I wanted to ask people on this site why physical disk drives matter so much to some gamers to the point they would literally give up gaming entertainment due to the format the game is on.
A bit about myself. I grew up around physical media, I am quite a huge collector, was gaming during the NES/Atari days, my house is literally cluttered with physical media. I understand there is an attachment to physical media, it's nice looking at a box and booklet when buying a video game.. back in the bronze age of gaming. However, physical media today? I don't understand the attachment. Physical media today offers literally no benefits to the consumer outside of a plastic case, and the booklets are no longer included, just a disk inside the case which requires a day one patch and an online console to play the games. Its not the same anymore.
During the late 90s, I started gaming on a Windows PC and when Steam arrived in the early 2000s, (No body liked it at the time) become one of my favorite platforms. Not because the games were better but how easily accessible the games are on Steam. Easy to buy games, manage games, update games, store games, no more placing hundreds of Gaming Apps on your desktop. The moment Valve improved the quality-of-life issues with Steam, there was no turning back. Majority of companies have followed Valves approach with digital media which has now become the more popular choice for games today.
So, my question is why physical media is that important to gamers today when the benefits of digital media is far superior to physical media. So, based on the below examples, why is physical important? If you are someone who likes selling your games, I can completely understand your views, however for those who love their games, you won't be selling them. As for the case and disk, video games today are now sold with bare bones effort of offering little to nothing to the consumer, no booklets or any inside goodies outside of a disk which requires a working laser to read and most require an online connection and some physical media don't even store the full game on the disks.
Benefits of Physical
- Own the Game Case/Disk
- Resale Value
- Game Sharing
Benefits of Digital
- Takes up zero room in your house
- Does not deteriorate over time of use
- Does not rely on a working Disk Drive to play
- Cannot be lost or stolen
- Cannot be damaged
- Zero Maintenace on the condition of the game
- Universally played on multiple devices (Disk or Diskless systems)
So, based on the above, why is physical important, to the point you will quit gaming due to a format which offers no onscreen advantages to the player?
Last edited by Azzanation - on 31 August 2024
