Do physical versions of online only games make sense?

[Limeface]

I bought the collector's edition of Deformers from GameStop yesterday, and found out the game is online only. Now the game is a fine game and all, and the steelbook, soundtrack, and little figures the collector's edition came with are all cool, but once I learned that the game has no offline mode it made me wonder what the point of a physical disc for a game like this is. Say the servers get shut down years from now, the disc will be useless. Is it just retail space that justify the discs being printed? You need internet to play this game, so the advantage of being able to install it quickly off the disc is gone. And while I own the disc, I don't necessarily own the game's ability to function down the road.

Thoughts?

[hexen]

As much as I dislike any games without a physical version, it is kind of understandable for MMO's and the like. However, I still like physical discs for MMOs, useless though they may be. I used to play WoW from the start, and seriously from Wrath to the beginning of Mists and despite the fact I never intend to again, I like the boxes sitting on my shelves reminding me of when I did. I popped in for a month last year just to see what the game was like, and I bought Warlords digitally for the reason it wasn't going to have any nostalgic effect on me as well as the convenience.

As far as utility goes, installing from a disc can be a lot faster, and maybe your only option if you have crap internet (I had crap internet that downloaded like crap in my early WoW days, but the game still ran fine). Otherwise, the physical discs don't mean much. I always find it amusing when thrift stores try to sell used copies of MMOs that have had their codes used already and are even more useless.

[bikingjahuty]

Any game that depends on a server to play will someday be obsolete. Some games have lived on well past the developers support because of fan support, but many of the online FPS, MMO, and MOBAs will someday no longer be playable. A physical version of a game that will someday no longer be playable isn't really a bad thing, but I'd certainly expect it to someday just be a nice looking paper weight.

[guilty0fbeing]

I typically don't but online-only games.

[ferraroso]

I believe that if you think strictly from a player's perspective, physical copies of online-exclusive games are pretty useless.
However, from a collector's point of view, to have the physical copies of such games means that, even after the servers are long dead, the memories and experiences that people had while playing them will last as long as that now useless disc is sitting on someone's shelf.

For me, collecting physical copies, even when the game becomes unplayable due to some sort of damage to the cartridge/disc or to lack of support from its manufacturer, means to preserve a part of the history of video games and, as such, even physical versions of online only games have their value. Specially if you have fond memories of that game.

[emporerdragon]

There's a large amount of people whose internet is capable of playing against other people online, but when faced with the massive downloads that today's games are, either would take forever to download when installed, or have a data cap from their ISP that a game download would completely destroy.

Also, it's usually a lot easier to find a physical version of a game cheap than it is to wait for a decent sale for a digital version.

[theflea]

My normal rule is "don't pay over $20 for a game that is online only." But many games don't advertise this. I had no idea Deformers was an online only game til after I bought it.
To me a physical online only game is a future display game. A dead game that is just on display. Like Final Fantasy XI on PS2 and XB360.
I wont pre-order games like destiny 2 unless I hear there's an offline campaign. An online only game like Destiny, Titanfall or The Division will never hold any value to collector's.

There's another trend in todays gaming that sucks. Many new games require an update before it will download.
If you hold on to a game for years and never get the update and they remove it from the servers this game too will be dead. I know Tony Hawk 5 is a famous one. Other games will play but be so broken because you never got the update. Like Assassin's Creed Unity on PS4.

[Warmsignal]

I thought that was kind of dumb. Would it have been so hard for them to add a single player mode into the game? What if Mario Kart was online only? Sometimes you just don't have anyone else to play with it. Idk what devs like this are thinking.

[ignition365]

My normal rule is "don't pay over $20 for a game that is online only." But many games don't advertise this. I had no idea Deformers was an online only game til after I bought it.
To me a physical online only game is a future display game. A dead game that is just on display. Like Final Fantasy XI on PS2 and XB360.
I wont pre-order games like destiny 2 unless I hear there's an offline campaign. An online only game like Destiny, Titanfall or The Division will never hold any value to collector's.

There's another trend in todays gaming that sucks. Many new games require an update before it will download.
If you hold on to a game for years and never get the update and they remove it from the servers this game too will be dead. I know Tony Hawk 5 is a famous one. Other games will play but be so broken because you never got the update. Like Assassin's Creed Unity on PS4.

Or how like the Wii won't play certain games unless you update the firmware, if they ever stop allowing you to get the updates it could be an issue down the line.

[guilty0fbeing]

In the past, TF2, BO2, Halo 3, and others have been a true source of joy for me. Halo 3 was my first true MP experience and it was with my college buddies; the amount of Halo we played was probably unhealthy. BO2, I think I put almost 700 hours in. It was my first PC game and it was a blast. Now, I'm not only married with a full time job, but I have a three year old daughter. MP games do not work for me. I have to be available at the drop of a dime. Therefore, I prefer single player games these days. Also, when I played MP games, I would never touch 99% of the amazing SP games out there. Furthermore, I'm somewhat of a retro-to-modern game collector, though I deny it everyday.
 

[torchickens]

I believe that if you think strictly from a player's perspective, physical copies of online-exclusive games are pretty useless.
However, from a collector's point of view, to have the physical copies of such games means that, even after the servers are long dead, the memories and experiences that people had while playing them will last as long as that now useless disc is sitting on someone's shelf.

For me, collecting physical copies, even when the game becomes unplayable due to some sort of damage to the cartridge/disc or to lack of support from its manufacturer, means to preserve a part of the history of video games and, as such, even physical versions of online only games have their value. Specially if you have fond memories of that game.

I agree with this 100%.

If there is a series I like, I may want to collect merchandise for it even if the merchandise has no practical use or relatively less use compared to something like a cartridge or disc containing an offline game. I'm personally very sentimental like that, and many collectors may like to collect for memory/preservation too.

However some people may prefer download and/or just having the ability to play the game.

Recently, it's similar to what happened with the Nintendo 3DS eShop Pokémon Gold and Silver with Nintendo releasing boxed versions with only the download codes inside.

[cirno]

I think it's kinda worthless to keep a game you can't even play on a shelf..

But if anything, I just dislike this practice. I don't wanna pay for a game that'll become a useless hunk of plastic in only a few years, and even if it were a digital game I'd rather buy something I can just play whenever I feel like it

[eyesoffiction]

It depends, some games become coasters, and others last a very long time.

Sometimes the modding/hacking seen can revive games themselves, kinda like how PSO is still alive and kicking.

[hawk767]

As a means of providing a larger game download size and avoiding downloading it, I'll always take physical over digital in that regard. With my shit 768kbps download speeds its much faster for me to install off of a disc or at least the majority of a game and just download the day one patches than it is for me to download a 30gb+ game that I likely won't be able to start playing for a month after purchase.

[jce3000gt]

.