shivering Isles will set you back 2,400 Microsoft points, or about £19.35 for those of us still using real money. Previously the most you could pay was 1,200 points for the likes of Bankshot Billiards and Lumines Live.
SPOnG's not complaining, however. Bethesda's promising 30 hours of gameplay in the expansion. Further to that the PC version (which will sell through high street retailers) is going on sale for £19.99. Bethesda isn't ripping you off, here. This could mark the beginning of a worrying trend for retailers, however.
This is the first time a game of this size has been offered through Xbox Live. SPOnG asked a contact in retail how they felt about it. “That is quite worrying, if it's the start of a trend,” SPOnG was told. “As this is the first of it's kind I'm not too worried in this case. And I do think that people like to physically have something, like with CDs. But if more developers do this it could be a problem.”
It is noteworthy, however, that Bethesda does not offer any kind of saving for the Xbox download over the PC's retail version. With music downloads the customer has savings in distribution and retailer mark-up passed onto them. In this case, however, any difference in costs between the retail and download versions is clear profit for Bethesda.
A similar problem is faced here for both Microsoft and its supporting publishers as is faced by Sony. They need to maximise their use of downloadable content whilst not creating problems for the traditional retailers which still form the industry's primary conduit for revenue.
Would you, hard drive allowing, trade a hard copy of a premium game for a download? Answers below please.
The Shivering Isles will set you back 2,400 Microsoft points, or about £19.35 for those of us still using real money. Previously the most you could pay was 1,200 points for the likes of Bankshot Billiards and Lumines Live.
SPOnG's not complaining, however. Bethesda's promising 30 hours of gameplay in the expansion. Further to that the PC version (which will sell through high street retailers) is going on sale for £19.99. Bethesda isn't ripping you off, here. This could mark the beginning of a worrying trend for retailers, however.
This is the first time a game of this size has been offered through Xbox Live. SPOnG asked a contact in retail how they felt about it. “That is quite worrying, if it's the start of a trend,” SPOnG was told. “As this is the first of it's kind I'm not too worried in this case. And I do think that people like to physically have something, like with CDs. But if more developers do this it could be a problem.”
It is noteworthy, however, that Bethesda does not offer any kind of saving for the Xbox download over the PC's retail version. With music downloads the customer has savings in distribution and retailer mark-up passed onto them. In this case, however, any difference in costs between the retail and download versions is clear profit for Bethesda.
A similar problem is faced here for both Microsoft and its supporting publishers as is faced by Sony. They need to maximise their use of downloadable content whilst not creating problems for the traditional retailers which still form the industry's primary conduit for revenue.
Would you, hard drive allowing, trade a hard copy of a premium game for a download? Answers below please.
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Comments
SPInGSPOnG 10 Mar 2007 07:03
1/2
I did it years ago for music, I'm pretty much doing it now for movies. Can't see a reason why I wouldn't do it for games too. I travel A LOT, so having all my entertainment on hard drive, so I can easily off-load a bit to a portable hard disk before I travel makes live MUCH better.
If games publishers go this way, I'd like to see them supporting external devices, rather than just the internal disk, to allow media portability... but of course, this gets them all riled up about piracy and DRM. I have a 360 and a PS3 in the US, and a 360 in UK (I'll be getting a PS3 here soon) - I'd really like to be able to transport games between the two places on my iPod... I can with music and I can with movies (but only because I rip my own DVDs and de-CSS them).
If games publishers go this way, I'd like to see them supporting external devices, rather than just the internal disk, to allow media portability... but of course, this gets them all riled up about piracy and DRM. I have a 360 and a PS3 in the US, and a 360 in UK (I'll be getting a PS3 here soon) - I'd really like to be able to transport games between the two places on my iPod... I can with music and I can with movies (but only because I rip my own DVDs and de-CSS them).
Hypnotoad 12 Mar 2007 02:37
2/2
If the download cost less, it's a no-brainer. Also, having the game on the HDD is slighty more convienent too.