Epic: Western disc-based gaming is "far, far behind" Asian free-to-play

[The Sith]

http://www.oxm.co.uk/43201/epic-west...-free-to-play/

Gears man laments Western dependence on "pieces of plastic"

Epic's technology boss Tim Sweeney has made some interesting comments about the relative merits of the Asian, North American and European games industries, arguing that while Western games generally trump Asian ones for production values, countries like Korea are "far, far" ahead in terms of how they do business.

Where Western markets continue to focus on the (some would argue, dwindling) triple-A boxed game model, the Asian scene is dominated by free-to-play and digital distribution. Sweeney thinks this is healthy. "North American and European developers are far, far behind the state of the art Asian business models," he commented at GDC Taipei yesterday, as reported by Gamasutra.

"We've been building these games like Gears of War where you go into the store and you buy a piece of plastic! You just buy this DVD. That is going to change rapidly.

There are things Asian developers could learn from the West, however. "Asian online games are far ahead of Western games in terms of business model, but the Western games do have a real advantage in terms of production values."

Sweeney still has a lot of time for the old boxed model - "I think like a typical American, in that I just want to buy the game once" - but reckons free-to-play is the only real long-term alternative to the costs and constraints of physical media. "I agree that this is going to be the way that almost all games will be distributed worldwide. Where is this going in the long-term future?"

"We're at a point in the world's history where we're starting to run into resource limitations. ... The virtual environment is completely unlimited. It makes me wonder if some day the virtual economy could be greater than the economy for physical goods."

An intriguing prospect. What do you think? In March this year, Sweeney opined that a disc-free Xbox 720 would have a "dramatic advantage" for all sorts of reasons.

[Soldier 95B]

I support it, but unfortunately the INTERNET on the Western front does not yet support it for all people. Until then, disks will remain.

[Fijiandoce]

its funny he should bring up South Korea. those guys can stream full 1080p HD movies. whereas we in the west measure speed in megabits per second Korea measures speeds in gigabits per second.

we in the west don't yet have the infrastructure. though, i seem to recall Virgin and BT looking into rolling it out some time soon.

[The Sith]

I support it, but unfortunately the INTERNET on the Western front does not yet support it for all people. Until then, disks will remain.

Corporations Like Apple, Microsoft, and Google will start lobbying for the IP to uncap there speeds.

[Soldier 95B]

Corporations Like Apple, Microsoft, and Google will start lobbying for the IP to uncap there speeds.

That is the smallest hurdle. The bigger hurdle is to get internet to the masses as well as improve speeds.

[btbam]

need to get rid of a few things first. Caps or throttling, need more infrastructure to have high speeds everywhere.

[D3seeker]

its funny he should bring up South Korea. those guys can stream full 1080p HD movies. whereas we in the west measure speed in megabits per second Korea measures speeds in gigabits per second.

we in the west don't yet have the infrastructure. though, i seem to recall Virgin and BT looking into rolling it out some time soon.

One must wonder why the US is so behind in this area among others. It's quite mind boggling, though makes sense considering the big wigs in charge of this stuff have more of a business mindset as opposed to real innovation, among other things.

[Soldier 95B]

One must wonder why the US is so behind in this area among others.

Due to the size of the land space in the United States.

Japan is the size of California (about 140,000 square miles), and has 130 million people. The United States (3.7 million square miles) has 300 million people. LOTS OF GROUND to cover here.

[keefy]

Come on pull yer finger out USA.

UK isnt much better but its alot cheaper at least.

[ps3freak18]

I support it, but unfortunately the INTERNET on the Western front does not yet support it for all people. Until then, disks will remain.

Yeah. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if Broadband was available to just about everyone. With the exclusion of say people living in the tops of mountains. I know the majority have access but I and many people in my area have to deal with stuff like Wireless Broadband and Satellite. One which is absolutely terrible and the other which is a decent alternative but nowhere near DSL. Until they mandate that something that requires broadband providers run it everywhere probably won't see it in gaming on a full out 100% digital. It's terrible having to miss out on so much great things like Digital movie stream, being able to download games/demos/updates whenever I want without having to go to a friends house.

[Fenix]

Due to the size of the land space in the United States.

Japan is the size of California (about 140,000 square miles), and has 130 million people. The United States (3.7 million square miles) has 300 million people. LOTS OF GROUND to cover here.

Population doesnt, or atleast shouldnt, matter. I dont know any internet provider that releases higher speeds to all areas at once, they do it on an area by area basis. Its just pure greed, Canada gets raped hard for much less.