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!
I don’t have an Xbox, but on my Switch I can play the game without updating the game. I may not be able to utilize any online features, but if that server is gone I wouldn’t be using them anyway.
Nintendo is a major exception to everything. This is about PC, XBOX and Playstation.