I know, I know preaching to the choir.
On one hand, what he says makes some sense (your actions have consequences) on the other bigger hand think of the stuff that we were able to experience because of how digital is an option.
Think of how crazy it is that you can have solo dev games that can be released in this day and age and sell tens of thousands of copies.
I was not really buying games for as long as you guys have but I would imagine that game stores look a lot different then, than they do now.
So many cool and unique indie games that otherwise may never have been released. Think of all the people world wide that have easier access to a game (for the most part)
It's also funny seeing how some indie devs that first released 1 digital game would go on to publish games on multiple platforms and even release physical copies of those games, but they all have their start, and without digital storefronts, that start may have been very different or never have even happened in the first places.
Also this whole post is about videos being sold on digital store front. Valve got rid of the feature last year. Sony also got rid of its digital videos.
I have complicated feelings on all this
The pros of digital certainly are that it lowered the barrier to many game devs, plus I'd be buried alive under the sheer weight of games if I owned everything that I have on Steam physically.
That being said I do absolutely worry about preservation with digital goods in general, and there's enough examples now to show that it's a shit show imo, as current legislation on digital rights is plain crap and allows for it. I'm actually shocked the EU hasn't attempted anything yet in fact.
But on Steam vs other storefronts, Steam is (with the exception of GOG) probably as good as it gets in today's world wrt digital gaming.
In theory Steam could go down tomorrow but it's very much extremely unlikely, given it's sheer size, success, private business model, not being tied to selling distinct hardware products, and it being the defacto standard for pc gaming.
Even if it did though you could presumably back up any DRM free and Valve games I expect.
But the rest?...
PC is an open platform but that being said it's still not bullet proof when the core issue is that the reliant services have to be maintained.
There are many games on Steam that require linkages to other services that I don't trust to stick around in the same way (UPlay, Epic, 2K, R*) or use Denuvo (the DRM that for all intents and purposes finally beat the pirates, and if its servers go down can cut off access to games as was seen a couple years ago).
But even still it's all a damn sight better than console storefronts tied to hardware with distinct product lifecycles where backwards compatibility isn't guaranteed anymore.
tldr
yeah it's shite, I think about it a surprisingly high amount, and I still buy most of my console games and movies on disc tbh cos fuck em
www.gematsu.com
metacouncil.com
