Submitted 21 hours ago by sheevpalpafiend@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
I think the author missed the mark here by talking about game preservation, as many are already pointing out in these comments.
The real benefit of buying a physical disc/cartridge copy of a game nowadays is the ability to resell it when you’re done playing. That’s actually a huge boon if you buy a lot of newly released games at full price. Reselling them can save you a LOT of money over time.
But the companies don’t want you to resell it. They want to have you buy it over and over again until the end of time.
Todd, are you trying to sell us another version of Skyrim ?
Perhaps one of many reasons that the console market is shrinking and PC is growing.
“Game preservationists have long argued that a move to a digital-only future will cause games to be lost forever if proper preservation measures aren’t put in place.”
Unfortunately, even physical game discs so often don’t contain the full game files and requires access to servers in order to download and access the game. No longer is buying physical the answer to the game preservation problem.
Once again gamers are the true oppressed class.
PC Master Race
They targeted gamers.
Physical media has been dying for years. If you look at the sales statistics between physical and digital, it makes for grim reading if you care about physical media.
75% of game sales in Europe in 2024 were digital. In 2022, 90% of game sales in the UK were digital. It’s a similar story pretty much everywhere. And whilst there’s a lot of noise on the internet about how bad a digital-only future would be, the average consumer doesn’t care.
I realized a while ago that it’s not actually the physical media I care about. It’s the unfettered access. Physical media is just the easiest way to achieve that. I still buy from steam and pay for streaming, but I recognize that those could be taken away at any time. I want to feel like I actually own something. I buy digital music because I get a DRM-free file. I buy from GOG because I get an installer that I can store locally for as long as I want to.
When it comes to movies? I have to buy the disc because (almost?) no one offers a DRM-free video file that I can store locally and play whenever or however I want.
It pisses me off that there’s no GOG for movies and TV. I don’t want to have Blu Rays, but it’s the only way to actually own that stuff.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Once again, the key to preservation is DRM-free, not physical media. We were already headed toward a future with no physical media for games, and these tariffs will only accelerate that. They may be a similar accelerant in the death of consoles.
TheHobbyist@lemmy.zip 16 hours ago
True, many games sold physically are still faced with the risk of disappearing, due to DRM…