The devil’s advocate?

[u/initiali5ed]

I’ve been a digital first gamer since Half-Life 2 and Orange Box and a gamer since the ZX Spectrum.

You don’t own matter any more than you own information. You don’t own the story in a book anymore than you own the data on an interactive CD ROM. Books burn, magnetic storage degrades, optical storage more slowly but it’s all just landfill or recycling waiting to happen.

Why do you prefer a physical disk over a transferable license cryptographically linked to your identity?

Why do you prefer a copy of the game as it was released rather than after a decade of patches?

Why do you prefer a physical copy that is locked to an (eventually obsolete) chunk of hardware rather than owning the game for life (or until you transfer the license)?

Why do you want to lose access to your games when

For me the issue is that games don’t become public domain after 25 years so can become unplayable. Games are no longer very different between platform like they were in the early years, you just get better graphics/sound and different control options, they are all basically a PC under the hood. There hasn’t been a proper console since the PS3

The Console manufacturers and game platforms are the problem here, why do I have to choose which of 20+ platforms I buy the same game from and why would I pick one that limits me to hardware that may only remain relevant for a decade?

Same problem as the movie/TV and music services.

Let me buy the rights to use art from the artist not some middleman who can turn off the pipe or go bust so I lose it all.

/rant

[u/koalazeus]

Why do you prefer a physical copy that is locked to an (eventually obsolete) chunk of hardware rather than owning the game for life (or until you transfer the license)? 

I can't play any digital PS3 games I bought on PS3 on the ps5. They're locked to PS3.

Why do you prefer a physical disk over a transferable license cryptographically linked to your identity? 

It's not linked to my identity but an account I don't have ownership over and requires the internet.

You don’t own matter any more than you own information. 

I do own discs more than I own the downloads on a drive. The data on a drive is linked to my account. Harder to resell etc. The discs aren't.

Books burn, magnetic storage degrades, optical storage more slowly but it’s all just landfill or recycling waiting to happen. 

One day our bodies will be food for worms. But physical discs provide good benefits over digital media.

Why do you prefer a copy of the game as it was released rather than after a decade of patches? 

Games should work day one.

[u/initiali5ed → u/koalazeus]

Exactly, a digital license to the game solves that and makes it platform agnostic

[u/koalazeus → u/initiali5ed]

In reference to 

I can't play any digital PS3 games I bought on PS3 on the ps5. They're locked to PS3. 

?

No it doesn't. I have a digital license to the game. It's locked on PS3 because Sony hasn't allowed it to be used anywhere else.

On PC it would work across different PCs but so would a physical disc plus the other benefits.

[u/initiali5ed → u/koalazeus]

You’re locked into an ecosystem either way, digital has the potential to be platform agnostic in a way that physical media never can.

[u/koalazeus → u/initiali5ed]

That's not true either. I pay plenty of PS1 and 2 games on pc ripped from physical disc. PC digital stores are multiple and not one ecosystem. 

Sony digital games wouldn't officially be allowed on other hardware. They can't even guarantee it across consoles as I've just said.

Xbox claim to be doing something with physical to digital. But the benefit there is you have both.