Submitted 21 hours ago by inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
That’s not an argument to take the same choice away from future customers.
We made the choice for mostly digital in a world where physical was still available as a fallback. That’s not the same situation as if it wasn’t. The existence of physical media and a resale market does prevent some of the worst fuckeries of an otherwise monopoly, regardless if you ever bought or sold used games.
Also Valve is a very different animal to Sony.
Steam has removed (not delisted from the store, removed the libraries of people that owned the game) less than 40 games since inception. Excluding F2P games, Valve has mostly refunded people where a game is outright removed.
Sony has closed 4 music stores in the same period, with no recourse for purchases. They’re removed tens of thousands of movies from PlayStation accounts over the same period, these were ‘purchased’ and then just removed for licensing reasons.
Valve has a level of trust they earned and why Digital only isn’t as much of a problem there, now. It was during the opening years becuase Valve has not earned that trust yet.
Sony has burned people so many times I just consider them not trustworthy in general. any ‘purchase’ on any Sony service is just a 2-3 year lease imo.
Steam has removed less than 40 games since inception
Do you have a credible source for that? A while ago someone commented that Valve had promised not to remove any games, but couldn’t support that claim with a source.
The younger generation, the future customers, do not care for physical media. They’re being raised in an increasingly digital only world. The only ones that care about physical media are the people that grew up with it before digital was a thing, and are stuck in their ways.
the future customers, do not care for physical media.
You did not understand my comment. They may not care about the physical media, but they will care about the fuckeries a Sony with a total monopoly over playstation games will force on people. Dictating higher prices without even the slightest competition will only be the beginning.
Bullllllshit. I have bought multiple games in the last decade that didn’t include a physical disc but a code for me to go download the digital copy.
And you returned it and demanded a physical copy?
I asked if they had a physical copy to which they said “you have one”, to which I showed them the code, and they said “oh they’re all like that”.
Sony has released very few single player games this generation on purpose. Single player games are perfect for physical media.
Sony wants everyone to play live service games to sell the game, the updates and the online subscription. It is part of the plan.
tada!
you chose this. you chose this by paying for it. you chose this by paying for digital releases.
he’s not wrong.
doesn’t matter. gamers will still pay Sony. they’ll still buy digital releases. the cycle continues.
I only care about getting a copy of the game, not a licence.
When was the last time you got a fully up-to-date playable title on physical media?
For me it was Call of Duty Black Ops 7 my friend beat it and gave me the disc for my PS5 since he is someone who plays them for a few months and moves on to another game.
That ability to freely give away or resell a game you bought is magical and has been a part of gaming on consoles since the beginning. Now, that’s being taken away and I don’t agree with it.
How exactly did I choose digital? I don’t even buy games.
Bean soup?
Nonsensical quote, discs are also digital.
Dragon’s Lair on LaserDisc? 🤓
Easy for Valve to say; they never deleted anything anyone paid for without refunds.
Not valve, a former valve employee
Valve deleted music tracks from GTA San Andreas with an update.
Rockstar did that, not Valve. You also didn’t pay for the music, anyway. You paid for the game.
There’s a reason he’s former steam.
If it was actually the consumers choice then Sony would conti he offering the PlayStation with a disc drive and physical media since that is what the vast majority of consumers chose despite it costing more to purchase.
A random bluesky post is not a study
I also bought the disc version, despite predomenantly buying digital releases.
It’s more expensive but not that much more expensive. The difference was in the ballpark 50 bucks or so. On a 500+ euro or so purchase this is peanuts.
I didn’t buy it because I need it for physical games I bought it to have the option.
I’d argue that that is exactly what you voted for. The option to still have physical media.
You may well have been buying mostly digital games, but you DID buy the console with a disk drive for a reason.
No we havn’t
I am sorry, but “Former” is the keyword…
And have you ever heard of merchandize and why it exists?
My choice is for human art, dear "former writer’…
Really? I didn’t have a choice. You can play the games they offer as digital downloads, or you can not play the games. There is no “or you can buy the BluRay.”
So every game you wanted to play on PS5 was digital only?
I don’t have a a PS5.
I own zero physical copies and don’t care too so I don’t see a problem
based
j/w - aren’t most PC stores digital only anyway?
It isn’t about digital vs physical it’s about ownership. On PC stores you’re still downloading a computer file. That you keep.
PlayStation digital isn’t like PC digital, it isn’t a file that you store on a hard drive it’s an entry in a database to say that you “own” that game. An entry that can be easily deleted whenever Sony feel like it. Think of it like the difference between Netflix and Jellyfin hosting
ahhhh makes sense now
Yes, but the party everyone is leaving out is that was greatly helped along when stores like GameStop stopped carrying PC games other than WoW and CoD circa 2010.
Yeah… for global gaming market disk sales are like under 5% of total sales, even for consoles it’s like 10%. It’s a nice option for you and me, a collectors item, aftermarket sales, a hedge for digital “ownership” rugpulls? For publishers and devs it’s just a cost that doesn’t even justify itself, because nobody is buying or putting their money where their mouth is. How low would the marketshare have to go for them to be justifying pulling the plug. Nobody really gave a shit about physical until few days ago.
Plus 90% of the games that come with disk option these days are irredeemable AAA slop anyway. Digital distribution enabled the indie scene where all the innovation is these days. if we had disks we we wouldn’t have indie studios. Companies like EA, Sony, and Ubisoft would dominate totally and act as gatekeepers, because only they would have the resources pay for the upfront cost of publishing to make the damn things. Digital won, accept the caveats and be happy about the upsides.
I think part of the reason why games have inflated so little, compared to any other goods, is that they slowly but consistently moved from selling physically to selling digitally, thus increasing profit without needing to raise prices. Now they are forcing more to switch to digital AND they are increasing prices. I do think the AAA gaming industry is about to hit a wall quite soon
Over the last 10 years, I bought 5 digital games and played through dozens of physical. I guess it’s on me.
Goddammit you ruined it for us all
Realistically we’ve chosen to have pricing tightly controlled and to no longer own anything.
Both these things can be fixed without needing physical copies, but we’ll have to fight for it.
What the fuck!?! looks inside a blu ray disc.
1s and 0s
IT IS DIGITAL YOU UTTER CUUUUUUU
I do prefer digital over all but that’s because I play on PC now where those digital purchases will last generations at a time. My console game purchases are nearly always physical because I like to sell them on when I’m finished with them.
escudella@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
I would happily buy steam physical games if they existed
architect@thelemmy.club 9 hours ago
They did. GameStop back in the day tried to stop Steam and the switch to digital codes in cases.