Next Gen Price Points (Gaming)

by MacAddictXIV , Seattle WA, Thursday, September 17, 2020, 09:55 (1316 days ago) @ Cody Miller

All that said, I totally empathize. As someone who loves getting the best possible version of a movie, I fear the day companies decide it's not profitable enough to make physical copies of movies.

The issue for me is ownership. Like it or not, even in a world with no physical discs, you can still 'own' a copy of a movie if you get a pirated copy. You can save that, keep it forever, and play it wherever and whenever you want. It'll probably be a lower quality version ripped from streaming, but you can still have something that nobody can control your access to.

Games are different. Consoles are locked down. You can't have free unrestricted access to a game without physical media. On PC, you have options like GOG that give you the game with no restrictions. You can save them, and play them whenever wherever. You can't do that on a console.

The elimination of physical media for game consoles necessarily means sacrificing your ability to play whatever game you want, when you want. Especially with game pass… if a game is pulled? Bye. You're not playing it.

When a game leaves the Xbox Game Pass library, you won't be able to play it any longer, even if it's downloaded to your console.

Digital downloads are similarly controlled and can leave you unable to play a game you paid for.

There is no way around this like with a movie or music since the consoles are locked down.

I totally respect you position on this. And I think you should have the right to do that. Personally, the value of that is just not worth it for me. A locked down Xbox, as you put it, and xbox game pass is worth way more to me than having to pay for a gaming PC of equal power and buying every game I want to play (even if it's for 10 hours). I just honestly don't care to own physical disks anymore. I don't use them. I think it's great that you do, but I think a vast majority of people who use consoles are more like me. I don't think that means your position is any less valid. I just know that what I get out of gamepass for my money is way more than if I paid for physical media.

As an example, I have some 20 xbox, xbox 360, and Xbox one physical games sitting by my xbox and I think I have played one of them in the last year and maybe 5 of them in the last 3-4 years. The one I played in the last year is Lego Indiana Jones that I picked up at gamestop to play with my wife.