The big con of digital games to me is that since they ARE digital, not something someone has to spend money to physically produce, you'd think digital games would be cheaper. But a lot of times, they're the same price or more expensive than the physical variants. It doesn't make sense to pay more, or the same, for something that I don't actually own and can be removed at any point.
It’s really hard seeing the decline of physical but I think there will always be a market for them. The same way there is still a market for vinyl, dvd, 4k blu ray.
I think in a lot of cases nowadays that’s not really a good comparison, Anymore the version of the game that’s printed on the disk and the version of the game even a year later is so different that the disk is practically irrelevant.
i actually completely forgot about that lol. I'm sure once upon a time people said "physical music is dying! we wont ever have anymore vinyls!" but now, vinyls are being printed pretty often. not as much as they used to be maybe but a lot of new albums will be put on vinyl and especially video game soundtracks. i feel like even if AAA companies stop doing physical, there will still be plenty of indie developers that will print their games because people like physical things.
Once consoles go digital only, I'm not gonna buy them! Just focus on the consoles I have. I'm still picking up more games for my older consoles than newer ones. Like I hate looking at Google play store and checking up a game I played awhile back and it no longer exists to download, that's not a future I want at all.
Convenience is nice, but let's say Nintendo some years down the road when it's all digital, I will be smiling when I'm still able to play my games conveniently.
@onmywayto974 like nintendo wouldn't be one I have much hope for with how quick the closed down the online shops for Wii U and 3ds. An all digital future with that mentally for nintendo would be awful
@@FriendsAndGamingYT And that's what I'm saying. Nintendo is also guilty of this. I was saying he thinks by having all digital it's convenient....well it won't be when down the line you can't play what you want when they close down shop. I'll still have all physicals which make it rather convenient.
As long as the servers are still up XD I have been watching a few people trying out everything in their steam account, it was interesting how many they where unable to play because of servers or the game using some piece of software that could not download anymore.
another thing is that you can resell physical games or trade them in after you're done with them or decide you don't like them. you can let your friends borrow games to try them out. two people can share one cartidge. we would lose all of that in a digital only world.
This is why I've begun to buy some physical games again. I purchased a few digital games on the switch that are just not my cup of tea, and if I could, I would trade them in for something new
Hey I already stopped buying new games, except for a few select franchise releases. There’s so many games to play that I basically only buy on sale or used
@@NicktheLP Yep. I have so much backlog anyway, so I'm good. Not to mention that the "new" is sometimes shit. The last game I've bought was Hogwarts Legacy. Even after freaking 24GB of updates it runs like shit, and has so many bugs. And that's without the fact it is shit in general; An RPGs that pisses on you for exploring, boring battle system, and shitty story with the worst MC I ever played.
Who has time for new games?! 😂 Really though, the only "new" games I've bought in recent months have been the more indie or AA multiplayer games to have a blast playing with friends, along the lines of Lethal Company and Helldivers 2.
I feel you. My biggest issue is digital is other than delisting games. Digital used to have amazing deals. Now sometimes when the digital is on sale it's the same price as physical. Like Sekiro. $39.99 is what I paid for it on PS4, new. I want it on my deck. It's never been under $40 on sale. I feel like the video game companies can hold higher prices in a digital only future. That scares me more than anything.
Yep. The prices are crazy. I still didn't buy a PS5 yet because I can't afford buying games in those crazy prices. Because barely anyone buy physical, even the physical rarely goes down in price.
I think the attitude of ‘I won’t buy any new games’ is the only thing that has stopped it already. The youth of today won’t think any different as they may have grown up not having discs or not buying used games from a store.
I’m glad to see you using your platform to talk about this!!!! We could as a gaming community boycott this all digital future…. We are the consumer, hurt their wallet and we will listen. But that would take some balls and grown ups
Its like buying books instead of using tablets. I am very stubborn (and crazy) when it comes to physicals. I even started prioritizing playing physicals instead of my digital games which is nuts. I just find much more appreciation for something that doesnt have a timer on it.... which is ironic since carts deteriorate and will apparently stop working one day. Some say 20-30 years from now which is pretty scary.
I have a Steam Deck, so i’m already all digital lol. When I had a Switch, I had 6 physical games for it (and a bunch of digital games), and I found myself not playing the physical games much due to the convenience of digital (not having to swap cartridges). I grew up with the SNES, N64, and PS2, and honestly, as an older gamer, having an all-digital collection on the Steam Deck is SOOO convenient these days, and I love having all my stuff on one device. As far as fear of “losing” my games, I don’t have that fear. All my games are on my SSD and microSD card.
I still even buy my music physical, no reason for games to go digital only. And I don't buy any games that only work with updates, mostly triple A stuff I don't play anyway. If gaming will go totally digital I think I will only spend about 20% on this hobby as I do now.
The main thing everybody should remember is this: customer demand. I think about it the same way vinyl records are. Vinyl records were supposed to be dead and gone roughly in the '80/90s. Now, I have no problems paying $50 for a video game soundtrack on vinyl. Personally I think it sounds better. There's also enough demand for businesses to keep on creating product. As long as there is people that want physical games (that includes me), I don't see the total death of physical gaming.
I will always be a physical collector. I like owning my books, movies and games! In the future if games are all digital, I'd still play new games but I wouldn't collect them the way I do now. With streaming movies; I only stream if there's something I really want to see but otherwise I don't really bother.
Hope physical video game media stays around, but I don’t have much confidence it will. But anything is possible, I am amazed vinyl records are still around. A collectors only market may persist.
As someone who is new to Steam where it is already all digital, the importance of storage is key. Truthfully, storing physical media takes up so much space. When I also take into consideration that getting physical media is now much harder, I am just getting digital. More convenient.
Yeah, I could never be that anti-digital to where I refuse to play new games. At the end of the day, I'm so content with my physical collection I'm cool with an all digital future.
I envy people that aren't worried about it, but they probably should think it through a bit more. Digital games can and will get delisted, censored, and dissappear forever.
From game preservation, foundations are preserving them by digital means, the “physical” versions are what aren’t usually storing. That would take up a lot of space.
This topic seems to be coming up more and more as stores like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart deplete their inventory. It really is sad. Part of the experience was going to a store and browsing. Always been a physical game owner myself. I’ll be 40 this year; my collection is a respectful 300 games or so starting with the ps1 and n64. Anything older I’ve sold in recent years as I’ve tried to consolidate. Appreciate your channel and your perspective on things. Happy gaming!
100& agree with all the reasons here on keeping things as physical as possible with one addition. It's also really nice to look at the collection on the shelves ^.^ Some company's put SO much work into the covers you can't help but display them as the art pieces they are.
I always say that if consoles go full digital, i'll become a PC gamer. Not only i'll get to play almost every exclusive, i'll also have the ability to play any legacy system out there. lol
Great topic and video! I actually had my switch for a good while without Internet and enjoyed my games with no problem. Although some Switch games do have patches many of them are perfectly playable without them.
Actually, there are more incomplete switch carts than there are incomplete discs. According to Doesisplay? 75% of games (PS4, PS5, Switch) are content complete day 1 and run excellently without a patch. 15% they consider runs "okay" but a patch could make the experience better. Improved frame rates, e.t.c. The remaining 10% are a combination of live service games, broken games, and incomplete games needing an internet connection or a patch for full content.
I mean, unfortunately. But idk, the older I get, I still love my physical games, but the experience is really everything right. You can just record yourself playing the game and always have the exact memory now.
something I find interesting is how it feels like the past generation we've seen the most physical games out of any generation prior, I mean physical ps4 games are still being made now 10+ years later and I'm sure switch physicals will keep going even after the successor is out, so it really feels like a tug of war b/w the big companies that want everything digital and everyone else that wants to keep supporting physical
Something that many people haven't touched upon is that you can't trade in digital copies. When I'm done with a game i trade it in and then I don't have to pay full price especially as a lot of games are very expensive, thats what i've done as a kid and have managed to play certain games and trading in games make things a bit more affordable
The minute physical copies stop being made is the minute I stop buying new games. As sad as it is, it's the reality, and I've started to make peace with it. There are plenty of old games to be enjoyed- more than I could even play through with the time I have left on this earth.
Mark_MSX of the Electric Underground makes a compelling point that video games always have been "digital only" because there's no art form there without any programming code. It's just that the games' storage intermediaries now have flash storage, hard disks and solid states where multiple games can be stored, all added to the mix, rather than uploading just one onto carts, flash cards or optical discs. The only thing "physical" that you're buying is a box/case with artwork and, if you're lucky today, a printed manual on gloss paper. Plus extra consumer rights to re-sell that digital-download consumers don't -- for that reason alone I don't see "physical" going away anytime soon since re-selling helps pay bills during household financial emergencies and consumers will want to keep that right to re-sell. I've been there having to let go of my "physical" games after a layoff (except for my Black Label FF7 misprint, too much nostalgia.) Having switched to PC, I think so-called "digital-only" is more of a consumer rights issue when it comes to publisher delistings, DRM resource draining, and so forth, than a tech issue of using HDD/SSD for download storage. Children in the house having no means to scratch up a computer hard disk is a big advantage, ha! Plus, when said disk fails from age one day, there's piece of mind you can just re-install from your purchase history when you replace -- rotted discs and boards that haven't been backup-dumped can't do that.
I will buy and play physical games as long as I can. I am sad that physical media is dying but whatever the future holds I’m still a gamer. I want to play the new games anyway I can. Great video!!😃🎮
Totally agree with you. Physical all the way. I like to own things when I buy them. Digital is only available as long as they want to make it available. Physical is available as long as the physical materials hold up (like every physical thing you own in life).
I am all about physical gaming. I currently own 242 physical Switch games and I have more coming. Digital gaming hands control over to the developer/publisher/gaming company. This scares me. Ubisoft is a prime example. They are not only no longer supporting some of their titles, but they are removing them from people’s systems and making them unplayable, even in single player mode. I recently picked up Soul Calibur IV for PS3; a great game that I am having fun with, but the DLC is gone and I cannot access Yoda as a playable character. I do not like this. Some say the Switch can suffer a lot of the same fate, even with physical media, due to updates going away, once the Switch is no longer supported. There are ways around that. When I pay for a game, I want to be able to play it; now, or 30 years from now. I don’t like the idea of this being taken away from me because some license expired, or because something is deemed inappropriate due to changing political climate. I will continue to collect and support physical media for as long as I can. I hope that it never goes away. The silver lining is that many gamers are seeming to catch on to how bleak an all digital future looks. Fingers crossed.
I'm pretty much on the same train as you are. I don't like the fact that things are going digital, but that's not gonna stop me from experiencing new content. I am a huge lover of film as I know you are as well. I think that a lot of the physical stuff is just becoming more niche, and it's turning into a collectors market. I think that you will be able to get physical copies, but you will have to order most of it online instead of going to a brick and mortar store
I love being a gamer, but I also have a slightly different mindset. During the ps4 era I switched from physical only to digital only. I realized I wasn’t a collector or really all that concerned about perpetual access to the games I’m playing. Video games for me are a way to pass time like watching a hockey game; I fork over cash to hopefully both be entertained and create some memories. RDR2 is the only video game I’ve beat that I’ve played again afterwards. So for me if a computer file can create memories me and my buddies can talk about in 10 years I’m okay without the tangible physical media; in ten years it’s unavailable… we’re gonna find a new game to make new memories. I’m 32 and my n64 and Gamegear carts were a means to and end.
Honestly, the ability to share and trade physical media is a huge plus. Like: I loved this game! Here try it! … oh I can’t, sorry, forgot I downloaded it. *Wanh wanh.*
Agree 100%!!! I love to own physical games for exactly the reasons you mentoined. Also I love Collector's Editions so much that it would be sad to have a digital only future. I think the next console generation will be important to define the future of physical gaming.
1. I love your old lady voice when mocking digital only aficionados. 2. Do I want physical media to be eternal? Yeah of course I do, but its not gonna end me gaming. I can see the positive of both ends of the spectrum but I do lean towards physical. I love just collecting them and I like to look at my gaming collection on the shelf.
I just wonder if it's going to be like vinyl where we see it nearly, nearly die, essentially skipping a generation, only for a resurrection to spark a new, albeit small, appreciation and market for a new era of physical gaming. A lot of gamers play subscription games, gatcha games, endless loop games, but the small contingency of classic gamers may inspire a younger generation.
Don't loose hope there are dumb people like me. I've never sold or traded a game. On music. My record collection would blow your mind I have a wall of records in crates. Yes I am was a scratch dj from when it actually meant something beyond a song changer. Passion like that dont die.
Backlogs aside, there's more games released per console generation than any individual could hope to play through in a lifetime, and there are 9 generations of consoles to choose from. Even if I never buy another console (I still haven't upgraded to the current gen), I'm confident I'll never run out of discovering old games that are new to me.
My perspective is this: no they're not dead or rather won't entirely die. I've een gaming since the start, and also I collected a load of rare records too (and later DJed professionally). Of course there's parallels there - vinyl. Vinyl was everywhere once but gradually it went away but looked at what happened. People realised they liked it and didn't want it to go away and now some albums far outsell other media on vinyl. Vinyl pressing plants are at capacity trying to keep up. Also, there's another major reason - the industry LOVES to try and set terms or standards and it rarely works as they often get what people think utterly wrong. We've seen countless times they've chased trends like MMOs, mobile gaming, FPSes, and so on. At one time or another EVERYTHING had to be one of those and it didn't work because that's not how people think. If you want to clone COD then people will simply play COD and not your clone. Remember what the industry en masse was spouting at the turn of the PS4 and Xbox One coming out? THIS IS THE LAST CONSOLE GENERATION. What was this based on? Absolutely nothing really. Just utterly incorrect. The point here is that they get it wrong, don't understand people, and they DO NOT set the terms. They offer the goods and people decide whether they want it or not. And I suspect people will keep buying physically especially as triple A is dying badly atm. Double A and indies could well and truly clean up and embrace limited physical runs which may bring things back. And then of course we have shit companies like Ubisoft trying to destroy ownership.
100% agree, still gonna play games for the rest of my life, however I can, but I'm fighting for physical. I always get new releases physically, but I make an exception for indie, or old titles that are dirt cheap.
I agree with you on this one, not only that but I think another main reason is that digital games also give you more incentive thanks to pre ordering and getting early dlc. I hope they dont go away though because there's no substitute for having a physical case and manual.
I backup all of my digital things on drives. It is still not full proof because if the license is removed, the console may no longer recognize the game even if it is technically there. If anyone owns digital games based off a licensed property, then back those up first.
As someone who is a physical video game collector I will NEVER support Limited Run anymore from my experience and go a different route for this reason. I bought my wife the ultra Collectors Edition of Scott Pilgrim vs The World… took over a year plus to arrive. Did the same with the ultra collectors edition of TMNT Shredders Revenge, same thing took nearly two years to arrive and the DAY it arrived “Pre-Order the one year anniversary all DLC on disc/cart of TMNT Shredders Revenge.” …… So while others that bought the standard edition and were playing the game, the folks that put down the most money for the most expensive edition waiting patiently, finally arrives, Then it pops up on their socials here’s a version with ALL the DLC on it while the collectors edition still only has the vanilla version, thats bs, Limited Run Games having a monopoly on the business of physical would be a disaster, highly recommend supporting Play Asia or I Am 8-Bit instead. When Limited Run games got the only print release for Persona 3 Portable I was so mad at SEGA because this isn’t a indie company this us bloody Sega we are talking about and you can only get it at LRG overpriced?! ridiculous. Personally as soon as games purely become just digital I’m out, I don’t feel like I own anything digital, I recently finished Lunistice on switch, 10/10 game but with no physical edition I just felt sad when I 100%ed the game knowing there is no physical. No justification for me if it goes all digital still paying a physical price with no physical which will happen towards the end of this gen. Personally I’m just collecting my Top 100 video games of all time then just adoring then for the rest of my life…. Some breaking of the rules though including entire series of games for one top slot 😅😅😅
I used to be strictly physical only. I do understand the benefits of it. I used to love collecting old games. It's great. You can just break out the Gamecube or the Xbox when there's people over and make great memories together. Physical games can also hold their value, and in many cases go up in value. In that way it almost makes it an investment, not that I'd ever sell them, and the extortionate prices people are asking for their games is a whole other discussion! Digital copies essentially have zero monetary value once they are purchased. The other thing I think is worth mentioning is hardware compatibility, Particularly with Nintendo. They like to do a lot of quirky stuff with their hardware. Like trading Pokemon with a link cable, or transferring them to the Stadium games. I feel like these features are such an integral part of the experience, so fully preserving it is really important. With all that being said, my cupboards are getting full. I can only hoard so many little plastic cases before it starts to get ridiculous. I've defiantly embraced the digital way a lot more in recent years. You can't deny that the convenience and simplicity has it's benefits. A strong case can be made for either.
If someone doesn't like a business practice of a company, the best thing they can do is then stop buying products from them. So, if a publisher/dev is not going to make physical games, and you hate that, then stop giving them money. So I would 100% understand and support people that stop buying new games in a fully digital age, because their decision is actually a solution, versus just complaining about it. Saying that doing this doesn't "make them a real gamer" is just untrue.
I don’t think physical movies are worth it that much anymore. The amount of times I’ve gotten brand new 4K or blu ray movies and they’re scratched when I open them is nuts. The quality of disc manufacturing for movies has gone down in the past few years.
Of all the things you said in this video, the thing that concerns me the most is the cancel culture narrative. With the benchmark constantly being moved, You're absolutely right. Our games could be altered or removed if they are digital only.
It makes me sad for console because it does not have a main library physical was the library. Pc went digital a long time ago but steam has mostly taken that store front. Preservation is something that should be celebrated and made more of across the boards.
I'm definitely one of those who will only play the physical games I have.just because the world changes doesn't mean I have to its physical or nothing for me
I think your points are totally valid and your opinion on possible censorship of material is something I never thought of before. As I've gotten older and get less and less time to game I find that Game pass scratches the itch almost completely , my PS5 has been collecting dust.
I'm sad that gaming is heading towards digital and introducing more streaming services. Streaming services are a great way to price gauge the customer out the hoo-hah. You see it with EVERY streaming service, every few months the price MAGICALLY increases and they put more ads on them if you don't pay the premium. I think Nintendo will hang onto physical as long as possible but Sony and certainly Microsoft are trying to phase them out at this point but Switch physical games are still selling extremely well. I think you really nailed it with all your points too. It is extremely sad to see gaming slowly but surely go digital only.
I feel the less plastic we produce and hoard the better. But we need to push for complete digital ownership of the games we buy. DRM is the enemy. I'm not too worried about not being able to play games I already bought digitally. It hasn't happened once so far.
(Part 2): Also, it's good to bear in mind that gaming is international. In the US, things like consumer rights are pretty crap. Compare that to here in the UK, it's much better. Ours is similar to Europe. And because of this it means that until digital gets some of the similar rights physical gets, it ain't going to replace physical. It's why Steam adopted a refund policy because it came in straight after the EU and Australian laws. The fact that we got this law meant that people in the US could go "hey, why do they get preferential treatment? " and it affects sales. So Valve made it a level playing field. So while we have better countries in the world that have things like that going on, it means we're more likely to have either physical media or something like the ability to FULLY backup easily come to pass.
I prefer physical media. I feel that I am still a gamer if I play the old stuff and current stuff up to the PS5 because there is still games that can be installed completely and played from start to finish. I don't buy a lot of western games. Most games I buy are Japanese RPGs and niche games from current to the past. If I can't own it I'm not buying it. I'm perfectly happy with that.
I do think movies will last longer as physical media because of how many enthusiasts there are and the audio/video quality plummets on streaming services versus the discs. They may be online purchase only, but 4k with dolby atmos from the discs just destroys anything any streaming service can even offer. On another note, I have very mixed feelings about Limited Run after they fired their non-threatening community manager, Kara Lynne, because some loud-mouth psycho on twitter was trying to get her cancelled. I think a lot of people lost respect for them after that. It would be cool if more brands did like what Larian Studios did with Baldur's Gate 3 and created an awesome special physical edition.
I'd like to think I'd stop playing newer games if they went all digital... but honestly, I'd probably still buy them. I definitely wouldn't be happy about it, though.
I'll buy digital games, but considering that it's possible to acquire them by sailing the high seas, they only really have value if i particularly like the developer.
I live in NC where the Limited Run store is and they had made a physical copy for some ‘new’ games to be played on Sega/Super Nintendo. So I believe they’ll keep making games for older consoles. I hate the move to digital only. It was a nightmare trying to transfer my digital Switch games to a new memory card (I only have an iMac and had to borrow a PC to get it done and it took hours). Even now we have to watch the storage limits on our XBox and PS5.
I like to own what I brought. Going into this generation, I found myself less and less buying games at launch at full price. My backlog is huge so I can stand to wait for sale, but the main thing is most games now need a day one patch to perform well so even if I buy it physically day one, I am not really getting everything on disc. If that's the case I might as well wait for a sale. All these day one performance patch is making me feel like we are already in the all digital era without them killing off physical games. But that might just be me.
I absolutely love physical games for all the same reasons everybody else does but honestly those discs and cartridges are just storage and the real games are data that is stored on those storage units. So with the “all-digital world” that is debatably coming it’s not that different in a way that games are that same data and the storage is your HDD/SSD. Streaming can go and suck a d though. Cheers, great video btw.
Tldr like physical media home media , no but it is slowly becoming discontinued as the sales have been decling since 2022 , to present . I prefer ps4 switch and other discs / cartridges as if it gets delisted/ removed due to licensing issues, or not paying their Japanese partners ( zoids Wild on Netflix, blade runner black Lotus on toonami etc ) and if you waited too long to play ir , then it's lost media and isn't re discovered for a decade plus ! . So yes very saddening this might be the last major year for physical copies of stuff.... so buy it fast if you're excited about it people! This is why I don't pay attention to mobile phone games as they always do often get deactivated and removed from the app stores 😬😬😬😬🎮🎮🎮🎮🎮🎮🕹🕹🕹🕹🕹
My main concern for a “digital only” gaming future is the issue of price control. With physical media, there are competing markets which lead to the occasional discount/sale. In a digital market, there isn’t the same incentive as the number of entities competing for sales becomes more limited. Yes, you will still see publisher sales on the online marketplaces but gone would be the days of buy 2 get 1 free that you can get at places like Target. Unfortunately when there are fewer businesses competing for our hard earned money, it is the consumers that lose out in the end.
Definitely feel the same I prefer physical media. I will also if I find a game significantly cheaper digitally I will get the digital version. But I do prefer physical copies of games and movies. And it is a bummer that they are heading in this direction.
I preordered Stellar Blade PS5 from Best Buy and then went to the store to pick it up on Launch Day. I’m still supporting physical games from Best Buy while I still can. I simply have no interest in paying $70 for data. I would rather hold something tangible in exchange for my money! Great honest thoughts, Paige. Just like you that I will also be supporting physical media as long as they are around and still being released. Physical media never dies as far as I’m concerned. Driving to Best Buy to pick up something you have been excited for, such a fun and unique experience that I won’t forget!
losing the licence to music is the worst part of going all digital, for example Crazy Taxi is 50% the offspring soundtrack, which if you buy it nowadays digitally its no longer part of the game.
Yup, I love my physical games! I know digital is convenient for a lot of people, but you never know when companies will take down those digital games. Great discussion!
it is very unfortunate that physical games could be going away, but idk. maybe its me just hoping but i don't think they'll completely disappear. we might not see AAA games physically but I think we will still have some physical games from indie companies and what not. I didn't get a lot of games growing up, the ones i did i loved though, but now that im an adult and have money to spend i want to buy games!! physical games!!!
I've personally only bought a few physical games over the last decade anyhow. While it is technically possible for companies to take games away I personally haven't experienced too much of that save for something that's actively reliant on servers. I haven't had any nightmare scenarios like a company deciding my license for the game isn't valid anymore or them somehow hacking my devices and actively removing a game I've downloaded. Pretty much once I've bought and downloaded a game then that's that. I prefer the convenience of being able to push a few buttons and have another game in my collection than having to wait for a physical copy to arrive or even worse having to go out and about to a store where it's too people-y. That and I have limited storage space in my studio apartment anyhow so digital it is for me.
Yeah, I like my physical games but I quite understand why it coming, just hate the felling that I might lose access to some of them someday... just wish it will get beter unlike now so many games are not available anymore!
I'll always be a physical gamer at heart. The day when physical dies will be a very sad day. However, Digital gaming is the future, i don't think its coming just yet but i could see something like more subcription services like Game Pass from the big 3 companys xbox, sony, nintendo. Theres pros and cons to both side of the story i guess.
I look at things this way: Digital is coming, weather we like it or not. By the time a console generation is considered "retro", yes the online servers/service will most likely be gone, but by that point access to emulation and roms will be so easy to come by that it's effectively a non issue. For example look how easy it is to play anything from the nineties, a bit of research and set up and away you go here's sonic the hedgehog or super mario world. We the people/gamers have to maintain our own library of games we like, not trust in corporations to "allow" us access. My ps2 WILL die one day, those discs WILL get rot. At least I know my hard drive of roms and pc emulator will carry the torch in the future. Its not perfect, but in todays world its our best alternative. Good video 👍
I’m not trying to judge anybody in this comment section everybody’s got their own way they want to be but it sounds like for many of you the “collecting” of games is actually more important than the games themselves and playing them.
@@femtrooper elaborate on that for me because it’s not like with vinyl/CDs or something where video games have liner notes or like where the band is thinking of bands and that’s how you discover other bands.
I agree with you, I’m more of a physical copy person, especially with games that have a special edition version. If it’s a game that I will likely only play once or I’m not too hyped about I don’t mind buying the digital copy. But for bigger titles or special edition, I prefer physical copies 😁. And I also like to display my physical copies. I worry too sometimes about digital copies possibly getting removed in the future for whatever reason.
If things go all digital, I plan to stop buying most games on release. I'll wait until they go on sale or just not buy them. I'm not spending 70 bucks to download a file that I don't have guaranteed access to indefinitely. That's just glorified renting. This is the approach I've taken to Steam and PC games and I think it's a major reason why the indie scene has flourished. I think most people can accept the value proposition of owning nothing when the cost is regularly under twenty bucks. Long term I think this will hurt the game industry, primarily the AAA studios.
To prepare for the all digital future I’m already modded my old consoles and ripping all of my games to the consoles or a storage drive. May as well bridge the gap and get used to it. I don’t know if I’ll invest into an all digital future as I’m finding less and less newer games interesting for me. I’m becoming that old coot who just wants to replay his favorites and check out something new occasionally.
