Is Physical Soon to be dead?

Mark1989 said:
So I was wondering this myself today, for pc gamers physical media died yonks ago

Consol is however still holding on. I own a PS5 disc edition and a Series S

However I was looking at some physical games today last of us part 2, new prince of Persia and there was a few quid a difference between both.

Went into a few shops Astro Bot was nowhere but shelf prices was £5 less than buying it from PS

Anyway long story short it made me think do I need to say bye to media now and just get over it and accept this physical media life is gone like we did on PC long ago.

I also cannot shake the feeling when it comes to PlayStation 6 and Xbox whatever dumb name they give it will NOT give us a physical option. Am I the only one who thinks this?

I think PS5 Pro is testing the water on this even with its high price. New Series X will have a digital version too again I think this is Microsoft taking a punt to see who picks up what.

A guy I work with is very much physical only so much so he has said if new gen is a digital era he is done. He is a massive physical collector so maybe not best example but if many took this view doesn’t help the future of gaming imo
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i think so..... much like high street shops soon all games will be online only.

it sucks, i fought the tide for years always buying pc media rather than digital when i could.... the thing is, it makes no difference anyway, other than adding more plastic tat into the world, they can still turn your game off on a whim.

its a damn shame this is the way of it..... at least with steam, Valve - for now at least - have generally made sure we do not lose access to our titles.

but looking at how the console manufacturers have treated their store fronts i have zero faith in the longevity of their platforms.
 
I would like consoles to go the opposite way, back to how they were.
Buy a game disc or cartridge, plug it in and play it.

Ditch everything else about the console. Make it like the PS1 or N64 where you put the game in for it to work and all it does is play that game.
It might need some onboard storage because devs can't release bug-free games anymore, so allowing for patches to be downloaded may need to be a consideration. But otherwise simply plug & play.
 
theone8181 said:
I can just see digital stores charging full price all the time as there would be no incentive to discount.
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To be fair we see that now with Nintendo first party games that have always maintained their prices and they are much more resilient on physical games. Ultimately publishers still need to do promotions and sales to move games, even if it's slightly different in the digital marketplaces. However deals at launch get far harder unless the game bombs of course.

no_1_dave said:
I would like consoles to go the opposite way, back to how they were....
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Evercade springs to mind. I think that cartridges, or physical only systems will be the preserve or retro devices like that.
 
After playing through Astrobot in a couple of days to 100% completion I will be remaining physical for as long as possible. Got the majority of my money back trading it in and from what I can see there's little replay to it so would have been sat in my catalogue unused digitally.
 
To all the comments on publishers wanting physical to go away, surely the obvious answer to that is to make digital games cost LESS than physical media to lure people over to it. Then ramp it up in the future once the physical option has been removed. The fact that's not the case suggests there's still a lot of desire to keep the physical side of it, presumably because you still need the likes of GAME being store fronted advertisements for the consoles/games.

It'll be interesting to see whether those stores will still exist in the future with Digital Download Cards on shelves instead of physical media.
 
Martynt74 said:
To all the comments on publishers wanting physical to go away, surely the obvious answer to that is to make digital games cost LESS than physical media to lure people over to it. Then ramp it up in the future once the physical option has been removed. The fact that's not the case suggests there's still a lot of desire to keep the physical side of it, presumably because you still need the likes of GAME being store fronted advertisements for the consoles/games.

It'll be interesting to see whether those stores will still exist in the future with Digital Download Cards on shelves instead of physical media.
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GAME is barely bothering with games anymore. They dropped their 2nd hand and trading policy.

You go into their store and first thing you see are Funko Pops, etc. The games are right at the back. Even then you still need to get through the Sports Direct store to find GAME.
 
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no_1_dave said:
I would like consoles to go the opposite way, back to how they were.
Buy a game disc or cartridge, plug it in and play it.

Ditch everything else about the console. Make it like the PS1 or N64 where you put the game in for it to work and all it does is play that game.
It might need some onboard storage because devs can't release bug-free games anymore, so allowing for patches to be downloaded may need to be a consideration. But otherwise simply plug & play.
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BD read speeds aren't nearly fast enough to run games from and cartridges (which would effectively have to be SSDs for performance reasons) would be prohibitively expensive and massively increase distribution costs.

Martynt74 said:
To all the comments on publishers wanting physical to go away, surely the obvious answer to that is to make digital games cost LESS than physical media to lure people over to it. Then ramp it up in the future once the physical option has been removed.
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They don't appear to need to, the shift to digital is happening regardless of pricing; 75% of games sold in August were digital.
 
TheVoice said:
They don't appear to need to, the shift to digital is happening regardless of pricing; 75% of games sold in August were digital.
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True, but that also points to the fact it's actually the market pushing the shift, as opposed to the comments above trying to suggest it's being pushed down by publishers/Microsoft etc against the will of the consumer.

I only really wanted a disc version to play some old music dvds, have no interest in buying physical games, as mentioned above. It's just so convenient, even ignoring the GamePass element.
 
As much as I would rather have physical copies, all my purchases over the last few years have been digital. I hardly ever pre-order games so I found it much more convenient buying them online and playing within minutes rather then ordering online and waiting for delivery or going out to pick it up. Plus I have been streaming games more from my consoles of late and with physical games I know I am lazy enough not to play a game if I had to go to the console and put in the disc :D.
 
it could be going that way but we will lose out in the long run, there will be no competition from people buying second hand so they can charge what they want.
in fact it makes me laugh now when i see a digital version of the game at higher prices than the physical edition.
it's much more convenient to have digital but they'll have us by the short and curlies with pricing
 
Mark1989 said:
So I was wondering this myself today, for pc gamers physical media died yonks ago

Consol is however still holding on. I own a PS5 disc edition and a Series S

However I was looking at some physical games today last of us part 2, new prince of Persia and there was a few quid a difference between both.

Went into a few shops Astro Bot was nowhere but shelf prices was £5 less than buying it from PS

Anyway long story short it made me think do I need to say bye to media now and just get over it and accept this physical media life is gone like we did on PC long ago.

I also cannot shake the feeling when it comes to PlayStation 6 and Xbox whatever dumb name they give it will NOT give us a physical option. Am I the only one who thinks this?

I think PS5 Pro is testing the water on this even with its high price. New Series X will have a digital version too again I think this is Microsoft taking a punt to see who picks up what.

A guy I work with is very much physical only so much so he has said if new gen is a digital era he is done. He is a massive physical collector so maybe not best example but if many took this view doesn’t help the future of gaming imo
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Physical media will continue for quite some time,but it will be slowly phased out by design. Think of Blade Runner or something. Physical games will be museum pieces in the far future.
 
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kidkhaos said:
As much as I would rather have physical copies, all my purchases over the last few years have been digital. I hardly ever pre-order games so I found it much more convenient buying them online and playing within minutes rather then ordering online and waiting for delivery or going out to pick it up. Plus I have been streaming games more from my consoles of late and with physical games I know I am lazy enough not to play a game if I had to go to the console and put in the disc :D.
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I am the same. I went through a period of ordering both physical (as I am/was a collector) and the digital as I couldn't face not having the game on day of release!
 
I really enjoy buying physical for Switch and PS5. I think it mainly comes down to owning the box.

I’ve build up a nice little Switch collection over the years that I like having displayed in my office. But then I’m a sucker for collectors editions with items I never open, and art books or big rpg guide books that I never read. I just like owning them.

Doesn’t help that my dl speed is still stuck at 32mbps and having an urge to play anything on a whim that isn’t already on installed on my consoles/pc is null and void. Maybe I’ll swing more digital when the benefits of impulse buying and instant gratification really pay off. But I still think I’ll value putting that box on my shelf over most things.

I really regret trading in my older gen consoles and games now. I’d much prefer to have them stored away in the loft.
 
Kenjiin said:
I really regret trading in my older gen consoles and games now. I’d much prefer to have them stored away in the loft.
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yeah, i did that with all my old consoles and games. everything got sold and i went through phases of regretting it. now i'm glad i sold them as they would literally be sitting in the loft. you really need somewhere to show them off otherwise not much point.
all i have currently is my xbox one (in the loft :o ) and my switch, and like you i like to have a little collection of boxes. and the fact i'll be able to sell the games on if i decide to get rid of it all
physical is in the hands of the companies though, they'll just decide to have digital only consoles one day and that'll be that.
 
CircleFaust said:
yeah, i did that with all my old consoles and games. everything got sold and i went through phases of regretting it. now i'm glad i sold them as they would literally be sitting in the loft. you really need somewhere to show them off otherwise not much point.
all i have currently is my xbox one (in the loft :o ) and my switch, and like you i like to have a little collection of boxes. and the fact i'll be able to sell the games on if i decide to get rid of it all
physical is in the hands of the companies though, they'll just decide to have digital only consoles one day and that'll be that.
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Very true! I don't need everything, but I enjoy keeping a systems 'classics' boxed and thrown in the loft somewhere. I have copies of my FFXI on 360 that I put WAY too much time into, but I enjoy knowing that its the exact copy I used almost 20 years ago.

I went through that phase I think a lot of us go through when we're 16/17 and obsessed with new releases, always trading in our old stuff for the new just because we had no money. In my head, it will be fun to go through physical copies of PS3/4/Switch games with grandkids down the line whilst they sit there confused as to why on earth you have to put a disc into a box to make the game boot up, whilst they ask what 'loading' means :cry:

EDIT: Also my Vita! I have no idea what I traded that thing in for now, but I wish I'd kept it. It was the nice OLED model. I'd value having that tucked away on my gaming shelves than whatever throw away titles I picked up in return lol
 
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