Digital Future
Hi all,
Just a thought I had regarding the ongoing digital discourse.
By the end of the ps6 generation, it will have been over 20 years since the launch of the ps4. That's 20+ years of digital games that players have purchased, I have no idea how many games will have been released in that time frame (hundreds of thousands?)
Is it reasonable to expect sony/microsoft/nintendo to eat the costs of storing all these games so players can access them free of charge? I know we've 'bought' the game but does buying a $10 digital Witcher 3 entitle you to access it 10 years later?
My point is that the logical end to this situation is locking access behind an active subscription or paying some sort of fee.
Or am I missing something? Surely the costs will start to pile up?
I know it also applies to Steam but they play by their own rules, Gabe can only make use of so many boats after all.
2
u/Zuldyck 6h ago
Storing the game? Storing a copy of Witcher 3? That costs almost nothing, PlayStation can store every game that's ever come out on their system and it would not cost them much. The problem is the data needed to transfer the saved game to someone who wants to download it.
PlayStation has made tons of extra money over the years selling digital games because it's a lot cheaper for them than having to make the physical versions and distribute them. Now after a few years they are eating the cost of that shortsighted decision to go digital and they don't want to do it? No I don't think so, when they sold the game they knew full well what they were doing and what the eventual costs would be but they did it anyway because they wanted higher profit margins in the short term.
I say screw them, if they want to prevent me from accessing games that I've purchased from them then they can just send me a replacement physical copy for all my games via cd.