WarHawk decides to be indecisive about format

by Nick Doerr { Apr 7th 2007 at 12:00PM }

A wise man once said to me: "If you cannot decide to go left or right, you must go right for a little while, turn around and go left for twice as long, then find a way to go both ways. Possibly through a series of right turns." Yeah, it was a gas station attendant and yeah, I was pretty lost. But I found the interstate eventually and all because I was indecisive in what direction I should go at the third light.

Why was that anecdote important? Because it seems WarHawk is going through the same ordeal. Blu-ray or PS-Store? A Sony representative recently answered some queries on the subject and said that WarHawk will be available via both mediums -- on Blu-ray and on the PlayStation Network. Will there be a difference between the two? Will one involve microtransactions while the other has everything bundled up from the get-go? We don't know. Which would you guys get? The full shabang or piece by piece, if that's the way the cookie shall crumble? Would an online-only title really merit the $60 price tag it may get in stores?

Tags: PlayStation 3, Playstation3, PS3, Sony, WarHawk

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

shase @ Apr 7th 2007 12:15PM

I think the features will be the same BUT its a user preference. I think gamestop has been doing it too- you can buy the game or dwonload it. The pros for downloading is of course you dont need to drive to get the game... but its probably a 5-6 gig download (maybe less..) so it really depends on the user's Hard Drive and internet speed. I see the game retail for 30$. I am more of a "tangible" person so i would buy it

AL7AIR @ Apr 7th 2007 12:18PM

I'd by the disc if the price tag is around 30 €uro (~40U$D) and if it contains everything that is available in the Playstation Store. Physical Game Owning ftw!

Stef Geiger @ Apr 7th 2007 12:52PM

If I had the choice, I'd have purchased Flow etc on Blu-ray. I would definitely want to physically own the disc. The only real downside might be that load times are slightly longer, but hopefully it'll be a smart game that "installs" the engine on the HDD the first time you run it. The title probably WON'T be that monstrous (it's just the game engine, maps, textures, sounds, and models) as there are no cinematics etc, but I don't want it taking up space on my HDD.

It'd probably be in Sony's best interests to keep it out of the PS-store, because people won't perceive it as a full-blown game. That all being said, no way would I pay any more than $40 CDN (about 35$US) for it. We all got shafted paying full price for Quake III.

Dahk @ Apr 7th 2007 1:06PM

I'm not too sure about blu-ray actually. Downloading means its on your HDD, and that means like zero load time! Unless... its one of those crazy MLB demos and takes like a kazillion hours to load AND you gotta listen to the same commentary every single time. ARGH.

Stef Geiger @ Apr 7th 2007 1:59PM

Yeah, uh, the game being on your HDD does NOT mean "zero load time". Perhaps you'll recall that the Motorstorm demo, despite being on your HDD, still takes for ever to load. Sure, the BRD version takes even longer, but the point I'm making is that there's more to it than just having the data on the HDD.

Actually, if the developers are SMART, they'll design the game to load pre-installed stuff off the hard drive, and stuff of the BRD at the same time, which would result in even faster load times than just reading off the HDD.

Lp47 @ Apr 7th 2007 2:05PM

I would buy the blu-ray version. I like having a disc more than some file thats on your ps3 taking up hard drive space.

360 rocks @ Apr 7th 2007 2:24PM

You know, these comments highlight whats going to be the PS3's biggest strength - its immune to the direction in which distribution goes, whether you prefer disc or online.
If in 2010 distribution is dominated by online, all owners have the hard disc for storage (and you dont need to pay double market rates for an upgrade, as in 360).
On the other hand, if disc-based distribution remains popular, it has a BR drive which adds to the cost today, but future-proofs against increase in game size.

Charl3z523 @ Apr 7th 2007 2:41PM

I would defiantly buy the disc.

Stef Geiger @ Apr 7th 2007 2:47PM

I think even by 2010, storage will still be too expensive, and no one will be able to afford the bandwidth necessary for downloading entire games/movies. Besides, plenty of people (if not most) will forever protest the notion of not getting to physically own a disc.

TheKing @ Apr 7th 2007 6:13PM

I'd buy it on bluray for sure.

Whats the ETA on this game anyways?

John @ Apr 7th 2007 6:18PM

I'm assuming that this is occuring because Europe tends to be much less connected. It's not a matter of choice, but more of possibility. Some of their comodes don't even work right.

So if I were Sony, I would release both, maybe with a difference of $10... download is $40, store-bought is $50... for packaging, and all.

There are people who will want to play it, who do not happen to be online, and may not be, anytime soon.

So they should offer it to them, through the stores.

Dahk @ Apr 7th 2007 6:18PM

Yeah my bad ahah, i meant zero as in less than just BRD. Most games still require quite a bit even on the HDD except like... Tekken. That game loads sick fast.

Anyway, maybe its just me, but I mean we're in the digital era, and everythings going paperless. Maybe people will warm up to the physical-less stuff too.

And how does storage become expensive? Isn't it usually cheaper? Its just everything else that uses abundantly more space.

Someone should stick an SSD drive into the PS3 and test out those load times o.0.

mccomber @ Apr 8th 2007 2:42PM

If it comes out on both, I'll buy the bluray version for sure. I still don't see digital downloads becoming the way we all get our media for several years, and I also like having a physical copy of things I buy.
Price wise, I'm hoping this comes in as a budget title, since I don't think it can really justify the full $60 we're expected to pay for games now. I think around $40 like several others have said is closer to where it should be. $30 or less would be awesome though. Anyone know what Calling All Cars is supposed to be priced at?