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Physical Media Has No Place in Video Games

Physical Media Has No Place in Video Games

When I was a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.

I’m going to touch on a subject today that tends to be very polarizing. Over the last several years, I have come to the conclusion that I’m completely and utterly done collecting entertainment housed on physical media. My music collection has consisted of nothing but MP3s since the early 2000s and I’m in the process of ridding myself of my 500+ DVD library by ripping them all to a new terabyte drive I purchased a while back. In short, I’m quite looking forward to breaking the chains of the physical realm.

Only problem is, my video games are not so easy to manage. Despite the strides we’ve taken with the advent of DLC and digital downloads, it would appear we’re saddled with buying discs for the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U for the next several years at least. This might come as a relief to some of you out there, as many gamers still cling to their plastic game cases like a security blanket. If they would just listen to reason, they’d realize a complete transition to digital is not only the next inevitable step, it would work in their favor. For every video of someone giving a tour of their massive game rooms on YouTube, I’ve found an equally depressing one where gamers have lost their entire archive due to flood, fire or some other unforeseeable circumstance. Not to mention the sheer nightmare involving having to store so many odds and ends in one place. Let’s face it. If you’re interested in game collecting in 2014, you have to become a hoarder. Plain and simple. The logistics of it alone are enough to give me a panic attack. Now imagine all those titles shrunken down to a digital drive that takes up the space consisting of just a few inches. Developers are already using things like day-one patches to avoid having to spread their initial releases out over several discs. This is just expanding upon this concept to a larger scale.

Not sold on the idea yet? Even though I could go on and on regarding how the advantages of digital content far ourtweigh those of its counterpart, let’s talk about the financial aspect instead. Perhaps appealing to your pocket book will bring you around. You do realize that moving away from a disc-based delivery system will cause the retail price to drop significantly, right? By allowing studios to cut out the end-step of porting everything to their proprietary media (and then packaging/shipping them to the stores), I estimate at least a $10-15 price cut per title. And that’s a conservative estimate. While this would wreak havoc on the pre-owned games market, some type of ID system allowing for the transfer of digital rights from console to console is easy enough to implement ( IE : trade-ins and gifting could theoretically still work). Our online infrastructure via Xbox Live and PSN has already evolved beyond just DLC, so I don’t see connecting the remaining pieces of this puzzle as an insurmountable task.

Physical Media Has No Place in Video Games

In my ultimate utopia, I see each system running a very iTunes-esque setup (I avoid comparing things to Steam as it leaves a lot to be desired). Yes there are obstacles to overcome, such as dealing with those who don’t have access to a broadband internet connection (which would likely be necessary to make the setup work). Perhaps that’s where a store like GameStop could remain relevant in the future? Digital also opens a can of worms on the piracy front that developers will have to contend with more frequently. Yes certain growing pains should be expected, but the pros far outweigh the cons, as throwing the baby out with the bathwater is just stupid.

Don’t forget, we did put a man on the Moon by stuffing him inside a tin can, strapping rocket fuel on the side and then crossing our fingers. I’m thinking this is a nut we can easily crack as well.

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