Would you buy a digital only console?

[Nuvendil]

Locknuts said:

Nuvendil said:

It's not so much that as a switch from digital and physical to JUST digital is only possibly a net *loss* for the consumer.  Absolutely nothing is gained, there are precisely zero advantages for the consumer.  You can already buy digital games on consoles.  You can go all digital right now.  So all an all digital console would do is take away the all the benefits of physical games (trading, lending, reselling, physical collecting, etc) and provide absolutely nothing new.  

So why go for an option where you can ONLY do all digital when the current setup let's you go all digital, almost all physical, or an even combination of both.  Why give up options?  

Depends what you find advantageous I guess. I love not having to fiddle around with discs, especially now that games require a full install anyway. My kids can't scratch or break my digital copies and digital games can always be found way cheaper on PC (my main gaming platform). Now that you can get refunds for digital games I  have absolutely zero reasons to buy games on disc anymore.

You're missing my point, you have that NOW.  A digital only console won't give people that or enhance that, it will only TAKE AWAY other options. A digital only console is only and can only ever be a loss.  

And people who think the vanishing of physical media will somehow lead to some reinvention of the industry into a paradise for the consumer are kidding themselves.  If anything, physical media and the expectation of that option and the implications of that option keep these companies honest.  Remember how Konami began trying to whipe PT from history?  What do you think stops Activision, EA, or Ubisoft from doing that to, say, Assassin's Creed II or Mass Effect 1 to 3?  Physical copies.  They can't just go and take those from people and stores.  But digital only?  Now the preservation of games is purely at the mercy of the publishers.  They can delete them from all legal servers and via DRM programs could even compel the deletion of the software from most systems.  So if they decide to, say, remaster a clasic game you can get the standard version of on something equivalent to the virtual console, certain companies may decide to just obliterate the original version form the world to force fans to buy the new version if they ever want to play it again.

That might sound sleezy and super dirty, but if you think the entire industry is above that, you are very, very mistaken.  On PC, the very open nature of the platform checks this.  That and the fact that Valve happens to give a crap.  But on the walled gardens of consoles they could mandate the whole thing as platform-wide.  

Am I saying things would necessarily go that bad?  No.  But going all digital opens the door, staying mixed does not.  There is no advantage to removing physical, only potential losses.