He isn’t wrong how many people here buy from steam - it’s rare if ever you get a physical release of a game on steam.
Now physical rights vs digital are the issue;
Buying a physical item means you own it and can use it whenever you want.
Buying a digital item means you buy the license to use that item. That’s a concept that’s been around for software purchasing for a very long time.
People want to own the digital item the same as the physical and not have the license pulled when a publisher decides to. Sony just doesn’t have the trust of the gaming community for this.
Yeah, even physical pc games often just have a download key inside and no disk, and computers haven’t had disk drives for a while.
(I know you can get external ones, but even cases nowadays don’t account for the ability to have them as an internal component)
I did manage to snag a copy of House Flipper 2 (it just had a Steam key, no disk) for 6€ a few months ago when the lowest historical price at the time (according to IsThereAnyDeal) was in the 20s or 30s, so I’m very much in the camp of physical releases in any platform. There is much more choice for consumers, game preservation arguments notwithstanding.
Also a ton of games have day 1 patches that you’d need to download anyway from their servers. I don’t recall seeing standalone installers for patches like we used to have. So buying a physical copy just makes you feel good rather than actually avoiding the problem with digital copies.
Two years ago when I built my new computer, there were something like two cases that actually had a slot for a disk drive. I did end up getting one for my older games and it is nice
I’d argue the right fight here is to reliably obtain “permanent ownership” for either kind of purchase. Anyone who bought their games digitally for the past generation and doesn’t follow gaming news (basically a silent majority of gamers) probably doesn’t even care about this ongoing disc backlash/boycott.
But highlighting things like the sudden pull of people’s owned movies, that may matter to them when applied to games.
Okay. You’ll basically not be a demographic they serve anymore.
Put it this way. This year had some great singleplayer games. Some of those were funded by terrible publishers. If, in a later year, that publisher sees “Huh, 95% of people pirate this game, only 5% buy it”, then they’ll just cancel all upcoming singleplayer games, and greenlight 20 more live service or gacha games, because that’s where the MONEY is.
“Vote with your wallet” works in two ways. Pirating mostly shows up as a stay-at-home voter, or a corpse.
well, having a physical disk doesnt guarantee ownership. companies can still leave critical things off the disk and require you to download them when you install, or there can be some verification system. And if corporation servers go down, you still cant use it.
What we need is all the files and data we buy to be fully functional and not behind any encryption or other gate, be it digital or physical. Then make your own physical media of it or back it up whereever you want.
To be fair, physical media has been dead before the whole sony debacle. What’s the pint of ownjng something like cyberpunk when you own the release version?
I bought physical disks until they were basically phased out. A large chunk of them just registered on Steam and downloaded the latest patch before they would run anyway. I have been against Steam and its DRM for a while, but everyone else chose to have no rights to their games, no ability to sell or loan them or give them to others. You will own nothing and love it.
He isn’t wrong how many people here buy from steam - it’s rare if ever you get a physical release of a game on steam.
Now physical rights vs digital are the issue;
Buying a physical item means you own it and can use it whenever you want.
Buying a digital item means you buy the license to use that item. That’s a concept that’s been around for software purchasing for a very long time.
People want to own the digital item the same as the physical and not have the license pulled when a publisher decides to. Sony just doesn’t have the trust of the gaming community for this.
Sorry your wrong physical media has always still been a license to use it.
Yeah, even physical pc games often just have a download key inside and no disk, and computers haven’t had disk drives for a while.
(I know you can get external ones, but even cases nowadays don’t account for the ability to have them as an internal component)
I did manage to snag a copy of House Flipper 2 (it just had a Steam key, no disk) for 6€ a few months ago when the lowest historical price at the time (according to IsThereAnyDeal) was in the 20s or 30s, so I’m very much in the camp of physical releases in any platform. There is much more choice for consumers, game preservation arguments notwithstanding.
Also a ton of games have day 1 patches that you’d need to download anyway from their servers. I don’t recall seeing standalone installers for patches like we used to have. So buying a physical copy just makes you feel good rather than actually avoiding the problem with digital copies.
Two years ago when I built my new computer, there were something like two cases that actually had a slot for a disk drive. I did end up getting one for my older games and it is nice
I’d argue the right fight here is to reliably obtain “permanent ownership” for either kind of purchase. Anyone who bought their games digitally for the past generation and doesn’t follow gaming news (basically a silent majority of gamers) probably doesn’t even care about this ongoing disc backlash/boycott.
But highlighting things like the sudden pull of people’s owned movies, that may matter to them when applied to games.
I see no reason not to pirate a game I bought digitally if it is then removed as a playable game.
Same for movies, if you bought it, then it should be yours.
I think they should only let you rent movies online to avoid this issue totally.
Okay. You’ll basically not be a demographic they serve anymore.
Put it this way. This year had some great singleplayer games. Some of those were funded by terrible publishers. If, in a later year, that publisher sees “Huh, 95% of people pirate this game, only 5% buy it”, then they’ll just cancel all upcoming singleplayer games, and greenlight 20 more live service or gacha games, because that’s where the MONEY is.
“Vote with your wallet” works in two ways. Pirating mostly shows up as a stay-at-home voter, or a corpse.
If they pull a game after it’s been sold and played then they don’t lose sales from that game.
They lose the fans that bought the original game.
Who is talking about pulling games post-sale? I specifically said “upcoming”. As in, shutting down game studios and future releases.
Your torrent list would get a lot shorter, unless you basically stay retro. Either way, you’d be an irrelevant consumer.
they also mentioned pirating a game they bought. so the pub got the money for it.
well, having a physical disk doesnt guarantee ownership. companies can still leave critical things off the disk and require you to download them when you install, or there can be some verification system. And if corporation servers go down, you still cant use it.
What we need is all the files and data we buy to be fully functional and not behind any encryption or other gate, be it digital or physical. Then make your own physical media of it or back it up whereever you want.
To be fair, physical media has been dead before the whole sony debacle. What’s the pint of ownjng something like cyberpunk when you own the release version?
GOG, you buy it and can use it whenever you like and its digital. Best of both.
I bought physical disks until they were basically phased out. A large chunk of them just registered on Steam and downloaded the latest patch before they would run anyway. I have been against Steam and its DRM for a while, but everyone else chose to have no rights to their games, no ability to sell or loan them or give them to others. You will own nothing and love it.