So I don’t know if any of you have seen all the news floating around the internet this last day or two about the new PSP GO! that Sony are being rumoured to be unveiling at E3 this week, but the one snippet of info that caught my eye was the ‘download only’ element of it.
Now don’t get me wrong. i think this is a brilliant idea in many ways. Space saving (until you run out of HD or flash memory), carry all your games around with you, its greener than putting it in packaging…and so on. And yes, I know UMD isn’t the greatest of formats, it’s noisy, slow to access, and you can’t carry too many around with you at once, but what about my collection.
Very selfish I know. It was inevitable this day would finally come, even if it’s not right away, but the day companies stop producing video game packaging is a sad day for my shelves and the rows of beautiful boxes I have on them. It’s silly really because I’ll only probably play a game through once or twice and then it’s just sat there (at least for a while until I rediscover it). But there’s something about having the box on your shelf, something that says, ‘I own this game’ that makes you feel like your collection of boxes isn’t just a collection of boxes.
Then there’s the ‘value for money’ factor. Are these going to be charged at regular prices? I’m not sure how much packaging costs for these games, but I’m sure it must impact in some way to the cost of buying a game? Designing, printing, cases, instructions. I like these things, i like them being there so I can take them off my shelf and say, ‘yeah, that was a good game’ and, ‘wow, look at that box art, that takes me back a few years.’ And what about those collectors editions?!
Maybe I’m not being with the times on this one. I don’t know. But I’m a collector and I like having boxes on the shelves! Please don’t stop putting your games in pretty boxes, Sony!
What do you guys think? Could this be the beinging of the end for video game packaging? Is it a good move? Or are you as obsessive about me as having all those boxes on your selves to marvel at? Let me know what you think!
03/06/2009 at 12:21 pm |
What aabout the resale market? If not cheaper you cannot exchange it in the game shops either!