Xbox reportedly moving away from Physical Media

IDKFA said:
Sorry for the double post. I didn't see your reply.

Films don't require day one patches. 4K films are massive in size, but they work out of the box. A large majority of games require patches and/or are designed for future updates.
Click to expand...

Might be true for service games but a sp game has to work out of the box or it's faulty by design. And if your game is playable from start to finish without a patch, whats the point of not having a physical release.
 
drganon said:
Of course you'd defend his dumb posts. Stick to shilling the series s, it's all you're good for.
Click to expand...
Your contribution to NeoGaf = "
laugh.png
"
 
Shubh_C63 said:
Yes and those are exceptions. Most I assume are just contained to one or some blu ray discs.
Even 500gb movie collection is a done deal. No bug can be introduced to stop you from watching the third act unlike video games, especially modern broken video games.
Click to expand...

Every 4k movie is close to 100 gb what are you talking about?

And i don't understand whats the point of talking patches.

If you have game breaking bugs like that you shouldn't even release your damn game. So why would this even a point for killing options.

Its about costs and control thats it.
 
Fabieter said:
Might be true for service games but a sp game has to work out of the box or it's faulty by design. And if your game is playable from start to finish without a patch, whats the point of not having a physical release.
Click to expand...

We both know what doesn't happen. Many SP games require a day one patch to fix bugs, performance issues etc etc.
 
IDKFA said:
We both know what doesn't happen. Many SP games require a day one patch to fix bugs, performance issues etc etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah as long as there is no game breaking bug and its finishable, whats the point? And why would it even matter for not giving another option for distribution?
 
I recently went through a house move into a much smaller place to downsize on cost of living and have much less space now than I used to, tons of boxe full of games and consoles etc that has no place to stay. Not sure what I will do with them all but I certainly feel like a weight has been lifted not having them all over the place on show.

I for one embrace the digital future. It was nice to have a few collectors editions but eventually you get to the point where its a burden and a hassle to keep that shit orderly.
 
analog_future said:
As are 90% of consumers, going by sales figures.
Click to expand...

Not exactly. In Nintendo theres like a 50% still phisical.
PC is 99% digital, users didn't even buy into Blu Ray players 20 years ago so that ship sailed. Xbox is forcing people to go digital, phisical copies that are like a key card etc.

As for Sony, data is a bit skewed. For income apparently it's 75% digital vs 25% phisical. But thats with some hard facts, as catalogue games only be accesible through digital, and some games being digital only.

But the big problem with Sony data us thus one. In phisical software fir third party software (90+ of sales) they only count the royalty, 12% for phisical game sold, paid when the copies are pressed. After that game is released by publisher and it's economics aren't handled by Sony anymore.

BUT with digital Third party software, they count 100% of the price of the game (taxes excluded) as it's Sony who takes the money in PSN, and then they count the 70% of money given back to publisher as a expense.

That's why in income sometimes it seems as if phisical was negligible on Playstation, because the accounting is different. In unit sales we see better, 25/30% phisical and in big AAA games higher than that.
 
kruis said:
I don't give a fuck about physical media, what matters to me is PRICE. I'd rather buy the physical disc version of a brandnew PS5 game for 60 euro from an online retailer than the digital version at the Playstation store for 80 euro.
Click to expand...
This.

It was cheaper for me to buy a physical copy of Clair Obscur and have it delivered, than it was to buy it on PSN day one - and that is fucking stupid.
 
Fabieter said:
Yeah as long as there is no game breaking bug and its finishable, whats the point? And why would it even matter for not giving another option for distribution?
Click to expand...

Costs.

Producing game discs, boxes and selling them at retail eat into the profits.

I don't like it, but the cost of producing games is going up and publishers want to squeeze as much money out of games as possible.
 
Fabieter said:
If you have game breaking bugs like that you shouldn't even release your damn game. So why would this even a point for killing options.
Click to expand...
and yet it does. And never said digital future is awesome. Only stupid people would want less option. I said it is inevitable.
 
IDKFA said:
Costs.

Producing game discs, boxes and selling them at retail eat into the profits.

I don't like it, but the cost of producing games is going up and publishers want to squeeze as much money out of games as possible.
Click to expand...

I understand that it's about costs and control, as mentioned earlier. But do you think Ultra HD Blu-rays are cheaper for movie studios to produce, or are they simply less greedy? After all, the production costs of a movie are comparable to those of a video game.

I can see the business benefits for companies, but why would we care? Would you care for the worst drm ever if it made sense for the pubs, guess not!
 
Fabieter said:
I understand that it's about costs and control, as mentioned earlier. But do you think Ultra HD Blu-rays are cheaper for movie studios to produce, or are they simply less greedy? After all, the production costs of a movie are comparable to those of a video game.

I can see the business benefits for companies, but why would we care? Would you care for the worst drm ever if it made sense for the pubs, guess not!
Click to expand...

Movies are different. They recoup a majority of their profits at the cinema. Then anything made from the home media release is a bonus.

With physical movies, there is a cut that goes to the retailers, but then the studio gets the rest. They don't pay Samsung or Sony a cut for the disc to play on their UHD players.

With third party publishers for video games, as well as paying the retailer, an additional cost has to go to the console provider, such as Sony or Nintendo as part of the licensing fee.
 
rofif said:
I explained in previous post. It's just a physical game without 1.0 dude.

Game on key cart/disc:
-not tied to any account, so nobody can take or hack it away from you
-can buy from anywhere and get deals fro
Retailers. Can sell. Not reliant on digital deals.
-can play offline after one install. Disc authorise a the files you have installed from online.
Click to expand...

How can MS do this for their games on Playstation and NOT do the same for Xbox Series X owners? It makes zero sense to me.
 
Game not being on disc = I'm good with it

Disc not existing = ehhh

I don't need the game to be on the disc. I do need an agnostic license to protect me in case my account gets banned. This is the only purpose for physical for me unless Sony or Nintendo go completely out of business and shut down the servers. I'm currently about half physical and half digital. The other side of the coin is the physical collection slowly degrades and will no longer function in 20+ years, so I need some digital library too.

I have an idea. Why doesn't someone start an insurance company that covers game libraries? There are separate insurances you can buy for other collections. I've had it. I had $11,000.00 a year in coverage for my blade collection. Why could we not offer this service to gamers for their Nintendo, Steam, PSN library and charge them per year based on their collection value. For the other insurance, $11,000 in coverage was only $110.00 per year. I'd pay $200.00 per year and if I get banned or my account locked they would pay for me to rebuy the games. Let's make it happen.
 
Last edited:
Hero of Spielberg said:
It's an inevitability really. I buy some Blurays in 4K and vinyl because it's fun to collect and play, but it doesn't really make much sense for games. There's no difference in quality like a BluRay, and there's no machine that can play all your physical games like a record player does with vinyl.
Click to expand...

That's not the only reason to support physical and the losing company abandoning it isn't the writing on the wall like some think. Here's a few reasons to support physical:

  • The same cost so why not?
  • Not tied to a specific account to access.
  • Can't be removed from your library.
  • Doesn't rely on server downloads (a good chunk of the time).
  • You can sell the game, even if its an 85MB file on the disk because see no. 2.
  • Cheaper in a lot of cases.
  • Rarely but sometimes the original disc version runs better than a patched version. Just Cause 3 ran like crap for a long time compared to the disc version for example.
 
IDKFA said:
Movies are different. They recoup a majority of their profits at the cinema. Then anything made from the home media release is a bonus.

With physical movies, there is a cut that goes to the retailers, but then the studio gets the rest. They don't pay Samsung or Sony a cut for the disc to play on their UHD players.

With third party publishers for video games, as well as paying the retailer, an additional cost has to go to the console provider, such as Sony or Nintendo as part of the licensing fee.
Click to expand...

Cinemas and retailers also take a big part of the money.

I don't know it weird to even discuss stuff where the consumer gets zero benefits.
 
DryvBy said:
That's not the only reason to support physical and the losing company abandoning it isn't the writing on the wall like some think. Here's a few reasons to support physical:

  • The same cost so why not?
  • Not tied to a specific account to access.
  • Can't be removed from your library.
  • Doesn't rely on server downloads (a good chunk of the time).
  • You can sell the game, even if its an 85MB file on the disk because see no. 2.
  • Cheaper in a lot of cases.
  • Rarely but sometimes the original disc version runs better than a patched version. Just Cause 3 ran like crap for a long time compared to the disc version for example.
Click to expand...
I don't think anyone doesn't support physical copies as a concept. I mean I have a tag that proclaims me a whore for digital, but I don't want physical to dissapear for those that want or need it.
But most gamers prefer digital or at least that is how they actually act when it comes time to make a purchase. And for the developers the positives of physical are pretty much only that they can access that increasingly dwindling group who can or will only use physical with a whole bunch of negatives.
 
DryvBy said:
That's not the only reason to support physical and the losing company abandoning it isn't the writing on the wall like some think. Here's a few reasons to support physical:

  • The same cost so why not?
  • Not tied to a specific account to access.
  • Can't be removed from your library.
  • Doesn't rely on server downloads (a good chunk of the time).
  • You can sell the game, even if its an 85MB file on the disk because see no. 2.
  • Cheaper in a lot of cases.
  • Rarely but sometimes the original disc version runs better than a patched version. Just Cause 3 ran like crap for a long time compared to the disc version for example.
Click to expand...
Yeah, they may be reasons for some people. But to be honest, I often wait for deep discounts on digital, don't sell games and value not having to get up to change a game over just about every other 'pro' of physical (especially between consoles consoles).

Also don't have to store my physical library of games somewhere or go out to buy them / wait for them to delivered.

And I can have many downloaded to a system if I'm travelling and don't want to bring a bunch of discs along.
 
Fabieter said:
Cinemas and retailers also take a big part of the money.

I don't know it weird to even discuss stuff where the consumer gets zero benefits.
Click to expand...

But the idea is that the studio makes back the production costs and then some at the cinema, even with the cinema taking a small cut.

There isn't any equivalent for games
 
Hero of Spielberg said:
Yeah, they may be reasons for some people. But to be honest, I often wait for deep discounts on digital, don't sell games and value not having to get up to change a game over just about every other 'pro' of physical (especially between consoles consoles).

Also don't have to store my physical library of games somewhere or go out to buy them / wait for them to delivered.

And I can have many downloaded to a system if I'm travelling and don't want to bring a bunch of discs along.
Click to expand...
I didn't say there wasn't benefits to digital gaming (I myself have 3000 Steam games but have 100s of physical PC games). You were saying you don't really see the benefit because there's not a quality degrade on digital games like music/movies, and I was just pointing out why physical still matters outside of that.
 
DryvBy said:
I didn't say there wasn't benefits to digital gaming (I myself have 3000 Steam games but have 100s of physical PC games). You were saying you don't really see the benefit because there's not a quality degrade on digital games like music/movies, and I was just pointing out why physical still matters outside of that.
Click to expand...
Because I personally don't see the benefit and for the vast majority there is no quality degrade on digital games
 
IDKFA said:
But the idea is that the studio makes back the production costs and then some at the cinema, even with the cinema taking a small cut.

There isn't any equivalent for games
Click to expand...

Game companys can sell add-ons and mtx later on even if they don't make as much on physical media.

I just don't see how we should cheer for such a future, even if you are 100% digital you gain nothing if others lose options.
 
AJUMP23 said:
I like some things about the digital future, I do not like not actually having physical copies of games.
Click to expand...

Do you like owning your games AT ALL? Because with digital you don't.

Only digital store that let's you own your games DRM free is GoG, rest of them offer rental service. And once physical is fully dead on consoles this will only get worse, prices will go up and you won't have ANY alternative in Sony/Nintendo/MS walled garden system.
 
Fabieter said:
Game companys can sell add-ons and mtx later on even if they don't make as much on physical media.

I just don't see how we should cheer for such a future, even if you are 100% digital you gain nothing if others lose options.
Click to expand...

I'm not cheering for such a future.

I am just pointing out the way the industry is heading.

The industry going all digital does have its benefits. Look at the positive environmental impact of not having to produce so much plastic.
 
IDKFA said:
I'm not cheering for such a future.

I am just pointing out the way the industry is heading.

The industry going all digital does have its benefits. Look at the positive environmental impact of not having to produce so much plastic.
Click to expand...

#evironment #killphysicalgaming 🤣

I didnt mean you in specific but it's crazy how much excusing we have for stuff with no benefits for us.
 
Bojji said:
Do you like owning your games AT ALL? Because with digital you don't.

Only digital store that let's you own your games DRM free is GoG, rest of them offer rental service. And once physical is fully dead on consoles this will only get worse, prices will go up and you won't have ANY alternative in Sony/Nintendo/MS walled garden system.
Click to expand...

I love owning them. But if you read even the trademarks and copyrights in the 80s and 90s you didn't own those game. You just had a license for that SW on that HW. But I would prefer actual real ownership of physical media. I would prefer to own my land too and not pay property tax.
 
IDKFA said:
Look at the positive environmental impact of not having to produce so much plastic.
Click to expand...

Don't get me on that soapbox. I've been pointing out for years that there's no reason to keep using these wasteful blu-ray style cases for physical games. There's zero excuse for not adopting the digipak packaging model that music cds went to.
 
It looks the time is nearly up for physical media on the big shiny new machines. Oh well, Evercade and retro machines for me. There's still plenty of physical games for me to purchase, just have to look backwards, not forwards.
 
AJUMP23 said:
I love owning them. But if you read even the trademarks and copyrights in the 80s and 90s you didn't own those game. You just had a license for that SW on that HW. But I would prefer actual real ownership of physical media. I would prefer to own my land too and not pay property tax.
Click to expand...

But they can't take away your physical games, same goes for GOG installers (but servers at some point will be dead). While with digital they can just ban your account and you will lose access to games that costed you hundreds/thousands of dollars.

But the worst thing (for me) is that you are stuck with game "x", you can't do shit with it, while you can just sell your physical games.
 
Microsoft removed my 360 account and so I lost access to thousands of pounds worth of digital games I had bought.

I think I've maybe lost 5 physical games in my life. Barring a house fire (all insured), I don't think I'll ever lose as much as Microsoft stole from me in the digital realm.

An all digital future in games is not a good idea.
 
Bojji said:
But they can't take away your physical games, same goes for GOG installers (but servers at some point will be dead). While with digital they can just ban your account and you will lose access to games that costed you hundreds/thousands of dollars.

But the worst thing (for me) is that you are stuck with game "x", you can't do shit with it, while you can just sell your physical games.
Click to expand...
That is the way they want it, to control the whole thing, even the players access.
 
Fabieter said:
#evironment #killphysicalgaming 🤣

I didnt mean you in specific but it's crazy how much excusing we have for stuff with no benefits for us.
Click to expand...

I'm all digital. TBH, I prefer it if the rest of the world followed because of the positive environmental impact.
 
IDKFA said:
I'm all digital. TBH, I prefer it if the rest of the world followed because of the positive environmental impact.
Click to expand...

What if forests are destroyed to build server infrastructure, and the electricity powering it isn't very green?

Was this really the main goal behind going digital? To each their own, would never demand anything from other because its in my ideology.
 
I went fully digital halfway through the 360 and PS3 gen. That said, physical should always be an option for those that want it (assuming that the corporation is still profitable with those copies).
 
Fabieter said:
It is when people accept less and shitty options ;).
Click to expand...
The main consumer cares about ease and they usually play a game once and then never again. This is an enthusiast forum and not indicative of the wider market. Most people don't care about physical, unfortunately. I have also gone away from physical because I don't need cases laying around of games I will likely never play again and the resell aspect doesn't concern me much for most games. I have traded some games here on GAF and those days are coming to an end.
 
Fabieter said:
Cinemas and retailers also take a big part of the money.

I don't know it weird to even discuss stuff where the consumer gets zero benefits.
Click to expand...
Do they? I thought I remember reading that cinemas don't make much from the ticket sales and it's the concession stand where the profits are.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Locked
PC has no physical media = Steam FTW , PS/Xbox have no physical media = OMFG WTFFF
47
2K
Rocco Schiavone replied
[DF] Switch 2 Physical Media - Cart Situation Is Too Confusing & Messy
2
62
875
GrayDock replied
Xbox social media pages hacked? Scammers trying to push Xbox Token
19
275
Pallas replied
[Insider Gaming] Only PlayStation Gets Physical Discs of Upcoming Xbox Games
2 3
132
842
ChorizoPicozo replied
Switch 2 and the Game Key Card Controversy! Physical media continues to death spiral
2
74
2K
cinnamonandgravy replied
Top Bottom