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How Long Will You Have Your Digital Games?


Tekdrudge

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I started getting off topic in the "Outrage Culture" thread, so I thought I would move the conversation here.

 

I own physical games that are nearly 40 years old and they still work. I might have to clean them periodically but they work and are playable. Many people now days just buy digital games. However, a lot of people seem to have forgotten that the Nintendo Wii store shut down last year. If you didn't download your digital games they are gone forever. I am expecting the PS3 side of the Playstation store to shutdown within the next couple of years. This is the primary reason I still do physical games.

I have been slowly downloading all of the games I have in my PS3 digital library (Mostly from PS+) to a 1TB HDD I installed in my PS3 a few years ago. However, at some point entire digital libraries will disappear. It might be awhile but it will happen. I have been saying this for at least five years, but many people don't seem to understand or care. But when that one hard to find game, they owned a digital copy of and that they love is gone, I know they will care. The gaming system/culture is slowly evolving into "Buy the game again on the new system!" and I don't like it.

 

What are your thoughts?

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Graphics Team · Posted

Ive come to the conclusion that digital games are fine. Buy them on sale on steam so you can carry them over to your next computer if you have to and they go cheap enough that im not worried about losing them because I don't have much money invested in them.

For me,  I do like to go back to games from time to time but 9 times out of 10 if I'm revisiting a game,  it's something from my childhood that I have a hard copy of. It's very rare I like a new game enough to play it again. I dont care that much if I cant play a game because it's gone from the digital shop, theres tons of games out there that I could play instead.

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I'll have them as long as Steam rolls games from one OS to the next, same with GoG though I consider them semi-digital since they supply downloads I can make into physical archives.

 

Phone, individual handheld/console devices -- as long as the system works, network is left up to retrieve data because I have no assumption of anything but borrowing time.

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Administrator · Posted

I do my best even on PC to avoid Steam. I far prefer DRM-Free services like GOG, where I can download a file and will have the game forever regardless of the status of the platform through which I obtained the game. Through GOG I TRULY have a digital library of games that I will always have access to and can take anywhere, as well as even share with as many people as I like without any limit whatsoever.

DRM free is 100% the way to go IMO.

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I'm the same as those above. Most of my games are now on PC and all digital.  I have even gone so far as to sell physical console copies in favor of cheap PC copies.  Steam is big and I don't expect them to disappear anytime soon.@BortLicensePlate
 has it right about steam sales. No need to pay full price and regret a purchase.  Animal Crossing has shown me how convenient it is on console too.

With every generation of games floating around online and on many peoples flash carts I think it's reasonable to assume todays games aren't going anywhere either.  Worst case we are waiting on homebrew devs to bring everdrive equivalents to more modern consoles.

Edited by zeppelin03
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Well, if anything digital versions of games are actually far easier to preserve and share, at least at the collective level.

All the Wii digital games have been cracked and shared online, as far as I'm aware... I presume this is the same for other consoles.

Some may balk at the idea of resorting to piracy to play games you may have previously purchased, but from a practical point of view there's no real concern of losing anything for good.

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1 hour ago, OptOut said:

Well, if anything digital versions of games are actually far easier to preserve and share, at least at the collective level.

All the Wii digital games have been cracked and shared online, as far as I'm aware... I presume this is the same for other consoles.

Some may balk at the idea of resorting to piracy to play games you may have previously purchased, but from a practical point of view there's no real concern of losing anything for good.

I always found it bizzare how people didnt predict this from the beginning. Ironically, it's more likely that the digital games you buy will die with whatever hardware it is that is used ro play them.

The good news is that for the most part, digital only games tend to be multiplatform so even if every PS4 dies and it's unemulated you can still play something like Axiom Verge because its available everywhere anyway.

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8 hours ago, OptOut said:

Well, if anything digital versions of games are actually far easier to preserve and share, at least at the collective level.

All the Wii digital games have been cracked and shared online, as far as I'm aware... I presume this is the same for other consoles.

Some may balk at the idea of resorting to piracy to play games you may have previously purchased, but from a practical point of view there's no real concern of losing anything for good.

Exactly.  The Wii Ware stuff isn't gone forever.  Scott Pilgrim is still around.  The bigger issue is people's ethics towards how to obtain them.  Are you comfortable pirating stuff you legally bought to maintain access to the media?  Are you comfortable modifying your system to play it?  If so digital isn't keeping these games from existing forever.  If not, hope someone like LRG makes a definitive version of the games you want.

I hope next gen is the real beginning of consoles acting like PCs.  Let my digital PS5 purchases carry forward to PS6.  You read the specs and the hardware is basically a PC.  Let's just treat it like Steam already. 

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Graphics Team · Posted
1 hour ago, zeppelin03 said:

Exactly.  The Wii Ware stuff isn't gone forever.  Scott Pilgrim is still around.  The bigger issue is people's ethics towards how to obtain them.  Are you comfortable pirating stuff you legally bought to maintain access to the media?  Are you comfortable modifying your system to play it?  If so digital isn't keeping these games from existing forever.  If not, hope someone like LRG makes a definitive version of the games you want.

I hope next gen is the real beginning of consoles acting like PCs.  Let my digital PS5 purchases carry forward to PS6.  You read the specs and the hardware is basically a PC.  Let's just treat it like Steam already. 

In my opinion if the IP owner decides they no longer want to support it (wii online) they are no longer profiting on sales from wiiware/virtual console, so piracy is fair game. If they choose to not offer me something I want I will find another way. That doesn't hurt them. 

Theres lots of games that you cannot play "legitimately" anymore so as someone who wants to preserve these games, piracy is often the only choice

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I feel like if I buy it once then it's OK for me to pirate it if I need it again.  I'm not including updated or unique versions though, just the version I bought.  A good example are PC games that have old DRM on them that is no longer supported.  If I can't play my original copy, I don't see anything wrong with downloading a hacked version offline.

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26 minutes ago, BortLicensePlate said:

In my opinion if the IP owner decides they no longer want to support it (wii online) they are no longer profiting on sales from wiiware/virtual console, so piracy is fair game. If they choose to not offer me something I want I will find another way. That doesn't hurt them. 

Theres lots of games that you cannot play "legitimately" anymore so as someone who wants to preserve these games, piracy is often the only choice

This is exactly how I approach it.  Give me a modern product that is a fair value and you can have my money.  Make it unavailable and you cannot complain about people seeking it out.  I've re bought stuff plenty of times since it had nice upgrades and a reasonable rate.  I've even gone so far as to purchase Blurays/games from other countries to support the studio since the US licensing locked something down to Netflix etc. 

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Even though I have always been a rabid physical-only gamer, I briefly considered the Digital Edition of the PS5 when it was announced.  After installing Last of Us 2 from 2 discs, then listening to the optical drive spin like crazy while playing... I thought "ok, maybe digital is the way to go from now on."

Then I reconsidered.  I hang on to all my old systems and games.  I picture a time 20 years from now when I want to play other PS5 games, but with the Digital Edition I would be limited to only those games I had bought.  Sure, maybe we'll be able to emulate every PS5 game in 2040 but original hardware is my preference.  I also worry that if space is limited on the PS5's SSD, I would eventually need to delete some games to make room.  Maybe I could download them later, but maybe not.... we don't know.  And though I'm not against piracy in that case, it's still just too big a drawback.  Digital games are fine FOR NOW but not long term.

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I’m fully ready to embrace the digital future. Getting tired of having to buy all these physical games that I’m interested in. If we went all digital I could finally rest with all the new releases and just finish my legacy console collections.

World War 3 will be a nuclear war and even if you survive it, your digital games won’t. EMP will delete them all.. (for those of you that think I’m being serious here, I’m not 😂)

Edited by phart010
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1 minute ago, BortLicensePlate said:

My video game collection would probably be the least of my concerns at that point 

I dunno.  If the world is anything like Fallout you will probably be bored loitering in one spot all day.  Hope your old Gameboy is up and running for some Tetris.  Just think of the caps you could earn charging per round.

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9 hours ago, zeppelin03 said:

I dunno.  If the world is anything like Fallout you will probably be bored loitering in one spot all day.  Hope your old Gameboy is up and running for some Tetris.  Just think of the caps you could earn charging per round.

Arcade settlement this is. Rake in the caps you will.

yoda_400x400.jpg

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