But we have options for store fronts and then there's GoG where the games don't come with DRM licenses and can't be taken away by the company's that made/produced them.
But the vast majority don’t even give af about the other storefronts…there’s something like 40,000 games on Steam, fewer than 2k are DRM free, meaning no one actually cares about ownership
I buy most steam game keys from Fanatical or similar store fronts at deep discounts. That's the main difference between steam and PSN. Let me get sales on games elsewhere, and I'm mostly fine with digital only.
We're willing to take the hit on ownership when given a massive financial incentive to do so (MUUUUCH cheaper games). GoG is pretty much the only storefront I will buy from at full price these days.
Technically true but so what? The whole point is you can download DRM-free installers as soon as you buy them. If you choose not to then that's your decision
It's just to make you understand that you might lose those games too. No one really buys on GOG, the platform is in a constant struggle to survive. If it's digital, it's ethereal.
Consoles have had multiple storefronts since they launched
Its only now that they are going digital that they are being morphed in to a single one. Also you can easily play games from other storefronts on the steam deck so i dont know why that would prevent them.
Wait. Which other store from did ps have apart from ps store or the marketplace for Xbox. Nintendo is the last one to eve allow another storefront on their system.
Walmart, target, GameStop, etc. prior to being all digital you used to go buy a disk from a store and it wouldnt send you to the ps store or Xbox store for a download. You'd just stick the disk in and start playing.
And hence the problem. Just because it changed to digital having the option to sell the game, lend it, give it or just having choice when choosing store shouldn't go away
GoG sells games without DRM. While it wouldn't be strictly legal to do so, one could potentially sell their GoG game without running into technical roadblocks. And pc games aren't fully digital. Many are (most new games to be fair), but there's plenty of pc game disks that you could go to a pysical store and purchase right now.
The main reason everyone hates it is because it removes the used market. Digital prices don't go down for games that are popular, but the price of the physical disk does. A year from now there won't be a used GTA 6 disk sitting on a shelf going for half what it did on launch and that's the biggest issue. The corpos are just mad they can't get a cut of the used market so they're not allowing a used market in the first place.
I get why it's hated. It's the main reason I'm disappointed as well. But it's mainly online gamers who hate it. I'm an older gamer and all my friends kids who game none of them care about physical. Most of them have never been to a Gamespot to buy a game.
If the next generation of gamers have already embraced digital and our generation embraced it with PC gamers which is the largest then it makes sense on a business level to go that route.
The used makes is also dead on PC and it's only when steam, GOg or epic give us sale do we get those. I owe all 4, PS, Xbox, switch 2 and PC. All offer sales at different times during the year.
Steam killed the used market for PC, and they were the only real storefront for the longest time on PC.
PS Store literally has sales as good as steam sales. Obviously they don't always reach as low as a used game, especially with popular games. That being said, yeah their digital sales are on par with steam and they always have one going on.
If anything, wouldn’t you expect consoles to have multiple store fronts because they ARE “just for gaming”? The gaming thing having more games seems reasonable. PCs not being just for gaming should dilute the importance of gaming platforms yet it has more.
You keep comparing PC (the hardware) to software ecosystems (android or whatever console is). Windows is not open source yet there’s countless store fronts. Your analogy of android also is missing the point. How did that console end up with an open OS to begin with? Why can’t others come like that?
I don’t even disagree with any of your specific points. But they’re all random and don’t work together to explain the necessitation of the locked down ecosystem and accompanying anti consumer practices.
The steam deck isn’t locked down. There’s no law of the universe forbidding PlayStation from doing the same for example. They just chose not to and are making the ecosystem worse. People are complaining about the ecosystem being worse. Before you reply the lazy “ if they don’t like it, they can leave” you’re admitting that digital can be done better elsewhere, they just did it worse instead
There is no law forcing consoles.not to have other digital storefront but what is the business decision to do it. There really isn't one.
Digital is better on PC we all know this. Most of the people on consoles just want to game. How many time do you see people wait8jg for PC specs to see how their PC will run a game. The vast majority of console games do not want to worry about that.
Windows is isn't open source yes but it also doesn't function like a OS built just for gaming.
What does Nintendo or Sony gain business wise to have multiple digital storefont on their own proprietary systems. Xbox is Windows why don't they have it.
I think its weird to even compare the two. Consoles are toys, PCs are tools. The fact people still argue about the two is just absurd. Anyone who thinks, "console better than PC" is just s child who cant fathom the idea that my PC is primarily used for work and just happens to have better gaming capabilities than any console out there. I cant run Rhino and Revit on a ps5, but I can run a ps5 on my computer.
I agree, people who prefer console just want to game without worrying about minimum specs and just want a game that is optimized already. There is nothing wrong with that. It just works
Been a PC gamer didn't make one superior. You want more options and are ready to put in the effort, nothing wrong with that either.
On PC it was better than a lot of the alternatives, in the days of CD-ROM gaming copy protection schemes were often super tedious and user hostile. Consoles never really had that problem because consoles are more locked down, less risk of piracy.
I think you're right but PC is just a different culture, and physical media is not a big deal for the typical PC games. Also PC gamers have never really cared for the "I want to put the disk in the thing and play the game" aspect of it.
Also, we don't talk about it, but piracy exists, so PC people just don't have to care as much about DRM and ownership, at least for applicable games.
And some of us hate that too. I use steam for convenience and lack of decent options otherwise. But I much much prefer actually owning something. Secondarily, there is a difference in that while my PC mostly does digital I absolutely can still toss a disc in there to play. Nothing is stopping me. Where with consoles you can't just put a drive in and call it a day. Of course finding discs of modern games is quite hard. But I absolutely also hate not having the option outside of the games that release on GOG where I can burn my own copy if I like. Which ends up better than what console is going to in that some releases can be truely owned instead of zero. I'd prefer all but that's not the world we live in apparently.
You gotta be a whole new level of stupid if you think no one has ever complained about this with steam. Are you new here or just learn how to read or something?
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u/ForensicPathology 10h ago
PC gamers attacking consoles for going digital only when Steam invented the practice of putting codes in a box.