Sprash on 27 January 2016
| Shadow1980 said: Yes. Under no uncertain terms, if the industry forced digital-only, then I'm done supporting them. I am not going to invest any considerable sum of money on digital downloads, aside from the occasional Virtual Console purchase (which is usually just me double- or triple-dipping old games I already own), the last digital games I bought were Perfect Dark HD and Mega Man 10, and that was in early 2010. I am certainly not going to pay $60, $50, $40, or even $30 on a digital download, at least not with the way digital downloads are treated under current U.S. law. I like actually owning what I pay money for. I enjoy the benefits of the second-hand market. I enjoy being able to lend and trade games with friends without the permission of the copyright holder. I enjoy being able to find games that are out of print. I like the fact that, so long as I take care of my collection, those physical copies will last me a lifetime. Digital does not confer any of those benefits. Of course, I doubt the games industry will ever be stupid enough to force digital-only because A) physical is still overwhelmingly dominant in the console market (it sold digital by about 17-to-1 in 2014) because console gamers have spent decades enjoying the benefits of the First-sale Doctrine and most are loathe to give that up (see the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the XBO's original DRM policies at E3 2013), and B) a significant portion of console gamers are still not online either by choice or by lack of internet access. The games industry, or more specifically the console makers, probably knows that becoming the only segment of the entertainment industry to completely abandon physical media and force digital on everyone when physical is in more demand than perhaps anything else (except maybe books) is not a winning strategy. Whichever one of the Big Three pulls the trigger first (should one of them decide to do so) will have their system go the way of the PSP Go and their games business go the way of Sega. Do not pass "Go," do not collect $200. Straight to third-party. |
Wow, best comment in this thread! and I pretty much agree with you.
