How do you feel about the digital only future of consoles?

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jeffez
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by jeffez »

There's so many reasons why i think having digital only is bad for consumers. Maybe it's ok if you only buy brand new games but compare the digital version cost of a 1-2 year old game to the physical second hand price. Your taking away a free market and letting the publishers/online stores dictate the "current market value" instead. Digital versions often retain their day one release price long after the games release.
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FinalBaton
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by FinalBaton »

jeffez wrote:Your taking away a free market and letting the publishers/online stores dictate the "current market value" instead (for second hand games)
that's true right there. I hadn't thought about that particular aspect.
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strayan
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by strayan »

jeffez wrote:There's so many reasons why i think having digital only is bad for consumers.
That’s what you think, but what do you feel? Isn’t that what the OP wants to know?

For example, while personally I think there are pros and cons, I have no feelings about it.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by jeffez »

strayan wrote:
jeffez wrote:There's so many reasons why i think having digital only is bad for consumers.
That’s what you think, but what do you feel? Isn’t that what the OP wants to know?

For example, while personally I think there are pros and cons, I have no feelings about it.
OP also said "thoughts". I'm not sure what your point is and it kind of sounds like your just trolling
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by strayan »

jeffez wrote:
strayan wrote:
jeffez wrote:There's so many reasons why i think having digital only is bad for consumers.
That’s what you think, but what do you feel? Isn’t that what the OP wants to know?

For example, while personally I think there are pros and cons, I have no feelings about it.
OP also said "thoughts". I'm not sure what your point is
Correct, the OP wants to know our thoughts and feelings.

You gave us your thoughts but I’m curious to know how it makes you feel as well. I’m a big believer that we should discuss our feelings more.

Edit: You don’t have to share your feelings if you don’t want to. Sorry if it sounded like I was forcing you to share them as they can be a very personal thing.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by kamiboy »

tjstogy wrote:I haven't purchased hardly any physical games for my XBONE but it's been a great blu ray player. Streaming isn't a 1:1 replacement for blu rays, and for that reason I would prefer a system that plays physical media.
With streaming only I was actually talking about streaming games. Although all present attempts at game streaming has been failures so far I have a feeling that they are going to keep trying until they eventually get it right in a few years. If they do the notion of selling a piece of hardware for playing games will become obsolete and the likes of SONY et al will likely move on to become virtual platforms instead of tied to hardware SKU's.

I have a feeling this transition will happen faster than anyone anticipates, and it has even more benefits for console makers than going digitial on a standalone box. I developed nations with increasing access to low latency high speed internet this is seems like the next natural step and I don't like it none.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by robotvendingmachine »

I think that Digital only is horrible for consumers. It basically kills the resell market and anyone looking for sales. Unless they pull a Steam and let 3rd party sites sell codes for discounts.
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Austin
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by Austin »

Unless ISPs get better in the next five to seven years (so many users are stuck with horrid connections at this particular moment), I don't foresee Sony or Microsoft ditching the disc drive next-gen. At the worst we will see what is happening now, with multiple models (drive and drive-less). The change to all digital will be slow and gradual, not an over night/single generation phenomenon.

Something to keep in mind is that disc drives are also a selling point. These are not just game machines, but multimedia boxes. Streaming is big, but there's still a market for BluRay. Currently the Xbox One S and X both have 4K drives, and both next-gen platforms will have them, too. 4K streaming is difficult for a lot of people, not to mention it's a bandwidth hog. In an age of data caps, that's a problem. What about the generation after the PS5 and XBSX? Will 8K be commonplace and how will streaming handle this? Just one reason to consider why there will probably still be a physical option in the future.. unless there's some massive evolution in internet connectivity in the next decade that hasn't happened yet.

Personally speaking, if they went all-digital tomorrow, I wouldn't care that much. I'm old, I don't focus on modern games anywhere near as much as I used to. I snatch up what looks appealing to me, and I haven't minded doing so digitally as long as I have confidence the games will still be available to me for a long time to come. Both Microsoft and Valve have instilled that confidence in me. Not so much with Sony or Nintendo.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by ASDR »

kamiboy wrote:Although all present attempts at game streaming has been failures so far I have a feeling that they are going to keep trying until they eventually get it right in a few years. If they do the notion of selling a piece of hardware for playing games will become obsolete and the likes of SONY et al will likely move on to become virtual platforms instead of tied to hardware SKU's.
I think Sony is mostly a hardware company, but Microsoft is a software company transitioning into a services company. I don't think they even care much about the xbox as a hardware device. All their first party games are coming to PC and for the first two years all their games will be cross-gen, they couldn't care less if you buy their box, they want you to subscribe to game pass. And from a business perspective this makes so much sense. You eliminate / reduce piracy, used games don't exist anymore, you cut out manufacturing, shipping & retail from your product and instead of having wild swings in your income depending on game release delays and review scores you have a steady monthly stream of cash.
Austin wrote:At the worst we will see what is happening now, with multiple models (drive and drive-less).
I wonder how large the price difference will be. My guess is that they save like 20 bucks on hardware but lower the price by something like 100 bucks and make up the 80 dollar difference by eliminating used games for those users. That would be a clever way to have a cheaper SKU for what I assume will be a rather pricey new console.
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Austin
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by Austin »

ASDR wrote:I wonder how large the price difference will be. My guess is that they save like 20 bucks on hardware but lower the price by something like 100 bucks and make up the 80 dollar difference by eliminating used games for those users. That would be a clever way to have a cheaper SKU for what I assume will be a rather pricey new console.
Yeah, I would imagine they would have to lower the price by a significant margin if they expect to move them versus models with a disc drive. That was one of the issues with the Xbox One SAD model, it was priced too closely to the standard model for there to be much reason to buy it. The all-digital *option* isn't bad if it works for some people, but when the price doesn't make sense, consumers aren't going to spring for it.
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FinalBaton
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by FinalBaton »

The ever present option to enforce DRM, and to remove games forever, is the things that worry me the most with digital-only future :?
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by ldeveraux »

FinalBaton wrote:The ever present option to enforce DRM, and to remove games forever, is the things that worry me the most with digital-only future :?
This is the "maybe you don't own the game you bought" argument, and there's merit there.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by RIP-Felix »

The advantage of digital only is that it allows you to make games a "perishable" commodity. Every new gamer will have to buy a digital copy. They can't lend games between friends, or buy one cheap off e-bay from someone who has to sell it to help make rent this month. Sold copies will have no resale or trade value! They will be yours only as long as you have that console and account. That's it.

Physical copies are not perishable. You buy a game and own it. You can lend it to a friend and play a game they lent you. As a kid I estimate this was how I played 50% of the games I did. You could rent the game from blockbuster or holleywood video (Gamefly now, I guess). That's how I played maybe 30% of the games I did. I estimate only 20% of the games I played as a kid were bought new at retail. We just couldn't afford to buy new games. Thankfully, there were other options for me.

Physical games saturate the market, then feed a secondary used game market for as long as the hardware/software will last. With a die hard modding, hacking, and preservation community entrenched around Retro Gaming, old consoles and games are living well beyond their expected lifespan. Publishers get one chance to make money off a game before the pool of physical copies is sufficient to feed the remaining demand - until it begins to pick up again, many years later. The only reason that the collectors market gets a bad rap, is because the retro gaming community has grown to the point where demand is high enough to warrant the price. It's not like they're buying them up to drive the price up, then sell them at hostage prices. A newer generation is desiring the games of an older one. There's insufficient supply to meet this new demand, and that's driving the price up. Publishers could re-release the games and solve this problem, if they wanted to. Many have, but on on newer platforms with better graphics and new features to sweeten the deal. They want the attention on new hardware that's locked down and secure. Publishers have to come up with strategies to get us to re-buy the games we already own, to get us onto a platform they have control over. Remakes are a good strategy. By moving us over to digital or locked down hardware they won't have to compete with a secondary used game market moving forward.
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Austin
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by Austin »

RIP-Felix wrote:Physical copies are not perishable. You buy a game and own it. You can lend it to a friend and play a game they lent you. As a kid I estimate this was how I played 50% of the games I did.
Kids still do this, it's just different now. Account sharing is apparently a huge thing among younger audiences.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by bobrocks95 »

Austin wrote:
RIP-Felix wrote:Physical copies are not perishable. You buy a game and own it. You can lend it to a friend and play a game they lent you. As a kid I estimate this was how I played 50% of the games I did.
Kids still do this, it's just different now. Account sharing is apparently a huge thing among younger audiences.
It probably also violates some terms of service somewhere and could get your game licenses (because you don't own the games) revoked or something.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by ASDR »

RIP-Felix wrote:Publishers get one chance to make money off a game
That's why we're seeing more "live games" / games-as-a-service like Destiny, season passes etc. I can see the publisher side of this. If you have a great game you can actually capitalize on the success other than hoping the goodwill for the brand will last until the sequel comes out. If you made a bad / unpopular game you can improve or even rework the game, like No Man's Sky, Fortnite or Rainbow Six Siege did.

As a gamer, this is super unappealing to me. I have an ever growing backlog of physical games and like >10000 ROMs sitting on various EverDrives, ODEs etc. I'd rather play ten different games on ten different consoles than spend hundreds of hours on a single game with a season pass. But I guess that's becoming more popular, gamers that only play a single game like Minecraft or Fortnite.
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heli
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by heli »

Games need to be offline.
The worse part has to come : streaming.
I wont learn google how to play games, dont feed the artificial intelligence, are you crazy ? google play.

There is something Nintendo does : not using a CD, still it is physical, those cartridges.
Discs scratch, and the internals need to be fixed sometime, it breaks.
They can easy make PS5 games on some sort of USB stick.
USB = no moving parts, no laser, no discs that break.

If they make the ROM with permanent logic, it wont break even after 100 years, your NES and SNES games will die they say.

Now i buy a game for 5 euro, after i play i lend it to people, or give it away.
Maybe 100 people will play this game who knows, sony only get 1 payment.
I always have my game-consoles offline, SHMUPS are not suited for online.

No physical = very egoistic, you buy all those games just for yourself ?
What a waste, you can only play one game at once.
Steam i dont have it, i dont want it, i dont need it.
If playstation goes steam i dont need it anymore.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

If you handle a disc properly and don't set them down on random surfaces they are fine. I've never had a disc scratch itself. I only play offline as well which has caused me some issues. Sometimes I have to connect to patch. I would agree disc drives are an issue, much more so than the actual discs.
bobrocks95 wrote:
Austin wrote:
RIP-Felix wrote:Physical copies are not perishable. You buy a game and own it. You can lend it to a friend and play a game they lent you. As a kid I estimate this was how I played 50% of the games I did.
Kids still do this, it's just different now. Account sharing is apparently a huge thing among younger audiences.
It probably also violates some terms of service somewhere and could get your game licenses (because you don't own the games) revoked or something.
Sony cracked down on it big time after the ps3. Used to be five people could play the same digital copy. There used to be a large highly active Gameshare thread on another forum I go to, it's dead now.
ASDR wrote:
RIP-Felix wrote:Publishers get one chance to make money off a game
That's why we're seeing more "live games" / games-as-a-service like Destiny, season passes etc. I can see the publisher side of this. If you have a great game you can actually capitalize on the success other than hoping the goodwill for the brand will last until the sequel comes out. If you made a bad / unpopular game you can improve or even rework the game, like No Man's Sky, Fortnite or Rainbow Six Siege did.

As a gamer, this is super unappealing to me. I have an ever growing backlog of physical games and like >10000 ROMs sitting on various EverDrives, ODEs etc. I'd rather play ten different games on ten different consoles than spend hundreds of hours on a single game with a season pass. But I guess that's becoming more popular, gamers that only play a single game like Minecraft or Fortnite.
The idea of this bores me as well but it's a fever dream for game makers like you said.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by Lawfer »

Seraphic wrote:Games being full price FOREVER. Don't like it? Oh well. The used game market is gone and games no longer slowly drop in price over time.
Yep, this trend started around Q1 2019, I remember back in 2016 games would be down to 19.99 ~3 months after release, now games either barely goes down in price (if at all) and that's only if they don't get sold out completely in the meanwhile (noticed this is a relatively new trend, started a little bit in 2019 but it really got much worse this year). Note that this only regarding japanese-made games released by western publishing branches such as Idea Factory International, Koei Tecmo America, NIS America etc

The worst offender of this is the western publishing branch of Nintendo, where the physicals of their published titles is 59.99 forever, at best you can hope to get some of their biggest titles (such as Zelda: Breath of the Wild) for 44.99 and that's only a few times as most of the time it's 59.99, other Nintendo-published titles are 59.99 forever and unlike what I described above this is not a new phenomenon and started way back during the Wii U era.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

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The big issue is less people are buying physical and many of those that do have a collector mindset. I've noticed there are much less used copies of newer games floating around than before. Those that view things as disposable entertainment that would have garage saled it all when done are buying digital.

What you are observing happened with nisa before but they used to reprint/reissue the damn games. Now they seem to not be doing that...Ys VIII needs a ps4 reprint for example.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by Lawfer »

Steamflogger Boss wrote:The big issue is less people are buying physical and many of those that do have a collector mindset. I've noticed there are much less used copies of newer games floating around than before. Those that view things as disposable entertainment that would have garage saled it all when done are buying digital.

What you are observing happened with nisa before but they used to reprint/reissue the damn games. Now they seem to not be doing that...Ys VIII needs a ps4 reprint for example.
Exactly, that was the first one, now to add to the list there's The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories (NIS probably sent out a very small batch of copies to retailers for the April release and left it at that and it got sold out at full price everywhere in a month), Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen, Danganronopa Trilogy, The Witch and the Hundred Knight 1 and 2 etc all on PS4 and all sold out within a month to a year.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

Lawfer wrote:
Steamflogger Boss wrote:The big issue is less people are buying physical and many of those that do have a collector mindset. I've noticed there are much less used copies of newer games floating around than before. Those that view things as disposable entertainment that would have garage saled it all when done are buying digital.

What you are observing happened with nisa before but they used to reprint/reissue the damn games. Now they seem to not be doing that...Ys VIII needs a ps4 reprint for example.
Exactly, that was the first one, now to add to the list there's The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories (NIS probably sent out a very small batch of copies to retailers for the April release and left it at that and it got sold out at full price everywhere in a month), Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen, Danganronopa Trilogy, The Witch and the Hundred Knight 1 and 2 etc all on PS4 and all sold out within a month to a year.
It's pretty disappointing. I quit collecting as much (I had literally every NISA game released through Disgaea 5 before selling some off) but the trend used to be when something got out of hand in the second hand market they would make more, and they were definitely paying attention to it. I know for a fact their initial print runs are very small as I had a friend that worked for Atlus USA and had teh insider knowledge.

It's patently ridiculous with Cold Steel 3, that game just came out. I guess I can get a European copy since I do want to play it as I loved the first two. Actually I wanted Disaster Report too, damn.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by scrilla4rella »

I had the typical game collector mindset when it came to physical vs. digital, even with modern disc-based systems. But after having kids and accepting that I won't be able to move to a bigger place here in an expensive coastal city (controlled by rich landowning faux-progressive NIMBYs) anytime soon, I've come to accept that in the long-run going digital is the only option. Also getting a MiSTer has opened my eyes and somewhat liberated me from the collector mindset.

So yeah, I'm not too bothered by the eventual all-digital future. At least on PS4 prices for digital release seem to drop pretty quickly (I just bought Death Stranding for around 23 USD). Yes, there will be some games that fall through the cracks of copyright and licensing deals (I want to download After Burner Climax and Outrun HD goddammit!) but I'd imagine the majority of the games that actually matter will be preserved in some way. Sorry HG101, I just can't work myself up enough to give a F about the countless flip phone and early iphone games that have been lost to time.

I still buy and keep physical games but if it's significantly cheaper with a digital sale than I just go for that and not think twice. This dogmatic devotion to physical releases has led to some strange outcomes. Like people buying a $4 indie game on LRG for $35 or waiting months to buy a physical release for double the price (as in the case if SOR4).

Nintendo is of course in a league of their own. They don't heavily discount their games. Ever. But they are the exception.

Optical disc drives seem to be a non-factor for most people. From 2008 to 2018 DVD sales declined more than 86% and even then they outsold bluray. Of course I have my tokusatsu and anime bluray but my PS3 and 4 will be perfectly fine for playback going forward.

At this point I think my best move would be to move to PC for the next gen. The Playstation exclusives haven't really done it for me this generation (with M2's Shot Trigger releases being the exception). But that's just me.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

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scrilla4rella wrote:I had the typical game collector mindset when it came to physical vs. digital, even with modern disc-based systems. But after having kids and accepting that I won't be able to move to a bigger place here in an expensive coastal city (controlled by rich landowning faux-progressive NIMBYs) anytime soon, I've come to accept that in the long-run going digital is the only option. Also getting a MiSTer has opened my eyes and somewhat liberated me from the collector mindset.
How is the MiSTer different than other previous solutions for you? I don't mean this as a troll or w/e, to me it looks like another emulation solution in a long line of them but I have friends swearing by it as well. They are even selling off consoles. I am not considering one at all, but I am curious.
scrilla4rella wrote:Optical disc drives seem to be a non-factor for most people. From 2008 to 2018 DVD sales declined more than 86% and even then they outsold bluray. Of course I have my tokusatsu and anime bluray but my PS3 and 4 will be perfectly fine for playback going forward.
The masses have absolutely moved to streaming/digital content for media consumption. Most of the people buying physical at this point are collectors. There is practically no used market for newer DVD/BD releases. Once I figured this out I just started pre-ordering when needed and waiting for sales when not (this is pretty much all company dependent, with some of them the pre-order price is more or less as good as their best sale price).
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by ASDR »

Prices for physical releases of Japanese niche titles often don't go down outside of Japan. Falcom games as already mentioned, NISA published stuff in general. Try to get a reasonably priced copy of Tokyo Xanadu here. ATLUS RPGs also have/had that problem for a long time with stuff like Radiant History / Strange Journey going for more than new, Persona Q2 had apparently a very limited print as well. For Persona 3 Portable I eventually just bought a Japanese copy and then played an English ROM as the JPN release was like 10EUR incl. shipping while the EU/US copies went into the 3 figures. M2 shot trigger releases are also quickly sold out, but they've done reprints.

Right now, I generally don't buy digital only releases. There are just so many games in my backlog and so many interesting new games still coming out physically. I haven't had that situation yet where a must-play game was digital only.

And yeah, fuck LRG etc. releases. It's insane to pay 39USD + shipping + customs for some indie game that probably goes for ten bucks on the digital store. And Switch prices are also insane. They even sell late ports at full price. It's crazy when the cheapest used copy on ebay for Switch Doom 2016 is like 35EUR while new copies of the superior PS4 version are often available for <10EUR. Or now the Burnout Paradise remaster is sold as a full-price game when it's dirt cheap on PSN/PC and it's honestly not much different than the 360 copy I bought for a few bucks years ago.

When the PS5 is a year or two old I hope I can snatch up the 20-30 PS4 games I still want to play for 3-10EUR a piece. Not sure that'll happen for the PS5 if most people buy digital.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by Galgomite »

I don't buy a ton of games anymore but I'm of the impression that most every game has a day-one patch. This means that there's no pressure to have the "final" code done in time for the discs to be stamped, and whatever's on the disc could have game-breaking glitches or performance issues. So owning a physical copy doesn't mean you own the game at all, just the DRM key to download it. In 20 years when the servers are done you'll be holding an official game disc that is inferior to any pirated version. Examples that come to mind are PS3 Warhawk, Panzer Dragoon Remake on Switch, Bloodstained, and No Man's Sky on PS4.
I'd like to think that those re-released "Game of the Year" Editions have the patches worked in but even that's not a sure thing.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

Yeah Atlus has a long history of small initial prints. The first Disgaea I believe was at about 10,000 unfortunately the forum I had a bunch of relevant pms on doesn't exist anymore and I didn't back them up. But they would reprint too, Disgaea before all the reprints was a triple digit title and this was in ye olden days. I know for awhile they worked with GameQuestDirect for the reprints, another time they "found a bunch of copies of Persona 2 in a warehouse".

Some of the LRG releases have been as cheap as a dollar on Steam and/or GOG. KEKW
Galgomite wrote:I don't buy a ton of games anymore but I'm of the impression that most every game has a day-one patch. This means that there's no pressure to have the "final" code done in time for the discs to be stamped, and whatever's on the disc could have game-breaking glitches or performance issues. So owning a physical copy doesn't mean you own the game at all, just the DRM key to download it. In 20 years when the servers are done you'll be holding an official game disc that is inferior to any pirated version. Examples that come to mind are PS3 Warhawk, Panzer Dragoon Remake on Switch, Bloodstained, and No Man's Sky on PS4.
I'd like to think that those re-released "Game of the Year" Editions have the patches worked in but even that's not a sure thing.
Not sure on the % of games with day one patches but usually it isn't needed to be able to play through the game. I've had to patch two games ever to finish them, both on PS3 and both were AAA titles humorously enough. I even beat Bloodstained unpatched, though that was a fucking nightmare and I would have happily patched if one was available. I won't deny this is a backwards step. It used to be that the large majority of games were completely fine on disc, because companies knew they couldn't patch.

Most GOTY type releases are patched up until when it was released, the real nice ones include DLC on disc. I actually imported Bloodborne for that reason, the US GOTY had a free code for the DLC.
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by scrilla4rella »

Steamflogger Boss wrote: How is the MiSTer different than other previous solutions for you? I don't mean this as a troll or w/e, to me it looks like another emulation solution in a long line of them but I have friends swearing by it as well. They are even selling off consoles. I am not considering one at all, but I am curious.


No, it's a great question.

First and foremost is the relative lack of input lag which becomes really apparent when you're playing an action or shooting game. I'm able to do soooo much better on arcade Strider on the mister core. This game always used to stomp me on one of the capcom PS2 collections. Kyukyoku Tiger on the PCE core just feels right to me as I've played that game a million times on real hardware. I realize that's totally subjective...

From what I understand you can get similar results in reducing lag with some tweaking in many modern emulators. I'd say if you have that all set up and are happy then you should probably just stick with it.

Another big one is the convenience factor. Yes you get this with many emulation solutions but not many can display on a PVM with such minimal hassle. Although I'm am a bit of an ignoramus when it comes to tech.

I don't have a huge game room all to myself where I can build a perfectly cable managed setup with half a dozen consoles all hooked up to my PVM that can be switched with the press of a button on an expensive SCART switcher. I keep one or two systems hooked up at a time. It's actually quite a huge pain-in-the-dick to, for example, switch out my Supergun for the Neo Geo CD. With a small footprint the Mister quickly gives me access to all of these systems with essentially perfect audio and video with no need for expensive mods.

Even if you don't use a CRT I've found the hdmi output to be quite nice. It certainly makes it easier to TATE your monitor for some Donkey Kong, Xevious, or Varth.

It's also surprisingly easy to set up. Seriously, If I can do it then anyone can. The scripts really help. A couple of weeks ago I ran one of the updater scripts with a single keystroke and two minutes latter had a complete set of arcade perfect CPS1 games. Amazing.

I'd say the biggest downside to a Mister setup relates to the whole 'paradox of choice' concept. It can be overwhelming to see a complete list of CPS1, Neo Geo, PCE, Amiga, MSX, and Sega CD games and think, 'gee, what should I play?'. I've seen a lot of people say something similar about Everdrives and the like. For many it's a lot harder to get invested in a game and stick with it when it's just a line in a text box.

Most would probably admit that it's still great to have physical copies of some game for the art, instructions, and all that. I still love that shit. I don't think I'll ever completely sell my Genesis, PCE, or Saturn collections ('the holly trinity' of shmup consoles, as I call them) but I am slowly selling off some items here and there that are worth good money that I'm not especially attached to.

Sorry for the derail
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Steamflogger Boss
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

Appreciate the well thought out response, thanks.
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scrilla4rella
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Re: How do you feel about the digital only future of console

Post by scrilla4rella »

Galgomite wrote:I don't buy a ton of games anymore but I'm of the impression that most every game has a day-one patch. This means that there's no pressure to have the "final" code done in time for the discs to be stamped, and whatever's on the disc could have game-breaking glitches or performance issues. So owning a physical copy doesn't mean you own the game at all, just the DRM key to download it. In 20 years when the servers are done you'll be holding an official game disc that is inferior to any pirated version. Examples that come to mind are PS3 Warhawk, Panzer Dragoon Remake on Switch, Bloodstained, and No Man's Sky on PS4.
I'd like to think that those re-released "Game of the Year" Editions have the patches worked in but even that's not a sure thing.
This is an important point. Bloodstained on disk won't do much good in protecting you from the server apocalypse when the code on the disc contains a game breaking bug.
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