Architecture. (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Friday, May 15, 2020, 13:40 (1442 days ago) @ MacAddictXIV
edited by Cody Miller, Friday, May 15, 2020, 13:45

Ah, yeah, we’ve been doing it forever, so it must be the best way, right?

I haven’t bought a disc in five years.

I'm with cheapLEY on this one. I think having single use storage devices is kinda wasteful and although practical for a time is still not worth it. Not to mention it is also isn't as reliable. What if you lose it? break it? Just doesn't work with your Xbox? Software on a server somewhere will always be there as long as it's supported. And it has infinite backup.

Let's look at my own history with this.

I've broken and lost zero games on physical media. They all still work.

I've lost access to three games I purchased digitally (Bioshock Infinite, and two Telltale series (Back to the future, Sam & Max). The telltale games simply won't work, since the server check in is dead. Bioshock Infinite was pulled from the Mac store since it is 32 bit, and I can't re-download it even though I am not running Catalina.

You said it yourself: "as long as it's supported". Physical media requires zero support.

It's way more reliable to go physical. I would much rather put in a Lucasarts Adventure game CD into my computer and run it in SCUMMVM than pay for it again on steam. Physical largely ensures you can play your game with new hardware too: with interpreters, patchers, and backward compatibility.