Buying PlayStation and Xbox games on discs isn't going away

[Ruler]

pbroy said:

burninmylight said:

That said, anyone who thinks physical media is going away any time soon is bonkers. A couple of years ago, I let a friend who didn't even have home Internet service of his own download a few games to his PS3. About 8 gigs of data took around 12 hours on a stable 3 Mbps connection.

Can you imagine trying to do that on a crappy satellite connection in the middle of nowhere? That's what a significant portion of the US population uses; and it's pretty safe to say we're one of the more developed countries in the world. I couldn't even establish a strong enough connection to play a few matches of Mario Kart Wii on satellite connection at my ex-gf's parents house, let alone download a full freaking game.

There's also other things to consider, like parents and grandparents who want to buy gifts for their kids.

That's why M$'s strategy would have worked. They release physical copies that need to be registered online and gives you digital rights without needing a disc anymore. They work like install discs. Sell it to gamestop and they provide digital codes when they resell.

@Topic:

I've been going all digital on my games since all these cheap deals on 360 and PS3 came about. I love scrolling through my hundreds of games and not having to swap discs, because it's a hassle. Eventually cases will wear out from opening and tabs break, discs scratch, disc drive lasers get worn out and I lose calories that I don't have to by swapping discs. I only buy collector's edtions and never open them. Then when games go on sale digital, I buy them. I have a backlog of over 1000 digital games, so I can wait for new games to get cheap before I jump in.

Downloading off the internet is the only downfall. The best way to do this is by having stores sell you digital codes, along with an install disc, which was what M$ was doing. Another way is to borrow a copy of the game from a friend or redbox and install it. Then take the disc out and then buy a digital copy online. The digital rights will be added to your install and you won't need a disc anymore. That's how it works on Xbone.

the problem is that it was the the only Way MS intentend it to be. And PS4 offers the same what the X1 does now, it has a buy button on every game installed from Disc games in the crossbar menu