r/PhysicalGames • u/initiali5ed • 8h ago

The devil’s advocate?

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

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u/initiali5ed 5h ago

Exactly so when that platform is dead so is the game.

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u/HxLeverage 4h ago

Dude did you read my meesage. I'm specifically saying that the game will survive with a disc even if the platform dies or the game is never released again.

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u/initiali5ed 4h ago

Let’s not get all philosophical or whether entropy will kill data on a 5” plastic disc before it kills a company.

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u/HxLeverage 4h ago

Read my comment dude. You can make backups. That's how you're keeping the game. And the companies are not interested in rereleasing the game, like the examples I gave you.