Why do Disk Drives matter?

[Chrkeller]

The_Liquid_Laser said:

Azzanation said:

It is an extremely unrealist point you bring up. But ill entertain it. If Valve couldn't afford to operate Steam anymore, Steam will be sold to another company that can. If Sony, Xbox, Steam or Nintendo cease to exist, you would have bigger problems in the industry than a gaming network. 

There simply is too much money to be lost if a major ecosystem decides to close the doors. Its why we rarely see it happen. Steam has existed for 20 years, and Xbox, Nintendo and Sony will also live much longer. 

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.

Yeah that isn't true.  I swear people make such strong comments that are just wrong.  

I can download pretty much any classic game ever released on my PC digital.  Can you physical get every classic game released?

Hell I can play legit classic arcade games thanks to digital.  

From a game preservation perspective digital absolutely slaughters physical.