The Digital Future

[DonFerrari]

Fight-the-Streets said:

WoodenPints said:

As you said I don't even consider digital viable day one for games when I can get the physical copy £10-15 and a large amount of times the physical copy includes posters, Steelbooks, keyrings or other little touches that add some value not to mention it still hold value if I want to sell it on down the line.

It baffles me how publishers haven't made digital cheaper because if they offer me a £30 digital vs £40 physical I would highly consider it and the publisher would still make the same amount of profit removing retailer/distribution costs and remove used copies something they have been wanting for decades. Steam has also gone to shit this generation for AAA games with it now been the most expensive platform if I wanted to buy a game at launch compared to the start of this generation it was the cheapest which is another consequence of digital been the only choice.

It's because of contracts with retailers. During launch time it's not allowed for the platform holders/publishers to sell the digital version cheaper than the retail version. The reason behind these contracts is because of consoles. The retailers sell the console but as most money (for each party) is made by selling software the retailer wants to make sure that the platform holder/publisher has no advantage in this game for money. If the platform holders/publishers would refuse to make such contracts, many retailers simply would refuse to sell consoles. (Of course, I can't speak for Brazil but to be honest Brazil is irrelevant for representing any kind of standards in the gaming industry).

Besides owning my games, being able to buy and sell used games, being not dependent on digital market operators, being not dependent on internet slow-downs/problems, not being forced to buy huge hard disks and/or avoiding the annoyance of huge downloads/re-downloads (to save space on the hard disks with downloading-deleting and re-downloading) my main reason to stay physical is actually the following: I'm a whole-blood gamer, I'm proud of my hobby and like for any hobby you like to show what you have (to yourself and others). Well, without a physical collection there's actually little to show besides some merchandise but the physical games themselves with their boxes and covers are the bred and butter of the show, like they are for music and movie fans (one of the reason why even some music still comes out on CD - it's because hardcore fans want them as collectibles). Some gamers will not only play games, they are collectors. It's deep in human nature to collect things, all kinds of things. A certain percentage of gamers will always want to collect physical games and the percentage will be just high enough that it will remain lucrative to still make (more expensive) consoles that "eat" physical media and producing physical games. Don't forget, human beings are physical, we want to see, touch and feel and for many there's still a kind of (childlike) joy if we touch a physical game, open the box, take the disc/card out, put it into the console and start the console. Don't underestimate the little joys of everyday life!

And for the excuse that needing to install mean you don't own the disc it is very strange. Because first it is fast enough to instal the disk, you can unistall when you finish and reinstall if needed very fast without losing your saves it is also very easy to loan to friends without the hassles of changing your account all the time. Also in the minimum it is option.