The Days Of Owning Games Are Coming To An End

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How many times have we heard this argument in the last decade? I'd say at least once or twice a year, yet physical game sales are still the most popular way of buying games. Are the days of owning games really "coming to an end?"

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: If you're paying for a digital product, only spend what you're ultimately comfortable losing. If you can't put it in a closet, don't fool yourself into thinking you can always have it. Even if you can put it in the closet, you may not always have it. I'm pretty sure I have a boxed copy of The Matrix Online somewhere in my office.
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Physical sales are still the most popular way of buying games? I find that a little hard to believe, at least for PC games.
 
EA leaves out the fact that most of their games are "subscription only" anyway no matter how you get them. In a few years the auth servers will be powered off, and your DVD copy of the game is nothing more than a drink coaster.
 
you don't own games, you license them. It doesn't matter if its physical media or download
 
A disc is still the way the consoles do things, correct?
Honestly I haven't purchased a game for my aging Xbox 360 in a couple of years.

I agree somewhat with what this guy says.....if the game publisher stops supporting an on-line game........party over.

What about single player games? Most have off-line modes, right.
This would negate that thought process.
 
Skripka said:
EA leaves out the fact that most of their games are "subscription only" anyway no matter how you get them. In a few years the auth servers will be powered off, and your DVD copy of the game is nothing more than a drink coaster.
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THIS, that is exactly truth.. if you cant validate & run= same as not ever owning... its just a download that is shipped.. I had some PC games that this happened to.. sure I could check for a crack, but I didn't bother and just donate.
 
PC has been digital ever since steam got popular with halflife 2 around 2003-2004. After that years later origin came around. Just watch all those games on steam will sooner or later not work. Watch some day we will have to pay for some type of upgrade or "fix" to make the copy you currently have work with newer operating systems. Age of empires anyone ;)
 
magoo said:
A disc is still the way the consoles do things, correct?
Honestly I haven't purchased a game for my aging Xbox 360 in a couple of years.

I agree somewhat with what this guy says.....if the game publisher stops supporting an on-line game........party over.

What about single player games? Most have off-line modes, right.
This would negate that thought process.
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On the current console generation, discs are only for installing to the console and act as DRM (need the disc inserted to play the game). But games are no longer run directly from the disc as they have been in the past. The digital download option for retail games has been a part of consoles since about half way through the last generation, if I'm not mistaken.
 
Uvaman said:
THIS, that is exactly truth.. if you cant validate & run= same as not ever owning... its just a download that is shipped.. I had some PC games that this happened to.. sure I could check for a crack, but I didn't bother and just donate.
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That was one of my major complaints about Simcity. For the single player game, you had to validate with EA servers. They got rid of that and there is an offline mode, but they originally claimed it couldn't be done, it was using the power of the cloud, blah blah. I'm sure more companies will try that crap, too.
 
Ur_Mom said:
That was one of my major complaints about Simcity. For the single player game, you had to validate with EA servers. They got rid of that and there is an offline mode, but they originally claimed it couldn't be done, it was using the power of the cloud, blah blah. I'm sure more companies will try that crap, too.
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Well be grateful.

Without all the recent botched releases from EA of AAA titles...the rest of the industry couldn't learn from the release f-ups of SimShitty, DA2, SWTOR...
 
This is why I try to avoid even good services like Steam.

I could probably just play PS2 games for the rest of my life and not run out, so whatever. If publishers/developers want my money, they will give me a physical product (otherwise I only buy stuff on Steam when it's super cheap).
 
Another reason why I don't game anymore. Can't even resell/donate working games like physical discs (The Orange Box, WoW, etc.).
 
SRTie4k said:
Physical sales are still the most popular way of buying games? I find that a little hard to believe, at least for PC games.
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You are right...when it comes to PC games, but the article is about EA's new service for Xbox One consoles.
 
Although this will be a paradigm shift for the console crowd, the PC crowd made this transition a long time ago ... for the most part I don't think this is any more significant than the shift of music to digital ... most games will not have authentication that requires offline servers and for high profile games there will still be a physical option (although it is likely to be like with record albums where it will be targeted at the collector crowd)
 
dandragonrage said:
This is why I try to avoid even good services like Steam.

I could probably just play PS2 games for the rest of my life and not run out, so whatever. If publishers/developers want my money, they will give me a physical product (otherwise I only buy stuff on Steam when it's super cheap).
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Obviously it's your right to approach it the way you choose, but even if current games are temporary and we can't "own" them, is that a good enough reason not to play them? Do some people get so attached to a game that having it shut down is a trauma they can't risk experiencing? (So they decide to "never love again" - seriously?)

95% of my gaming time is spent in an MMO that will - one day - be shut down. It might be 10 years from now, but it will happen. Still, there are always new games coming out and new titles to look forward to. My sense is that if that is the reason you don't want to participate, then maybe you're placing too much importance or too much value on a game - either as an entity or as a cultural experience that must always be available to re-experience or relay to others. I don't get that kind of "all or nothing" approach.
 
Stoly said:
you don't own games, you license them. It doesn't matter if its physical media or download
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While this is true, there is a loophole where if you own the physical media the game comes on then you are able to transfer the license, which is how people are allowed to sell used console games and music CD's.

Our internet infrastructure has advanced to the point where content providers can push digital games to most users without major issues, so sadly this is where everything is headed unless we have significant digital rights reforms.
 
Steve said:
You are right...when it comes to PC games, but the article is about EA's new service for Xbox One consoles.
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Your news article uses "Games" kind of generically, and your quote contains a reference to The Matrix Online, a PC only game. I think anybody would have assumed that you were not limiting the scope of this article to consoles.
 
DoubleTap said:
Obviously it's your right to approach it the way you choose, but even if current games are temporary and we can't "own" them, is that a good enough reason not to play them?
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That's an easy yes. Absolutely. There are TONS of games I can buy from publishers who do not try to limit my RIGHT to sell my things, including used games from years past that I have not yet played (or which I would replay).

I won't buy a product if I dislike either the product itself or if I dislike the company selling it. This is what capitalism requires to work properly. Stand up for your rights and vote with your wallet. I can and will go the rest of my life without buying a game from EA or Blizzard or whatever, and I will never regret it. I rarely sell my games and I'll still stand up for my right to do so. Though at least half of my physical game purchases are used.

Besides, indie games tend to be better than most commercial games these days, and at least many of them are available from DRM-free digital sources. Still sketchy to resell (since you won't find many people willing to pay you money for you to send them files, even if you really did delete them afterwards) but at least I don't have to worry about some company going out of business, shutting down their game service, and losing all the licenses. And these games are generally cheap, anyway.

Lots of you buy big games from companies like EA, but every single one of you could easily find great (probably even BETTER) games from better companies. But many of you just don't.
 
DoubleTap said:
Obviously it's your right to approach it the way you choose, but even if current games are temporary and we can't "own" them, is that a good enough reason not to play them? Do some people get so attached to a game that having it shut down is a trauma they can't risk experiencing? (So they decide to "never love again" - seriously?)

95% of my gaming time is spent in an MMO that will - one day - be shut down. It might be 10 years from now, but it will happen. Still, there are always new games coming out and new titles to look forward to. My sense is that if that is the reason you don't want to participate, then maybe you're placing too much importance or too much value on a game - either as an entity or as a cultural experience that must always be available to re-experience or relay to others. I don't get that kind of "all or nothing" approach.
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Bolded the part that hit me about a year ago. Waiting for the server to get shut down for City of Heroes, I thought about the thousands of hours I put into that game (and remembered I refused to look again after I hit 5K hours on one character with others approaching fast). It happens. I still haven't found another MMO that comes even close to the fun I had with that one over the years, but I still play tons of other games. I don't care if I "own" them right now or not. I can turn on Steam, click a link and play until I don't want to any longer and that's good enough for me.
 
I will never buy a single player game digitally, ever. Multiplayer, sure it is gonna require a connection anyhow. Single player games however, hell no.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
I will never buy a single player game digitally, ever. Multiplayer, sure it is gonna require a connection anyhow. Single player games however, hell no.
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I'll bet $1000 you won't be playing games past the next decade, then. Hope you have another hobby lined up.
 
SRTie4k said:
I'll bet $1000 you won't be playing games past the next decade, then. Hope you have another hobby lined up.
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Probably most of us do in fact have other hobbies, and in my case neither car manufacturers nor disc golf manufacturers are going to exploit technology to screw me out of my rights.

Some of them would probably use technology to do that if they could, but they can't, so it doesn't matter.

Just because the technical capability to do something exists doesn't mean it's an acceptable thing to do. Just because games can technically be distributed digitally doesn't mean they should be allowed to screw us out of our rights.
 
If Steam were to ever go belly up, we'd all be so screwed. :eek: That is one case where the physical media has an advantage over downloaded games. Hopefully, Steam will stay strong forever!
 
SRTie4k said:
I'll bet $1000 you won't be playing games past the next decade, then. Hope you have another hobby lined up.
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Plenty of multiplayer game's I like, while it while be disappointing to lose the single player experiences, it won't end my hobby. However I will continue to stick to my principles and see my previous post.
 
dandragonrage said:
That's an easy yes. Absolutely. There are TONS of games I can buy from publishers who do not try to limit my RIGHT to sell my things, including used games from years past that I have not yet played (or which I would replay).

I won't buy a product if I dislike either the product itself or if I dislike the company selling it. This is what capitalism requires to work properly. Stand up for your rights and vote with your wallet. I can and will go the rest of my life without buying a game from EA or Blizzard or whatever, and I will never regret it. I rarely sell my games and I'll still stand up for my right to do so. Though at least half of my physical game purchases are used.

Besides, indie games tend to be better than most commercial games these days, and at least many of them are available from DRM-free digital sources. Still sketchy to resell (since you won't find many people willing to pay you money for you to send them files, even if you really did delete them afterwards) but at least I don't have to worry about some company going out of business, shutting down their game service, and losing all the licenses. And these games are generally cheap, anyway.

Lots of you buy big games from companies like EA, but every single one of you could easily find great (probably even BETTER) games from better companies. But many of you just don't.
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I enjoy playing games in part to distract me from the real problems facing the world - but my "right" to resell a video game is not even on the first 10 pages of that list. I would never buy a game expecting any sort of resale value. To me, it's like a movie ticket - I pay the money and hope I like it, if not, I move on. I would not expect that 15 minutes into a movie, I decide I don't like it and then I can go stand on the sidewalk and get some residual value out of my ticket by selling the remaining time.

We all use our freedom in different ways, but I will never see the value in "voting with my wallet" by not buying a game I'm interested in just because I don't like the way it's delivered.

beowulf7 said:
If Steam were to ever go belly up, we'd all be so screwed. :eek: That is one case where the physical media has an advantage over downloaded games. Hopefully, Steam will stay strong forever!
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I have an obscene number of games in my Steam account but my whole point is that no, we will all not be so screwed if Steam were to cease operations. We would be disappointed, inconvenienced, annoyed, etc but of the hundreds of games I have, I can't think of any single game on there that I will be interested in playing in 2-3 years.

Most of the games would be replaceable, most of those you won't care about and Steam has said (I believe) that if they were going to shut down, they are able to make most of the games become stand alone.

I'm very susceptible to neurotic collecting and acquiring but I noticed that as I go through time, it's rare that more than 3 games occupy my attention at a time. I have a large number of games I played on my Commodore 64 available to play, right now, on my PC. Games I loved - games I spend months and years playing and replaying. I guess I sort of "own" those games and it's comforting to have that touchstone to the past, but I never play them and if I lost them, I'd hardly notice.

My main point is this - while I am a serious gamer who probably even had a problem with priorities from time to time, I don't ever want to be so in love with a game that I can't just let it go - that the idea that it may be temporary is so disturbing that I won't even chance a short term engagement. It's just a game, you shouldn't feel like you're risking your heart and soul.
 
DoubleTap said:
...

I have an obscene number of games in my Steam account but my whole point is that no, we will all not be so screwed if Steam were to cease operations. We would be disappointed, inconvenienced, annoyed, etc but of the hundreds of games I have, I can't think of any single game on there that I will be interested in playing in 2-3 years.

Most of the games would be replaceable, most of those you won't care about and Steam has said (I believe) that if they were going to shut down, they are able to make most of the games become stand alone.

I'm very susceptible to neurotic collecting and acquiring but I noticed that as I go through time, it's rare that more than 3 games occupy my attention at a time. I have a large number of games I played on my Commodore 64 available to play, right now, on my PC. Games I loved - games I spend months and years playing and replaying. I guess I sort of "own" those games and it's comforting to have that touchstone to the past, but I never play them and if I lost them, I'd hardly notice.

My main point is this - while I am a serious gamer who probably even had a problem with priorities from time to time, I don't ever want to be so in love with a game that I can't just let it go - that the idea that it may be temporary is so disturbing that I won't even chance a short term engagement. It's just a game, you shouldn't feel like you're risking your heart and soul.
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OK, I'll take a guess that your "obscene # of games" is $200 and let's say the average game was purchased for $10. That means you lost $2k of games. Think of how one would feel if he lost $2k worth of CDs/DVDs/BDs. Same concept.
 
magoo said:
A disc is still the way the consoles do things, correct?
Honestly I haven't purchased a game for my aging Xbox 360 in a couple of years.

I agree somewhat with what this guy says.....if the game publisher stops supporting an on-line game........party over.

What about single player games? Most have off-line modes, right.
This would negate that thought process.
Click to expand...

Even the 360 has the option to download games, I'd like to know why the cost of the game is still up around $60 when the manufacturing of the disc is gone, and most of the time the publisher themselves are hosting the purchase point, like Origin, Xbox Live, or PSN, the automated key generation has suddenly driven up costs (even though that has been around for almost fifteen years already)?
 
I think there could be a shift somewhere with heavily MP based games. Where you could get into a subscription model like the major software houses are going to. Those are cheap enough that people forget about them and let the reoccurring charges happen until the card expires. It's the same premise with Hulu/Netflix and any gym membership. They want you to forget and not utilize it, otherwise it'd be painfully obvious they oversold the damn weight machines and you have to wait an hour to use anything .. you sandbagging motherfu .. back on track.

For example, BF4. Purchasing a "physical" copy would get you single-player and multiplayer for a certain time (4 months?). After that, it switches to $5-$8/mo per profile for MP (SP remains unlocked) which grants all DLC. They keep you subbed by releasing timed DLC.

It's basically the premium model, flipped. The difference is, you no longer need to pump out a cheap sequel every two years. Premium + Base is usually $120 at the start. It has a life of about 24 months before a sequel comes to repeat the cycle - that's $5 per month at the start (smaller as time/sales go on). They may get push back if they added another year to the life (more DLC) and upped premium cost.

They could run this coinciding with the yearly prepay model (25% discount).
 
dandragonrage said:
Probably most of us do in fact have other hobbies, and in my case neither car manufacturers nor disc golf manufacturers are going to exploit technology to screw me out of my rights.

Some of them would probably use technology to do that if they could, but they can't, so it doesn't matter.

Just because the technical capability to do something exists doesn't mean it's an acceptable thing to do. Just because games can technically be distributed digitally doesn't mean they should be allowed to screw us out of our rights.
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Car makers are researching how to cut you --the driver-- out of the loop right now. If you consider it your right to control your own vehicle, you may be in for a rude surprise in the next 10 years...I'm sure the car makers don't care much one way or the other, but the insurance companies are pushing hard for non-meatbag-controlled vehicles.

Now, if your hobby is just fixing cars, I'm sure thanks to our deteriorating roads and highway infrastructure you'll continue to have plenty of things to fix for the foreseeable future!
 
beowulf7 said:
If Steam were to ever go belly up, we'd all be so screwed. :eek: That is one case where the physical media has an advantage over downloaded games. Hopefully, Steam will stay strong forever!
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There is a rumor that Steam has a way to unlock games if they ever went belly up ... many steam games do have an offline mode as well ... as a private company I think Steam is in pretty good territory unless the whole gaming industry collapses (which I don't see happening)
 
dandragonrage said:
Probably most of us do in fact have other hobbies, and in my case neither car manufacturers nor disc golf manufacturers are going to exploit technology to screw me out of my rights.

Some of them would probably use technology to do that if they could, but they can't, so it doesn't matter.

Just because the technical capability to do something exists doesn't mean it's an acceptable thing to do. Just because games can technically be distributed digitally doesn't mean they should be allowed to screw us out of our rights.
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Whether you, me, or anyone here likes digital games or not, the fact of the matter is that they are the standard, rather than the exception, now. My gut tells me physical copies of games will not even exist in 2025.

And FWIW, keep in mind that just because games are distributed digitally does not mean you are getting screwed out of your money. Yes, it happens that most digital distribution platforms only license you to use the software (and can technically take it away from you), but other services like GOG give you the full package that you can backup and use 10 years from now if you so desire, even if GOG goes under in that time. My guess is that we will come to a point where digital media ownership comes into question in the courts, and I hope (as I'm sure you do) that our rights of ownership are extended like they did in Germany.

All that said, blindly stating that digital media is all bad seems like the reasoning of a simpleton, especially on a forum dedicated to technology.
 
PC games are being thrown at us like cheap whores. I don't like the "gotta catch em all!" Pokemon attitude when it comes to humble bundle/steam sales.
 
Kueller said:
Car makers are researching how to cut you --the driver-- out of the loop right now. If you consider it your right to control your own vehicle, you may be in for a rude surprise in the next 10 years...I'm sure the car makers don't care much one way or the other, but the insurance companies are pushing hard for non-meatbag-controlled vehicles.

Now, if your hobby is just fixing cars, I'm sure thanks to our deteriorating roads and highway infrastructure you'll continue to have plenty of things to fix for the foreseeable future!
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True that. No worries, as I don't see self-driving motorcycles in the near future :)
 
I buy mainly DRM free games these days and backup the install files so I don't worry as much. I'd say I own my DRM free digital more than some people's physical copies.
 
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