Sony PlayStation

[Jay-Jay 10]

It is 2026 and I know I am a PC gamer and been completely digital since Half Life 2 in 2004 and for me personally back then Steam revolutionised the way I bought games, no longer did you have to buy a physical disk and install a game - Even if you buy physical games now they still install on PS5.
When Steam did this I much preferred it from Day 1.
I have not bought a physical game even for PS since probably the PS3.

What are PS5/Console gamers so against about moving to fully digital?
OK you don't open a new game on Christmas day, but pretty certain that was OUR childhood and not kids today - I am sure now most parents will buy games on launch rather than for Christmas.

I am not sure what games are like on console and the specific stores but on Steam if a game is removed from sale, then it is still available for you to download if it is in your library.

TBH, I am shocked it has taken consoles 20 years to follow PC and move to fully digital - Games are simply way to big now to fit on physical media and it should of died a long time ago.

Easy answer, you don't own anything. Sony just announced closing the Vita and PS3 store. Meaning if you have those systems you won't be able to buy games anymore unless you find them used. In the future that would mean them forcing you onto a new system. If they don't want to make games for a certain platform available anymore they can. It is the same with Steam, Games just disappear from the store from time to time. You basically are loaning them and not buying them. Multiple times you had full games disappear or weren't even able to download games you previously purchased because they were wiped from the store be it on consoles or on Stea,. Sony just recently wiped movies people bought on their platform, meaning you can't even download them anymore. Again movies you bought!

So yeah fully digital will be anti consumer and just means a reality where what you buy today isn't owned by you.

There have been also issues where downloaded games just didn't appear anymore in the bought or downloaded list, I had this happen on the Switch with two games and can't get them back even after writing to customer service. So I would have to buy them again.


Look at 360 Backwards compatibility on XBox. I can't play all my Xbox 360 games I purchased on my account on my future Xboxs and even if I still own a 360, the download list doesn't necessarily shows me all the games I bought.

It is also the reason I rarely buy on Steam and prefer GOG where I can download the game as a offline backup package on my PC.

Right now even if I never owned Prince of Persia on PS2 I can go in a Retro gaming Store and buy it there and play it. I won't be able to do that with Digital Only if games get delisted from stores, they are then gone forever.

 

[bsmaff]

Never had any game I have purchased on Steam no longer be available for download, even after it has been removed from the store.

Also all your points seem copy and pasted from the same debate PC had 20 years ago and people got over that very quickly.

 

[Jay-Jay 10]

Never had any game I have purchased on Steam no longer be available for download, even after it has been removed from the store.

Also all your points seem copy and pasted from the same debate PC had 20 years ago and people got over that very quickly.

If your fine with that cool. I am not and will be against fully digital.

Like I said I still sue GOG because I get a backup copy and avoid Steam. (Which by the way is one of the reasons GOG is popular since not everyone likes what Steam does)

But you also went 0 into my arguments of games disappearing and not being purchaseable anymore, me loosing 2 games that I would have to rebuy since I couldn't restore them through customer service and more. if you don't want to actually go into those arguments and instead just say "you just copy and paste" then honestly have 0 interest in any discussion with you. Also console and PC are totally different infrastructures.

But again if you are fine with games disappearing forever and not being able to be purchased anymore you do you.

 

[Chris Davies]

Sony just announced closing the Vita and PS3 store. Meaning if you have those systems you won't be able to buy games anymore unless you find them used. In the future that would mean them forcing you onto a new system.

To be honest, I hadn't considered this before. That's a scary thought.

I have an old PS3 loaded with Rock Band content (I spent an embarrassing amount of money on songs for it in my 20s) - but I imported the Rock Band games / equipment from Canada to get it early, because I was a huge fan. Which meant I needed a Canadian PS account to buy the DLC through.

I can no longer log into the PS account with all the content on it because Sony did a sweep of accounts where IP addresses didn't match location data. I can still play by logging into my "actual" UK account, but once that hard drive dies... All my content is gone, and the thought of it breaks my heart.

Lots of storefronts have now been closed, e.g. Xbox 360, and if your content is simply deleted at some point... That's a really sad thought.

I just hope the people lobbying for industry change manage to get somewhere.

 

[Jay-Jay 10]

To be honest, I hadn't considered this before. That's a scary thought.

I have an old PS3 loaded with Rock Band content (I spent an embarrassing amount of money on songs for it in my 20s) - but I imported the Rock Band games / equipment from Canada to get it early, because I was a huge fan. Which meant I needed a Canadian PS account to buy the DLC through.

I can no longer log into the PS account with all the content on it because Sony did a sweep of accounts where IP addresses didn't match location data. I can still play by logging into my "actual" UK account, but once that hard drive dies... All my content is gone, and the thought of it breaks my heart.

Yep and that is why fully digital is scary. Sony also has a precedent with PT where even if you had downloaded the game previosuly you now can't download it anymore.

And physical media is still active today in a lot of places. You can still buy movies. You can still get music on vinyl and I love record stores. And I love being able to go to flea markets or retro gaming stores and finding old games and buying them and then playing them.

Same with books. Even with products like the Kindle bookstores still exist and it is still great to go there and buy a book.

Imagine all of it going fully digital. How sad that would be. How much magic of these places would be lost. How much more boring city centres would get.

 

[shumway]

Unlike, for example, Xbox Games Sony sells it's games exclusively in the PS-store. So in theory they could charge whatever price they want.