New data shows that physical software dollar sales dipped to an all-time July low of $85 million in the US — the worst total since tracking began in 1995.
But it’s not a downside of being digital. It’s a downside of greedy corporations that are using a product that is superior to increase their control over consumers.
Physical media that exists for games doesn’t last so if it’s not constantly produced it will just decay in a few years.
Legislation should allow game archiving (pirating) and archivists should work to find a way to best keep the games. If thats physically somehow, sure. But I doubt it. Games are digital.
There’s basically no serious longterm digital data archiving that is kept in discrete physical media.
Also, individual ownership is not the right way to solve this. These things should be publicly available for all, not kept private by a few people.
I dream of a world without anti-piracy laws where old games are simply publicly available for all. We have different ideas of what the problem is here.
Bro wishing physical games kept existing is infinitely more pie-in-the-sky than continuing supporting archiving and piracy projects…
And my point is it’s not about owning at all. I don’t see any of the stuff I download as “mine”. I have access to it. But how can you have property over something that can be infinitely copied? How can you own something infinite?
Don’t you guys see that this “ownership” thing is a scam? Set-up by the people in power? The only real meaningful ownership here is their ownership of all gaming developers and publishers.
But also, your first two sentences are a huge exaggeration. The vast majority of ps5 physical games ship entirely on disk. You can buy them, insert them into an offline ps5, install, and play. No downloads, no internet required.
Yeah it’s a moronic turn of the industry that you can’t actually play the game off the disc and have to manually manage your console’s storage. I have hardly bought any game the last two generations because of it. I’m not going to uninstall a good game for any piece of crap game.
Well first of all I mostly game on steam, pc and steamdeck. And I don’t even know how that would work with discs.
But I do have a switch 2. Switched over from the switch 1, where I could just move my library over.
Anyway, the pros of digital? Convenience, pure convenience.
I can go to the nintendo shop and see what there is and buy / play it instantly. I don’t have to go to a store or order online and wait for it to arrive at some point.
Then all the games I bought are in a list where I can switch between them instantly. I don’t play in handheld so I don’t have get up and find the game in the pile of games that I need shelf space for. And I don’t need to fiddle with the switch that’s hidden behind my tv to switch out the games.
I don’t sell or lend out games. And honestly if I finish a game I rarely play it again, and if I want to I don’t remember not being able to play a game anymore cause of digital shenanigans. Besides not having the console any more.
I even gave away my wiiu to my nephew with mostly digital games and he could just play them.
So FOR ME PERSONALLY, I just don’t want physical. Like I said “I understand why people would prefer physical”.
I am just lazy.
It is a visceral reaction from people who feel like your choices have actively harmed their gaming experience.
Really the gaming industry has been shit as a whole since Xbox tried to pull this crap in 2013. They just kicked the can down the road a decade and we are now feeling it
I would consider Steam a special case compared to Sony or Microsoft trying to discontinue the production of physical games.
For one, the PC physical market was a mess of DRM solutions. Ones that either required middleware to be running on your PC like SecuROM or Denuvo, only allowed a limited number of installations before voiding the CD key, or required the disc inserted at all times, or a combination of all 3.
So Steam was a welcome disruption, it also didn’t outright replace big box software as a means of distributing PC games, it just phased out naturally. And there is nothing preventing a company from releasing a physical big box edition of any of their games on PC.
But with Sony ending production of discs, even people who want to release their games on disc, won’t be able to in the future
Games are too big to fit onto discs. You buy a physical game and still need to download 80% of the game…
And buying things digitally is just more convenient. You don’t need to leave the house, wait for delivery… digital games don’t scratch, get lost etc.
They get you by giving you an option that is just better 🤷♂️
Problem is you don’t own the digital games. Literally the only problem.
The only problem? What about being able to resell, loan out or borrow games? What about having more than one place where you can buy them?
Those things are part of owning
Well yeah, it’s “only one thing” if you bundle several other things in with that “one thing” in your bad faith argument.
But it’s not a downside of being digital. It’s a downside of greedy corporations that are using a product that is superior to increase their control over consumers.
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Right… the lack of making informed consumer decisions is the cause of the rise of fascism. Got it.
And I mean physical games will just stop being made, so good luck keeping ownership of those.
I think the solution is to pirate, and start stockpiling memory.
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Physical media that exists for games doesn’t last so if it’s not constantly produced it will just decay in a few years.
Legislation should allow game archiving (pirating) and archivists should work to find a way to best keep the games. If thats physically somehow, sure. But I doubt it. Games are digital.
There’s basically no serious longterm digital data archiving that is kept in discrete physical media.
Also, individual ownership is not the right way to solve this. These things should be publicly available for all, not kept private by a few people.
If a format is “superior”, but is made “inferior”, is it truly “superior” to begin with?
We can daydream about ways to resell, keep, and lend our digital goods. But I’m more judging in the current day.
I dream of a world without anti-piracy laws where old games are simply publicly available for all. We have different ideas of what the problem is here.
A cloud is a cloud in this case. I’m here stuck on the ground in the meantime.
Baby steps. You want looser piracy laws, you need to get people used to owning digital stuff.
Bro wishing physical games kept existing is infinitely more pie-in-the-sky than continuing supporting archiving and piracy projects…
And my point is it’s not about owning at all. I don’t see any of the stuff I download as “mine”. I have access to it. But how can you have property over something that can be infinitely copied? How can you own something infinite?
Don’t you guys see that this “ownership” thing is a scam? Set-up by the people in power? The only real meaningful ownership here is their ownership of all gaming developers and publishers.
You can lend out digital games on switch.
Pretty massive downside.
But also, your first two sentences are a huge exaggeration. The vast majority of ps5 physical games ship entirely on disk. You can buy them, insert them into an offline ps5, install, and play. No downloads, no internet required.
Yeah it’s a moronic turn of the industry that you can’t actually play the game off the disc and have to manually manage your console’s storage. I have hardly bought any game the last two generations because of it. I’m not going to uninstall a good game for any piece of crap game.
Yeah I get why people want physical games, but it just has too many downsides for me.
Getting downvoted for saying I don’t prefer physical games. Classic.
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Well first of all I mostly game on steam, pc and steamdeck. And I don’t even know how that would work with discs.
But I do have a switch 2. Switched over from the switch 1, where I could just move my library over.
Anyway, the pros of digital? Convenience, pure convenience. I can go to the nintendo shop and see what there is and buy / play it instantly. I don’t have to go to a store or order online and wait for it to arrive at some point.
Then all the games I bought are in a list where I can switch between them instantly. I don’t play in handheld so I don’t have get up and find the game in the pile of games that I need shelf space for. And I don’t need to fiddle with the switch that’s hidden behind my tv to switch out the games.
I don’t sell or lend out games. And honestly if I finish a game I rarely play it again, and if I want to I don’t remember not being able to play a game anymore cause of digital shenanigans. Besides not having the console any more. I even gave away my wiiu to my nephew with mostly digital games and he could just play them.
So FOR ME PERSONALLY, I just don’t want physical. Like I said “I understand why people would prefer physical”. I am just lazy.
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What a pretentious nonsense. Give my answer and still get downvoted and compared to fascism. Fucking hell. Insufferable place.
It is a visceral reaction from people who feel like your choices have actively harmed their gaming experience.
Really the gaming industry has been shit as a whole since Xbox tried to pull this crap in 2013. They just kicked the can down the road a decade and we are now feeling it
Kind of ironic how people here love steam but hate digital gaming. I just like the convenience of having my games in 1 spot.
I would consider Steam a special case compared to Sony or Microsoft trying to discontinue the production of physical games.
For one, the PC physical market was a mess of DRM solutions. Ones that either required middleware to be running on your PC like SecuROM or Denuvo, only allowed a limited number of installations before voiding the CD key, or required the disc inserted at all times, or a combination of all 3.
So Steam was a welcome disruption, it also didn’t outright replace big box software as a means of distributing PC games, it just phased out naturally. And there is nothing preventing a company from releasing a physical big box edition of any of their games on PC.
But with Sony ending production of discs, even people who want to release their games on disc, won’t be able to in the future
Not at all ironic considering Steam is competitive, offers great sales and allows code to be purchased elsewhere and redeemed on their service.