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B0rsuk said:
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"Physical books are history.
The future is electronic books, end of story."
Things aren't as simple as they seem.
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Some people make it sound like putting Dominions3 on torrent and selling only patches* err I mean cdkeys would help piracy.
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I mentioned and cdkeys. But I didnt mention anything about it helping piracy. I just mentioned it because it would be an easier distribution to get into and IMHO it doesnt hurt things any more than any other download distribution does.
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Don't delude yourself. It took my friend one day to find and download full version of Dominions3. Yes, I know this post will be edited soon, but it had to be said.
If Dominions3 was available for sale/download, people who pirate it could buy it instead.
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Thats often said but doesnt tend to be true. There are people who will cross the line, and those that wont. Keeping it clear that piracy is theft tends to do the most good there.
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Additional benefits of electronic selling:
- no need to manufacture cd's. (result: the game is cheaper)
- no need to store cd's. It costs money, too (result: the game is cheaper)
- you need electronic activation anyway (correct me if I'm wrong, but you couldn't patch Dominions2 offline).
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MAYBE you could say LESS need to manufacture and store but I doubt it. The numbers that have to be done in batches are preset by most companies so I think that would stay about the same.
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Ultimately, it's convenience for seller versus convenience for customer. Download is convenient for customer. Shipping is convenient for seller, it seems. I suppose making customers happier doesn't pay off.
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A crude way of putting it but true enough. There is quite abit of layout involved with digital downloads, and some major chance taking. So unless they can justify all of that with abit more than "it will make some customers happier" then it wouldnt make much sense for a company to do it. You might as well say they should give it away for free.
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As for the manual, as someone already pointed out, hybrid solutions are possible (pdf early, just manual sent later).
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* a typo caused by being lost in thoughts, but EA Games actually makes you pay for patches. With money and sanity.
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Patches and demos have gotten large. They have a measureable cost now to distribute them. Many companies are beginning to charge for access. Or for "faster service access without a waiting line" which amounts to basically the same thing.