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[Nydius]

I was thinking about switching to digital last night and switched on my Xbox for the first time in ages. I quickly realised what a mistake that was when I saw the prices of games on there…

Yep. The argument I’ve been using for the last few years has been Cyberpunk 2077. During the first year when the game was a mess, physical copies regularly could be found for $10-$15. Best Buy, at times, had it down as low as $5 just to get rid of them.

The cheapest I’ve ever seen it on the Xbox or PlayStation digital storefronts has been $24.99.

Digital only futures on consoles is a ripoff until there are multiple available storefronts for pricing competition.

 

[Papa_Wisdom]

Yep. The argument I’ve been using for the last few years has been Cyberpunk 2077. During the first year when the game was a mess, physical copies regularly could be found for $10-$15. Best Buy, at times, had it down as low as $5 just to get rid of them.

The cheapest I’ve ever seen it on the Xbox or PlayStation digital storefronts has been $24.99.

Digital only futures on consoles is a ripoff until there are multiple available storefronts for pricing competition.

Same for ms flight simulator, it’s so expensive. Never really it seen it come down in price digitally.

I think that’s what ms are planning if they go full digital, either subscribe to gp and get it all for a monthly price or be prepared to buy our game’s for a high price.

I’m not saying fs doesn’t deserve the price it’s set at but again if you can get it cheaper physically it makes more sense, and it will hold its value more as the digital version is still expensive.

As I’ve said previously though I’m not prepared to pay over £20 for a digital game so if it never hits that price I simply won’t buy it. There’s plenty of other stuff out there instead.

 

[Klayzer]

In his fairytale world.

 

[jroc74]

Series S, GP, Quick Resume, Cloud.

They won people over with incentives, and then followed the market this time after consumers reacted.

Glad you lead this off with Series S.

Because you cant use physical games on the Series S.

MS focused like hell on the Series S for consumers from day one. XSX focus was in data centers.

Seems like it was all part of MS's plan...



And to think some were upset because it was hard as hell to find a PS5 DE. Sony's focus was on the disc version.

Please.

 

[Alan Wake]

I haven't bought a physical Xbox game is many years. Well before game pass was introduced. I don't think GP killed it... People just finally getting used to the idea of digital media on a larger scale thanks to movie and music streaming apps. I have a big wall of physical Blu-ray movies and never touch them anymore, to be honest I wish I never bought any of them I can just stream them all now. Same with games really. After a while you realize it is all just taking up a lot of unnecessary space.

This is something I personally will never understand. Or, I understand but I think of it differently. I want to have access to my movies and games whenever I want to watch/play them. Streaming services are unreliable in this regard. They choose what I can access and when. I like Game Pass and Netflix, but I would never want those services to be my only option. I've actually started buying more Blu-rays again after scaling down for a few years. And when Xbox move away from physical media I'll migrate to PlayStation and buy my games there. As long as I possibly can.

 

[TGO]

MS likes that 10%

 

[FeralEcho]

It's a pretty easy thing to understand though. I'm afraid to explain it though since it triggers people so hard. It's really just looking at the broader trends across every entertainment medium, and the incentives for the platform holders and their income, and then making a guess. You could also throw in some historical precedent of platform holders following one after the other (paid online, gaming subs, price increase to $70).

Some more precedents:

"Xbox always online,
Xbox tv tv tv,
No used games,
PS3 599$,
Motion controls are replacing regular controllers"
Project Natal is the future

...oh wait those all failed...and most were also started by Xbox...how peculiar, It's almost as if you can't predict wtf will be a success and what an utter failure when it comes to their initiatives and that quoting their successful ones as an example for a good precedent is like tossing a coin and waiting to see where it falls on.

 

[FeralEcho]

This is something I personally will never understand. Or, I understand but I think of it differently. I want to have access to my movies and games whenever I want to watch/play them. Streaming services are unreliable in this regard. They choose what I can access and when. I like Game Pass and Netflix, but I would never want those services to be my only option. I've actually started buying more Blu-rays again after scaling down for a few years. And when Xbox move away from physical media I'll migrate to PlayStation and buy my games there. As long as I possibly can.

I actually stopped subbing to gamepass last year and started building my library on Xbox as it was the only one reliant on a sub as for the other 2(PS5 and Switch) i just buy games naturally.

The only ones I can see clamouring for subscriptions as the future are the fake "modern" gamers who think playing 1 hour a day after coming home from work lumps them in with the rest of us as a community.No Frank,playing Fortnite with little Timmy and knowing Kratos is the name of the "guy" from God of War doesn't make you a gamer....

 

[Papa_Wisdom]

I actually stopped subbing to gamepass last year and started building my library on Xbox as it was the only one reliant on a sub as for the other 2(PS5 and Switch) i just buy games naturally.

The only ones I can see clamouring for subscriptions as the future are the fake "modern" gamers who think playing 1 hour a day after coming home from work lumps them in with the rest of us as a community.No Frank,playing Fortnite with little Timmy and knowing Kratos is the name of the "guy" from God of War doesn't make you a gamer....

#NOTMYNERD

 

[OuterLimits]

I could see next gen sony still pushing the physical media mantra as they did with the ps4 how "sony supports used games, sonny supports no daily check ins, sony supports you owning your copy"

They could legit do the SAME speech to glorious applause again because they will be the alternative to what MS is doing and though people are purchasing more digital media, the option for physical is there

I'm still impressed by Sony during that E3. Mere minutes after Sony was waving around physical copies, it was announced Sony was ditching free online that existed during the entire PS3 generation and most Sony fans didn't give a shit. Genius move by Sony.

Physical sales of games are going to be less a factor with each passing year. It is already dead on Xbox. On PlayStation the trend is a slow death spiral that could still take some years but is inevitable. Nintendo will probably last the longest by far since the Japanese domestic market still strongly supports physical.(and international markets to a lesser degree)

 

[Negotiator101]

In this day and age only collectors want the physical media, most people don't want all that clutter in their homes (I certainly don't). I have a dozen 4k bluray and they are years old anyway and no game's. One of our friends has a huge DVD collection in his house and it looks awful but he loves it

 

[Alan Wake]

In this day and age only collectors want the physical media, most people don't want all that clutter in their homes (I certainly don't). I have a dozen 4k bluray and they are years old anyway and no game's. One of our friends has a huge DVD collection in his house and it looks awful but he loves it

Sure, collector's want it. But I believe a lot of people will miss physical media when it's gone and when movies and shows are tied to very few mega corporations that decide what we can watch and when. I have movies and games on disc I can enjoy whenever I want, and I don't consider myself a movie collector at all.

 

[Negotiator101]

Sure, collector's want it. But I believe a lot of people will miss physical media when it's gone and when movies and shows are tied to very few mega corporations that decide what we can watch and when. I have movies and games on disc I can enjoy whenever I want, and I don't consider myself a movie collector at all.

Absolutely and I respect that opinion, I'm just not bothered with physical media anymore but I understand why people don't want it to go.