Why Dont People Care About Owning Games? (Or: All hail the digital future?)

[Sotha_Sil]

Honestly, no, I don't care. I would never hold onto an old system, either. Why would I want to play with 2005 visual quality and performance in 2019? X360 and PS3 games were running at 720, dropping under 30fps, and had long load times. Get that game on GOG or Steam for $5 and run it at 1080p/4k/60fps/120fps effortlessly with instant load times.

Also - reducing clutter around the house has its own value.

 

[Flaurehn]

Also odds that your grandsons will want to play some old ass game instead of the Fortnite of their times are pretty slim OP

 

[Cecil]

I care about ownership to the extent that the less I own of a game, the less I'm willing to pay for a game. For me it's not digital vs physical, as it is about aspects of the game once delivered to me.

If I can get a DRM free copy on GOG, a price of from $20 up to $60, depending on the type of game, is not an issue for me.

But anything taken from me from that, will effect what I'm willing to pay for me.

Is it only available on Stores that I don't prefer? Then take a bit out of the price then.
Does it demand that I register and use an account to playt it in singleplayer, other then that store account? That's at least $10-15 of the price for that.
Does it include Denuvo? That's at least half of the base price gone there for me, at least.
Is it a streamed game? $5-10 at most, I think.

When Ubisoft demands a uplay account of me for $60 that comes with Denuvo, microtransaction and all other types of devaluing stuff, then I'm not even close to agree to it, no matter what game it is.

 

[Tbm24]

It's pretty simple really. I have a shelf I made full of my physical games. It's a good amount. I haven't touched 99.9% of them since like the month they we're purchased with a few exceptions.

 

[Jedi2016]

I do tend to buy physical for console games (most, but not all). On PC, though, as the first post said, we don't have much of a choice. The last "physical" games I bought were years ago, and even they just had a download code in the box.

The point is, this has been coming for a long time. And while there are problems here and there, I personally have yet to lose access to any digital game I've purchased.

 

[CHC]

If ps4's psn shuts down in 30 years and she wants to let her kids play with the old ps4 in the attic, She can because those games still exist on her shelf.

Click to shrink...

I mean, here's the thing: these kinds of hypotheticals are crazy and not realistic at all. It's like arguing you should keep your old VHS player and all your movies in a giant crate. In 30 years, the PS4 will undoubtedly have had its best titles be playable on future hardware. Not to mention its far more likely to have a hardware failure than for PSN to be shutdown anyway.

 

[Deleted member 7373]

I have been using Steam since 2005 and every game I have ever bought on it is still here. So I think I will keep on using Steam.

 

[RaySpencer]

I already don't own music, movies, and TV shows, and it's been great. And so far stuff like Game Pass has been awesome too. So 🤷‍♂️

 

[Ceadeus]

There is something special about opening an old game case and reading the booklet again. Watching the picture devs chosed to showcase the game on the back of the cover. Then the front art. I see video game just like music and book. It's in your hands and there is a story for each one.

Digital is kind of telling, well there is the meat but it won't last forever.

 

[Strangelove_77]

I don't care about owning discs. As for games that get deleted forever - unless it's one of my favorites that I still play to his day, I don't care much.
Games being so cheap during digital sales might have something to do with it.

I'm not a collector either. Having more shit in my house doesn't make me feel better.

 

[Deleted member 29249]

I don't want loads of shit taking up space in my home. Everything is so much neater not having videos/cds/games around. Hell if I could drop the consoles too and just play games on my iPad I'd do that too (please work stadia).

Also don't tend to go back to games in the digital generations. Once I beat a game I seldom play it again (save gaas). So if I loose it after I've played it no bite whoop. To be honest as is I have old digital games then physical games (thanks to steam).

 

[virtua_44]

Stuff like this makes me wonder if I should just sell off my games... As much as I love looking at them, they'll eventually rot and become unplayable anyway.

Click to shrink...

this was me last year. i was so close to selling off my gamecube games because I wanted to cash in while they're still selling high and before disc rot starts occurring. still dont know what to think, but im keeping them for now. i still play gamecube now and again.

 

[Zool]

Digital is fast, nice, no hassle and always up-to-date. Nowadays most games need patches. Physical games are thus not complete. I like my package together... game and dlc/patches on one place.

 

[Palette Swap]

Can't stand the clutter.

 

[andymcc]

things people don't care if they "own":

-music
-movies
-books

Games will get there.

 

[Natsunoyuutsu]

I really don't understand what ownership has anything to do with some people reply that they don't intend to go back to what they have finished. Ownership is not about how you feeling. By that logic, rental should be the best for this type of users.

 

[Deleted member 8696]

Because I've owned a lot of 'em in the past and I've done nothing with them.

 

[xillyriax]

Convenience.
Dont need games taking up space.
After I beat the game, why would I hold on to it?

 

[Sankara]

A better argument would be "why don't people care about video game preservation?" rather than personal ownership, SomaXD

It's less important to me that I own my games in the future than it is to have other people try out the amazing classics that built the legacy and aesthetics of videogames

the latter is a much more forceful and convincing argument. Imagine if people said they didn't care about the legacy of films or music and simply just wanted to keep on consuming whatever was only existing in the present.

 

[Richietto]

I care to an extent. Ive just been playing on PC for so long that having a physical copy isn't that attractive to me. I don't sell my games and I replay a lot so ease of access is nice. THe only thing that really keeps me buying physical is some of the savings that comes with it (thats now almost on its way out). Digital games can just disappear but in my personal experience I still have every game I have ever purchased digitally to this day, and thats a LOT of games, so I really don't worry about it.

 

[i-Jest]

Same reason I don't care about owning music, the convenience outweighs the downsides.

Click to shrink...

Your right.

We live in an age of convenience where information and the like can be accessed near effortlessly, depending on where you are. The convenience factor is huge for a lot of people, especially since most consumers are casual about their consumption. The instant access will always outweigh the negatives.

A better argument would be "why don't people care about video game preservation?" rather than personal ownership.

It's less important to me that I own my games in the future than it is to have other people try out the amazing classics that built the legacy and aesthetics of videogames

the latter is a much more forceful and convincing argument. Imagine if people said they didn't care about the legacy of films or music and simply just wanted to keep on consuming whatever was only existing in the present.

Click to shrink...

That's a long term problem, that most don't care to think about, because it doesn't affect peoples immediate convenience.

 

[Stalwart]

With the recent talk of Tales from the Borderlands getting removed from digital stores and rented digital licenses rendered useless (cant redownload even if you purchased) And Stadias Future for game ownership...

Im genuinely curious about the people who shun physical copies and go strictly digital in these modern times.

I dont think im quite to the old and out of touch point... (i consider myself of the "xennial" generation... im 37, but im analog and tech savvy)
Xennial:

Spoiler

Xennials (also known as the Oregon Trail Generationand Generation Catalano) are the micro-generation of people on the cusp of the Generation X and Millennialdemographic cohorts, typically born between the late 1970s and early 1980s. Xennials are described as having had an analog childhood and a digital adulthood.

But i just dont understand why people dont seem to care about ownership anymore. Its almost alarming how many people i see who are fine with not owning their games.

I understand how digital makes things simple and convenient, i love not having to worry about swapping in some of my games in my digital library, or the fact i dont have to go to the store to buy a game.

But i also like the fact that ill be able to play all my games for as long as the console/disc/cart lasts and no one is taking that away from me with the exuse of expired licenses or companies closing down.

One argument i see a lot is the whole "but physical games have patches you still need to download!" Sure, but i can still play 99% of every game out of the box, it may have some issues, (and how many games are actually unplayable through and through or broken? Not many. ) but ill take a fully playable buggy game over... no game. So i dont really feel like that argument works.

I know that i can give my daughter my old ps4 in 15 years and she can play every game. I can give her the physical games to put on a shelf, she can sell any rare ones if she wants... because she will own them.

If ps4's psn shuts down in 30 years and she wants to let her kids play with the old ps4 in the attic, She can because those games still exist on her shelf.

Do people just not care about the future of their stuff? As long as they get to play it NOW, who cares if you cant play it in 10/20/30 years?
I dunno. The way people think about the whole digital vs physical is just interesting to me.

So, are why you fine with "renting" games?

Click to shrink...

Digital can be done right and you own the game. look at gog.com, it's digital but you can do what you want with it for example store it in a disk or hdd.

 

[Palette Swap]

A better argument would be "why don't people care about video game preservation?" rather than personal ownership.

It's less important to me that I own my games in the future than it is to have other people try out the amazing classics that built the legacy and aesthetics of videogames

the latter is a much more forceful and convincing argument. Imagine if people said they didn't care about the legacy of films or music and simply just wanted to keep on consuming whatever was only existing in the present.

Click to shrink...

As someone who could give two shits about my ownership, you're absolutely right about preservation.

 

[Zen Hero]

I play my games and enjoy them, then I move on. I'm okay if they disappear after a while or whatever. It's not like I'm going to run out of ways to spend my time. There's always interesting things to do in life.

 

[ghostemoji]

Every time I move, my feelings on physically owning goods evolve more and more to "I need to own less physical items". Rights issues aside, not having to account for boxes of media is something that I find more and more attractive all the time. If we're looking at a balance, things are heavily weighted on one side for me personally.

 

[Iori Fuyusaka]

I like my shelf.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

I used to collect games as a hobby a few years ago, it was more about building the collection than actually playing the games. I turned around one day and thought "nobody but the most nerdy of people are going to be impressed with your perfectly cultivated wall of games, honestly it's a bit embarrassing truth be told".

Why is this a thing in my house? Nobody cares, I'm not even sure I do anymore. Hang some pictures, get some nice furniture, hell scatter some cushions about if you must. But a cabinet full of boxed games isn't conducive to an aesthetically pleasing home.

Don't get me started on the collections of figures and toys some have cluttering their homes. It's arrested development exemplified to me.

TL:DR - I grew out of my hobby collecting stuff, I don't vibe off it anymore.

 

[Gush]

The actual issue is with DRM, not "physical vs digital"

GoG games will be able to last longer than a random single disc, considering that you can back them up pretty easily as many times as you want.

The fight should be for more flexible DRM (or removal of DRM), rather than an attachment to discs

Click to shrink...

Yup. This should be the angle that gets prioritized going forward.

Much better we find a meaningful solution along the lines of GoG than horde hundreds of physical games, many of which require downloads to even be played at all, effectively giving them the downsides of physical and digital in tandem.

Last thing I want is 300+ physical games in my apartment stacking up like garbage. Don't care about physical at all so long as preservation becomes easier for digital titles.

 

[rein]

I guess it saves space because you don't need to put the disks on shelves. And the fact that you just click on the game icon and play the game without inserting/switching disks is also a plus.

 

[Unaha-Closp]

I've been enjoying mp3's and ebooks for a long time so digital games don't faze me. Little different with games I grant you but I'm getting on in years and the desire to have physical stuff has lessened with me for sure.

 

[Soj]

Games very often aren't complete on the disc anymore. You sometimes can't play them at all unless they're updated. The newest thing is making you download the entire game even though you bought a physical copy.

This all serves to make clear (as if by design) that you don't own the game even if you own the game. Might as well just buy digital because it's actually more convenient at this point.

 

[Gaiaknight]

its very rare that i replay games so once i beat a game i just move onto the next so if in 20 years i cant play my ps4, switch, or xb1 games so be it it wont bother me at all.

 

[univbee]

I buy a few physical games but it's mostly for Switch where install space is somewhat limited even with a microSD card, and some known-complete discs that have minimal patching for use at a relative's place with extremely poor (like 1mbps) internet. I also get kids' games on disc to make managing my son playing games easier, since we have multiple separate setups so the physical license is easier to manage and work with than a digital one tied to my account. But when you start collecting things numbering in the thousands, you get into hoarder territory very quickly and it's so much easier and more versatile when it's digital.

 

[The Praiseworthy]

I totally agree with OP, you just said everything that goes on my mind.

I'm Physical all the way for the same obvious reasons.

 

[Htown]

I am more likely to lose or damage a disc than to lose access to a Digital Game in 10-15 years.

Click to shrink...

this is also important

 

[Deleted member 1656]

DRM-free digital copies of games are just as if not more secure than physical copies theoretically.

 

[Commander Kook]

I'll continue to buy physical for as long as possible, but I do buy digital if the price is right.

For me, a big part of owning a physical collection is the ability to resell it when desired. Until the console manufacturers enable a way to transfer a digital license to another person, I'll be purchasing physical.

 

[Maxim726x]

this was me last year. i was so close to selling off my gamecube games because I wanted to cash in while they're still selling high and before disc rot starts occurring. still dont know what to think, but im keeping them for now. i still play gamecube now and again.

Click to shrink...

That's the thing- It's more nostalgia for me at this point. I will likely never play these games, and if I do it will likely be via an emulator.

I don't know. I'm torn.

 

[Ocean]

Digital all the way. As in, I wouldn't take a game even if it were free if it meant owning discs.

As for access to my library in 20-30 years, I genuinely doubt I'll care about these games in a few decades. And on the off chance that there's a particular title I want to replay when that time comes, I'm sure there will be options for that.

 

[NCR Ranger]

A few things. I am mostly a PC gamer, but the first is convenience. I do not miss the days of having a to dig around looking for the cd, switching discs, or just plain finding storage space for all them. Also manually patching games was a goddamn nightmare before Steam.

Second is I have lost games due to discs being damaged I have yet to lose a game from any of the digital stores I have used.

Thirdly it is that the choice was made for me at the beginning. Consoles pushed out the PC section at stores and it became harder to find games as time went on. If a game wasn't backed by a huge publisher your chances of finding it became increasingly hit or miss.

The last reason I can think of off the top of my head is many games I buy these days are from smaller developers and probably either wouldn't have been made or would have had very limited released if digital wasn't the default on PC.

 

[GreenMonkey]

I'm with the OP, another young Gen X'er here, I prefer physical copies for console games. Nothing worse than getting a game for $40-$60 and finding out it just sucks (Gears of War Judgement comes to mind here). Flipped that turd in like 2 weeks and only lost like $8 since I got a good deal on it in physical copy. You're stuck with a $60 digital mistake every time.

I've just gotten a lot more conservative about what games I purchase.

And as far as people comparing the convenience of digital music, that is totally different. For one thing, you likely use music everywhere (while driving in car, on trips, different places in the house, working out, etc). A console game is totally different. Some of this argument can be removed for portable games, but it's still different.

As far as the people that say they never replay anything, you are simply unfathomable to me. It's like when I meet people that say they see a movie once and never rewatch it again, or read a book once and that's it. It's too weird for me to understand.

I'm perfectly happy with GOG though, that's the best of both worlds (digital + no one authorizing you to use your own purchases at a remote server somewhere).

And I know you people are cynical about some of this with the "steam is on top they will be here forever" attitude, but that's what people thought of Sega. Or Atari. Goldman Sachs was around for over a hundred years before the financial crisis almost killed it. Sorry, any of these companies can end up dead with just a few years of errors.

Note also there are other problems with digital besides "the service shut down" and "you don't really own it and can't resell it". For the most part, pretty no transference of ownership of digital content if you die, like there is with real property (legal precedent here is minimal at this point). Also, account bans, sometimes for something as simple as being an asshole on their forums (EA), or doing a digital chargeback / too many refund requests (Sony). There have been a couple of times I've heard of Amazon accounts being banned because an Amazon seller account at their address got in trouble with too many customers. Also, digital account theft via cyber crime and having difficulty recovering them.

Plus, the inevitable "we're shutting the servers down for the store, fuck you" that seems to happen on every service after enough years.

So, in summary, there's quite the handful of dicey issues around them. Personally all these risks don't outweigh "have to stand up and put a disc in the drive, and transport it in a box when I move." in my mind. People tout the "convenience" of digital but I don't get it. Minus perhaps midnight availability (which matters little to me, even as a late night person, since I have a job to do during the day and other responsibilities that make it unlikely I'll be leaping upon the game at minute 1).

 

[eraFROMAN]

After seeing the back room of a used game shop; physical games are junk if your intent is to play the game. Digital games can be removed just like physical stuff can be lost or broken, forcing you to buy a whole new copy. Digital's advantages outweigh the disadvantages. If you can go digital, it's worth it to do so.

 

[Deleted member 2317]

I'd buy physical PC releases if they let me!

 

[Bricktop]

My enjoyment of video games lies in the playing of them, not in the possession. I don't need to "own" them any more than my movies or music.

 

[Won]

I'm old enough to know, that I pretty much don't revisit games, especially on consoles that require hardware plugged in. (Digital games on my PC are getting played again much more frequently by me. Convenience all that.)

My niece got my Switch recently. Was looking at my old DS stuff at first, but ended up giving her the newest toy, because she can acutally get new games for it in the coming years and she sure has no space for old crap.

Basically, I see games as disposable. They don't have and probably never reach the same status as books. And even with books I'm not into that overly sentimental romanticization of passing them down.

 

[Bhonar]

OP -- you're completely overexaggerating things

You gave one example. Also that example doesn't even fully count anyway... from what I understand it was only pulled from download from Telltale's own download service? Not the Steam version, you can still download that (if you purchased beforehand)

So you want my simple answer? Until I personally get screwed by something, I don't care.

I have never bought a digital game where it was pulled from download later. Until that happens to me, it's irrelevant. And that's with a huge sample size, because I have bought tons of digital games starting around 2003/2004 when Steam first came out

 

[KrillinLikeAVillan]

I almost never replay games, at all, i try to live a clutter free life where i try to own as few things as possible, the convenience of owning games digitally far outweighs the minuscule risk of not being able to replay a game in the future.

Digital all the way. As in, I wouldn't take a game even if it were free if it meant owning discs.

Click to shrink...

Yep, i actually turned down a free physical copy of assasin's creed odyssey on the xbox, knew i could get it dirt cheap on a steam sale and i did a couple of weeks later.

 

[Pyke Presco]

I used to care about buying disks in university, because money was tight and I could trade in, for example, Call of Duty 2 and upgrade to 3 as the majority of the gaming population moved on to the newest version. Or if I bought a single player game like Prince of Persia, I could play through it once or twice, trade it in for $40 towards a new game, and if I wanted to replay it a couple years later I could buy a used disc for $5-10.

Then Steam started pushing 90% sales and I could buy 20 games that were 3+ months old for the price of one. Then I got a decent paying job where I didn't have to pick one game or another and I just bought both. Then I realized I no longer owned a CD player and every album I had bought over the last decade was ripped to my computer, uploaded to an iPod and then sat in a box never to be listened to.

Nowadays I have a box of dvds that I haven't watched in 15 years, because I can get higher quality off Netflix. I have another box of cds that I can only play in my Xbox, since it's the only device I own with a disc drive. And again, they're already all on a hard drive and an external so I'm not worried about losing them. Had one album where the files got corrupted, and instead of buying a new hard drive for my computer to reinstall the cd from years ago, I just bought it off iTunes.

I moved a year ago, and those boxes of dvds, cds and my old Xbox 360 games were untouched and just sitting in my closet. I actually just gave my Xbox 360 and like 25-30 discs to my boss for his kids, because maybe they'll use it; he bought me lunch and a beer and we called it even.

At this point there is no value in "owning" stuff to me. By the time I get around to wanting to reuse it, either technology has moved on, the media has been rereleased in a better format, or I can still use a digital copy I made of the physical media 10+ years ago. Owning an actual physical disc is useless to me. Last physical pc game I bought was Starcraft 2, and I can't use it because I have no disc drive in my desktop pc or either of my two laptops. I haven't bought a single Xbox one game in physical format. Ive bought one switch game physically (because I was traveling at the time and wanted to play Skyrim on the trip back home) and it hasn't left the console since it came out, but I would be equally happy with a digital version if I had had the means to download it at the time. "Owning" a physical form of media is of no value to me anymore. It's way easier just having digital copies/licenses. If a server goes offline and I can't download it anymore, there's a million other things to entertain myself with that I won't even notice it.

 

[never]

Physical games take up space and when you talk about games you've acquired over decades of your life, they take up a ton of space. Having physical copies serves no purpose for me personally. Digital is so much easier and 99% of games I've ever owned never got replayed after their first play through, so if at some point 8 years in the future some of these digital games stop working I probably don't care.

 

[Manmademan]

I mean, here's the thing: these kinds of hypotheticals are crazy and not realistic at all. It's like arguing you should keep your old VHS player and all your movies in a giant crate. In 30 years, the PS4 will undoubtedly have had its best titles be playable on future hardware. Not to mention its far more likely to have a hardware failure than for PSN to be shutdown anyway.

Click to shrink...

This is crazy. it's not even true RIGHT NOW. Are the best titles of the NES available on future hardware? (no)
Are the best titles of the SNES Available on future hardware (no)
Are the best titles of the PS1 Available on future hardware (still no)