DC Universe has had a bit of a bumpy ride in Australia, mainly as a result of cost complaints and initial claims of false advertising, but now Sony has announced that PS3 owners will soon be able to puchase the game online as a digital copy – ala Mass Effect 2.
There are no dates or specific details for Australia yet, but this is an interesting trend, and an area in which Sony seem content to pioneer and push forward. Earlier this week EA Boss John Riccitiello declared the Mass Effect 2 digital experiment a success, with a double digit percentage figure choosing digital over retail. With an online focused game like DC Universe Online, you might expect that figure to be even higher.
How long will it be before we start to see side-by-side launches for all console titles – and how will this effect business? In Australia we’ve already seen how the increasing influence of Steam has caused some retailers to stock less PC titles and, in some cases, demanding that publishers up the online price to match the Aussie cost in stores.
In the US at least, a digital copy of is set to have the same price as the PS3 retail copy, but how will this change if these ‘experiments’ continue to succeed?
What are your views? Personally I’m not precious about the concept of owning and collecting physical media, but I know plenty who are. Can we be expected to pay the exact same price for digital copies, and how would you feel about a move away from traditional box copies of video games?
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