So here’s my take: I never want to play a game with other people unless we’re sitting on the same couch. Because of that, I have no need for any of my systems to be permanently connected to the internet. The requirement for always-online systems is just ridiculous. The full game should be on the disk, and the only time I should need an internet connection is to download DLC or if the dev team releases a patch that addresses major issues or improves the gameplay experience.
Yup, I’m the same way. The only reason our Switch is connected to the internet is for game patches, and we get so few of them that we probably don’t need it.
What even are physical games in this day and age? Sure, you can buy a disk but if you still need to download a zero day patch that takes approximately a buttload of time to finish before you can actually start playing, then it isn’t a physical game. Don’t even get me started on Nintendo’s links in a box. Perhaps we should start calling them physical DRM.
weren’t there a few titles where the disc was effectively nothing and the whole game just downloads anyway?
Call of Duty was one of them. Disc contained less than 100mb of data. You still had to download the entire game. If you bought it to only play a campaign offline, too bad.
Honestly makes sense since you can then produce the boxes much earlier and ship them and go through all that physical distribution nonsense without worrying about patching from whatever is on disk to the actual finished product. Especially since I bet physical gamers want the game on day one too.
Yeah seriously, physical media has been dead for awhile now. Last time I bought a physical game was 2008 (The Orange Box).
I understand why people are upset, but it’s time to move on. If the server that is hosting the zero day patches shuts down, then your physical copy is as useful as a brick anyway.
I’m sure not many people care about physical vs digital per se. It’s the arbitrary locks by servers, digital storefront, DRM etc. So that when you pay your money you have no idea what you are getting and what your rights are. Physical game media was a simpler time from that perspective (play in perpetuity, don’t redistribute, cool cool that seems like a fair trade) and resulted in better pricing and experience for consumers.
I’d accept “move on” if the argument was just “muh pretty box” (god knows there are plenty of ways to buy pretty boxes of vidya IP) but consumer rights are surely worth fighting for, or we get needlessly bled for ever more dollars.
Yeah, the fact that everyone’s fighting for physical media instead of DRM-free makes me skeptical that the argument is anything more than muh pretty box
Couldn’t find a good primary source to dig into it. But from Ipsos:
“I believe the preference for physical discs amongst next gen gamers reflects the potential value they derive from the pre-owned market,” commented Ipsos director Ian Bramley to MCV, “which is holding up the preference for physical - this is unlike the music and film markets.”
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/64-percent-prefer-physical-media-to-digital-distribution
I’m sure there’s a lot of generational and market segment differences. I never really understood “collecting” games. But I guess people do that in digital too with their huge steam sale backlogs!
