Technology - Google News

With the next console generation, buying digital looks better than ever - The Verge

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 04:37 AM PDT

I'm generally a person who appreciates physical media. I collect vinyl records, buy print books, and like to watch 4K Blu-ray movies. But for a variety of reasons, I switched entirely to buying digital games on each platform as soon as the option became available. Now that Sony and Microsoft have revealed their next-generation consoles in full, a lot more people may well choose to do the same.

To recap, yesterday Sony announced the pricing for its upcoming PlayStation 5 — both the regular model and the disc-less Digital Edition. The standard PS5 is $499.99 and the otherwise identical Digital Edition is $399.99, saving you a full $100 if you swear off physical games for good.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has gone even further to incentivize digital game purchases and Game Pass subscriptions. The Series X will go head-to-head with the standard PS5, with both consoles offering disc drives and 4K output for $499. The Series S will play games at lower resolutions and doesn't have a disc drive, but it's much smaller and is priced at an impressively low $299.

The message is clear: physical games are now a high-end, optional part of the console gaming experience. A luxury. And both Sony and Microsoft are willing to subsidize the move to digital. There's no way the disc drive alone explains the $100 price delta between both PS5 variants, for example — but Sony wants to be your only retailer, and it'll expect to make the money back through Digital Edition customers buying games directly. Microsoft, meanwhile, is surely selling the Series S at well below cost, but stands to benefit from boosted Game Pass revenue and digital game sales.

If you feel strongly about sticking with physical games, this isn't great news. People living in areas with poor broadband service or data caps face the prospect of paying for a more expensive console, as do players who often offset the cost of a pricey hobby by buying and selling used games. That market is also likely to be significantly squeezed as more people move to digital-only consoles, which won't bode well for retailers like GameStop — though they do have the ability to be more flexible on pricing than the platform owners. Digital games are also often more expensive than their retail equivalents when not on sale, but you should expect next-gen games to be pricey wherever you buy them for the near future.

Despite the potential issues, this shift has felt inevitable for a long time. With the PS4 and Xbox One, games don't even run off the discs they were printed on — you have to install them fully to the consoles' hard drives because Blu-ray's access speeds are so much slower. That removed a key advantage of physical gaming on consoles like the Xbox 360, where storage space was at a premium for many users. Even before then, the PS3's move to Blu-ray discs often meant mandatory partial installations to reduce load times. It was genuinely controversial when Devil May Cry 4 forced you to install 5GB of data to the hard drive, believe it or not.

As that generation played out and larger hard drives became more commonplace, Sony and Microsoft started pushing full-game downloads as an alternative to traditional retail. Sony had already started making PSP games available digitally as standard with 2009's PSP Go, a smaller digital-only PSP with a sliding design and a higher price point than the regular model. That same year, Microsoft announced its Xbox Games on Demand service, which marked the first time you could download full retail Xbox 360 games, though at first only older titles were available. Sony then launched a program in 2012 called PSN Day 1 Digital, where new games came to the PlayStation Store day-and-date.

By the time the PS4 and Xbox One came around, both companies sold all new games digitally as well as at retail. Microsoft even tried to make digital ownership a core component of its platform, with the ability to share and resell downloaded games coming at the expense of offline play and used game support. Of course, the company eventually reversed course after a huge backlash. But we did eventually see a disc-less Xbox One S hit the market last year, and I wonder how Microsoft's original vision for the Xbox One would be received today.

Maybe not much better — physical games won't go away completely, of course. But things are trending in that direction. Even Nintendo announced yesterday that more than 50 percent of its Switch game sales were digital in the first half of this year, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The figure was 74 percent in the April-June quarter for Sony, which was already at 53 percent a year ago. These numbers are going to fall as customers return to brick-and-mortar stores, but once people get used to digital games, they may be more willing to get on board with the experience.

The core advantage of digital from a user perspective is the convenience. You don't have to muddle around with ejecting and inserting discs. Your games don't take up shelf space, and these days they don't take up any more hard drive space, either. You can shop at stores from multiple regions, and everything appears in the same library. Once you're used to it, dealing with spinning discs feels archaic.

EA said that 52% of its console full game unit sales in the past 12 months were via digital download
For reference, Take Two says its ratio was 55% for FY2020
Sony said that 51% of all games sold on PS4 in FY2020 were digital
In other words. We enter next gen with digital >50%
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) July 30, 2020

Some people will still want physical games for the ability to sell them on, or for quite the opposite reason: to maintain a tangible collection. Preservation isn't as much of a factor as it once was in this age of live servers and day-one patches — a lot of PS4 discs are going to be pretty useless in decades to come. That doesn't mean there's no appeal to building up a collection, though, and companies like Limited Run Games play to this market with special-edition physical releases for titles that otherwise wouldn't receive one.

But that's very much a niche — the vinyl of video games, if you will. (And yes, Limited Run also sells video game vinyl.) What's changed is that both Sony and Microsoft are betting that there are now enough people out there willing to stop buying physical games altogether. Both companies are also making sure that their digital-only buyers will feel like they've already built up a collection from the start. There's Xbox Game Pass, of course, which does a great job of integrating into your own library, and Sony just announced a PlayStation Plus Collection for PS5 featuring many of the PS4's best titles.

Buying digital is worth it if you value the experience, and it's also very much in Microsoft and Sony's interests that you do so. That makes a product like the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition an obvious win-win for people that are already used to digital — a better experience at a lower price. (And a more attractive design.) The key question is how many people who buy physical today will be willing to make the trade-off next generation.

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Apple Watch SE first impressions - Engadget

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 06:02 AM PDT

I've been wearing the new, 44mm Apple Watch SE for about a day, and I can't stop thinking of it as Apple's FrankenWatch. It's hard not to, honestly.

For one, the SE uses the same S5 system-in-package (or SIP) that we got in last year's Series 5, which in turn contains the same dual-core processor as the Series 4. Meanwhile, Apple has confirmed that the SE has the same compass and always-on altimeter as the Series 6, along with a very similar screen. From what I can tell, it's the same bigger display we got in the Series 5, just without the always-on functionality enabled. And while the Series 4 was the first Apple Watch to come with heart-sensing ECG support, you simply don't get that here. Ditto for the Series 6's new blood oxygen measurement features.

See what I mean? "FrankenWatch" feels like a pretty appropriate nickname -- the SE is a mixed bag of the best parts and features from the last few years of Apple Watch history. That means it, thematically at least, has quite a bit in common with this year's new iPad Air. Both new devices are surprisingly similar to Apple's highest-end models, and if you can afford it, the SE offers a lot more than the basic model — in this case, the $199 Apple Watch Series 3.

Gallery: Apple Watch SE hands-on photos | 7 Photos

Now, you're definitely going to want to wait for our full Apple Watch SE review, but as far as first impressions go, the SE leaves a pretty strong one. I've spent the last year or so wearing the Series 5 and really enjoying it -- it's only been in the past few years that the Apple Watch's processing power meant you didn't really have to worry about stops and starts and stutters. The whole experience feels pretty consistently smooth now, which you just couldn't say in the early days.

So far, the Apple Watch SE has felt just as fast, which of course makes sense since it shares its brain with the Series 5. In other words, you can expect performance that's in line with what was -- up until just recently -- Apple's flagship wearable. I haven't had the SE long enough to fully test its battery life, but I easily got a full day of use from the Series 5 when it launched, and the SE might last a little longer since it doesn't have an always-on display to worry about.

That's not bad for $280, though it's worth noting that last year's Series 5 occasionally goes on sale for as low as $300. If you see one of those deals, you might want to jump on that instead. I'd personally opt for the Series 5 myself, but I'm perhaps a little biased: Earlier this year, before 2020 started going down the drain, I had an atrial flutter strike out of nowhere, and it was only thanks to the Series 5's mild concern via the ECG app that I went to an emergency room and got the all-clear. Since then, I've been glad to see new wearables like Samsung's latest Galaxy Watch embrace similar features, and can't help but be a little disappointed Apple had to cut it here.

If you're already dutifully keeping tabs on your heart (or just aren't particularly fussed about it), then it's hard not to recommend the SE. It still has most of the health-focused features Apple has rolled out in the past few years, like fall detection, alerts for excessive ambient noise, and non-ECG-based heart rate monitoring. And if nothing else, the Watch SE is a great entry point for all of the new features available in watchOS 7.

That update just recently launched and is now available for the Watch Series 3 and newer. Naturally, we'll dig into what's new in watchOS in our full review, but I just want to quickly run through a couple of the highlights. There is a bevy of new watch faces here, from the whimsical (Geoff McFetridge's cute, clean "Artist" faces), to practical options like the lap-tracking "Count Up" face for your next run o. Meanwhile, Apple really gets a kick out of showing off its new Typograph face, and with good reason: It looks fantastic. The problem is, without any kind of dial markers, it's kind of hard for me to tell what time it is.

Oh, and if you're really in the mood — or if you give a Watch you're managing through Family Setup to a kid without an iPhone — watchOS 7 lets you create Memoji right on your wrist. The process features almost the same level of depth as you'd find if you created a Memoji on your phone, just with a bit more lag.

Beyond that, you'll also find the automatic handwashing feature, which indeed works as advertised once you enable it in settings. Just keep in mind that it doesn't seem to recognize back-to-back hand washes, you'll have to wait about 20 seconds before the timer kicks in again. Perhaps the biggest additions to watchOS 7 are Apple's sleep tracking tools, which I haven't been to test yet since power naps just aren't in the cards these days.

And speaking of things I haven't spent much time with yet, there's support for more workouts this year, like core training and dance. The only dancing I do is playing Dance Dance Revolution. In my living room. In the dark. So if you want to see that... I guess let us know? (And also, what's wrong with you?)

Since I have them, I might as well talk about Apple's new Watch bands, too. The silicone Solo Loop feels a lot like Apple's classic Sport Band, but the material actually seems quite a bit thinner. Personally, I don't find it nearly as comfortable as the classic Sport Band, but if nothing else, it looks cleaner. On the flip side, the woven loop looks and feels surprisingly nice — and it should for $99. I'm a little concerned about how this material will hold up over time — at risk of venturing into TMI territory, I am an incredibly sweaty man — though I appreciate the amount of stretch this material has.

I would caution you to be mindful of these bands, though, since they're the first ones you actually need to know your size for. Apple offers a print-out sizing tool on their website, which helps, but the sizing doesn't feel completely consistent between the two loop types. I wear a size 7 woven loop, for example, but the same size Solo Loop feels just a little too snug for comfort.

And that's about it for my first day with the Apple Watch SE. It doesn't offer everything I hoped for, but considering its price and the strength of what it does offer, the SE just might be the ideal entry point to Apple's wearables. Stay tuned for our full review to find out for sure.

	Apple Watch Series 6	Apple Watch SE	Apple Watch Series 3
Price	$399 and up	$279 and up	$199 and up
Display	LTPO OLED Retina, always-on	LTPO OLED Retina	LTPO OLED Retina
Processor	Apple S6	Apple S5	Apple S3
Storage	32 GB	32 GB	8 GB
Sizes	40mm, 44mm	40mm, 44mm	38mm, 42mm
WiFi	802.11b/g/n, dual-band	802.11b/g/n, 2.4 GHz	802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz
Optional LTE	Yes	Yes	No
Bluetooth	v5.0	v5.0	v4.2
U1 chip	Yes	No	No
NFC	Yes	Yes	Yes
GPS	GPS, GNSS, compass	GPS, GNSS, compass	GPS, GNSS
Health sensors	Heart rate, blood oxygen, ECG	Heart rate	Heart rate
Always-on altimeter	Yes	Yes	No
Fall detection	Yes	Yes	No
Water resistance	5 ATM	5 ATM	5 ATM
Battery	Up to 18 hours	Up to 18 hours	Up to 18 hours
Operating System	watchOS 7	watchOS 7	watchOS 7

In this article: watchOS, preview, apple watch, wearables, watchOS 7, Apple Watch SE, apple, hands-on, news, gear

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