or Sony and Nintendo give up on physicals (as they seem to want to)
Sony was already very clearly migrating in that direction since the PS4, but didn’t go all in thanks to microslop shooting itself in the foot with the Xbox 1 reveal
Both companies are leaning hard on digital only sales. Between the standard PS5 shipping without a disc drive and Switch 2 cartridges being little more than download keys the physical retail market is in its last dying gasps. Steam handily has both companies beat in terms of game catalog availability and affordability. A few console exclusives might be enough to maintain steady sales, but it’s an obvious trend that PC gaming is gaining dominance with third party publishers.
Also they want you to buy physical games then to activate them for your account, making them useless for resale (like with steam games, whether bought digital of physical). Sony and Nintendo are eyeballing it for a while now, it’s just something causing insane resistance from their player base when hinting the idea. Same with single-player games requiring your device being online.
All they want is taking away your rights. Like digital games, making them the same price as physical but you’re not actually buying the game, just the right to play their game for as long as they want to support it.
Back in the days you missed nice features when pirating software or movies (like the DVD extras) but these days the pirated version is better and with less restrictions than the purchased licence.
For example, I am leeching YouTube premium from a friend. But using the grayjay app gives me more rights and features than the premium version of YouTube, with sponsor block implemented, offline downloads don’t require a connection to watch and you’re not constantly fed with shorts slop. And you can categorize channel subscriptions and video recommendations are better.
Same with games. Want to play hitman? Sure, 60 bucks for a few missions, plus 140 for all DLC content so you actually have some decent amount of content and playtime. Or pirate it with all DLC content included. I’m fine with paying full price for a proper game, but if most content is locked behind a paywall, I’ll just pirate it instead. Fuck them.
that was largerly due to the fact that consoles were getting more expensive and that it was getting to the point you could build a computer, that would look better than console, for the same or cheaper than console.
but the whole AI bullshit kinda blew that ship out of the water… so Consoles may start gaining ground again as the affordable gaming option (compared to paying a console price for ram, a console price for storage, and 2 console prices for a GPU)
That’s a bold move, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for them.
Tap for spoiler
Valve has made the console model irrelevant. This is Sony officially giving up on the gaming market.
Valve still hasn’t figured out physical copies and reselling.
But then, maybe they eventually will, or Sony and Nintendo give up on physicals (as they seem to want to)
Sony was already very clearly migrating in that direction since the PS4, but didn’t go all in thanks to microslop shooting itself in the foot with the Xbox 1 reveal
nintendo is so reliant on pokemon, People are still buying the slop game freak is producing.
Both companies are leaning hard on digital only sales. Between the standard PS5 shipping without a disc drive and Switch 2 cartridges being little more than download keys the physical retail market is in its last dying gasps. Steam handily has both companies beat in terms of game catalog availability and affordability. A few console exclusives might be enough to maintain steady sales, but it’s an obvious trend that PC gaming is gaining dominance with third party publishers.
Also they want you to buy physical games then to activate them for your account, making them useless for resale (like with steam games, whether bought digital of physical). Sony and Nintendo are eyeballing it for a while now, it’s just something causing insane resistance from their player base when hinting the idea. Same with single-player games requiring your device being online.
All they want is taking away your rights. Like digital games, making them the same price as physical but you’re not actually buying the game, just the right to play their game for as long as they want to support it.
Back in the days you missed nice features when pirating software or movies (like the DVD extras) but these days the pirated version is better and with less restrictions than the purchased licence.
For example, I am leeching YouTube premium from a friend. But using the grayjay app gives me more rights and features than the premium version of YouTube, with sponsor block implemented, offline downloads don’t require a connection to watch and you’re not constantly fed with shorts slop. And you can categorize channel subscriptions and video recommendations are better.
Same with games. Want to play hitman? Sure, 60 bucks for a few missions, plus 140 for all DLC content so you actually have some decent amount of content and playtime. Or pirate it with all DLC content included. I’m fine with paying full price for a proper game, but if most content is locked behind a paywall, I’ll just pirate it instead. Fuck them.
that was largerly due to the fact that consoles were getting more expensive and that it was getting to the point you could build a computer, that would look better than console, for the same or cheaper than console.
but the whole AI bullshit kinda blew that ship out of the water… so Consoles may start gaining ground again as the affordable gaming option (compared to paying a console price for ram, a console price for storage, and 2 console prices for a GPU)