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Um... I bought a physical copy of Skyrim... still required Steam (much to my disgust, since at the time I didn't have the internet at home).Actually, I rarely buy games digitally. There's a few (Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment).Of course, yes, both of those were inexpensive (I think they were like $5 each), but they are games I would have actually paid full price for.I tend to be more careful of buying games these days, because of how disappointed I've been with some titles. Occasionally, something that looked or sounded cool still slips in (Battle of Z, for instance), but I more or less only venture on purchasing games if they're something that absolutely catch my attention.Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of digital distribution, but I also like the option of owning a solid copy.And knowing how these companies tend to be, how long will it be before they make it digital only, then jack up the price anyway?
My concern with the digital only thing is we're going from owning something to a company saying "you gave us money so now you can use this for as long as I want you to or until I go out of business".Sure steam gets away with that but it's also part of their policy that if Steam goes under you can download the game and burn it to a disk free of charge and it wont require steam anymore. Question is, can they back that up? And can every company make that same promise and back it up? I think not. You're going to be seeing companies come and go, and when it all goes digital only, legit copies of games will come and go with those companies. Ubisoft goes under and Assassins Creed 8 is lost to all but pirates.On top of that, digital only means there will be accounts and services and a list of arbitrary rules you have to follow even if it affects nobody but yourself, or they're just allowed to take it all away. All that money you spent, in the trash.
If Australia ever sells new release games for less then $90+. HFIL WILL FREEZE OVER.so yeah i haven't bought a single game from a store in australia since, 2011 and that's when i bought a game that was like $20 anyhow. darksiders 2.If all games went to digital only, there would be alot of job loss though, which would be rather unfortunate.
We have quite alot of Game stores in australiaEbgames"Game"GametradersGamesWarehouseJB Hi-fi (Wouldn't be effected)GamesWizardsThere is probably more, but those i've bought games from before.I don't quite see how they wouldn't be at a loss for jobs, when everything goes digital, alot more becomes automated.and coming with the nature of automated, no people required.You'd be looking at 10 people at most to run an online store.
Oh, we're going to get into tricky legal issues for sure, but we already do have those sorts of agreements with a lot of games -- largely games with microtransactions and MMORPGs. Heck, the same thing just happened with the Wii and DS's Wi-Fi connection. I don't think that we'll see that sort of model cropping up and effecting home consoles beyond that. I think the sheer number of single-player games out there is going to tend to make that pointless. We'll probably end up losing games that require the aforementioned elements eventually anyway. Meanwhile, Assassin's Creed is a single-player title, so there's no logical reason to worry about that too much.
The only games I've bought digitally are ones that already exist in physical copies (although one of them, Eternal Punishment, is extremely difficult to find since it was a limited release on the PS1).The exception being inFamous: Festival of Blood, which had a download voucher come with my newer PS3 after my old one's disc drive burned out.They can scale back the number of discs released maybe, but I don't think they should go strictly to digital.What about players who don't have the internet, or have very poor internet?It's one of the biggest, fattest f**k yous a company can pull.
I think Digital games are quite resourceful. Except 1- Your account hacked or stolen or something happens2- Not being able to show them offAs a great man once saidThese things (comics, games, etc) are like boobs, they look great online but it's better to hold in your hand
What about players who don't have the internet, or have very poor internet?It's one of the biggest, fattest f**k yous a company can pull.
that i agree with.
To be completely honest, you have to see this from the perspective of large companies. Video game companies are pretty infamous these days about not giving a shit about the consumer enough and only a handful actively try to encourage a positive relationship -- which is probably why Nintendo was so well-received this E3, pandering to its existing fanbase in buckets, and last year Microsoft bottomed out by giving us the biggest "screw you" in the history of gaming: the notion of not being able to resell physical copies of games.I don't mean to sound harsh, but you're a very, very small minority in the gaming community. I mean, heck, look at the community for cellphone games. It's already digital-only and the business is booming. Not everyone has a smartphone, not everyone has a good internet connection, but if you have the money to afford a luxury good as expensive as a current generation video game console and a few games for it, you probably have the money to afford at least one of those things. I think that we're going to see this shift starting soon. We've already pretty much got this for music, though a few people still do cell CDs. However, video games a very different market and there are only a few major players for the game we call consoles. I understand your perspective here -- and I've been down that road with the terrible internet before myself -- but the internet is more accessible than it's ever been and where most of the consumers are.