Xbox reportedly moving away from Physical Media

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member


But it seems that Microsoft might be doing away with physical copies, because of all the games shown yesterday in their showcase, none of them appear to have a SKU with a disc at online retailers like Best Buy, including The Outer Worlds 2 and Ninja Gaiden 4
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consoles are a digital consumer nightmare without physical media... even if it's a game cart/disc.
-You won nothing on the psn/xbox stores.
-Everything tied to your account and vulnerable
-no playing offline
-no 1.0, so if they patch something you don't like, no going back
-no way to find better deals. You just wait for their sales.

meanwhile physical?
-Can play offline, can play 1.0
-Can be bought with deals from different retailers, can be bought used or sold
-Not tied to any account

Someone might say "but steam!!!!"
but steam is nothing like console stores:
-on steam you have access to files, you can copy or mod the games
-You get cdkeys websites
-Yes, still vulnerable with everything tied to an account
 
Mr Moose said:
?
Edit: Oh you're talking about the show thing and not the OP.
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I'm just talking about Xbox as a publisher/studio. Their games will be play anywhere afaik. Not talking about 3rd party who can presumably do whatever they want with physical/digital releases on xbox.
 
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The only people who will support this philosophy are shills and apologists. Reasonable people will always want the choice of both physical and digital media.

But it's okay. I will continue to not pay full price for digital games. I will wait for 50% or more off. I'll go to shite GameStop and buy a used physical copy from them first. I'd rather support their shitty business model if I have to choose a shitty business model.
 
rofif said:
-You get cdkeys websites
Click to expand...
This is the big differentiator between the storefronts, in my opinion. Steam allows developers to generate keys, and will activate them with 0% revenue cut - which encourages devs to sell their keys elsewhere, they get more money (potentially 100% profit if they sell it themselves). This also lets developers participate in things like Humble Bundle, and it's what generates a "second hand" market, in a manner of speaking, like the CDKey websites.

This more open market model leads to games usually being priced in accordance with what people are actually willing to pay, rather than being set and dictated by the big three.
 
Super Lemon Drop said:
The only people who will support this philosophy are shills and apologists. Reasonable people will always want the choice of both physical and digital media.

But it's okay. I will continue to not pay full price for digital games. I will wait for 50% or more off. I'll go to shite GameStop and buy a used physical copy from them first. I'd rather support their shitty business model if I have to choose a shitty business model.
Click to expand...
As someone who buys all digital, having the option to buy from a code from a physical retailer is personally better for me than discs, it creates more of a market than just a single digital storefront.

That said, I feel for people that actually want discs, but unfortunately I think those days are numbered.
 
What's exactly the point of having these "physical" releases then? I buy physical games so that I have the disc/cartridge, not a download code.
 
Isn't this literally fewer options for customers? I mean, this is what the Xbox executives preach all time: accessibility, options for customers, right?....Xbox executives are so damn funny
 
Does anyone have links to the discussion that happened around the time PC went through this transition?
I'd be interested to know if their was significant push back - I know that I was pretty much thrilled to not to have to worry about messing about with disks anymore, but I wasnt active on any forums back then to know if people were freaking out.
 
Easy pass for me then.

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If I was VGP, I'd be carrying anything to keep afloat.

VGP is a game store in Toronto, who is down to its last store. They used to have more stores in the GTA, but all but one is left.

I remember selling PC games to the west end store in the 90s when they sold/traded in PC games for a short time. I literally bought a bunch of $10 doorcrashers 2 min away from a different store and sold them to VGP for $35 each. lol. That same store stopped doing rentals long time ago too (the store shut down at some point maybe 10 years ago). The guy said everyone would rent the game and not return it. So I said why dont you just bill their credit card? Guy didn't have a good answer. Sounded like he was either too lazy to bill them, go after them or maybe accepted renting out games with no ID or credit card. So all a guy needed to do is pay him $5 cash to rent and never return it. lol

Interesting why Wario64 would care about following a single game store in Toronto.
 
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rofif said:
consoles are a digital consumer nightmare without physical media... even if it's a game cart/disc.
-You won nothing on the psn/xbox stores.
-Everything tied to your account and vulnerable
-no playing offline
-no 1.0, so if they patch something you don't like, no going back
-no way to find better deals. You just wait for their sales.

meanwhile physical?
-Can play offline, can play 1.0
-Can be bought with deals from different retailers, can be bought used or sold
-Not tied to any account

Someone might say "but steam!!!!"
but steam is nothing like console stores:
-on steam you have access to files, you can copy or mod the games
-You get cdkeys websites
-Yes, still vulnerable with everything tied to an account
Click to expand...
Steam is drm, gog would be a better example.
 
Not surprising physical is all but dead. Does anyone have any confidence there will be physical option at all after whatever system comes next.
 
If gaming goes digital completely then i'm out personally. Luckily only microsoft seem to be going all in on digital because of gamepass. Microsoft have destroyed the xbox brand over a subscription service that has bombed and it's truly fascinating to see them continue to sink themselves over it.
 
MSFT has loathed physical media for years now, so surprised they lasted this long.

Even with the game key card stuff, Nintendo understand the value of the retail space and they built their business on that model, so I see them offering an option there for years to come. Oh, and Nintendo are also bolstering their physical presence by opening new stores, theme parks, etc.
 
Lith808 said:
What's exactly the point of having these "physical" releases then? I buy physical games so that I have the disc/cartridge, not a download code.
Click to expand...

The vast majority of people who buy games at retail are doing so out of habit, because they like having a box on the shelf to show off, or because it's a gift for someone.
 
No surprises here: MS just want everything to become digital so it is even more natural to use GP. How fall down the brand has fallen, I used to love Xbox...

and the funny thing is: They will then dedicate a spot on their show to tell how important to them is "game preservation".
 
An an Xbox only gamer
(Do have an oldish pc and a ps4) I've slowly transitioned from physical to digital only. This is only on the proviso that I pay no more than £20 for a game.

I don't have gamepass and my backlog is that big that I can wait for any game I want to drop to a price I am willing to pay for a digital game.

If anything this just reinforces my and gafs idea that the next Xbox is going to be digital only with it's been pretty much a pc in a box.

If that's the case and It offers Xbox, steam, gog etc I will probably stick with Xbox and continue to get a PlayStation at the end of each gen when the console and games can be picked up for cheap.

I will miss picking up physical copies I suppose but my Saturn and Dreamcast physical collections mean much more to me than my Xbox one.

(Though waiting for ninja Gaiden 4 the drop in price will be a challenge)
 
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The only way I will ever acquiesce to an all-digital only console future is when/if consoles become more open with their sales like PC. Steam might be the predominant storefront, but there are others that compete with it. GOG, Humble, Epic Games Store, and all the various gray-area key sites.

On console, you get their walled garden only. Even if you buy a digital key from a retailer like Amazon, you're just buying a key that was generated by the PlayStation/Nintendo/Xbox store for their platform.

Also, the US desperately needs to update copyright protections for digital content instead of relying on the over 25-year-old DMCA provisions. Copyright law has not remotely kept up with the changes in content delivery, and consumers are the ones who lose their rights. There's no reason we couldn't have a "right of first sale" (the provision that allows you to loan, give away, or sell your copy of a copyrighted work) for digital-only licenses by now.
 
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I worry for the PS bros on here. We're over here stressing about Xbox Play Anywhere not being 100% forward compatible, and hoping they keep improving it. Meanwhile 100% of the games you've ever bought physical will never work on a PS7.
 
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Over here in the UK, I can't find any copies of Gears, Ninja Gaiden 4, or The Outer Worlds 2 for Xbox. Only PS5 versions are listed.

Mind, this is at a retailer called Smyths Toys. They aren't listed on Amazon UK yet.
 
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