• [Op] The PlayStation 5 and all-digital Xbox One S represent disparate futures.
    67 replies, posted
We're already at the point where some games are shipping on multiple dual-layer BDs, Red Dead 2 has the game disc and a disc devoted entirely to the content that just wouldn't fit. When this becomes the norm, holy yikes that's going to get awful quick. Discs are probably still going to be the most affordable method of distributing games that large, but we're not getting away from the requirement of installing the game to the console itself. We can only hope that Sony and MS start shipping actually decent drives, as even the 1TB PS4 Pro drive just doesn't cut it.
Like, it's not modernization that's leaving people in the dust, it's the ISPs.
Why not just add a usb reader and sell games like that
Discs are still mad cheaper than flash drives. Even ROM based drives.
what about a 'rechargeable' USB that just loads your purchase onto it?
This isn't about delivery or convenience, even though that's the bullet point on the box, this is about controlling the entire ecosystem from corporate headquarters, and it sucks.
That could work but moving 100+ gigs to a cheap usb drive takes some time.
Yeah...cheap flash is unbearably slow, even if it was using full on USB 3 speeds, it'd still be a long wait to move content from some file server to the drive. Though if customers were willing to hang around their local game shop while they waited for the transfer, and every console shipped with one of these, it could work. Totally destroys the used games market however.
That's inevitable. PC has been like this for over a decade.
This so is far from their concern over this, it's totally irrelevant to them. If they see they can skip to digital only, thus eliminate the costs of discs (and still charge full price, a method they realized they can get away with years ago), and the profits from that outweigh the ones they'll lose from such customers, they're going to do it. Losing customers because they can't have good enough internet isn't something they're going to consider whether or not to do it, just a planned financial loss they'll face in this step.
It's sad too, because the only reason for this is because game developers seem to think uncompressed audio and video cutscenes matter in a game. Otherwise games would be a lot smaller.
I highly doubt RDR2's multiple discs will become the norm There's already plenty of games that come with about half the content on a disc and the other half you have to suck it up and download At this point, I don't think console manufacturers or game publishers give a single shit about people with less than stellar internet
Disc drive is good for backwards compatibility.
I guess I was exagarrating a bit. But Forza horizon 4 and RDR2 are around 100 gig.
I'm hoping this does not become a problem anymore as preloading typically is more than enough time to get the game downloaded, plus drives are becoming so much cheaper.
I don't understand the need for physical distribution of digital content in 2019. It's far more logical, easy, and scalable to distribute digital media via digital methods.
The reason for it is people like actually owning the game rather than the game being on a server where things can go wrong, and it's not exactly "owning" the game. I don't really care about it but that's their problem with it. I don't really blame them either.
Because a lot of people's internet cannot sustain it. Like, there are a good number of posts in this thread about it.
Most games nowadays require an internet connection to play and to receive updates. This would be a valid argument in 1999 but not 2019
this is very relevant even this day and age; Nintendo, a company still making disgusting money, disabled the ability to buy content on the Wii Shop so if you had points left on there you're SOL; and they said they plan on removing the ability to download previous purchases in the near future as well. This! is the real problem with buying digital on consoles.
It took me two months to download Doom 2016 in chunks just to play it. I almost had it installed and then there was this 50/60 gb update that forced me to wait until the following month rolled around =/
PC has been in the all digital future because of Steam for awhile now (physical releases these days are basically just Steam keys with maybe Steam installers on the disc if it comes with a disc), so it makes sense for consoles to take the same road, especially since games basically have to be installed to console hard drives now due to how slow optical media is. I do have to wonder why the industry hasn't taken Nintendo's approach with the Switch though, and basically just put games on flash cards as the new physical media. I guess because flash storage is still relatively expensive in bulk and games are only getting larger, combined with the extra cost of making custom flash cards so your average joe with an SD card reader can't copy the game. I'd definitely not prefer an all digital future, but I guess after being used to it for so long, I also wouldn't mind it. I just hope that game streaming never takes off, because then video games as a whole are fucked.
it's unfortunate that the greed of ISPs are holding back progress.
For some odd reason, downloads on the PS4 also seem noticeably slower than on the Xbox. It's been like this since the PS3 and Sony still use the same CDN system on the PS4 - making downloads a nightmare, regardless of your connection speed. That's one of the main reasons I still buy physical games. That and they're normally cheaper than the PSN store.
Most likely CPU limited. Very little resources are allocated towards that kind of stuff. Xbox seems to top out right around 300 megabits.
At the end of the day I want to own a game, regardless of whether or not that's just a "license" is irrelevant to me. Especially if I want to resell the "license" when I'm finished with it, or even refund it. Some places allow the latter but it's still not rolled out on all online stores.
Heh, we already got used to having multiple discs years ago. https://yameenmusic.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/ced-ff7.jpg
That's already a bad thing! DRM, espically always-online DRM is absolutely terrible. It is absolutely a valid argument to want the games you buy to be used without a permament internet connection.
Riven came out the same year on five CDs, too. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91CRT9IhfmL.jpg Four discs on Saturn, though -- which breaks the point of everything coming in fives in Riven.
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