Digital Only Consoles???

[AngelaHornung]

I heard about the refreshed Xbox Series X on GameLinked as thats where I get all of my gaming news. lol But as you can deduce from the title, I'm a bit disappointed that it's digital only. I understand that discs for modern consoles act simply as glorified download codes, but like I want my wall of plastic cases! XD

 

So I was pondering if this is actually a bad thing though. There is the concern of ownership for certain, but like maybe this isn't a bad thing? Steamdeck is digital only and the PC space has effectively been digital only for years now. Has the time come? Am I old now? Is it just an old woman yelling at the sun when I say I want and will continue for as long as possible to purchase physical media regardless? lol

 

Though I was curious as to people's thoughts on the subject manner. Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing? Also is Riley really that white? Him and I might have something in common after all! XD

 

 

[OhioYJ]

PCs and game consoles are different. For a PC things are easier to work around if you will if a server goes down. I can easily repair a PC. Im still playing and using files from in various forms from over 30 years ago. 

 

However with modern consoles this may prove to be tougher. How are you going to play a digital only game that cant phone home to verify it's license in 20 years? On a PC I know how we solve these issues. 

 

When physical media was truly physical this wasn't a concern. I can pull my Atari 2600 out anytime, throw a game in and play. 

[thrasher_565]

there pros can cons of them. and alot of things owning a game to play off line alot of them dont work off line. the switch games can but you have to connect evry 30 days i think and fist time you put the game in so is it realy off line...

ya alot of games dont have a game on the disk. haflife being one of thows that would take you to a link to downalod steam. but alot of games are so big there the downlaod day one patch "aka" the game....

i beleave xbox alot of there games are like this already.

switch twists your bXXXs about buying digital as its simply cheaper... and they did say they wanted to go digital but there was push back.

alot of stores are not caring games anymore so were would you even buy them other then ammazon...

 

i like buying physical when i can as i can then sell it if need be.

 

on the other side a lot of people are going to digitalize there physical anyway as its way better and dont have to replace the battery... or fix the aging consoles...

 

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, AngelaHornung said:

I understand that discs for modern consoles act simply as glorified download codes,

... people already said that during ps360 era, and it wasn't true, then they said it for ps4 and it wasn't true... 

such games exist, sure, but generally most games will be just fine from the disc

1 hour ago, OhioYJ said:

When physical media was truly physical this wasn't a concern

btw cds, dvds, etc are all digital 

its really not that much different from a hard-drive.

 

 

1 hour ago, OhioYJ said:

How are you going to play a digital only game that cant phone home to verify it's license in 20 years?

again, most games aren't like that... 

 

 

and in 20 years? you either emulate it on pc, jailbreak your *20 year old console that of course works just fine still, because sure it will* and better hope someone made a custom server because otherwise you're sol if its an online game. 

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

19 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

... people already said that during ps360 era, and it wasn't true, then they said it for ps4 and it wasn't true... 

such games exist, sure, but generally most games will be just fine from the disc

It was a lot more common on Xbox than Playstation during the generational shift.  This is partly down to Microsoft pushing the idea of buying the Xbox One version of a game and getting the Series upgrade for free.  The physical media contained the Xbox One version, but when put into a Series console it downloads the Series version of the game.

 

My guess would be this is less common now given many games being Series only, although size of games has also increased so some are so large they don't bother to put them on the physical media to save money.

 

Also due to how backwards compatibility works, when you put an Xbox 360 version into Xbox One or Series consoles, they also need to download the whole game (effectively a VM image) modified to run on the newer consoles.

 

So I wouldn't like to say "generally most games will be just fine from disc", as it rather depends how big those games are and is largely moot given how many games need day one patches to even barely work at launch.

 

Still, I'm not interested in a download only console, simply because that means any of my physical Xbox 360/One games then are unplayable.  Although half of them aren't backwards compatible anyway, annoyingly some Xbox titles ARE compatible on Xbox 360, but not on One/Series.

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

It was a lot more common on Xbox than Playstation during the generational shift.  This is partly down to Microsoft pushing the idea of buying the Xbox One version of a game and getting the Series upgrade for free.  The physical media contained the Xbox One version, but when put into a Series console it downloads the Series version of the game.

 

My guess would be this is less common now given many games being Series only, although size of games has also increased so some are so large they don't bother to put them on the physical media to save money.

 

Also due to how backwards compatibility works, when you put an Xbox 360 version into Xbox One or Series consoles, they also need to download the whole game (effectively a VM image) modified to run on the newer consoles.

 

So I wouldn't like to say "generally most games will be just fine from disc", as it rather depends how big those games are and is largely moot given how many games need day one patches to even barely work at launch.

 

Still, I'm not interested in a download only console, simply because that means any of my physical Xbox 360/One games then are unplayable.  Although half of them aren't backwards compatible anyway, annoyingly some Xbox titles ARE compatible on Xbox 360, but not on One/Series.

 

im not surprised xbox is pushing for this either, Microsoft never was a comsumer friendly company and never will be... Steam has a very similar philosophy btw, if you don't believe it, try to sell a game you "own" on Steam.

 

 

i was just pointing out majority of console games can still be played from disc and offline for the time being. 

 

annoyed the hell out of me how much people said during previous gens "u cant even play these games without updating etc"...  i *never* updated my games (unless it was forced for multiplayer or something) and they all worked just fine.

 

 

1 hour ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Still, I'm not interested in a download only console, simply because that means any of my physical Xbox 360/One games then are unplayable.  Although half of them aren't backwards compatible anyway, annoyingly some Xbox titles ARE compatible on Xbox 360, but not on One/Series.

funny enough the only reason for me owning a current gen Xbox would be the bc stuff, but since that's also tied to servers its less enticing, but when they hit $200 i might reconsider. 

[TomChaai]

For digital software licenses, there is a difference between digital ownership and subscription/leases/SaaS.

 

Moving to all digital doesn’t always mean moving to subscription/SaaS that you either need to keep paying to keep access, or don’t necessarily have to pay to keep access, but the operation of the game being a service that is subject to shutdowns. Pure digital ownership still exist and is still the majority today, like Steam or pretty much any “pay to own” platforms, like PS stores, Xbox stores, even EA and Ubisoft stores.

 

In theory you still could lose access of digitally owned products if the platform goes out of business or just decides to kill the digital delivery service for those older games, but so far it has NEVER happened for still living platforms, they always honor the download and activation services now even if the purchase was made 20+ years ago and no longer available for purchase now. I have yet to see a noteworthy example of platforms trying to pull the plug and get away with it.

 

So I’m not really worried about going all digital, at least according to current trends it will be fine.