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[Dr. Claus]

Digital is much better, and convenient.

Physical media would be better, if you ignore the 90% of its problem.

1: scratch disc. N1 enemy of your disc.
2: disc breaking down.
3:limited disc production
4: you are only allowed to get what the company produces
5: you have to be lucky, there is store close to you, which sells these disc's.
6: there are no disc for MP, f2p, BR, indie games
7: your disc containes un patched game.
8: good luck getting dlc for your disc.
9: disc distribution have to available in your area.
10: space

These are my issues with physical games. While I have an issues with digital games, such as market shutdown, games being pulled, server crash, its still much better than physical games. All you have to worry is your internet and storage. No more disc scratches or being broken, which stops your game. Turn on your device, connect to the internet, and you are good to go.

I can't tell if you are a parody account or you are being genuine. If the former, hilarious. If the latter, I weep for you.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

I keep saying that but people don't get it.
Digital = No ownership, corporate will control YOUR things.

And I only get:
"It's [ insert_year ] old man !"
"Physical ? BWAHAHAHAHA"
"It's not never gonna happen, why they would censorship ! Impossible !"
and so on...

Ok people, do what you think it's best for you...

*edit* recent example: SuperHot VR decided suddenly that "suicide in a game is bad"
Digital: update removed section, no choice
Physical: section is present forever, fucks snowflakes

It begins like that.

I can't tell if you are a parody account or you are being genuine. If the former, hilarious. If the latter, I weep for you.

I vote for the former, looks like a luxury troll post.

 

[Three]

After witnessing the uptake of social media censorship in the last few years, I have become more aware of the negative impact of censorship and how it affects me. If you disagree with the negative impact of censorship, then stop reading this thread, you’ll always be happy.

In the linked tweet, Kojima is describing a future in which digital content is censored retroactively to fit the ideals of the predominant culture forces of the future, and this concept made me very afraid.

In the past decade, I’ve preferred digital over physical due to the many benefits that digital formats offer over physical, however, retroactive censorship had never been a consideration in this argument up until today. All of the digital content I “own“ is tied to publishers that again and again have caved to the demands of the dominant cultural voices in pursuit of bigger profits.

While nothing that these publishers have done so far really bothers me (I actually embrace some of this change), due to the evolution of society, the time will come when these publishers and I disagree at a fundamental level.

Obviously, if this scenario occurs, I can opt to not to consume future digital content, but what if the option to consume the digital content I enjoy, the classics of today, is suddenly taken away? What if every digital copy of Halo is suddenly modified to use call the main character “Prime Officer”?

What do you think GAF?

I see where your concern comes from but if this were to happen my games are the last thing I would be worried about.

 

[Rikkori]

So when's he pledging not to launch his games with DRM? Oh right, he's just another hypocritical piece of shit who likes to bullshit on twitter.

 

[JCK75]

It does nothing to change my love of digital distribution it only strengthens my resolve that government should be limited as much as humanly possible.

 

[Irobot82]

Luckily on PC we have a decentralized platform to "re-acquire" games, books, magazines, cd, movies, etc.

 

[Matt_Fox]

It also goes both ways.

Mods change things in games - and the original creator of the game is locked out of that creative decision.

If games should be 'set in stone' and unchangeable is a moral argument then where do you stand on mods.

 

[Fredrik]

I stopped buying physical games and went 100% digital once I realized that I had to install them and they all needed patches.
The harsh reality is that the only way we’ll be able to play the complete and not broken versions in the future is through piracy. They’ll be gone from official servers eventually.

 

[BabyfaceRe]

If the game requires an online connection to play (which is becoming more and more of a thing) owning the physical or digital edition isn't going to make the slightest difference with regards to censorship through updates. Your only option would be to just not update the game. But considering how common it is for games to be released in a broken state that's a risky proposition.

Fucked if you, Fucked if you dont.

 

[elliot5]

I still don't care. If my government is blocking digital downloads or some war breaks out shutting out some companies from uploading data to share I think there are more things to worry about than my digital entitlements

 

[PropellerEar]

I always try to buy physical.
Usually cheaper, and actually is something I own and can trade or gift.

 

[funking giblet]

Make game require day 1 patch in order to play, bam, Physical dead.

 

[MrFunSocks]

Your physical copies of games will likely stop working long before being all digital is a problem.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

That's the importance of the cracking scene, the development of emulators and all the people that work to preserving the gaming history. It's almost inevitable that one day we lose some or all our games for some arbitrary reason.

The fact that today I can enjoy the games that I played during my childhood in such convenient form is nothing short of a miracle. I think that as long internet remains open and people continue to put effort in preserving ours games, I'll be ok. It's not ideal, but I can live with it.

 

[Umbasaborne]

“Konami releases a patch for mgs v that replaces quiets outfit with a puritan style gown that covers her legs, wrists, and neck”

 

[Fredrik]

That's the importance of the cracking scene, the development of emulators and all the people that work to preserving the gaming history. It's almost inevitable that one day we lose some or all our games for some arbitrary reason.

The fact that today I can enjoy the games that I played during my childhood in such convenient form is nothing short of a miracle. I think that as long internet remains open and people continue to put effort in preserving ours games, I'll be ok. It's not ideal, but I can live with it.

Yeah I’ve even ripped my own crappy games I made in my youth and music/sound/graphics floppies. Piracy is bad but through that comes very functional ripping gear that wouldn’t otherwise exist.

 

[ReBurn]

You're just one stability update away from losing the ability to play your physical games offline. You don't own whats on that disc and you never have. But enjoy the illusion of control I guess.

 

[Roman Empire]

Yes, I regret not buying the physical version of a series I liked, more like loved. But as of that time, the series had a digital sale, and I always thought I could buy it at a later date. Low and behold a few weeks ago, I can't find any printed versions of volumes past the 5th till 10th volume, plus volume 1 sky-rocketed in price from U$10-15 to U$200+.

Fuck it, I won't repeat the same mistake again, so I already ordered the volumes 1 to 8 from another beloved series.

 

[Guilty_AI]

"Erasing the past" also exists with physical media (Anyone up to burning some books?).

In the same way, its also possible to preserve digital media (even easier than it is with physical imo) and avoid censorship in the form of piracy, or simply keeping local copy of something you like when it allows you to .
People mentioned superhot removing self-harm, there are also other examples like GTA removing music tracks from the game. What do you do to play the non-botched version of these games? You pirate them, download their previous version. Sometimes its even possible to do that within the store ecosystem.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

Yeah I’ve even ripped my own crappy games I made in my youth and music/sound/graphics floppies. Piracy is bad but through that comes very functional ripping gear that wouldn’t otherwise exist.

I don't like piracy either, but DRMs need to be cracked to give us a way to ensure that the game we bought could be enjoyed as long as we have the backup.

 

[Impotaku]

Been primarily a nintendo gamer first this issue is less of a problem, physical over digital every time.

 

[Denton]

You can still own digital. If you buy on GOG and make your own backup copies.

Other than that you are fucked yes

 

[ethomaz]

What do you think happens when you put a physical copy of Death Stranding in a PS4?

It downloads a digital copy of the game to your console. You're not playing it off the disk.

Since the PS4/Xbox came out, physical collecting is nothing more than a bunch of plastic keys on a shelf. Nothing wrong with that by the way, as it is nice to look at for some people and brings back memories of games played.

But it holds very little value as a means of 'preservation'.

That is not true.
That is probably how Xbox works.

On PS4 Death Stranding will be copied from the disc to the HDD without any interaction with the digital side.
It will only use the internet to download the patches.

Most games works on PS4 from the disc without need any patch.

Still in the Death Stranding case, what will we lose without the day one patch? Well in this case just performance improvements because the game was already fully playable from the disc.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

You'll always be a have-not if you cling to consumer goods anything.

Fixed it for the path to enlightenment.

 

[Excess]

You don't "own" your house. The bank does.

You don't "own" your car. The bank does.

This is like fighting entropy.

 

[Jadsey]

It installs the data on the disc and searches for the latest patch?

To the many people who replied...I stand corrected.

My understanding was always that a small portion of the game files is on the disk and that the rest was downloaded.

Certainly when I have put disk in my consoles, the file size you download always seems to be a full game, not just patches?

I take back everything I said if you can play the full game unhindered from the disk.

 

[Jadsey]

You don't "own" your house. The bank does.

You don't "own" your car. The bank does.

This is like fighting entropy.

Errr...I fully own two houses and two cars with my wife.

 

[Dust-by-Monday]

You don't "own" your house. The bank does.

You don't "own" your car. The bank does.

This is like fighting entropy.

The bank does not own my car. It's mine.

Also, video games aren't as expensive as a car or a home.

 

[nightmare-slain]

digital all the way. fuck kojima.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Errr...I fully own two houses and two cars with my wife.

As long as your property taxes are paid you get the ability to stay there in that house (at least here in the US that is how it works).

I usually double dip if the title is available physically.
I buy digital for ease of current access and I buy physical as a backup/because something has to decorate my house.

Of course this is only for consoles. PC games have been digital only (outside of a few exceptions) for years at this point.

 

[th4tguy]

I feel like the physical vs digital argument is made pointless with each new gen. Physical media games are never complete, almost always requiring some form of day 1 patch to work properly, still locked into some form of online drm, and license wise, share much with digital in terms of ownership.
Your physical media is just as much on "loan" as the digital media is and it's been shown how easily you can be locked out of playing physical games after servers go down, even with PS4/Xbone.

Even with older games, you face component/ physical failure.

The ONLY SOLUTION to actual preservation of our games is actually digital in the form of mass digital replication of ripped content.

So buy whatever makes you happy or whatever is most convenient because if it ever comes down to it, both mediums, through the proper channels, have a life expectancy and they will expire eventually.

 

[Valonquar]

Except every major title seems to get a huge day 1 patch to fix flaws in the game, plus months of DLC dripfeed.

 

[Housh]

I remember reading this argument in Windows magazine in the early 90s. Personally, I like owning physical copies cause I just like having physical objects on my shelf. I almost value the products more but that's just from my experience and generation I guess. I worked at a video rental store throughout my youth so there is a lot of affect tied to physical media.

I also started to collect 4k UHD movies since I got PS5 lol

 

[Rippa]

I tend to agree with Kojima-San.

I do double dip on digital versions of games I love when they’re on the cheap. Call that laziness on my part for not wanting to get up and insert disc.

For the most part though, I buy physical only the games I know that I’ll have multiple play through and love. Digital for every other game I’d like to try and only when they’re on the cheap.

I never buy full priced digital games.

 

[WitchHunter]

Book or PDF?

Harder to eavesdrop a book .

 

[HTK]

Some folks simply need to get over the fact that things...life...nothing is permanent. What matters to me the most is enjoying things in the moment of it's prime.

 

[Excess]

Errr...I fully own two houses and two cars with my wife.

Congrats, you're the exception.

Just remember to pay those property taxes.

 

[Kenpachii]

After witnessing the uptake of social media censorship in the last few years, I have become more aware of the negative impact of censorship and how it affects me. If you disagree with the negative impact of censorship, then stop reading this thread, you’ll always be happy.

In the linked tweet, Kojima is describing a future in which digital content is censored retroactively to fit the ideals of the predominant culture forces of the future, and this concept made me very afraid.

In the past decade, I’ve preferred digital over physical due to the many benefits that digital formats offer over physical, however, retroactive censorship had never been a consideration in this argument up until today. All of the digital content I “own“ is tied to publishers that again and again have caved to the demands of the dominant cultural voices in pursuit of bigger profits.

While nothing that these publishers have done so far really bothers me (I actually embrace some of this change), due to the evolution of society, the time will come when these publishers and I disagree at a fundamental level.

Obviously, if this scenario occurs, I can opt to not to consume future digital content, but what if the option to consume the digital content I enjoy, the classics of today, is suddenly taken away? What if every digital copy of Halo is suddenly modified to use call the main character “Prime Officer”?

What do you think GAF?

Dude sounds like steam users back in the day when steam came out.

Now ask a steam user if they are worried there 20 year old game isn't going to run tommorow anymore. Zero fucks where given.

 

[zcaa0g]

Why I got disc versions of consoles.

While I am playing the game, you're still getting a disk out of whatever container you are storing it in oh primitive one.

As far as the future, it's all speculation and the way the world is headed, we got bigger problems we will be contending with.

 

[ninjaurbano]

Nope. Buy Digital. Get a clean iso from any jack sparrow site. Use it to reduce steam or other game store download time. Keep crack for the day anybody tries to retroactively affect your purchase. You can burn clean iso of definitive edition to any physical media anytime. Buying physical gives you nothing because you still need to get all the updates, some very crucial for game to be in functional status.

You are right. DRM-Free (or cracked) PC games is the only true form of preservation.

Unpatched physical media, subject to degradation, is not reliable.

There are reports of Xbox One discs with rot.

 

[Portugeezer]

 

[Serge85]

I don't buy anything digital. (there are exceptions of course, but I try my best to buy phisical things that I want to consume)

 

[Dr Bass]

Congrats, you're the exception.

Just remember to pay those property taxes.

Is this supposed to be some sort of "gotcha" directed at the person who has a mortgage? If you can afford a house, property taxes are generally not a big deal, and if they are you obviously bought too much house. The benefits of owning a house far outweigh small things like property taxes.

Also your comment is kind of wrong, plenty of people own their houses outright.

How Many Homeowners Have Paid Off Their Mortgages?

Dear Mona, It seems like homeownership is a common data filter in the social sciences. But nearly everyone I know who “owns a home” is paying a mortgage. How ma…

fivethirtyeight.com

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

So when's he pledging not to launch his games with DRM? Oh right, he's just another hypocritical piece of shit who likes to bullshit on twitter.

Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.

 

[kingkaiser]

The all-digital future is a wet dream come true for any authoritarian government.
Just you wait when it comes to this:
Me: “Alexa, what was that favorite comic of mine again when I was young?”
ALEXA: “I am sorry, Dave, but I can’t let you know this”
Me:” Wha, why? It’s not Japanese Porn or anything. It was about a bear who really loved them honey pots…”
ALEXA: “Dave, I just got this very important information for you…
Please report to your local re-education center tomorrow at 8 o’clock. Greeting from your government. We love you”.
Me: ”Oh shit, not again”.

 

[Excess]

If you can afford a house, property taxes are generally not a big deal, and if they are you obviously bought too much house. The benefits of owning a house far outweigh small things like property taxes.

The assumption is that you always owe, regardless of how much. You can assign any intrinsic value over time to any object.

Also your comment is kind of wrong, plenty of people own their houses outright.

How Many Homeowners Have Paid Off Their Mortgages?

Dear Mona, It seems like homeownership is a common data filter in the social sciences. But nearly everyone I know who “owns a home” is paying a mortgage. How ma…

fivethirtyeight.com

Home ownership is on the decline with each successive generation. At age 30, only 42% of millennials own homes, in comparison to the 48% and 51% of generation X and baby boomers, respectively. It may even be worse than that, though. US Census Bureau puts it at 37% for 35 years olds.

The point is that the idea of "owning" things is becoming successively more difficult for other reasons that are far beyond either you or anyone else's control.

 

[Naked Lunch]

For non-Nintendo consoles, physical games stopped mattering in the 360/PS3 era.
Every physical game you buy now just downloads it from the internet.
I truly do not understand the modern gaming physical media diehards because of this.
The digital age started a long time ago.

In the end it also doesn't matter because everything will be emulated eventually - if you want to play something/anything in the future you will be able.

 

[Aenima]

This is what ppl that buy physical has veen saying for years.

Reason why i buy all games, movies, music i care about in Physical format, and anything else i just wanna try, buy digital during promos. If one day i lose my gaming account, is not something i will care too much about it.

 

[Aenima]

For non-Nintendo consoles, physical games stopped mattering in the 360/PS3 era.
Every physical game you buy now just downloads it from the internet.
I truly do not understand the modern gaming physical media diehards because of this.
The digital age started a long time ago.

In the end it also doesn't matter because everything will be emulated eventually - if you want to play something/anything in the future you will be able.

This is false. All my PS4 physical games install from the blu-ray to the console harddrive. Not from the internet.

 

[rofif]

I have offline patches for all my 360 games.
Not for PS4 games but the discs work on PS5 so far.

Hell, in 50 years I can play unpatched have vs no game