| The_Liquid_Laser said: This is naive. Have you ever heard of Sega or Atari? Companies leaving the console space is part of normal business, even if they were really successful at one point. Also, Steam only exists, because Microsoft allows it to exist. Microsoft owns the PC platform and has a gigantic influence over any software on the PC platform. If they ever decide that Steam is significantly against their business interests, then they will torpedo Steam to further Gamepass or something similar. Steam can go the way of Netscape. The real threat is not major players leaving their platform. The real threat is the wide acceptance of digital only games. Why? Because your games really can go away forever. I can play Sega Genesis games all I want even though Sega left console gaming a long time ago. Every Sega Genesis on Earth can die, and I can still play the games easily from the cartridges, because several people are making retro consoles. On the other hand I have digital only games stuck on the Wii and PS3. When the hardware dies, those games are gone. The problem with digital only games is not the technology. The technology could be great if implemented right. The problem is that you can't trust any of the platform holders. I bought several digital only Wii games, and I can't play them on the Switch. Why? I don't know. It's technologically possible, but Nintendo won't make it happen (and Sony is just as bad). YOU DON'T OWN ANY DIGITAL ONLY GAME! It can be taken away from you at any time. And the legal terms and conditions might only call it a license anyway. If you own a physical copy, then legally, in the US, the first sale doctrine is on your side and many other countries have something similar. If you buy a physical copy, then you own the game. If you buy a digital only copy, then you don't own the game. |
False.
Sega and Atari left the HARDWARE industry before online Eco Systems became popular. Also they still make video games.
I own my digital games just like you own your phyiscal games. I have over 2000 Steam games, some dating back to 2005, longer than some peoples entire life spans. Guess what, I can still download and play them.
The best eco Systems are those that are not tied to hardware like Steam, hardware failure is easily replaced by another PC.
It's great owning old games, I have a huge SNES collection, buy guess what, my SNES no longer works, it's CPU died. Half the battery backups would also be dead, the TVs to run old consoles on are gone, and people hate digital because of some extremely rare case that a game (most likely no one heard about) gets removed from a digital library.
The bronze age of gaming before the internet was a different place to play. These days, you would be foolish to play games without their day one patches and optimisations updates. We have to accept the cartridge days are over, those were the collectiable days.
In the end, you can scream the sky is falling all you want, and that's all it is. The day Xbox, Sony, Nintendo and Valve actually take a purchased game off someone, let me know. Because it isn't as simple as taking a purchased product off someone, the negative backlash, court cases, customer trust and down branding are reasons we still have access to old games. The console market likes to take advantage of gamers, this is why MS's BC program is heavily underrated.
Last edited by Azzanation - on 02 September 2024
