14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft Reflections, the studio behind the upcoming Driver: San Francisco racing game has announced that the title won't be available just on retail DVDs or Blu-ray, but also as a digital release that will soon appear on the PlayStation Network online service.
Ubisoft is set to publish Driver: San Francisco on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 at the beginning of September as a retail title, but the French company is also keen on making it available as a digital release, not just for the PC.
According to Ubisoft Reflections managing director Garth Edmonson, the game will be released digitally on the PlayStation Store, for the PlayStation 3 console, a few weeks after the retail release.
"We are doing triple-A games you can download to the hard-drive," said Edmonson, via Develop. "Driver is released on the PlayStation Network in a few weeks, for example. That's the full Blu-Ray/DVD experience you can download."
Edmonson emphasized that the shift towards digital distribution is happening and, while gamers still aren't really accustomed to just buying their games online and having them downloaded onto their consoles or PC, many will soon start choosing this option over going to a retail store and buying a game on a disc.
"I think physical media will remain very important, but I think things are going to shift," he said. "How long that will take I'm not too sure. I don't agree that the size of data will be the limiting factor, though, you can store this data on your hard drives."
Edmonson didn't talk about a release of Driver: San Francisco for the Xbox 360 via the Games on Demand service on Xbox Live, but it will no doubt happen sooner or later, judging by Microsoft's stance on offering many games digitally.
Driver: San Francisco is set to appear in stores on September 2, in Europe, and September 6, in North America.