I've seen some PC games many years ago that shipped with an empty CD. Well, almost empty. It had the Steam installer on it, which was like 5MB or something like that.

So basically the "physical" release of the game was an empty CD with a Steam key printed on a sticker.

But wait, it gets worse. There's physical releases of games today that don't contain the game. You need to buy it. Not joking:

https://www.ign.com/articles/2016/08/08/130-b … e-with-the-game

This is why I don't buy consoles anymore or latest gen PC games. Everything is geared toward "software as a service" and "assumed" high speed internet access. How I miss the old days of just slipping in a game CD and it just works!

realnc wrote:

I've seen some PC games many years ago that shipped with an empty CD. Well, almost empty. It had the Steam installer on it, whic […]
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I've seen some PC games many years ago that shipped with an empty CD. Well, almost empty. It had the Steam installer on it, which was like 5MB or something like that.

So basically the "physical" release of the game was an empty CD with a Steam key printed on a sticker.

But wait, it gets worse. There's physical releases of games today that don't contain the game. You need to buy it. Not joking:

https://www.ign.com/articles/2016/08/08/130-b … e-with-the-game

I was given the Homeworld Remaster collections edition as a Birthday gift when it came out. Inside it only had a code to redeem on steam for the game to be added to my library. Sure it had all the other stuff too that came with the collections edition, but I was surprised that a physical copy of the game was not part of it. Like you stated, what happens in say another 10 years if I decide to want to play it again, but Steam isn't available anymore? Even if I have a PC that is era specific for the game at the time, there might not be a way to play it if it doesn't support offline mode on Steam.

If the digital delivery method allows the companies to save on costs for distribution, patching, extra content, etc., it's pretty obvious why they would use it. Apparently it's good enough for most gamers.

In the PC single-player world - it's not a problem. You just decouple the purchase of the license from the procuring of the game content: buy the game any way you want, then download your favorite pirated repack with full content, make as many backup copies as you want, and play that.

This may be a problem for multiplayer games that don't allow pirated copies onto the servers, but the way the industry is set up, I believe that if the official game data servers are dead, so are the servers that enable online gaming.

I don't know at all how console players would handle this problem.

buckeye wrote:

How I miss the old days of just slipping in a game CD and it just works!

The flip-side of that is having to deal with annoying CD copy protection. I always got annoyed having to either manually insert a CD every time I wanted to play a game or hunt down no-CD cracks to strip the games of that protection. The latter of which would typically be undone by any subsequent game patches.

I much prefer modern digital distribution. Being able to more easily buy and install games whenever I want, not futzing around with physical media, having auto-updates, etc.

CrossBow777 wrote:

Like you stated, what happens in say another 10 years if I decide to want to play it again, but Steam isn't available anymore?

People had a lot of the same fear when Steam first launched. 15 years later and it's still going strong.

Given what a cash cow Steam has been for Valve, I don't see a huge risk in its demise. Even if Valve was to go out of business or something, most likely it would simply be bought up by some other company.

The other thing to consider is that most games have become so inexpensive that re-buying on other platforms is also becoming a lot more common. I have copies of games on both Steam and GoG for example; I've bought them so heavily discounted that the overall cost sink is minimal compared to the old days of buying physical media.

There is a much biggest risk of digital distribution going kaput when it comes to small, independent publishers. I've seen this happen with certain types of professional software requiring online activations. Companies have gone out of business leaving the end users with dead software.

That it makes huge news whenever it happens should tell you that most games don't require that extensive launch patches.

Shponglefan wrote:

buckeye wrote:

How I miss the old days of just slipping in a game CD and it just works!

The flip-side of that is having to deal with annoying CD copy protection. I always got annoyed having to either manually insert a CD every time I wanted to play a game or hunt down no-CD cracks to strip the games of that protection. The latter of which would typically be undone by any subsequent game patches.

I much prefer modern digital distribution. Being able to more easily buy and install games whenever I want, not futzing around with physical media, having auto-updates, etc.

Digital distribution of games has good and bad points. I do prefer digital downloads for the PC, for various reasons, such as the price (GOG and Steam have some fantastic sales), convenience (hundreds of games on one hard drive vs hundreds of game discs), and being able to easily get old games that probably wouldn't be available in a physical shop any longer).

But on consoles (or at least the PS4), the sales don't seem as good price-wise, there's real concern of you one day not being able to re-download the games you've paid for (GOG and Steam might go on for decades, but the servers for a console WILL stop a short while (a few years at most) after the console's commercial life is over, see the original XBox for example, and the PS3 and XBox 360's online services can't last much longer), and even if the next generation of your console (such as the PS4 over the PS3) has backwards compatibility, then there's no guarantee that you'll be allowed to re-download the game to use it on the new console's backwards compatibility.

And there's the collectors' point of view too. Many people who collect games would like to put their games on view, on a shelf or somewhere, which you can't do with digital games. Plus you can't lend a digital game to a friend, or sell the game when you get bored or it, and you can't will your digital game collection to someone else when you die. You can do all of that with physical game discs.

Convenience will always win out. You see this with most issues since people are lazy. You can't stop it and you'd be seen as crazy to try.

As gaming as become ever more popular it's only going to get worse and you'll be seen as the crazy person. Figure out ways to deal with it yourself by only purchasing games from devs that have the same mindset and/or use cracks or emulators for the games you can.

Kerr Avon wrote:

Plus you can't lend a digital game to a friend, or sell the game when you get bored or it, and you can't will your digital game collection to someone else when you die. You can do all of that with physical game discs.

That's part of the plan. The publishers obviously don't want people to do that. They want everyone to buy a new license. It's understandable.

I don't see what's so inconvenient about pulling a PC game down from the shelf, installing it, and playing. The only thing that slightly annoys me is when the game is basically entirely installed to the HDD but you still need to put in the disc to play. When the game streams CD audio, FMVs, etc. from the CD, it's not as annoying to me.

dr_st wrote:

That's part of the plan. The publishers obviously don't want people to do that. They want everyone to buy a new license. It's understandable.

And that's also fucking retarded.

thepirategamerboy12 wrote:

I don't see what's so inconvenient about pulling a PC game down from the shelf, installing it, and playing.

I also don't see what's inconvenient about going to an outhouse when needed, but most people prefer indoor toilets.

thepirategamerboy12 wrote:

The only thing that slightly annoys me is when the game is basically entirely installed to the HDD but you still need to put in the disc to play. When the game streams CD audio, FMVs, etc. from the CD, it's not as annoying to me.

That's even more annoying, since the CD is so slow. Internal drives are huge today, no need to stick to a 2-decade old workaround to a problem that has since been solved ten times over.

thepirategamerboy12 wrote:

dr_st wrote:

That's part of the plan. The publishers obviously don't want people to do that. They want everyone to buy a new license. It's understandable.

And that's also fucking retarded.

That's your point of view (I wonder if your choice of username is related...) There is no clear right or wrong here; every party just wants to take care of its own interests.

dr_st wrote:

Kerr Avon wrote:

Plus you can't lend a digital game to a friend, or sell the game when you get bored or it, and you can't will your digital game collection to someone else when you die. You can do all of that with physical game discs.

That's part of the plan. The publishers obviously don't want people to do that. They want everyone to buy a new license. It's understandable.

I've been careful not to add my Warcraft III keys to my blizzard account, because as I understand it, once that is done it can't be undone and nobody else will be able to play my game.

After waking up one day and finding that not only could I not download new Wii apps, but my existing ones self deleted, I'll not be buying any game I don't have a full physical copy of. If I purchase something I expect it's mine, in perpetuity. If they want to remove it from me I expect my money refunded.

dr_st wrote:

(I wonder if your choice of username is related...)

My username is related to unlicensed/pirate Famicom games. When I came up with the name nearly 8 years ago, I had a much bigger interest in that stuff than I do now. Oh well.

Kerr Avon wrote:

Plus you can't lend a digital game to a friend, or sell the game when you get bored or it, and you can't will your digital game collection to someone else when you die. You can do all of that with physical game discs.

The flipside of that is supply-side limitations are no longer an issue, as it might be with a physical copy. It does effectively eliminate collectibility and the secondary market (for the most part).

Well...in theory
http://blog.archive.org/2018/11/13/wasted-a-c … igital-lending/