This is wrong. We've gone over why the percentages are off. There's digital content that doesn't have a physical option and even when you buy a disc the DLC gives points to the digital side. No easy way to compare. Oh and if that includes mobile...

I see the attempt but everyone knows it's game over if they didn't offer physical. Look how this gen started out when someone got pushy. They got what they deserved. Gamepass is just a lazy way to do BC. Not impressed. Especially when you consider that you're stuck paying every month whether you play anything or not. Better to pay once and be done.

Not saying we have to get rid of digital. It has its place as an option for smaller games that can't make it to disc. Thing is the market understands that with digital it's too easily lost. No sales, no used or trading, something as simple as a hacked account or server/internet outage means you can't do anything. Talk about moving backwards.

Lol, nah. Topics like this or even the preorder numbers say otherwise. Failure of other digital consoles is also reassuring.

That was because PCs when they have a physical media reader it is dvd instead of bd. So MS gone and launched for the most common (and still niche) PC market. Xbox can read DVD but you can bet the game will come on BD.

I don't think printing the games on 4K BD will be that much more expensive long term than making more discs or if consumers will be happy with all games needing download to even play (Sony said all their physical PS4 and PS5 games could be played after installing without any need to connect to the internet).

They have 4K players anyway and 4K blu-ray has been around for a while so sure why not. At the start of the gen I'm guessing we'll continue to get blu-ray discs. Cross-gen titles that can be read on both the old and new machines. 4K blu-rays should also install a bit faster. Blu-ray was up to 27 MBs on ps4 (6x), 32 minutes to copy a full 50GB disc. BDXL goes up to 128 GB, if rotating at the same speed that should reduce copy times to 40%.

I see plenty of people using this logic. Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it can't. We've lost a handful of titles over the years due to expired licenses. Luckily I don't think anything I bought is gone yet. If your account is compromised or your drive fails, that will suck. There isn't a lot of precedent on what may happen to digital games in the future. Can they host them forever? Will they allow offline play or users to share files if a server goes away? I figure why chance it, buy the disc and have no worries.

"but emulation" it's a shallow experience.

It's getting a new game in the mail or finding some treasure out in the wild in a store or yard sale or flea market. That is a thrill. Not knowing anything about an old retro game you bought. It could be amazing or bad but the exciting thing is not knowing.
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Steam or whatever is soulless to me. A page that tells you everything about the game. People reviewed it.

You aren't forced to read the Steam / XBL / PSN /eShop description or reviews. So you can have the same thrill of not knowing anything about an old retro game you bought. It could be amazing or bad. So you can still have the excitement of not knowing.

Hearing the click of a cartridge popping in or opening the lid to pop the CD in and pressing power.

Pawlow would be proud. Your classical conditioning worked.

Reading the manual.

Most physical games of the last two decades don't have manuals anymore. Both physical and digital versions of a newer game have tutorials instead. Many old digital games have the manual as PDF included, f.e. most GOG games.

It's a build-up to playing the game. The anticipation leading up.
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You click to download...yay. Boring.

So waiting for the download to finish can't be a build-up to playing the game?

All I get in digital games is. Cool game. Play for 5 minutes. Download another.

Seems to be your personal problem if your reaction to the same game is different knowing that it doesn't come with a bit of plastic and paper.

Backlog of steam games most people don't play or finish. 

Why do you care if other people finish every game? How much physical games do you have? How much of them have you finished?

Thanks for giving that info, so 28% more than what I was expecting. Should be enough for most games of 9th gen, but sure thing we will get some 2 discs due to 4k assets.

It wouldn't surprise me if games continue to come of blu-ray. Either download the rest or multiple discs. I doubt they are going to change production lines to 4K blu-rays while pushing digital. Heck, FS 2020 came out on 10 DVDs (only available in Europe)

The interesting thing with the Xbox Series X/Xbox Series S is if Microsoft ever wanted to ditch blu-ray media for one reason or another and retain physical media... They have a very convenient high-speed cartridge slot, so if ROM ever manages to match NAND in a cost/performance basis, Microsoft can produce carts and be automagically be compatible from the get-go.

It also means that potentially the Xbox Series S may not always be a digital-only console.

Hoping they do.

The interesting thing with the Xbox Series X/Xbox Series S is if Microsoft ever wanted to ditch blu-ray media for one reason or another and retain physical media... They have a very convenient high-speed cartridge slot, so if ROM ever manages to match NAND in a cost/performance basis, Microsoft can produce carts and be automagically be compatible from the get-go.

It also means that potentially the Xbox Series S may not always be a digital-only console.

And again, that revenue includes things that cannot be physical so it's not an honest representation. Hell if a season pass is $99 (I dunno what they average) that's gonna offset 2 physical copies. The only way to do it is strip out all the 'extra' stuff and worry about the base game on disc versus the base game digital. Will they do that? Probably not, income is income and since we're not getting rid of either format it's just unnecessary work.

You come across as the type of person who misreads the data and acts like it can't be any other way.

Oh boy now you have another method to buy the same Gears, Halo, Forza combo. There's a bunch of fans who desperately want this to be huge but it's really not. Yep, stubborn people tend to run off before the topic is over. Whatever.