General Category > General Discussion
Media - Digital or Physical?
Thom Grayson:
--- Quote from: Madducky on September 12, 2015, 08:19:46 PM ---
STEAM has a novel OEL (End Of Life) plan. They will allow you to save your bought games and turn off the DRM crap once and for all. That is a great idea!
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If they are willing to turn it off later, one might ask why they don't just turn it off now.
I'm not 100% sure I trust Valve to follow through either. I don't trust them any more or less than any other digital storefront.
Then again, until they go out of business, we'll never know!
Polygon:
Physical, all the way. I have digitized my music but I still OWN the physical copies. I don't like paying to rent my media. I want to enjoy it when I want and how I want.
Megatron:
The only digital media I have truly embraced is music - and only slightly. I still buy actual CDs, but I do like the option to download singles, since many artists I don't care for, but have 1 or 2 songs that I would buy.
nbart711:
This generation I switched to 100% for digital for both PS4 and Xbox One. For the previous generation I purchased everything that I could as physical media. The main reason I stuck with physical media for PS3 and 360 is both these systems are reaching the end of their life. My assumption is both Microsoft and Sony at some point will turn off the online support for these consoles. When that happens who knows if we will still have access to purchased content. I think the reality is the industry (like many others) is moving towards digital distribution only, so my guess is longterm access to purchased content is going to be an issue that companies need to address in the near future.
I used to purchase all my movies on physical media, but over the last couple years switched to using iTunes, and have sold my Blu ray discs. This is due mostly to space. With games and books I just don't have room for movies too. Blu-ray has better picture than iTunes, but the convenience of being able to easily move to tablet or laptop is more important to me.
Music I still purchase on CD. I have a Sonos system that allows me to stream FLAC files throughout the house. If iTunes would offer a higher quality option I would probably go digital, but since that seems unlikely to happen anytime soon, for the short term at least it looks like I will continue to purchase CDs. Unlike with games I don't really feel compelled to display the CDs, so once I copy them to the computer they just go into storage.
Megatron:
--- Quote from: nbart711 on September 12, 2015, 10:30:34 PM ---TMy assumption is both Microsoft and Sony at some point will turn off the online support for these consoles. When that happens who knows if we will still have access to purchased content. I think the reality is the industry (like many others) is moving towards digital distribution only, so my guess is longterm access to purchased content is going to be an issue that companies need to address in the near future.
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My thoughts exactly, which is why I AVOID digital whenever possible. How many games are now unplayable becasue they have been removed from service?
Look at PT - Konami decided to remove it. Now it's gone. Yes, it's still on my PS4, but there is no way to redownload if I accidentally delete it or anything happens to my console.
Last gen, X-Men, The Simpsons, TMNT, Turtles in Time, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Ultimate MVC 3 - all games I purcgased that have been removed from the store. Luckily I have them on multiple consoles, but again, if anything happens there is no way to redownload once the licenses are up and the games are pulled.
With physical copies you at least OWN the game.
With digital it just feels like a really long term rental.