Submitted 1 day ago by slaacaa@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/40de687e-05dd-40d1-926f-d57c2b7af35c.jpeg
And as someone else pointed out in a different thread. No reselling disks or giving to friends.
Everyone has to buy their own downloaded copy per account.
And they dont have to soend the money for the reader. And the game company doesnt have to distribute hardware and can take more profit from the retailers.
Great chance to lay off thousands of retail workers ❤️
We never had game shops around me that look like the ones we saw online in other countries, those looked like relatively cool places to have around. I also once told a friend coming from the US to buy me a whole bunch of used games from a Gamestop and I was amazed how cheap they were. We only had overpriced originals or super cheap pirated games here, used cheap originals were neat.
I wouldn’t hang out in such a place as an adult (and I’m icked by retail-as-community-space) but maybe as a teenager it would have seemed nice. Just being able to ask the people working there for opinions or recommendations was probably a big part of how games work for people I’d imagine.
At that point why not just play it on PC? Are people seriously going to buy a console that doesn’t even read a disk, just to download a game from the internet? (Or worse, play via a launcher?)
Also, are the games gonna be cheaper now that they don’t need to produce the disks and packaging, transport them, store them in warehouses, stock them on shelves, etc.?
If supply and demand were a real science, this would represent infinite supply, right? So, wouldn’t you expect the price to approach 0.00?
People already were, only 15% of PlayStation users are buying physical media.
Are people seriously going to buy a console that doesn’t even read a disk, just to download a game from the internet?
Are you seriously asking? Because I’ve seen time and time again, the answer to those kinds of questions seems to be yes. I think most people just don’t care, and they don’t need to, they’ll only buy a few games in a console’s lifespan to play for multiple years, and they’ll either just pick up what’s popular, or whichever one has a game they want to play.
Never gonna happen, lol (I’m ironic, that’s a tragedy).
It was just bound to happen. The moment Xbox had dropped the ball and PS became the monopolist, it was obvious that they would start doing some extremely predatory shit and that’s just it. There you have it. The enshittification at it’s finest.
No resale, no buy.
You got nothing to lose, but your subscription fees.
I know this sucks, but idk how to feel about it. I had a large collection of physical games, much like I’d imagine most gamers do, only to one day come home and find it all stolen. Insurance pulled the rug on me, and I didn’t get much for any of it. Since then I’ve bought everything digital and, while I know it can happen, I haven’t had any taken from me since. Of course, buying all the games physically would have been way more expensive as some of them are rare collectables now. I’m just happy I get to play them. I know I could lose it all again on a whim of some CEO, but I just feel there isn’t any reasonable solution.
Make sure you guys keep receipts, take pictures, secure your games, and pay extra for any collectables insurance. And don’t let insurance dictate the aggregate value lost, itemize everything and get quotes. You’ll still get ripped off, but hopefully you can rebuild what’s important if it happens to you.
Thing is, if “digital” actually meant “own” we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Is this one of those things where the old “block chain” could be helpful? Like, a mechanism for actual digital ownership where one can have reasonable assurance that the thing one has downloaded actually belongs to them? That, so long as there’s a unique key, one can access that digital item whenever one desires–AND can transfer that to someone else by way of sale or trade?
I’ve said this before it’s indefinite access you’re paying for when you buy a disc not ownership of the game.
At the risk of now upsetting cryptobros (but no, I’m sure they understand all too well): we need laws. not blockchain. Even if the perfect solution was created (looks at physical), there is no incentive for publishers to use it.
And we’ve already seen what amazing things publishers have done with blockchain. /s
So far, it’s been very rare for digital ownership of games not to stay preserved. Ex: You can’t buy games from the Wii U anymore, but can still install owned ones. Some games are delisted from Steam, but you can install them.
Notable exceptions: Online games (not helped by discs) and Sony’s big attack on movie licenses.
In terms of resale ownership, yeah, it’s not so favorable. I’m ambivalent on that, because resale motivated a lot of changes in games - more online, more perpetual GAAS, fewer short singleplayer experience.
I don’t keep my physical games, I buy and sell them regulary, so I keep my cost per game low, even for new titles. My problem with digital is that I cannot resell, it’s just a license I rent for full price
Reselling does nothing for Sony though, so losing the customers who are buying and selling used games isn’t a loss for them.
It’s like how people freaked out about how Netflix would surely collapse when they cracked down on password sharing, but it’s actually brought in a bunch more money for them. Losing viewers who aren’t paying for the service was actually a bonus. Even if there had been a bet zero change in subscribers, they’d save money from the reduction in traffic.
Unironically, I can see physical game theft rising again as the supply is cut off altogether and plastic rot destroys what already exists.
Screwed from both sides.
Now Sony cuts out the middle man and steals it from you directly.
while I know it can happen, I haven’t had any taken from me since.
I had a couple hundred bucks worth of titles in my Amazon Digital Comics account when they shut all that down.
I think that for now Nintendo Sony and Microsoft are keeping old stores accessible even if it costs them because they calculated the negative PR would cost them more (people wouldn’t hoard digital licenses for titles that don’t have time to play if they knew there’s a potential to be removed from their account before first install)
Ubisoft instead had no problems in removing titles from the Uplay accounts, instead
Linux on playstation
Reverse that and we’re golden.
I, for one, have plenty of games to last me a lifetime. If I have to build another PC, even at these prices, I will because at least steam is not as predatory.
Plus worst case you can always just pirate it.
Or best case, even. ;)
GOG is better.
Yeah, I have not gone through my old ps2 games in a while. I just got a new cable and everything
I assumed this was memeing the fact that they removed access to movies that people legitimately purchased without a refund, then saw the news that killed physical games…
Everyone will now avoid sony, right???
Been enjoying old games and a large backlog for quite a while. No intention to buy the latest and greatest anymore.
But I’m old.
Is this what’s happening with the data centers, too? We’ll be expected to access the internet through the cloud or centralized servers, so it doesn’t matter to big tech that computer parts are unaffordable to consumers? For the record, I am not happy about it.
Somebody educate me, please. It’s worse when I don’t know exactly what’s happening.
Yes. We will priced out or in the long term even forbidden from owning the hardware needes to run games and other demanding sofware natively. All this to grant us the honor to rent back what we used to own through the cloud
I mean… the internet is the cloud and such? Your local computer isn’t generating the internet. The internet is all the accessible things from all the computers plugged in to it.
Theoretically browsing the internet is an extremely low demand thing to do with a PC. It used to be considered one of the lowest, until modern browsers became mostly one browser and every company decided it’s job was to harvest as much of your data as possible.
Never had a console, but I’d be glad without the silly slow disks. I own my phone, my PCs, my servers, don’t use US-bigtec, don’t stream, don’t lease cars, don’t rent…but this?
Don’t most games need net for verification or updating anyway? So it’s not yours even with a silly disk in hand. I stand corrected if all games are 100% offline and a console would run forever with no net. I just don’t know.
With a CD you had the option to play on an airgapped ps4
Also, the problem is not digital but not being able to transfer your license, etc
But ps4 is old, yes? Does it still get new games? And can you just give me your disc and then it’s my game? If yes, I can’t imagine that this would be around any longer. You must not own things.
My wife has a switch and this thing is just shit. Expensive crap games bound to your account. Most are just codes anyway.
You can’t resell or let a friend borrow easily like with a physical disc
And those never check license online? How can they be sure it’s not just a rip or copy? Still the same old mechanisms that didn’t really work on PC 20yrs ago? So I just pull the net-cable and it continues to work forever? (Minus updates and such)
In PS4 days, it was still common to be able to install & play games only from the disc. You were never forced to go online with your PS4. Even if you bought a game online you could always play offline
Pure online games is kinda obvious 😁
Always offline = forever? Not license verification once a month or so?
I’d be glad without the silly slow disks.
Games aren’t streamed from the optical disks anymore. 8th gen of consoles (PS4 and Xbox one) required installing to a drive in order to play since HDD/SSD over sata is faster than optical.
Don’t most games need net for verification or updating anyway?
Yes, for updates, but I feel like you also need to do that on PC since we haven’t invented magic quite yet.
So it’s not yours even with a silly disk in hand
This does not follow from your previous statement. “If fish can’t fly then why are tomatoes red.” Games with the full game on disk work as is with whatever version of the game was put on there unless it requires online access.
WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
They held out until Linux gaming got good. Now they’re not needed anymore.