tiggerkiddo
Member
This is why I always buy physical copies. Can't stand buying only digital titles. I only do it if digital is the only medium the game came out on. Even then, I'm hesitant.
The loss of physical cd's for games in my opinion is a step in the right direction in keeping them going.
Games aren't like art in the traditional sense. There is only ever one art piece. There aren't multiple unless they are forgeries. Games have the opportunity to be more than that. A game hosted on a cloud system is a game that can be enjoyed by anyone, at any time or anywhere. I think that cloud gaming/streaming is great, because you don't have to care about the hardware, this game will always be playable because it's on a server.
Yes one day the server could go down, but there will almost certainly be backups, but they too could go down, they could all go down. It would be extremely unlikely, but it could happen, and that is a risk we are all going to have to take.
The only thing I feel bad for are the games that have come before this moment, specifically the console ones. Because you don't get console museums. You don't get the Sega Megadrive in a museum with all the games there that you can play. Those games are art in the traditional sense. In 50 years there will be people who have probably never heard of it or will ever see it, let alone play it. These are the history our industry and we are going to lose it.
That makes me sad, but when I think about things I'm glad we started catching onto this idea now. The Games industry has only been around for about 40 years, we only have the potential to lose that much. Imagine that amount of art in other mediums that has been lost in the last 2000+ years.
I personally prefer having discs. The downloads are just too large and hard drives fail all the time.
When internet speeds treat 1GB downloads within seconds in more places around the world, maybe this will be true.
the PlayStation One games that still work on my first-generation PlayStation 2
Console gaming did replace much of PC gaming indeed, that is true, but i'm sure that PC gaming wouldnt collapse completely if it wasnt for digital distribution. If digital distribution didnt excist, they wouldnt have any other option than to make retail copies, and people would still make games for PC.The PC and console markets are extremely different in that regard. PC retail was already going away, regardless if digital was there or not. The patching process, DRM methods (no trading), prices and fractured online all made PC retail terrible for consumers in the early and mid '00s. Steam and other PC digital stores made digital so enticing precisely because PC retail was dead, retailers didn't give a shit if Valve and publishers undermined them, they weren't selling PC games anyway! This isn't the case with consoles, you cannot provide fantastic digital without undermining retailers, and the retailers are still important in regards to console gaming. That's where I feel it falls apart.
For the record, I am 95% digital these days, precisely because PC digital is so great compared to retail on any platform (at least where I live). I'd be all for a digital future if everything was like how it is on PC, but the retailers prevalence in console gaming, the closed corporate nature of consoles, the fact that they all seem to be centred around subscriptions and the generation obsolescence with doubtful BC makes me never want to touch it on consoles with a 10ft pole.
Only if you let it happen.
...and I believe Steam has universally removed 0 games so far.
That makes me sad, but when I think about things I'm glad we started catching onto this idea now. The Games industry has only been around for about 40 years, we only have the potential to lose that much. Imagine that amount of art in other mediums that has been lost in the last 2000+ years.
I highly doubt people want to wait 6 hours before their download is complete in order to actually play the game. That is like going in the cinema for your favorite movie and having 50 minutes worth of trailers before it actually begins.
We're not far from that now, there was 30 minutes of adverts and trailers the last time I made the mistake of going to the cinema.
thatsthejoke.jpg?
We're not far from that now, there was 30 minutes of adverts and trailers the last time I made the mistake of going to the cinema.
thatsthejoke.jpg?
We're there already. Ive seen 50 minutes of pre-screening ads with about 4 trailers before the second Sherlock Holmes film a couple of years ago.
The glaring contradiction in your post is bolded. How incredibly myopic.
Look at books: they have proliferated to the point that many of them have so many copies they will never be lost unlike past works of which the sole copy has been destroyed.
Your future scenario basically would leave the door open for more "art" (not that games are art) to be lost in future where its all "in the cloud" when the servers fail.
Your countries must suck for cinema watching.
I think you've not understood what I've put down. I'm trying to see it from both sides. There will always be a risk that a server could fail and you lose them forever. I think that this is highly unlikely, but it is a possibility. I for one welcome the cloud. I think digital is the way to go.
This seems backwards when you consider Steam. Do you truly own your steam games?
Console gaming did replace much of PC gaming indeed, that is true, but i'm sure that PC gaming wouldnt collapse completely if it wasnt for digital distribution. If digital distribution didnt excist, they wouldnt have any other option than to make retail copies, and people would still make games for PC.
PC retail was also never really completely dead, at least not where i live. Even today, i can see PC games at retail. The reason for this is because of exposure. This is important for every game, not just consoles. There is probably less need for exposure for PC games in comparison to console games because console games are bigger when it comes to popularity (the usually sell more than PC games).
I think a huge part of why PC retail is/was going away is because of things like Steam. Generally speaking, its convenient, easy to use and the prices are good. Its the same thing with music and CDs. Today its so easy to buy music online, and the prices are also fair, at least from what i've seen.
But my main point is simply that Steam didnt do anything to keep physical games on the market. Steam did quite the opposite. If this is a good thing or a bad thing is something that people will have different opinion about of course =)
Which DRM system(s) are you referring to that didnt allow trading by the way? I only know about Steam that prevented this early on because you needed to activate the game online. I cant remember to have seen any 3rd party service doing this in the early 2000. Consoles are not based around subscriptions either, or how do you mean?
Only if you let it happen.
Wait, is the XBL marketplace separate for each platform? I mostly have experience with PSN where it is one big store for all platforms.But servers for original Xbox live have already gone down, and they did host DLC.
I don't agree that the days of owning games are coming to an end. I think that for many people the days of owning games ended years ago. More people are probably only starting to realize it more now, that's all.