Author Topic: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?  (Read 3615 times)

Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #15 on: August 11, 2016, 03:49:37 am »
It won't be soon, the American market can't handle a digital only change right now, but maybe in the next ten or twenty years, but it depends on the internet companies and how long it takes for them to update their utilities.  The USA is pretty low in regard to the state of its internet compared to a number of other countries.

Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #16 on: August 11, 2016, 05:09:48 am »
Just as with music where vinyl is currently selling more and more each year I think there will always be a collectors market for games. There will always be a market for people who want more than just the game, who wants something to put in the shelf to look at. So yes, while the majority of the market will be going in the digital direction I believe there is no reason to worry about there not being any physical releases anymore

jupiter

Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #17 on: August 11, 2016, 04:45:00 pm »
I'll just parrot a bit what some others have said, also have some partial solutions and references to groups working on the issue below.

While digital copies are far more convenient for the most part, there will always be demand for the physical. We see this trend shadowed in nearly every media market(except pc for whatever reason), though I think the Bluray/DVD guys have got it right. Most of these include all modern versions of the content, both physical and digital. It was actually surprising to see the film industry do this instead of attempting to make people buy multiple formats separately.

I haven't bought many modern CD's/Vinyl - do any of these do the same sort of thing as films? Including digital download and whatnot. (though you can always rip after purchase...)

I'm going to mimic the fears of a few people in here; digital copies run the risk of a failure in long-term support. You don't ever actually own the thing, you're basically renting it indefinitely. DRM-free or soft DRM digital copies alleviate this somewhat, because you can store backup copies in most cases. Hell even with steam, you can make backup copies and login offline *(see below) - so I figure at least steam copies you can pretty much keep forever unless they have always online DRM/authentication. That stuff is the worst offender, and though I enjoy plenty of those types of games you never know how long they will be supported.

Solutions and Silver Lining:
You can also port/copy your steam library to any other computer and login offline. As long as you don't connect to steam, associated accounts won't get flagged as far as I know. You have to remove the stuff afterwords though if you have a legitimate steam account. Did this a few times to try out a game in my brother's collection before they had the family share stuff. It's legal grey area of course, but when the subject is backing up your own games, I feel like using a work-around like this is completely acceptable and even essential. Especially in cases involving thousands of dollars in games.*

There are some groups (Library of Congress and History of Science and Tech at Stanford come to mind) that are working to preserve digital media, so if we are truly concerned about having access to our digital media into the future, we should do what we can to support these groups and types of actions. As for myself, I've got my favorite digital copies of steam games on external hard drives (need to start doing this for console stuff as well), and as long as they are well kept/updated they should last quite a while.

*Disclaimer: I do not condone, nor am I trying to teach theft. Do not use/look into this method unless your goal is to protect your own existing investment in your library.



spac316

Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #18 on: August 16, 2016, 02:02:10 pm »
I hope not. I like to have a tangible item and not have my games floating out there in digital limbo. I understand the convenience but I want to feel like I own the games I get and play them and place them on my shelves to admire. It's not the same feeling just looking a little thumbnails on a monitor.
Otherwise, yeah, it could happen. But like everyone said, internet speeds need to be better. I also see a problem when people's harddrives dying and they lose all of their games and have to re-download them. can you imagine how long that would take? Ugh...and if the service goes out of business, you pretty much lost hundreds of dollars worth of games. :/

gf78

Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #19 on: August 16, 2016, 03:35:15 pm »
I hope not. I like to have a tangible item and not have my games floating out there in digital limbo. I understand the convenience but I want to feel like I own the games I get and play them and place them on my shelves to admire. It's not the same feeling just looking a little thumbnails on a monitor.
Otherwise, yeah, it could happen. But like everyone said, internet speeds need to be better. I also see a problem when people's harddrives dying and they lose all of their games and have to re-download them. can you imagine how long that would take? Ugh...and if the service goes out of business, you pretty much lost hundreds of dollars worth of games. :/

The days of standard HDD's is numbered.  In 10-20 years, we should be using solid-state drives or something even newer that they haven't come up with yet.  But who knows.  The iPhone 3G was released eight years ago and look how everything has changed since then.  In another eight years, consoles may not even exist as they do today.  A PlayStation 6 or whatever may be a controller that wirelessly connects to a dongle plugged into a port on your TV.  The future is exciting and scary all at once.
Currently playing:  Last of Us Part II Remastered, Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition
Currently listening to:  Iron Maiden & Ghost
Currently Watching:  Cyberpunk Edgerunners & Last of Us

Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #20 on: August 16, 2016, 04:17:33 pm »
Yes, all games will be digital someday. Physical media, including games, has lost a massive market share to digital media, and it has only become worse and worse. I still think gaming has at least one more true physical media gen after the current one, but I doubt physical media will be around in 20-years from now.

Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #21 on: August 24, 2016, 05:02:37 pm »
I think we're quite a while away at the moment, internet and technology isn't good enough at the moment and they know a large amount of people would be unhappy with such a dramatic shift. However I feel this gen publishers have been trying to push us to digital due to the lack of a manual and needing install the game on the hdd anyway.

romanticore

Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #22 on: August 25, 2016, 04:47:25 pm »
No. In the post-apocalyptic society, there'll be no infrastructure to support digital games.
Currently Playing:
Chrono Trigger (DS)


Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #23 on: August 25, 2016, 05:53:57 pm »
No. In the post-apocalyptic society, there'll be no infrastructure to support digital games.

Unfortunately I don't think gaming companies are thinking that far ahead  :-\

pizzasafari

Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #24 on: August 27, 2016, 10:59:07 pm »
Yeah, it's going to happen. I'd much much rather it didn't, but with the way it and other technology is going it's near impossible that it won't.

I'll just keep buying as many physical copies as I can for as long as possible to try and delay it.



fighterpilot562

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Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #25 on: August 27, 2016, 11:00:40 pm »
I think within my life time it will sadly happen. And once it does. I guess I'll have to find a new hobby.
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jupiter

Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #26 on: September 01, 2016, 10:23:57 pm »
I think within my life time it will sadly happen. And once it does. I guess I'll have to find a new hobby.

That's going a bit far for me. I do enjoy collecting but most of all I enjoy playing the games. Whatever happens with games distribution in the future I'll always be playing them.



necrosexual

Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #27 on: September 07, 2016, 07:48:54 am »
I think we're quite a while away at the moment, internet and technology isn't good enough at the moment and they know a large amount of people would be unhappy with such a dramatic shift. However I feel this gen publishers have been trying to push us to digital due to the lack of a manual and needing install the game on the hdd anyway.

tbf it is much faster to read off even an old hard drive than a bluray disc, so it's probably mostly that. a lot of people read this and cry 'shill', but it's the truth.


if i'm an NPC, i want to be the secret boss in a low tier niche JRPG.

Warmsignal

Re: Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?
« Reply #28 on: September 07, 2016, 10:39:03 am »
I think it is inevitable.  There will come a point in time where like music, everything will be download only.  I don't agree with it or like it, but who knows where my mindset will be 10 or more years down the road when it is the reality.  I might not even give a shit about video games by that point.  I just try not to think about it because it bothers me and ruins my enjoyment of what I have now.

Music is download only? Actually a lot of new releases are coming out not only on CD, but on vinyl now. FYE has a vinyl section now with a bunch of new and old releases. I think there's already a resurgence coming for physical media. As it becomes less standard, more people are starting to see the collector's appeal in having an item instead of a download. I can only hope this is the case in the future for gaming.