Every PlayStation 4 game to be downloadable

Like the Vita, every PlayStation 4 game will be available as a download, while some will remain available on Blu-ray discs. Sony also hinted that its services could be bundled in tiered "packages."

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As you may have suspected from the direction of technology trends, Sony has confirmed that all PlayStation 4 games will be available to download. Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has said the system will be similar to the Vita, focusing on the digital marketplace with only some of its games available on physical media.

"We're shifting our platform more and more to the digital side - PS4 will be similar to PS Vita in that every game will be available as a digital download, and some will also be available as a disc," Yoshida told The Guardian (via CVG). "The Witness will be a digital release and because of the flexibility of the digital distribution scheme, we can have more small games that might be free or available for a couple of dollars, or different services like free-to-play or subscription models."

Yoshida also said that ultimately, Sony would like to offer tiered subscription models for its content. "As more and more services and contents become available digitally, we'll have more of an option to create attractive packages," he said. "So hypothetically we can look at different models - like a cable TV company. We could have gold, silver or platinum levels of membership, something like that. We can do subscription services when we have more content - especially now that we have the Gaikai technology available. With one subscription you have access to thousands of games - that's our dream."

We heard similar comments about a wider pricing range from CEO Jack Tretton last week. Word of an all-encompassing digital model is unsurprising, but Sony's Jim Ryan told IGN that Blu-rays are still the physical media plan for the foreseeable future.

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  • reply
    February 25, 2013 8:15 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Every PlayStation 4 game to be downloadable.

    Like the Vita, every PlayStation 4 game will be available as a download, while some will remain available on Blu-ray discs. Sony also hinted that its services could be bundled in tiered "packages."

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 8:16 AM

      YES

      this is amazing. this is what i want. microsoft please follow suit.

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 8:20 AM

        It's almost guaranteed they will, although I'd be shocked if they're often cheaper. Question is, can we get the discs then that gets us a downloadable version ala Steam.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 8:20 AM

      Good that Nintendo and Sony are following this whole digital wave. Microsoft, come on bros!

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 8:21 AM

      I'm Commander Shephard, and Sony is quickly becoming my favorite console maker on the Citadel

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 8:21 AM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 8:24 AM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 11:21 AM

          i would be very surprised if they do sales anything like steam does. maybe once in awhile, but it will probably be rare and unimpressive, but even just having a holiday sale would be nice.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 8:22 AM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 8:23 AM

        this will probably encourage it. retailers will need to get people into their stores and will offer more as an incentive.

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 8:30 AM

          Pre-order bonuses are arranged with the publisher though, so I would assume publishers wouldn't do this unless they continued seeing an advantage to doing so.

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 9:32 AM

        no, its better to get money sooner than later.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 8:24 AM

      That's pretty cool

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 8:27 AM

      Roughly how many GB do games like Homefront or LittleBigPlanet or Uncharted 3 take up on a Bluray disc?

      I can't imagine how much HDD space I would need to have even a small chunk of my games fully installed on my PS3 (and I imagine the PS4 games will be a magnitude larger than those).

      At say ~ 20-25GB per Bluray disc, you might fit maybe 20 games on the 500GB PS3 HDD (very rough math of course, assuming a lot, like the game taking up the entire 20-25GB). The AAA titles like Uncharted would obviously take up much more room than, like, ModNationRacers.





      • reply
        February 25, 2013 8:28 AM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 8:30 AM

          It's a good question. I'm sure most of us use Steam...but the drive that has my Steam games on it is 2 TB. I seriously doubt the PS4/Xbox will ship with drives anywhere near that size.

          • reply
            February 25, 2013 8:32 AM

            [deleted]

          • reply
            February 25, 2013 8:48 AM

            Sony is very open, including instructions in the manual, about letting you upgrade your drives. I don't see that going away with the PS4.

            Right now games are anywhere from 3gb-18gb . Though their digital setup is a little messed up since you need 2x the space in order to install.

          • reply
            February 25, 2013 8:49 AM

            The nice thing about Sony (and I hope they keep it up) is the ability to put your own drive in there. That said, I generally don't leave games installed after I'm done with them. I've got an 80GB X360 with 55GB free on it, because once I finish a game, I delete its install from the HDD.

            On that note however, it's real easy to put it back from disc if I should change my mind (Which I never have been inclined to do), but more of a pain in the ass for a digital-only game like there's going to be lots of on the PS4.

          • reply
            February 25, 2013 9:45 AM

            Honestly I only have the games I'm currently played installed on Steam. I just delete the rest. My hard-drive is a super old partition that has 60gb or so and I can't resize it for a few reasons, but it has proven more than enough with 4 "current" games installed or so.

            • reply
              February 25, 2013 9:56 AM

              I keep a few on there, games like TF2 that download every day but I don't really play anymore get deleted and anything I haven't touched in more than 3 months get deleted but there are other games on there that I come back to once in a while.

            • reply
              February 25, 2013 9:58 AM

              That would make me crazy. I like being to run any of my games whenever I want...so I just have everything installed.

              • reply
                February 25, 2013 11:47 AM

                So do I which is why I just download them again when I want to play them. It doesn't take that long, really.

              • reply
                February 25, 2013 11:56 AM

                Step 1: Get a 256GB SSD
                Step 2: Create backups of every game and save them onto your 2TB HDD
                Step 3: Install all your games to the 256GB SSD
                Step 4: When you run out of space, restore the backups from the 2TB HDD
                Step 5: Bask in the holiness that is playing games from an SSD

                This way you don't have to worry about download caps, or clogging up your bandwidth.

              • reply
                February 25, 2013 12:28 PM

                I don't do it becaues I need to. If it was a real problem I'd have transferred steam to another partition (or installed games on a separate partition like it allows now). I'm just making an observation that the 60gb limit hasn't been a problem at all. I'm sure other people have different, incompatible scenarios to love with. But since I'm always only playing a few games at a time (including MP games I'm on-and-off), that limit has been ok so far

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 10:05 AM

          I used Steam to grab Thirty Flights Of Lovin' (Idle Thumbs kickstarter) but before that haven't used it much since Half-Life 2 came out.

          • reply
            February 25, 2013 10:18 AM

            If you used it more often you'd know it's no big deal. Some of us have 300+ games in our Steam libraries, and some on smaller drives and SSDs. And while not every game is +20 gigs, some are, and most are in the 5-15GB range. It adds up, but you are hard up on space you only keep what you regularly play, delete what you are done with, and download the new stuff.

            You can redownload games whenever you want (and apparently stream and play them as you download on PS4?), it's not like you have to keep all of them on disk or you lose them. If your bandwidth is slow or you have caps and monthly limits, that stuff is going to be harder than lacking HDD space.

            The PS4 is still going to have games on disc so you'll always have that option with the non-PSN releases, I wonder if you can slap any old HDD in there like the PS3 too.

            • reply
              February 25, 2013 10:23 AM

              I'm sure you can, but I doubt they will use the 3.5" form factor, which means we're more limited until or unless laptop drive storage gets bigger.

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 8:37 AM

        probably in the 10-20 GB range. at least of the few that i've downloaded through PSN

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 9:43 AM

        Some of the reasons games on the PS3 are so bloated is because duplicating data is one way around the abominable speed of the drive.

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 10:32 AM

        Most games don't take up 25GB, and at least in 2011 the attach rate on PS3 was < 9 games per console:

        http://www.ps3center.net/news/5149/ps3-attach-rate-increases-further/

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 10:42 AM

          Yeah, but now that every PS+ user has probably 100+ GB in free games....

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 8:31 AM

      This is honestly the most exciting/important bit about PS4 for me so far. I'm happy about what seems like a good system architecture, but for years now I've bought console games like 1-3 times a year, simply because I hate physical media. If it's exclusive to the console and I seriously want it, I'll get it, but considering I have both the PS3 and the 360 I've made very little money for MS/Sony simply because I much prefer doing my browsing and shopping shopping at home and with zero physical space wasted.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 8:32 AM

      I was thinking about this the other day. I'm all for this and I have wanted to be able to Steam-ify my consoles for a while now, but at the same time I definitely still want the ability to pick a game from my collection, pop it into the console and instantly play it. That was one advantage consoles have always had - lack of installs (which has also been going away) meant that if you had some friends over you could dig out a game you haven't played for a year and instantly play it together. No installing, no downloading, just play it. So while I love downloading all my games on Steam etc, I don't really want to lose that instant playability on consoles either.

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 12:06 PM

        This also makes it tougher to bring a game to a friend's house to play, hmm

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 3:09 PM

          And that's why they don't care about blocking used games. They are going to teach users they can get everything online and attach it to one account. Achievements, social networking, etc will show the benefits of having one user only.

          Steam did it years ago.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 8:33 AM

      So... can you re-sell or trade downloaded games?

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 8:46 AM

      It will only take 60 days to download

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 9:00 AM

      I like this: you can download your PS4 titles, OR you can have a fully offline PS4 and play from physical media. Of all the parties in the arguments over mandatory login, persistent connectivity and forced downloads, I didn't expect Sony to be the most accommodating party, catering to both ranges of preference. Well done.

      Microsoft's goal seems to be pushing its online ecosystem, so I expect that their next platform will require a login, and will require persistent connectivity. From the cagey PR they've been putting out (particularly from Phil Harrison), that's what I feel the official unveil will state.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 9:04 AM

      I hope they allow you to upgrade the PS4 hardware. I would RAID 0 some of the new seagate barracudas.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 9:32 AM

      Haha, I love the hypocrisy in this thread...

      OMG IF SONY BANS USED GAME SALES, I WILL BOYCOTT THEIR CONSOLE!

      SONY IS OFFERING ALL GAMES DIGITALLY! HOORAY! FUCK STEAMBOX! MICROSOFT SHOULD FOLLOW SUIT!

      *sigh*

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 9:37 AM

        I don't see the first statement anywhere in this thread, and I certainly don't see it together with the second?

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 9:41 AM

          [deleted]

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 9:44 AM

          Digital games cannot be resold, thus eliminating used games.

          • reply
            February 25, 2013 9:46 AM

            It doesn't eliminate all used games though, like eliminating all used games would do.

            • reply
              February 25, 2013 9:56 AM

              Very true. It's still too early to go full-digital.

            • reply
              February 25, 2013 10:24 AM

              No, but it makes people more comfortable with the thought of a game as a service, and not a physical thing. I just find it highly amusing people went from:

              "I CAN'T SELL MY GAME, I WON'T BUY YOUR SYSTEM!"

              to

              "I CAN'T SELL MY DIGITAL COPY OF MY GAME, BUT I FUCKING LOVE THIS!"

              *facepalm*

              • reply
                February 25, 2013 10:28 AM

                I dunno, man. I kind of think you're just making these people and opinions up.

                • reply
                  February 25, 2013 11:33 AM

                  Did you not see the ps4 threads before the ps4 announcement? the one that was talking about used games not being allowed on ps4. There was plenty of that talk going around in those threads.

                • reply
                  February 25, 2013 10:15 PM

                  No I have been watching this issue like a hawk here and his posts are pretty accurate. Many many people have thrown down the guantlet and said they won't be buying the next gen consoles if they stop used games, are always online, or raise the price of games. I think they are crying wolf but it has been posted many many many times here.

              • reply
                February 25, 2013 10:32 AM

                I hope you're at least ready to link to posts by the same person expressing both those things, you are seriously reaching here.

                • reply
                  February 25, 2013 10:43 AM

                  Yeah. I'm very much in favor of used games, and I think the only console games I've purchased digitally have been PSN/XBLA stuff, and just recently Fire Emblem. And even then, Fire Emblem was only because there simply weren't any physical copies available.

                  • reply
                    February 25, 2013 11:38 AM

                    I buy digital, I buy used as well. I'm just pointing out how these two options are at odds with each-other.

              • reply
                February 25, 2013 11:19 AM

                You are so weird.

              • reply
                February 25, 2013 11:38 AM

                Did you ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, the people that want to be able to sell used games are not the same people that want digital downloads?

                • reply
                  February 25, 2013 11:40 AM

                  They are probably not entirely the same group, but I'd be shocked if there was not any overlap (heck, myself I buy used and digital).

                  I'm also one in the digital camp that thinks since we removed physical media production and transportation costs the price should be lower than physical media, but that has rarely materialized (outside of Steam sale prices and the odd Xbox/PSN discount sale).

              • reply
                February 25, 2013 2:42 PM

                Who said those are the same people?

                I can't care less about used games (I never buy them), but being digital is a huge deal for me.

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 9:41 AM

        I was kinda confused by the anger at not being able to play used games. It makes sense that we're moving to a digital future where there are no discs to take to your friend's house. It does look like they're going to allow your friend to play your game from his console, but you have to sacrifice playing on your own console to let him try your game.

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 9:45 AM

          I think the concern is that if I buy a game on a disc, I should be able to do whatever I want with that disc, whether it's keep it, sell it, or lend it to a friend, and have the game still function.

          Once you move into digital downloads, I don't think there's that same expectation.

          • reply
            February 25, 2013 9:58 AM

            I was actually a little surprised when I saw that the PS4 still has a disc drive. This will probably be the last generation to do so.

          • reply
            February 25, 2013 12:03 PM

            it'll probably be some kind of either/or deal - buy a disc that isn't downloadable but is resellable, or buy the downloadable which is the opposite.

            possibly one-use keys on retail versions that let you permanently attach it to your account and download, though i really doubt they'd do that - too much fuckery with the used market (buy a used copy and WHAT SOMEONE ELSE REGISTERED IT? then you try to take it back and it's he-said-she-said on whether or not you just took it and registered it yourself, etc)

            • reply
              February 25, 2013 12:04 PM

              ooh, and if they had the non-resellable download editions being slightly cheaper.. that'd be slick

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 11:19 AM

        Choice is good.

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 1:39 PM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        February 26, 2013 10:02 AM

        I think the biggest thing is how often they will have sales on games online. I hated Steam when it was always selling at the full retail price. When they started doing regular sales, I bought them up constantly (especially during the holiday sales.)

      • reply
        March 2, 2013 8:46 PM

        Lol! Like it on Facebook and give 1+ points *high five*

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 9:44 AM

      Fuck. Yes. I've wanted this for a while.
      http://www.shacknews.com/article/66426/morning-discussion?id=24495177#item_24495177

      [fry] and a bunch of other people are probably happy
      http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=25440308#item_25440308

      Also I believe John Carmack was almost right. From 2007, a QuakeCon keynote:

      "6:26: Early on looked like Steam was "just another middleman," but there are definite positives to digital distribution. Believes next generation of consoles may not have optical media."

      URL was http://www.shacknews.com/docs/press/20070803_quakecon_carmack.x but it's dead, Jim.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 9:49 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 10:01 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 10:01 AM

      Ps4 overall sounds like it will be a winner

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 10:07 AM

      Useless for a money pincher like me. I only buy a game after they drop in price and then I sell it, putting that money towards another game. Downloadable games take forever to drop in price and I cant sell them.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 10:39 AM

      it will be interesting to see if they stick to that for game launches or there's a delay there in getting the digital version.

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 10:44 AM

        They've had Day 1 releases on major titles for quite a while now.

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 3:34 PM

        What would the benefit be to delaying any digital releases? I don't think retailers have the bargaining power to make Sony or Microsoft delay anything.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 10:55 AM

      easy choice. gets rid of used games. more revenue to sony as well since bandwidth cost < b&m store cut

      I feel like a chump buying nsmb2 digitally though, I would sell it :P or at least give it to someone who wants to play it. game sucked

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 11:20 AM

      Cool. I just hope they make it user friendly and efficient. No more of the batty file structuring of the PS3.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 11:30 AM

      omg omg omg omg <3 DEATH TO PHYSICAL MEDIA

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 2:59 PM

        DEATH TO GAMESTOP!

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 3:04 PM

          and gamefly

          • reply
            February 25, 2013 8:35 PM

            lololol. Given that you're a 5-figure poster I'm going to assume the irony of posting this on a gamefly owned website is intentional.

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 3:08 PM

          I declare fatwa on used games and needless accessories that cost an asston.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 11:35 AM

      I am going to ask PS4 to marry me.

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 11:36 AM

        What happens when the PS5 comes out?

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 11:38 AM

          The PS4 will get the games in the divorce and standbye power till the sequels are out.

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 11:39 AM

          I will then ask PS4 if it knows about ménage à trois...

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 3:11 PM

          it would have lasted longer than most marriages

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 12:52 PM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 8:37 PM

        Yeah, that would be important. I can't think of any good reason not to.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 1:24 PM

      I'm buying one of these at launch likely.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 1:36 PM

      Awesome. I mentioned this already but after putting a SSD in my PS3 and seeing the performance improvements I may very well consider the cost of getting a 512GB SSD day 1 for the PS4 if they use standard drives again.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 1:41 PM

      Article doesn't say, but I wonder if digital versions will be available on release day. I hope so, but I could see retailers putting some pressure on them to delay the digital version. But that would be dumb.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 1:47 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 3:04 PM

      Game Stop just shit their pants.

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 3:13 PM

        And they're probably so pissed at Sony

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 8:43 PM

          Sure, but what are they going to do? Boycott the PS4? GameStop is fucked.

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 9:34 PM

        They've been known it's coming...

        • reply
          February 25, 2013 9:35 PM

          They've had to have known it's been a long time coming.

          ** too late to type properly.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 3:06 PM

      this makes sense. i had a feeling they didnt care about used games because they are moving to digital distribution with this generation.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 8:44 PM

      If MS doesnt offer the same thing, this feature alone will make me choose the PS4 over the new Xbox.

    • reply
      February 25, 2013 9:00 PM

      You can do this now with the Wii U.

      • reply
        February 25, 2013 9:21 PM

        Very true. That was a good forward thinking decision by Nintendo. I think DD for full-size games will be a key feature of this new generation of systems.

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