The videogame landscape will never be the same again

Joined
Aug 25, 2019
Remember back when you just put a game disc into your console and it played straight away? That was not too long ago, Now look what it has turned into:

Always online-DRM, Huge updates, subscriptions, Game delisting, digital vs physical gaming, Do we really "OWN" the games we buy these days?

These questions I have thought about since early 2019. Gaming will never be the "golden age" that it was when we actually could enjoy our games even with no internet
 
I mean, it shouldnt be something wrong. Yes, the "is this MY game?" can be something to discuss about, but hell, you have to say the fact that you can play (own?) that game with just TWO clicks. You dont have to go to the store and buy it. You will buy it cheaper than previous days, because you probably got it from a sale (or a really cheap suscription).

The digital games also allows indies to develop their games without being scamed by retails and so on (now only digital, no need to share the cake) being easier to produce a game and giving more profit so they can make more games. Or even you can kickstart them.

Is this worst? Well Idk, I say it's just different. 20 years ago, you could say too "oh, arcades die, because you have your arcade in your home, the arcades were pure golden age of gaming, now playing just at home its not the same".
 
I have zero issues with the current state of things, and am grateful I don't need a spare room to store hundreds of video games.
 
I'm of two minds. I hate that games are more or less unifinished (I can count 3 games in the last 5 years that needed no/minimal patches) and despise F2P, GAAS and games with "seasons", so i'm an old man yelling at a cloud. And companies that are trying to incorporate NFT's, Prefix-verse or whatever can go to hell.

I will still buy physical where I can, but sometimes digital easier. I think the era of Japanese games being the most popular has gone (although the last generation saw a comeback) and that makes me sad. I hate Ubisoft, Activision and other shitty companies and feel dirty giving them money for their games.

I also hate most fandoms; it was bad as a kid, but nowadays it feels genuinely disturbing.

Other than that, gaming is great! In a way, the best games i've ever played have been in the last decade, but also the innocence and joy of gaming has long since eroded. I got a PS5 last week and I just feel meh about it all. I'll probably use it more as a blu-ray player and play old retro games on it instead.

Modern game companies hate me because i won't play ball with them. I don't care.
 
I know that things are changing and I might sound like a grumpy old man now but never mind that is how I feel. I do not trust digital games. I do not like the concept of just renting games. Digital games are just rental games. You do not own them. The companies can take the stuff away from you anytime. You cannot even resell the games to get some of your money back after you finish them or you do not like them.

The modern age of gaming is perfect for companies and their stockholders.

Digital distribution has no advantages for me whatsoever. It takes many hours to download a game. Purchasing a game is much faster. It takes me 1-hour max to buy to the game and go back home during bad weather or in winter by bus. With my bicycle, I can get to the store and back home within 30 minutes.

I buy the few games I like every year only as discs for my ps5. The prices are very high today but that does not really matter as I do not buy many games. After done with them I sell the discs so I get some of the money back.
 
I'm half and half on this debate. From the stand point as someone who likes to collect physical games, I completely agree. I find most of the time buying a game on Day One is actually a hinderance and it's better to wait 3-6 months for all the bugs to be ironed out. Heck, some games have even brought to PS5 updates that apply 4K/60-120fps & Ray Tracing AFTER launch... I just feel that the initial experience is often lesser these days. I also get very snobby about DLC, if a games relevant DLC (Story based missions/campaigns) I then want a later release which has ALL the content on disc - ON DISC! Not the base game re-released with a %&£$ing code! Unfortunately the GotY/Complete Editions we get are very hit or miss on whether we get codes or not.

On the other hand, I own a draw full of PS4 games which I bought then received a digital version with PS+ I'm talking 60+ games at least. While I like the idea of having Physical Editions I never use these anymore - but of course should my PS+ Sub end I will lose all them games again. But now we have to have PS+ to play online, it's not something I am going to miss out on really.

I think the biggest issue I have is the lack of couch co-op intergrated into games. Even Fortnite downgraded their Split-screen to the point where it isn't even functional. Now when my friend comes over we just play single player games as the other watches because we're out of decent co-op experiences...

The other problem I have with DLC is fighting games... It's just Season Pass after Season Pass and it's gotten to the point where I just don't want to engage with the genre. Mortal Kombat was always decent at releasing Complete Editions when they've run through t heir DLC but Tekken which used to be my favourite is just a mess, the base game was so underwhelming and it don't think it even has Survival Mode to this day! I get they have to keep updating it to cater to the Evo crowd but I'm just fed up with it.
 
I think one problem with collecting games physically nowadays is you only get a disc and a case. And as you say, most of the time you're downloading patches and whatnot. I've no problem with small updates fixing minor bugs etc, but some of these updates take the piss.

On the other hand, whilst Limited Run etc are doing good things, I feel there's too much gimmickery involved. Of course, you can just the game on its own, but it's often months (years) after the initial digitial release. I dunno...the modern gaming landscape is too...."noisy" for lack of a better word.

It's an old video, but as we know, Shenmue came with all sorts of goodies. I miss that.

 
I'm more hybrid and depends on the internal drive

HDD? Really not much discernable difference in seek time between them and optical disc lasers so whatever floats your fancy. Also it is nice how Blu-Ray are essentially invincible to scratches--referring to PS3. Flirted with the idea of a SATA ll SSD in my PS3, although really I think 7200RPM will be perfectly fine for 7th gen games.

SSD? Definitely warming to idea of digital due to the amazing speeds. Basically only buy physical Shenmue, Yakuza and Ico games nowadays. Plus, an easy excuse to double dip, as well! Upgrading my PS4 to a SATA lll SSD was the best decision i've made in my ENTIRE ADULT LIFE. Epecially with PS5s somewhat scarce and expensive for my budget.
 
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Digital is kind of a double-edged sword. On one hand, the barrier of entry is reduced and you can now have a bunch of solid Indie and smaller-scoped games that were never able to exist 15 years ago since it's much cheaper to release digital vs physical. On the other end, I get the concern that there's a chance that you somehow lose your ability to access your digital games 15-20 years down the line. I don't think we're far along enough in this era where that's particularly happened yet, besides a few scares with PS3 games from what I remember.

We'll always have day 1 patches due to the fact it takes about 2 months for a game to go gold and then appear on store shelves, so the devs can continue to work during that time. If games were able to be patched in the 8, 16, and 32 bit eras, they would've been patched, too.

For me personally, I only buy digital if the game is on a huge sale (sometimes the sale price is lower than anything you'd ever see with physical) or if it's digital only and $30 and under. I don't think I'll ever pay a full $60-70 for a digital game. To me, that's the risk trade-off that makes sense.
 
gamming has become less interresting , less fun and less magical.
I strongly disagree. Physical media still exists for those that are still fond of them (which I am too), but that doesn't have to apply to the entire industry or be the standard. So I don't see how gaming now is all of sudden less fun or interesting, as I would think on the contrary, it is better than ever. Some of the most immersive gaming experiences for me as a player come from the pc scene, which is disc-less since forever. As a kid, I would never have dreamt of the likes of Rust where basically all genres are encapsulated into one game and the most common conversation you have with another player is "Please don't kill me!". Or have RTS wars scaling from a single area of a planet to basically an entire solar system like in Planetary Annihilation. Or see tabletop RPGs (the real RPGs) become a new videogame genre as now players are not bound by a fixed narrative made up by programmers, but devised by true GM storytellers on the go, as in games like Talespire. So yeah, the magic is still there, at least for me, and only available without the need of a plastic disc.
 
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