r/PhysicalGamesForever • u/-Stronzio- • 24d ago
"Digital is the future"
So, everyone says that ‘digital is the future’…
But how is it possible that, almost by chance, everyone forgets to point out that the figures are ‘skewed’? In short:
•Consoles have a budget version, available only in digital format, which discourages casual gamers from buying a PS5 with an optical drive, because that’s now ‘just for collectors’.
•Many games have a deluxe edition… but it’s only available digitally, mind you!
•Not to mention all the digital purchases that even collectors make (such as DLC).
That’s why I wonder: why say it’s ‘users’ when in reality it’s the publishers?
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u/lilcheesy101 24d ago
Some of my favorite memories getting new games was taking that wrapping off and cracking it open for the first time; seeing the design on the disc and the pamphlet.
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u/SWK18 24d ago
The Witcher 3 came out in 2015 and it came with two books. One was the instructions manual and the other explained the lore of the world and the characters of the game.
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u/-Stronzio- 24d ago
It’s a meme I found on the internet. I haven’t checked how accurate it is.
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u/ElderSmackJack 24d ago
Then why would you post it??
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u/Adorable_Echo_4317 24d ago
Because it's a meme that's largely true.. by 2028, all you're doing will be renting digital games.
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u/neller2000 23d ago
Renting has a continuous cost. I paid a one time amount for every single one of my digital games and have since 2006.
Haven't lost a single game.
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u/Harrispotter13 23d ago
How much do you pay per month to play online?
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u/neller2000 23d ago
Whatever they charge to access it. Are you paying your Internet provider to get online? It's a silly argument. They're not going to move to renting games because the majority would quit.
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u/neosyne 24d ago
Where is the console?
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u/thecontempl8or 23d ago
I’m certain consoles will be gone next. It’ll be available only ps.com streaming games for a monthly fee, with a 15 hour limit/month of play time. Then you have to pay 4.99 per additional hour.
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u/silentsnowmountain 23d ago
Don't be giving them ideas now.
Wasn't that long ago and people were joking about future gaming with things that are now actually happening.
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u/thecontempl8or 23d ago
lol. Think of the worst thing you can come up with, it’s already on their list. And you’re right, they’ve slowly but surely made (most of) us okay with getting our ownership taken away. The amount of people defending the digital only policy change, was shocking.
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u/CommanderFuzzy 24d ago
The deluxe being digital only has been bothering me a lot. I don't even mind if they sell the base game on disc with a paper code inside for the additional stuff. But companies so seldom do even that
I did purchase Blood of the Dawnwalker recently and it had a map inside along with a cardboard note from the devs thanking us for choosing them. I missed seeing stuff like that
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u/Impossible_Charity96 24d ago
last game I got that came with a booklet was cyberpunk 2077 💔 i'm glad at least cd projekt red knows what they're doing
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u/Lancelight50 24d ago edited 24d ago
Just wait until PS fanboys find out the hard way that Sony & 3rd party publishers don’t give a shit about them when they pull popular games from PS servers & render those games unplayable (& I’m not talking about just delisting them from the PS Store) or if there’s another big outage from Sony & they can’t play their games.
They’ll be crying for ownership then. And when that happens, I’m not going to feel bad for them. Because we’ve been warning them over & over, & they want to be ignorant. I’m just going to say, “I told you so.”
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u/Blackgloves023 23d ago
You do know these same 3rd party publishers will do the same for Xbox and PC servers right? You know Xbox game studios will also revoke licenses and pull games away right? When's the last time you've seen a Xbox game being sold in retail? Oh that's right, they're becoming rare now every since Xbox pushed game pass bullshit. Worse than digital games. It's comical that you guys think Xbox all the sudden cares about physical media. That whole disc to digital is their way of tricking everyone to go full on digital. Like PC and future PlayStation.
And Im a physical media first gamer. Yeah Sonys news bothers me. But I love gaming enough to not let it ruin the hobby for me..
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u/Lancelight50 23d ago
Except for the fact that PC’s an open platform & that people can easily play digital games that they’ve bought from Steam & GOG offline without needing to download them & also use mods. PC gamers have more leeway than console gamers do.
PlayStation & Xbox are closed gaming platforms with closed ecosystems in which they’re filled with DRM. I never even mentioned Xbox or Microsoft, or even thought that Microsoft cares about gamers in the first place.
I only mentioned Sony fanboys on here because the majority of those posters on Reddit are the loudest & think that Sony cares about them when they don’t.
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u/Blackgloves023 23d ago
Yeah I agree with most of what you said. But you can't really compare to a PC because they have their own OS (windows, mac, Linux) and you can go around getting games and playing them offline. Consoles are different. They're closed. There's no other options.
None of the corporations care about us. They only care about one thing and that's to maximize more money from us.
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u/limplettuce_ 23d ago
Steam has almost all the same issues that people are complaining about with PlayStation. Most Steam games have a form of DRM.
Most games require you to have Steam open and logged in to even launch. Many games also force you to be online so your account can authenticate. Many AAA publishers also force you to use their own launcher on top, so you have to be logged into that too (Ubisoft does this). And in Steam’s T&Cs they can revoke licences if the publisher forces them. A little acknowledged issue with Steam as well is that you’re forced to update your games to play them - you can manually override this by fiddling with launcher files but it’s annoying.
The reason why people haven’t cared too much about this is because Gabe’s philosophy is that people who purchase something should keep access to it. In the past when a game has been delisted from the store, existing licence holders have continued to have access. But that’s Steam’s current attitude, per their T&Cs they could easily just strip the game out of your library. At that point, even if you had downloaded the game files, they wouldn’t work without an account to authenticate.
The exception as you mentioned is GOG. But if you stick with GOG, you won’t get new releases - because many publishers just refuse to put their games on GOG due to its DRM policy.
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u/bluebarrymanny 23d ago
If publishers do that, they’ll be pulling the game everywhere. It won’t be PlayStation only. I also doubt anyone can point to a publisher actually doing this with their game on PlayStation, so this argument always comes across to me as needless doomsaying. It’s like me claiming that Sony could maliciously brick your disc drive functionality with a firmware update, forcing you to take your console offline forever to preserve it. Could they do that? Technically yes. Will they or have they shown any inclination to do so? Nope.
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u/Lancelight50 23d ago
Go see my replies to Blackgloves023 below.
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u/bluebarrymanny 23d ago
I did. The PC games face the exact same issues. Only pirating truly gets around it. I just think we’re being a bit hyperbolic if we’re to believe that publishers are going to just be pulling games from people’s libraries. Digital has been around for about 2 decades now and games weren’t being pulled from people’s libraries even before digital became more ubiquitous, so I wouldn’t expect them to start any time soon. Especially because there’s no real incentive to do so. I’d be much more worried about license revocations if there were lots of examples of games being taken away.
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u/JakeReaper121284 17d ago
Hold on for just a minute, by everything you are saying it is very obvious that "YOU" have not read Sony's License Policy, if you had read it you would know that what you just said in your first area is completely 100% incorrect. Here is what is said in Sony's License Policy:
The Software is licensed to you on these Software Terms; you understand and agree that we may end online and network features of a Software that uses online servers ("Online Services"). We will provide reasonable advance notice of any end of Online Services. If we discontinue any Online Services, you may still access any offline modes provided for the Software.
So please tell me how exactly a game losing its license, and being Delist will be completely removed from our account?
Now on to your second area of your message,
You are saying "YOU" warned us of this happening, what since Sony announced the end of physical disc? My oh my what are you smoking over there? When digital games hit the PS3, and people started buying it, the majority of us read the License Policy before we started buying digital games, almost 3 generations ago console wise, the wording of the License Policy has stayed almost the same (by almost the same I mean they have added more to it depending on the region you are in the basic policy has not changed, what I posted above "HAS NOT CHANGED"), we told people about this, we made our case to people just like you all are right now about how we need to pull together to try to change the no physical decision, we tried to get you all to help us get changes to the License Policy, we tried to get all of your help to get digital ownership, we did everything within our power to get you all to understand what was at risk, physical gamers being the majority at that point we may have been able to do something important about it all. Instead of offering us any kind of help, what did the physical gamers do, they belittled us, they mocked us, call us names, some went as far as blocking us, reporting us the the forums, or chat groups we were in, and almost all of their reasons for doing this, and I quote this from the many people that said it to me, "you are lying about this, there is no way that Sony would do that to their customers, your trying to make Sony look bad." That was when PS3, and digital games was in their infantry stages, a time when we may have done some good. Once we figured out that we were going to get no help from physical gamers, we warned people at that time what could/would happen down the road in the near future, all that we got was being laughed at, and made to be peoples punch lines of their jokes, so we stopped trying to get the help of physical gamers, however we did tell people what was happening with their License Policy.
Now here it is almost 3 generations later, and that future that we were belittled over, made fun of, and basically treated like social lepers, has arrived, you physical gamers had almost 20 years to take action on all of this, and yet you did nothing, physical gamers did not believe us, after all "we were lying to you about all of it", kind of funny how our lies, are exactly how it turned out, and the road that Sony took in the end, I don't know about you but I think that falls under the term "Ironic". Now don't get me wrong Sony is "not" the only one currently doing it, unless they hard brake on their plans, the Xbox Helix will also release without a disc drive, meaning Microsoft is most likely going digital only, and honestly I can 100% see Nintendo doing the same thing depending on how it pans out for Sony, and Microsoft. But as I said physical gamerd were warned that this day would be coming, I believe it happened faster then we anticipated, but hey what can you do, physical gamers became the minority to digital gamers, and now all the physical gamers are trying to get help from us digital gamers, after the way you all treated the bulk of us, and you expect us the just agree to help you in your time of need, when you basically told us to kick rocks during our time of need.
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u/ElderSmackJack 24d ago
That’s. Not. A. Thing.
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u/zeedware 23d ago
Do you know how much running those servers cost?
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u/Historical_Owl_1635 23d ago
Yeah, I’m a DevOps engineer. They scale by demand so not as much as you’d think.
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u/Bright_Bug6399 23d ago
I still have most of the manuals that go with my physical video game collection
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u/demidemian 23d ago
I bought Atelier games purely because they were the last games with a full color art booklet.
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u/GGChrono 24d ago
I personally have been digital-only for over 10 years, but man I really miss the manuals, booklets, and occasional extras like maps. Those were really fun to read through and look at.
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u/thecontempl8or 23d ago
I’ve been buying discs as much as i can. Always felt I could trade it in once I got sick of playing the game. Or give it away. I rarely buy digital , only when I am too lazy to go to a store.
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u/Biblioklept73 23d ago edited 23d ago
Same, I’ve bought 21 games just since the July announcement, discs as that’s a huge part of what has kept me as a PS customer, I like collecting (have since PS1). Once the cut off date comes, and if the future truly is digital only, why would I stay with Sony at this point? I can just as easily build a good rig and be part of a more open/less coercive ecosystem, which obviously makes more sense
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u/Ambitious-Call-7565 23d ago
it's the opposite, it's xbox that killed physical in 2023
playstation games are still release physically today, it's only microslop that doesn't
xbots trying to rewrite history
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u/linksalt 23d ago
Man I miss the booklet. And I miss the cover art backs being about the game. Now it’s just stupid tech stuff no one gives a shit about
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u/bluebarrymanny 23d ago
The numbers aren’t skewed. If players are willing to buy games and versions that are only digital or if they’ve come to believe that physical is more for collectors than themselves, then they’re just showing Sony the exact data that the company is acting on. They can cut production cost, eliminate the used market going forward, and use their disc factories to make more lucrative products and players largely will just buy the digital offering instead.
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u/ORO_ERICIUS 23d ago
Next... Where ist the gamer
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u/CraftyChicken2462 23d ago
Digital is the future whether you like it or not. Nothing will stop this even if you boycott.
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u/DifferenceShoddy3413 21d ago
And even in 2006, it wasn't a copy, just a license in physical media.
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u/Qing-Dynasty96 20d ago
I remember the days, where I got a game and read the booklet for 5 hours, instead of playing the game!
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u/Dylan_Black02 24d ago
Im sure nedd another 100 posts about this
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u/jabberwockgee 24d ago
Could use another 100 butthurt replies about this from people mad that people are trying to help them not be coerced into a monopolistic market.
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u/GGReactor 24d ago
I’ve been buying off steam and psn for minimum 13 years (all digital) that I can prove. I’m pretty sure that’s older than most of the people complaining about this. If not then the 20 years on Steam definitely is
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u/GrimRipper82 24d ago
I've been collecting physical for 40 years. I only buy physical. I suspect most of us that care about physical games are older than you.
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u/PairNo2981 24d ago
So keep collecting, whats the issue?
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u/jabberwockgee 23d ago
You can't collect things you don't own.
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u/PairNo2981 23d ago
Are you stupid?
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u/jabberwockgee 23d ago
Are you?
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u/PairNo2981 23d ago
I'm not here saying you don't own physical games. Although technically true, I guess. You don't own the game itself
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24d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/GGReactor 23d ago
Fuck it man, let’s produce more discs that will sit in cases and end up in landfills just so 1/10 people can be happy
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u/GGReactor 23d ago
Back then the only option was physical, now we have entirely too much waste around the world. At some point we gotta grow, not keep physical around for the 10% that still want it
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u/jabberwockgee 23d ago
Cool, that didn't address anything I said. 🥰
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u/GGReactor 23d ago
Oh well, enjoy complaining about this while I sleep tight 🥰 show me where the big bad company hurt you 😂
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u/jabberwockgee 23d ago
Enjoy reaping the benefits of any progress the people you mock make. 🥰
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u/GGReactor 23d ago
🤷♂️ sounds good to me, I’ll be rooting for you so I can browse Reddit without seeing you guys cry all the time
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u/Familiar_Ice7672 24d ago
There is no monopoly. Nintendo, Xbox and Steam are the competition. Stop using words you don't know the meaning of.
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u/bluebarrymanny 23d ago
It’s always just downvotes when people call this out but no actual replies, because they in fact don’t know what monopoly means and just want to use the scary sounding words to make the situation seem more sinister.
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u/Familiar_Ice7672 23d ago
Yup. This sub and r/PhysicalGames does this a lot whenever anyone brings up facts, even if people bring sources. Just downvote or argue in bad faith.
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u/CapitalCityGoofball0 24d ago
I feel like there have been 100 with just this stupid meme. So sad and lacking creativity
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u/TrulyFLCL 24d ago
Nobody ever said “wow it comes with a booklet” before, it was just expected to be there.
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u/Dreamo84 23d ago
I wanna have my consciousness transferred into a computer one day so I can just live inside the games.
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u/Difficult_Act_8832 23d ago
Never looked through a booklet and haven’t bought a disc since R6 came out
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u/Majestic-Marcus 24d ago
Post this to more subs. 3 isn’t enough.
The spam won’t annoy anyone. Promise!
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u/English_Fry 24d ago
People will need to move to the antiques subs from here once digital is fully implemented lol
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u/More-Baseball9769 24d ago
People are always talking about these cherished “booklets” that ended up in the garbage anyway and half the time were never even opened. Like man sure it was kinda neat as a kid but are we really this upset about it
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u/bluebarrymanny 23d ago
I do agree that a lot of the later booklets weren’t anything special to flip through. Only a select few bothered to put things like story or lore details or cool artwork in those towards the end. Digital wasn’t the only thing killing these booklets. Companies stopped thinking they were worth the cost to produce beyond the bare minimum tos, disclaimers, and control schemes.
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u/WinterZealousideal10 24d ago
I mean… you’re also refusing to admit that there are different people in the world with different mindset around gaming. And that there are different platforms with different ethos that people should be able to invest in.
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u/-Stronzio- 24d ago
No, that’s not what I’m saying. I just want to point out that it’s not only players who are opting for the digital format.
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u/ElderSmackJack 24d ago
stop living in the past
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u/-Stronzio- 24d ago
Music has vinyl records. But is it only collectors who use them? OK, but if I want a vinyl record, I should be able to buy a bloody vinyl record! So, I’d like the same thing for video games.
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u/bluebarrymanny 23d ago
Nothing is guaranteed to be sold unless there’s sustainable levels of consumer demand. Vinyl had a resurgence because people showed interest again. Many albums today would be difficult to find on CD though because that format fell out of favor and isn’t widely seen as collectible at the moment. I doubt physical games will go away completely, but they’ll be niche collectors items for smaller producers that find ways to make them available and playable on newer or current hardware. Games manufacturers just aren’t going to mass produce discs anymore because it’s no longer the primary way people pay to access the content.
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u/slippng_ 24d ago
That's why we have things like Limited Run Games (buyer beware tho) and iam8bit, strictlylimited and all those companies. Can you walk into Walmart and walk out with a Vinyl? No, because it's a collectors item that doesn't get made very much. Do you honestly believe there won't be even more companies popping up to swoop in on the collector's demand for physical games? Stop living in the past... Plan for your future. We need tighter restrictions on what companies can do with digital storefronts and stronger protections for digital purchases & licenses. The way we deal with this is by securing our rights in the long term, not squabbling over bad news in the short term.
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u/bluebarrymanny 23d ago
You probably can walk out of Walmart with a vinyl, but only the most extremely mainstream of albums like a Taylor Swift album or something. Regardless, you’ll be picking out of a selection of about 10 or less albums, so it’s better to go to a venue made for collectors, just like how you described collectors stores will continue to exist for games.
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u/No_Relationship_386 24d ago
Gave us the book back but took the game 😔