Digital Only Physical Games: Gaming's Biggest Abomination - Throggy 

Hey everyone, welcome to another installment of Throggy's Gaming Adventures! If you guys enjoyed the video, make sure to hit that like button, comment, and subscribe for more! Only one more episode left in this season before I take a break to prepare for season 2! I appreciate you guys for taking the time out of your day to stop by and check out the video! Until next time!

This is something that nobody at the end of the day wins except for the company making these pointless releases

When the Nintendo Switch comes out and the console doesn't have the 16 Gb limit on it anymore and now will carry more like 1 TB in the console, releasing games physically probably won't be an issue, but what we might start to see is that people will be buying there games more digitally in the next generation once Nintendo gets rid of the low internal storage limit on it.

Scott clones are wild

If a digital storefront ends, these games will have no way to be played unless they have been already installed on a console, and will forever be forgotten to the mists of time. This may be the reason why team17 gave worms rumble a Digital Only Switch release.

The only thing I like about digital only physical releases is the fact that they go on clearance at stores. Some games that never see a sale for the digital version will be super cheap because they're trying to clear out the "physical" case. I've purchased a few games for PC like that where buying the disc/physical case itself was cheaper than buying a digital key from a sketchy 3rd party site.

Just came across your channel recently and it's great stuff! I feel like that subscriber count is bound to keep on climbing. Good topic too - digital only physical games have to be one of the stupidest trends in the history of gaming. They don't satisfy the physical collectors or the digital buyers who crave convenience/lack of things!

Simplest solution: fit game into multiple cartridges

I don't know what not to understand. They include the cartridge at first, because these games are full price first, then when they see there is still a market for more but with a high chance of being sold for less, they go the cheap route with the code inside only. Quite understandable... Not nice... But understandable

Ahh yes, companies are just getting more and more greedy. What a complete waste. 100% agree with you on everything you’ve said!

Very interesting topic of choice, but I agree with the other people who have commented. These serve no purpose and the only people who benefit are the companies!

This filth will never enter my collection. But honestly I think the games that partially come on disc/cartridge annoy me more than the ones that don't even bother. It just feels disgusting to see a gamecase claim the game has all these features but then just not have any of it if you end up buying it used down the line.

The only way I'd buy a game case with nothing inside is if it's a fan-made case for a digital-only game or an expansion prebuilt into the game, like the Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition's Future Connected fan box.

I think it's for the people that want something to put on their shelf, but also want the convenience of not having to swap out cartridges/disks. I expect this to become the norm in the future. PC Games have been doing this for a while, as most computers don't have disk drives anymore. I even have a laptop that doesn't have a disk drive built in. 🤷

I hate this. It’s dumb, you waste space, transportation and logistics for a piece of paper that could easily be done by printing a code on the receipt. It’s a waste.

Digital-only releases are an issue of preservation to me, so digital-only physical releases are just as bad as digital-only releases in my eyes.

I'll keep this short and simple...Look at Minecraft story mode (MCSM) for example, (Not sure about all the episodes in part 1) for MCSM part 2, some of the game is non-playable unless you pre-downloaded the episodes, which is now impossible due to telltale games being gone and their services being shut down. The physical copies of the complete adventure version for xbox one, PS4, and switch are the only viable ways to enjoy the game now as the episodes are pre-downloaded (Unless it has changed till now, xbox/ps4 episodes can be finicky and not download properly which makes the switch version the best method to play this game at this moment). Unless you pre-downloaded the game before telltale's services shut down or you acquired the episodes from illegitimate ways (pirating), the game is now unavailable for most gamers and is lost. This is a great example of why I prefer physical over digital. If you look at prices of the complete adventure, for switch they go for around $100 and xbox is around $50+ (Other versions of this game are well over $100 and I expect this game to rise exponentially in the future unless someone buys out the rights to Minecraft story mode and the services become available again). I would recommend buying this game now before later. The pc version is unavailable unless you pre-downloaded the episodes during the needed time slot as well. Would love a video regarding the story and downfall of Minecraft story mode from this channel as well.

With digital games you don't actually own it. You can't take it to your friends to play it and like Xbox wanted to do (or did?) If u don't pay ur game pass you can't play it. Also u can't trade or resell digital games when your done.

the only game you listed that makes even half sense to do it like this was overwatch. it's a game that you need to buy from the get go, if you never heard of the game, seeing it at the store is a good way to get it known, and since it is an online only game, getting a cartridge with it would be worthless and pointless. but I still agree, this whole trend is stupid

We have hit rock bottom.

Just had a listing thought I was getting 5 games turns out 2 of them are downloadable only so worthless for selling.

Download codes are the worst thing to ever exist

I agree. Also did the plastic and fancy paper to print the art cost more than the cartridge what I want to know. I don't buy digital so as a gift, or myself looking for games or otherwise situations this sucks. I don't want a wallet top-up to get a physical possible game. Overwatch 1 is dead isn't it once they released 2 not just because people moved over? So what a great time right? Otherwise I agree with love services they have that already the extra content isn't worth it. Unless they don't and people keep buying them for access to that content or have to have more copies like GTA5. Otherwise I bought Gear Club Unlimited 2 because it's a console version of the mobile game. 2 I assume is different I don't own 1 for a 1:1 comparison but still if I did then I could tell. At least it has DLC as proper not taking content out of the game other than the mobile timer and such elements. That's fair. At least I'd hope with Eden games name on it and however Microids does for publishing I don't know as they publish many shovelware titles too so hmm. Besides it doesn't stop hackers either. It annoys us small audience that cares though of physical purchases of the license and whatever revision of the game we get. Collections it makes sense but just spreading the releases out is too hard it seems so time to make it a download for the rest. Reignited trilogy I'd get but the others have been separated. If Don't offers Uncharted collection as all 3 or separate why can't others it isn't a Master Chief collection situation where it's supposed to a collection and been reworked on. Devs are lazy. Not come across these games yet myself (skipping I should see what they have listed than seeing it on the shelf) but I wouldn't be surprised I do see them at some point in my region I just haven't with games I've looked at yet in major game stores but I hope to not (even though it's not like Monster Hunter Rise won't do well on PS/Xbox but they have to save money as digital only, will it get a physical later with Limited Run games maybe, otherwise the Switch is the only physical copy and it's what I own happily, it doesn't need to but sure it doesn't have Asian English release status like Vita/Switch niche Japanese games do, it doesn't have a problem getting physical or any other reasons or limited physical editions, Switch did well if PC didn't that isn't a sign they know the PC audience or are they that stupid but it's Capcom it seems they have done tons of physical nothing releases and wasted people's time in the past from other videos on the subject. It's like if ZombiU did badly they just had to make Rayman Legends digital only (not that that was the case but using a different game example of delaying Rayman Legends being dumb and if a different situation added of digital instead to add even more stupidity to it XD) because forget audience differences the money has to be good or these companies act stupid) It's for company benefits but why would we want the art or to throw it away, we aren't throwing away our cardboard boxes anymore we have plastic cases as a responsibility. We don't throw away our DVDs, we didn't want Flexiplay the DVD that kills itself either whether returning laziness or other reasons they came up with such an excuse for company benefits for licensing, not allowing us to keep the product rented to renew or outside renting that it could apply to if they wanted to be dodgy and it did survive gladly it didn't (watch the Technology Connections video it's very good). The console itself might be a way to play the game but eventually having a no console but a server connection or the greatness of gimmicks to controllers and consoles software wise benefits by each platform is lost so why would I want to connect to a server, not have access to games and have a bland gaming experience when consoles offer gimmicks I want to experience software and hardware sides of their products.

Can’t believe fortnite and apex would really release something like that on the switch…. And for $40, Apex can miss me with all of that nonsense LOL

At least with most of these you still got a good game out of it. It's even worse when a bad game gets this. Just imagine, wanting to play the state of the art skateboarding game on the PS4, and on top of the wait not being worth it, you find you need to wait even longer for an EIGHT GIGABYTE PATCH TO DOWNLOAD BECAUSE THEY COULD ONLY MANAGE FOUR GIGABYTES OF DISC SPACE!! Yeah, you all know what I am talking about; Tony Hawk's Pro Hate For A Gaming Community Fucking 5. What you get on the disc is less than a demo's worth of game, and the patch itself only contains some of the worst and blandest design in a skateboarding game, not customizable characters, not a story mode, not customizable skating arenas, not interesting challenges beyond finagling shit outside of the arenas, and certainly not nearly the amount of tricks as in other skating games. Remember, this is Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5, the last official sequel of the groundbreaking series that had a lot of personality you could become a part of. Activision and Robomodo didn't care because they apparently couldn't make more Tony Hawk games after 2015, and the final nail in the plastic coffin forever putting that infernal disc in its place was that god damn patch... that is now completely worthless because it was also online only and the servers were shut down forever. While it's not completely "digital only," the content beyond the tutorial was. Let Activision never forget the travesty that was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5.

I think it's disrespectful and insulting to even release a plastic case with a download code. They're insulting physical collectors for making it hard for them (being a thorn in their ass) because we complain about physical media and we should.

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