jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Even though I was an Xbox guy (I had an OG Xbox, and 360 early last gen before it went red ring and I never replaced it) this news of "always online DRM" and them wanting to kill physical disks was what pushed me to buy a PS4 this generation. I eventually picked up an Xbox One X, but honestly only because of backwards compatibility with older games and obviously years later.
In those years where I was a PS4 player, I predominantly bought physical disks. I have almost 300 physical PS4 games now. Some of you say "but if you can't get online to update them, they're worthless" but as others have pointed out, that's not exactly the same thing. When I upgraded to the PS4 Pro, I gave my original PS4 to my son - and since most of my games were physical, he could simply pop the disk in his console and start playing without any hassles. That has provided a huge additional value to me, personally.
I bought 3 digital games on my Switch: Stardew Valley, Golf Story, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - the later of which I'm already regretting. I love the game, and I think my son would love it too, and I'd like to be able to pass it along to him when I'm finished - but I can't. I wish I would have bought the cartridge. In Microsoft's dream world where this scheme took off and was successful, I might have been able to give him my digital copy of the game which is cool, but at the cost of always online DRM I don't think it'd be a good trade.
All that is to say, I don't think Microsoft was right all along. I'm a huge fan of the X and it's backwards compatibility, but if their next console is 100% digital and always online that news alone would be enough to make me want to skip it.
In those years where I was a PS4 player, I predominantly bought physical disks. I have almost 300 physical PS4 games now. Some of you say "but if you can't get online to update them, they're worthless" but as others have pointed out, that's not exactly the same thing. When I upgraded to the PS4 Pro, I gave my original PS4 to my son - and since most of my games were physical, he could simply pop the disk in his console and start playing without any hassles. That has provided a huge additional value to me, personally.
I bought 3 digital games on my Switch: Stardew Valley, Golf Story, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - the later of which I'm already regretting. I love the game, and I think my son would love it too, and I'd like to be able to pass it along to him when I'm finished - but I can't. I wish I would have bought the cartridge. In Microsoft's dream world where this scheme took off and was successful, I might have been able to give him my digital copy of the game which is cool, but at the cost of always online DRM I don't think it'd be a good trade.
All that is to say, I don't think Microsoft was right all along. I'm a huge fan of the X and it's backwards compatibility, but if their next console is 100% digital and always online that news alone would be enough to make me want to skip it.