Topic: Digital/Physical Thoughts?

I still dislike what Sony has done, but seeing this news... I feel like no matter what people said, no matter how many backlashes there is, Sony won't pull back.

Generally I don't buy expensive digital games as I have a tendency to buy a game and realise I don't like it as much as I thought I would and want to sell it on fairly quickly and you can't do that with digital so tend to keep to cheap purchases for digital. If the PS6 is digital only and especially with the likely ridiculous price of the console perhaps over £1000 I'm fairly sure I won't be buying it at any point. PS5 is likely my last Playstation console. I've been moving more to PC anyway. Same with Xbox which to be honest seems like its in its death throes anyway. I feel like Nintendo will be the last to go all digital and we might get an extra generation or two out of them before its digital only. I feel like Nintendo may hugely benefit from Sony's digital future.

I feel like the gaming industry is going to force the future on people that many don't want and ultimately that might mean the gaming industry will significantly downsize with only a core niche audience happy to pay near $100 for each game experience and cough up for a $1200 games console. I think retro gaming will become far more important in the future.

I've seen people comment that GTA 6 is such a huge game that it will shape the games industry but personally I've never been a big fan of the GTA games anyway so they are not important to me.

I've seen some analysis where they expect console gamers to reduce in number but more revenue to be generated from each console gamer i.e. they are going to be a cash cows milked by Sony and Microsoft etc. That really doesn't appeal to me at all. I tend to buy consoles for the single player experiences and do all my online multiplayer gaming on pc and android. I never subscribe to psn or xbox live, I buy consoles and games mainly second-hand. I have more games than I have time to play anyway. I could play new game experiences for the rest of my life with what I currently have. I probably start a new game every week to 2 weeks as well as play my favourite older games.

@CANOEberry

I'm sorry if that got to you, I was talking about Western countries specifically.

Around here, most people prefer watching streaming platforms (= digital media) rather than buying DVDs/Blu-ray. Hell, laptops nowadays don't even have a disk drive.

Books still have better physical sales (I'm not a fan of e-books myself) but digital content like webtoons are definitely very popular.
Also in many nearby countries (Netherlands, Finland, Norway, etc.) audio books have become incredibly popular, and they're definitely digital content.

PlayStation physical media has been dead since PS3 in my eyes. Vacant hallow corporate stripped down ugly flimsy pieces of CG artless junk, with either black and white manuals, or no manual, with a vanilla boring disc inside, splattered in legal text agreement, along with Sony's bland souless all white/or all black PS logo which used to be almost rainbow-like in color. They're not even trying. The writing has been written on the wall for years now.

They don't look like pieces of art that you'd want as part of your home decor, at least not for me. PS1 long box releases however from 95 and 96 back in the day were the real deal. 😉 Resident Evil 1, Battle Arena Toshinden, Rayman, Jumping flash!, just to name a few. Some of the CD Jewel case releases looked great too.

But PS2 and onwards, including XBOX everything. Couldnt care less.

DEATH TO THE PHYSICAL FORMAT!

@BrazillianCara That absurd price is just an opportunist taking advantage of the fact that the domestic version of Star Fox is currently out of stock. I saw several people buying it on pre-order for less than R$ 300.

@Zuljaras you can transfer digital games via usb and external drives; so there’s still a way to preserve digital too.

@nomither6 They wont work on another console if you do not have the same linked account to the shop. AND you have to make sure you have internet to verify the account.

The only place that has that is GOG on PC.

@Zuljaras yeah, unfortunately.

When PS6 has no discs at all, I'm gonna ironically say "Look, no one is buying PS6 discs, that's the proof people don't want them!" to everyone, because that's how stupid at least half of the arguments against physical media are.

Ask me again when every streaming service raises their prices half a dozen or so more times in the next 5 years about that digital domination.

@kkslider5552000 Amen to that, brotha.

@nomither6
Yea, it’s the DRM.

Having the files for digital games backed up and everything is awesome, but if you ever need to actually tap those files to reinstall them to a new system, the DRM is gonna necessitate internet and account verification, etc.

And that’s where, if you want to take a conspiratorial view of the future, these companies can snag you to complicate your ability to actually play the game.

@Rodolfo6493 Then I guess I will check again at a later date.

Yeah, the real issues are DRM and live services.

Buy something DRM-free from GoG and you can download and keep the offline installer indefinitely, and use it on all the PCs that you'll ever own.

Conversely, you might have a physical disc for a game like The Crew and it's basically a drink coaster at this point, because the game's online infrastructure got turned off. Lots of older PC games on disc also won't work any more because the DRM relies upon OS features that have been patched out since.

If anyone just wants to support a console that's committed to physical media, I'll put a word in for the Evercade though. They'll be releasing games on cartridge for the foreseeable future, because it's what their entire platform is built around.

The bare fact that arguments are being advanced against physical copies of media is the entire issue. This entire "debate" can be summarized thus: people who want hard copies do not want to take away digital distribution from their fellow gamers. Pro-corporate zombies want to take away physical distribution from their fellow gamers.

Only one side wants to take choices away from others.

@CANOEberry
Kind of, yea, and it looks hilarious when you phrase it starkly like that.

Having options is good for all consumers.

@rallydefault Yeah...but that's the kind of vibe I get from those folks. Like they think their choice for going all digital is the only choice for others. And it's basically all about themselves. Maybe my thoughts on that could be wrong but for me...I like everyone to have a choice of how they buy games & all.