Physical games are dying ?

[Sardine]

Once slow network speeds and latency are a thing of the past the home console will be dead. Everything will be a subscription service streamed.

 

[YouKnowWho]

AI is already here. It can play those games and consume the content it has created. Along with all the adverts. Perhaps it can even start clicking on the ads to make more money for the advertisers by making it look like humans did it?

Oh the future, exactly like on Wall-E!

 

[Buzzfuzz]

I have over a hundred old games on physical media that I haven't "beaten", "solved", "finished" etc.

I have such a short attention span, even 2 disk Amiga games have me frustrated, LOL!

Our Xbox only has discs, save for a couple free downloads from the Live sub... haven't beat those titles either...

Sigh

That there is the whole issue today, the attention span is either way to short or in the extreme!
Personally I don't play games anymore, and when I do, the attention span is short.

Yes it used to be quite large back in the days, even on my pc I used to play Terran Conflict for hours.
But I got distracted by life and moments and woman

So I guess if that attention span is short, digital only is not such a bad idea.
Imagine coming back from vacation and misplacing your game you want to play, frustrated to not finding it after such a good vacation.

And like you say, on the Amiga and even C64 there a lot of games still to be played, so I wonder if that is what I will be doing coming on the 50's, then 60's and 70's years old, my guess, NO!

 

[Ninehalt_Sieger]

I bought the new Mario Wonder. Plugged it in, and it was immediate go time, no wifi access. No updates, no need for anything. Nintendo is the last one to deliver top games on media.

This is true, however, Playstation is not that far behind. The only console manufacturer for which discs are only a token is Microsoft, and it's really not that surprising considering their push for gamepass and the fact that they're itching to go digital-only since 2013.

Sony Playstation games are fully on the disc and fully playable without mandatory patches nor an internet connection. The only difference with the Nintendo Switch is that the games have to be installed on the hard disk.

When PC went fully digital it was a different time, people were less informed and it wasn't 100% clear that going digital meant the complete loss of ownership of your games. This time around I don't think consoles will be able to go full digital without a fight.

Recently I saw a guy on youtube who sold his physical game collection for 40.000 dollars. Imagine if they were all Steam games.

 

[weekendroady]

To sort of re-iterate and also expound on my original post: The current console gaming ecosystem can't easily cut off physical entirely - otherwise it threatens to eliminate a fairly large swath of casual sales. Parents and Grandparents (nevermind Aunts, Uncles, Siblings and Friends) buying physical games as gifts almost certainly trumps those buying the various point cards for the eshops (I'd guess that if people that buy both a physical game and a eshop card as a gift - then eliminating physical games wouldn't necessarily lead to 2x the sales of point cards, most of those buyers would just continue to purchase the one card). Right now Microsoft and Sony are playing chicken with each other on this, because they want the other company to do it first. My feeling is the company that keeps physical media possible for the next generation will have a leg up on the competition just from physical media loyalists alone. That is a large enough bloc that it'd be silly to dismiss. The big question is how physical media sales will operate, and I imagine most of it will be exclusively online with basically Gamestop - if it continues to exist in its current format - being the only store carrying new games on-site.

Even if one (or all) consoles went all digital and eliminated the disc drive entirely, I could see physical still being offered in USB format (in fact some boutique PC physical releases do this now). Either way this goes, I still see a path for game publishers will still have a way to at least produce physical games for those who care (USB/Flash card).

I'm even more curious to see what happens with movies. Blu Ray 4K is easily the best format for movies which adds an additional layer to the pro-physical argument. Would be pretty crazy to see a format die for a measurably worse alternative.

 

[beakmaster]

I perfer Physical CD that I owned and can keep it and played again whatever I want

+1. A physical product is something much more desirable for me as well. I like to touch things, flip through manuals and be amazed by the artwork on good old box versions.

PLUS... just remember stuff like GTA 3 / VC where they patched away music from the digital copies because of licensing issues? Holy, that doesn't fly with me! If I'm cruising VC, I want to be able to dial in to Fernando Martinez and all that bliss.

Kind of sad to see that all just go away. Digital is faster, yeah, more friendly to the environment at times, true story... but in the end, digital just takes away some magic. Seeing the boxed on your shelf and just thinking "man I could play that again" and get excited by the box design and stories told on the back side.... I miss all that.

 

[miggymad]

I also much prefer a physical product over digital ones.

Knowing I can handle the box, admire the artwork and time taken to produce something speaks more to me than a flashy advert ever will.