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When Will Game Discs Go The Way of The CD?
- Thread starter Dubz
- Start date
TheSpaceBetween
Member
Except that's not true. It's not your library because you don't own the games. You just own a license to it. A license that can be revoked.
gigantor21
Member
The last physical PC game I bought was Stranglehold. I recently got a physical copy of Doom on sale; it will be the first boxed PC game I've bought in 9 years. I hope I still remember how to work it...
That said, though, I'd prefer having both options on the market for as long as possible.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Thank God the console gaming business has margins which are too small for Apple. We will never have to deal with shit like that in gaming.
Unknown Soldier
Member
PC is way, way different from console. I haven't bought a physical PC game in 10 years either, but I still buy all my console games on disc.
PC downloads are mostly quite reasonable priced. I paid £23 for Deus Ex. the digital version on PS4 was probably £50.
so you're basing the small number of people that buy physical games are on pc? because i think console beats digital 3:1 on sales physically
s_mirage
Member
But physical album sales are still outselling digital. So even CDs haven't gone the way of the CD, as you put it.
This pretty. As it stand in its current state by going digital only you will beholden to the console market place which means.
-No more trading in games.
-No more reselling games.
-No lending or borrowing games.
-No more competitive low prices at retail as they will be at full price till whenever the publisher decides to hold a sale.
-Running the risk of having your license taken off you at anytime.
There is zero benefit of going 100% digital only, other than pure laziness and the publishers gaining total control of the market place, and I hope that physical disk stick around till the console digital stores improves greatly.
chillybright
Banned
Yeah, you wish.
With ever-growing resolution and texture quality, game files are and will become bigger and bigger. Just look at the COD franchise from MW1 to now. The content is pretty much the same yet the game size has increased ten folds.
Manmademan
Member
Terrible OP.
Physical media is still the vast majority of the market.
A very large chunk of the country doesn't have "good" internet and is still stuck on DSL, low bandwidth cable, mobile internet, or (god forbid) dialup. Telecom companies are extremely reluctant to expand networks outside of major metro areas so this one isn't going to change for a long time. Mobile internet/LTE will eventually cover a lot of these people, but cellphone companies are all extremely aggressive with bandwidth caps and throttling.
Collectors who enjoy disc art and whatnot aside, there is a very real concern about loss of the ability to play the games you paid for- ask anyone who has a copy of P.T. The only thing stopping Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and third parties from yanking access to digital media when they feel like it is goodwill.
Speaking of digital stores, there's no guarantee those things will even still be around 10 years from now. What happens to everyone with hundreds of dollars of digital games they bought if Microsoft decides that Xbox is no longer profitable and they're simply shutting the store down? Better hope your console never dies, ever. Physical media that's not an issue.
Some of us also like the idea that we can loan, borrow, or sell the games we bought without restrictions or rights management bullshit from platform holders and third parties. Digital Distribution we don't have that ability. Given time it's even possible to improve the performance of physical titles via emulation- ask anyone with a decent PS2 library and PCSX2.
i get that some PC gamers aren't concerned about this, but you don't have to look very far to find fans of retro console titles that will pay a lot of money for NES/SNES/Genesis carts that are long since out of print and not available by any means other than the original physical copy. You think that will never happen to current gen games? it will.
Physical media is still the vast majority of the market.
A very large chunk of the country doesn't have "good" internet and is still stuck on DSL, low bandwidth cable, mobile internet, or (god forbid) dialup. Telecom companies are extremely reluctant to expand networks outside of major metro areas so this one isn't going to change for a long time. Mobile internet/LTE will eventually cover a lot of these people, but cellphone companies are all extremely aggressive with bandwidth caps and throttling.
Collectors who enjoy disc art and whatnot aside, there is a very real concern about loss of the ability to play the games you paid for- ask anyone who has a copy of P.T. The only thing stopping Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and third parties from yanking access to digital media when they feel like it is goodwill.
Speaking of digital stores, there's no guarantee those things will even still be around 10 years from now. What happens to everyone with hundreds of dollars of digital games they bought if Microsoft decides that Xbox is no longer profitable and they're simply shutting the store down? Better hope your console never dies, ever. Physical media that's not an issue.
Some of us also like the idea that we can loan, borrow, or sell the games we bought without restrictions or rights management bullshit from platform holders and third parties. Digital Distribution we don't have that ability. Given time it's even possible to improve the performance of physical titles via emulation- ask anyone with a decent PS2 library and PCSX2.
i get that some PC gamers aren't concerned about this, but you don't have to look very far to find fans of retro console titles that will pay a lot of money for NES/SNES/Genesis carts that are long since out of print and not available by any means other than the original physical copy. You think that will never happen to current gen games? it will.
BlazeHedgehog
Member
Via what, magic?
The fact that, from 2006 to 2016, we went from games that were 4gb on average to 35gb on average says it all. Bigger textures, more geometry, and more intricate detail in general means constantly expanding file sizes.
You can automate some of that, with procedurally generated textures, but there are specific, hand-crafted details that cannot ever be procedurally generated. You might be able to procedurally generate a wood texture, but you still need an artist to create the object it gets applied to. And there will be personal artistic touches that procedural generation has a very hard time replicating. Art is data, data takes up space.
The same goes for voice. Strides are being made in text-to-speech synthesis, but believe it or not, that takes up space, too. Phoneme databases aren't free, or small, especially high quality ones. For a cast of ten characters, high-quality TTS systems would still require multiple gigabytes of storage. Add in multilingual support and those space requirements will grow.
There will probably be a plateau that game file sizes hit eventually, but nobody in game development currently seems to be concerned about how much space their game takes up on a disk. If anything, developers have been going hog wild with all of the storage space they have nowadays -- like how Metal Gear Rising on PC is almost 30gb only because it contains every cutscene in the game as a 1080p, basically-uncompressed FMV, all copied six different times for multiple languages.
The only REAL way that game sizes get "small" is with stuff like PlaystationNow, where you don't download or install anything and are instead just controlling a streaming video of game, but that's got its own problems.
Battlefield 1 is £54.99 digital on psn and £37 physical on Amazon...
But yeah, it's an age thing right.
That depends entirely on what the publishers are charging for them. Currently the benefit of not having to change the disc doesn't outweigh a saving of £18 and the ability to then sell the game on.
Manmademan
Member
Unknown Soldier
Member
Let's be 100% honest about this, the reason PC gamers aren't concerned about this is:
(1) PC games have always required a single-use serial number since forever, because PC games have always installed to the hard drive and there was no way to prevent buying 1 copy and installing it unlimited times otherwise. PC gamers are USED to buy once, use once, since the beginning.
(2) Because of (1), there has pretty never been used game trading or sales for PC gamers. So they aren't concerned about that either.
(3) Because of (1) and (2), PC gamers were the first to embrace purely digital distribution platforms like Steam which have minimally invasive DRM. PC gamers who lived through the eras of SafeDisc, SecuROM, Star-Force, etc. know exactly what I'm talking about here. For us, digital distribution and Steam is by far the lesser of the evils we faced.
(4) The advent of Steam has had the side effect of making it possible to buy a game in one region and resell it in another. PC gamers don't pay $60 for a game. They haven't for years. I don't remember the last time I paid $60 for a PC game at launch. The most I'm willing to pay for a PC game is $40 these days and I have not failed to buy a PC game I wanted at launch yet.
So yes, PC gamers are often not concerned about losing physical the way console gamers are. This is because PC gaming is totally different from console gaming and has been since the beginning.
Never, consoles manufacturers still needs stores to stock and sell consoles. That means they need products and accessories on store shelves if a company went all digital retail stores would drop their consoles. They don't make enough money off just the machine.
Also the internet in many countries is in no state to handle modern game sizes.
Also the internet in many countries is in no state to handle modern game sizes.
momshotdad
Member
When internet infrastructure improves. I get 3-4mb/s download and it would take me an eternity to download any modern game. Then you add data caps and you could blow through 3 days of data downloading one game.
Manmademan
Member
aware of all of that, not really new to me I'm a pretty old gamer.
OP was clearly talking about console titles though, and attempted to use PC gaming as a rationale as to why digital distribution would take over eventually.
The markets are simply different, and console gamers are a much more casual market and have concerns and market realities affecting their purchasing habits that PC gamers don't. You don't have to look back very far either to prove this- the Xbox One potentially cutting off the ability to sell/trade/buy used games damn near destroyed Microsoft's console business overnight, and handed the generation to Sony before a single box was sold.
Speaking of which- Sony/MS/Nintendo having stores that they control also frequently leads to a situation where physical titles end up on sale at retailers like best buy or target as loss leaders, while the digital store is still selling at MSRP months after launch.
Physical gamers who actually care aren't paying $60 for new titles EITHER- ask anyone who's using GCU at best buy or preordering via amazon prime. 20% off on new titles is standard.
eh, if we're talking about console titles the only time this happens is for extremely niche games that never would have justified a physical release in the pre-distribution era. That's market expansion, not replacement.
Astral Dog
Member
when Internet is cheap and accessible to everyone
Unknown Soldier
Member
You're talking about small indie titles and niche localized titles which would never have come out otherwise in the era before digital distribution. This is growth of the market overall, not shrinking of physical. Steam has been amazing for expanding the market for indie games and also genres which have never seen the light of day in the West before like Japanese visual novels.
Small niche title and indie games don't count and will continue not to count till a big name AAA title only gets a digital only release on console.
Publisher know that people aren't willing to go full on digital just yet.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I love physical games, but the talk about needing reliable internet baffles me. Isn't it 2016 and we're all watching Netflix and iTunes 24/7?
If movies have largely gone digital, games certainly can.
If movies have largely gone digital, games certainly can.
I always laugh when I investigate mobile broadband packages. A lot of phone companies use HD movies and games as examples when advertising how fast their download speeds are, even though the download size of those items far exceed the download caps they offer for such services.
Pretty much all of my local retailers stock fewer physical games than thry did in the past. Gamestop/EB Games give as much shelf space to figurines, geek bobbleheads, and game related knick knacks as they do to games now. Best Buy has cut the number of game related isles, and what is left is half accessories and Amiibo/lego dimensions figures. Several places that used to stock videogames (like Staples) barely bother now.
I imagine Amazon has picked up some slack, but I think we are already seeing retail transition.
I imagine Amazon has picked up some slack, but I think we are already seeing retail transition.
Those racks n racks of CD's at Walmart n Target must dont count. The ones you can buy online must dont either.
Maybe he should have said 8 track or vinyl. Even then the media just changed. And even tho there are fewer n fewer portable CD players CD's are still being bought, sold. Mp3 players replacing portable CD players didnt get rid of CD's.
katsubento
Member
I still prefer discs. I can loan them. I can sell them. If my hdd dies, I'm not as screwed for a nice chunk of time to re-download everything.
I don't mind digital titles as a whole, but I don't prefer them.
Why do you need to know if it will happen in 3-5 years? No one knows for sure.
Could happen. I guess you'd be happy OP?
I don't mind digital titles as a whole, but I don't prefer them.
Why do you need to know if it will happen in 3-5 years? No one knows for sure.
Could happen. I guess you'd be happy OP?
AnimaOnline
Member
The thing about digital music is it doesn't rely on an online service. You can download it and have it backed up offline. You own it. With gaming that's often not the case. Downloaded games on rely connecting to a specific service whenever you want to install them and if the service or your account with the services goes away then so does your game. GOG and a few others are the exception allowing you to backup your game's installer offline. If more game downloads worked like GOG then I'd be much more comfortable going fully digital.
Those small indie games are purely additive though. It's not like they were previously released on disc and now aren't. They are also cheaper and have a lower file size compared to the AAA stuff everyone is talking.
I say huh? Car manufactures still have them available with ways to listen to portable devices. What I dont like is car manufactures not having a CD player as part of the base, standard package.
Stand alone dvd, blu ray players can play CD's. They didnt get rid the format because they know its still being bought, used.
I think we have some years to go before CD pretty much dies. Portable use it may have but not overall.
It's easier and less bandwidth heavy to stream Netflix and music than it is to download a game?
I'm not understanding this.
entremet
Member
All the platform holders have digital only titles, including the big publishers. It's not just an indie thing.
But as someone mentioned it is additive not a replacement.
Manmademan
Member
Netflix and iTunes aren't anywhere near as bandwidth heavy as games are.
A single 40gb game will exceed the monthly bandwidth cap for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, leading you to either have your speeds busted down to dial-up levels or at least some very nasty letters.
You can stream Netflix all day every day for a month and not get near that.
Moor-Angol
Banned
I pray for your hard drives every day OP
katsubento
Member
Kinda is. Both take way less than any large game.
Jubenhimer
Member
Physical Media won't go away anytime soon. The question is, how much more of a niche it becomes. People still buy DVDs and Blu-Rays, even though iTunes and Google Play have become primary distribution platforms for home video now. Physical Media will still be around because it's cheap and convenient, but it'll slowly move away from being the primary form of game distribution, and regulate as more of a secondary status.
entremet
Member
They are already there. That was the new Apple TV and it's digital only of course.
Manmademan
Member
It's going to stay until the console business changes drastically.
The OP mentions that games exist for retailers to make a profit, since the systems themselves don't have much in the way of profit margin.
This is also likely why MSRP on psn and live stays as high as it does for as long as it does- Sony and MS don't really want to compete with their retailers.
Physical games go away, then we're looking at much more expensive consoles, and less places selling them.
entremet
Member
Reselling is a huge with gaming. Losing resellling rights actually hurts the industry. This is how Gamestop survives.