What does subscription based (digital only) content mean for the future of entertainment?

[daze23]

So having a game pulled from an online market place and unavailable to people who didn't buy it when it was available is better than people having the option to spend $300 on eBay to play a physical copy that isn't account locked?

No it isn't. Having more options is better than having less.

no, I'm saying being able to download a cracked version is better than overpaying for a pre-owned physical copy. I agree that having more options is better. and there may be situations where one of these options isn't viable

these "games" all represent data being stored on some kind of media. I'd prefer that data be stored in such a way that it can be distributed and copied via the internet. that data could theoretically be copied an infinite amount of times

 

[Cladyclad]

If your hard drive crash and the game is longer purchasable in digital form

 

[winb83]

no, I'm saying being able to download a cracked version is better than overpaying for a pre-owned physical copy. I agree that having more options is better. and there may be situations where one of these options isn't viable

these "games" all represent data being stored on some kind of media. I'd prefer that data be stored in such a way that it can be distributed and copied via the internet. that data could theoretically be copied an infinite amount of times

It'll all be account based when everything is all digital. You're basically talking about hackers blowing the entire system and its firmware wide open and digitally signing modded games so you can play them. That's never really happened because when have we ever had a system that required games be tied to an online account to boot anything at all?

Not saying it's impossible but it seems unlikely.

 

[Dominic Brehetto]

Digital is a terrible way to preserve games,what the hell?

I can go and play my crazy taxi on dream cast in its original glory.


If I go to play a newer digital version the game has been stripped away of its original music and any product placement because they don't have permission to use it anymore.


Games can be pulled at any moment from digital( look at all those newer actvision games they've been pulling)


Not to mention at any moment you could lose your account account. For a variety of reasons. And boom..those games are now gone.


Going all digital is basically giving corporations complete and utter control of how and when games are sold. That is absolutely not a service conducive to preserving game history. That is absurd.

 

[Fatboi1]

I swear I can see a all digital Xbox coming in the future.

 

[Dominic Brehetto]

Phil basically saying exactly what I've been saying in this thread

 

[daze23]

modern games and systems heavily rely on being connected to the internet. a lot of these modern games on physical disks would be pretty useless without all the support they need

dudes out there holding a CD, talking about "from my cold dead hands", when the industry has already moved past that

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

I think the context of this thread got lost a bit, or at least what my opinion is on subscription based content.
As a consumer: I'm big on content ownership. I care very much about having as much control as possible over the content I purchase. I'm not oblivious to reality though; I understand 100% that we are headed to a primarily (if not all) digital age. The convenience digital platforms offer far outweighs the pros of physical media. I don't like the level of (perceived) control I lose by going digital, but It's something I've learned to accept, and I'm fine with it.
As a creative: I worry about the art that drives the content we love being stripped away due to the deployment methods. The compensation structure on streaming platforms is highly questionable. The chaos in the music industry right now concerns me very much about the future of the video game market. Right now, there is no official set price per stream on music. Before the inception of streaming, creatives would get paid for each rotation of the song; this is no longer the case with streaming and many creatives have been very vocal about this. The figures are not clear but I've heard reports about albums needing to be streamed 100 times to count as a single album sale. This is ludicrous and robs creatives. Terrestrial radio has to pay royalties per record spin, the rules of compensation for content should not be different based on the deployment platform. In the video game market, how will compensation be structured on a subscription model? Will developers be payed every time a game is downloaded or streamed? Video games often times cost much more than a music album to create, and I do not believe developers will be as willing to take the perceived losses. I believe the compensation structure will continue to be a mess which will force developers to implement alternative sources of income. My concern is that the future of the video game market will be filled with soul-less, ad-driven, DLC, micro-transaction laden unfinished content.

 

[You Win Perfect]

piracy ftw

 

[Ciggavelli]

piracy ftw

Boo we don’t steal games around here

 

[DPresidential]

I swear I can see a all digital Xbox coming in the future.

I wouldn't mind.

I have a few Xbox consoles in my home.

Spoiler: Benefit

The ability to switch rooms as seamlessly as possible, play with my kids with game share, and not have to account for the space that physical discs will take up as well as maintaining their upkeep is a pretty big plus for me

My gut tells me Phil Spencer is thinking Gamepass and its effect on single player IPs will be a chance for Msft to bow out of the blockbuster IP race that Sony has perfected and carve out a lane for Msft to perfect a first party approach that resembles high quality independent developer IPs.

Essentially less of Triple A Xbox SP titles being as blockbuster-esque eating up 100 mill+ budgets. That nuanced lane will gamble on creative developers taking chances on episodic or compact - in comparison to an Uncharted- but high quality single player and story driven IPs.

The idea is there can be a liberal amount of rope thrown to a development team of 20 or so developers to run with an idea that could work with a Triple A budget and 100 member team but is stuck in pitch stage because boring suits don't want to take a chance on eating such an expensive flop.

Spoiler: I type a lot but if you're interested

The goal would look like a lot a dozen Cupheads, State of Decays, and Limbos giving gamers highly enjoyable and - most importantly - comfortable completion achievability. I'd call it digestible games. If it's a work of art and enjoyable? You'll finish it and feel fulfilled.

The blackjack gamble is, you might bust and have a plethora of unfulfilling glorified mobile games dressed up as console exclusives. But, with this model, you have more chances at hitting 21 with a masterpiece from a quality small development team. MSFT will be aiming for the Hellblade blueprint where 20 developers with full autonomy could give you an amazing cinematic experience at a fraction of the budget of a Halo or Last of Us.

You'll see more consumers actually getting those 100% completions of a developers work of art and hungry for the next installment or IP idea.

shyt could re-define what Triple A is.

Of course, this is optimistic. It could very well be marred in red tape and end up with prettied up and rushed 2 hour campaigns of exclusive trash.

I won't miss physical discs regardless.

@Kamikaze Revy again, great thread. I understand your concern about the blow to creativity of the developer in the same way music streaming is considered tantamount to climate change for music creators .

But, breh, think about it from a different perspective for a moment.

Spoiler: A little more in depth

I've secretly hoped for the day that streaming kills the profitability of music.

Crazy, right?

Not really. I'm an artist and I know you are. I know that feeling of the itch or the weight of an idea or song or spoken word or piece that is taking up space in your head and you just have to get a pen and pad or get in the studio and record it so it's free.

A fukking meteor could be on its way to earth but if that song has been prisoner in your head, you're recording that shyt with no fukks given.

That tells me that artists; real artists; the nikkas that LOVE their passion will create even if they'll never make a dime from it.

Those true music lovers? They'll find it.

If the music industry were to collapse today, it would leave only those who aren't trying to just secure the bag left.

The CardI B? She'd be just fukking with the IG comedy. Everyone trying to sound like what's hot right now? They'd give up on it and be back to trying to scam nikkas with wakeupnow schemes.

But you? nikka, you still be making music. And so will the other passionate artists.

Y'all will who have to have a day job. But music would be as pure as it ever was.

Same with games, best believe there would be a lane for the passionate creators to carve out a great lane with this game pass shyt.

My two cents.

 

[Mr Hate Coffee]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/108710/Alan_Wake/

This is a perfect example of the kinda crap you can expect with games as a service. When you pay a monthly fee to access a service and the game isn't physically released that game simply disappears and is lost forever.

Yo the same shyt happened to Marvel Ultimate Alliance DLC on 360/Ps3. Activision's license expired and even though I had the physical game I couldn't even pay to download the extra characters. They were lost forever to anyone who didn't originally download them.

 

[Rigby.]

Once you get past the need to own something, the subscription based services start to look very intriguing. It’s the future. Music did it, TV is doing it, and gaming is starting it. It’s the future, regardless of what anybody wants.

its only the future up until you lose the capacity to play what you already bought. Unlike music and shyt, there's not a premier alternative such as torrenting games. I mean you can do that, but its not really an accessible option for most people. All those industries, you have, and should always have I'd guess, some alternative (potentially even legal), to subscription based

 

[Easy-E]

The money is in leasing for a seller, not selling ownership of a product.

We never really "owned" the cartridges and disks we bought.

They were purchasing of licences to play. That's so we couldn't change the game and resell as our own.

They problem, for me, is now with physical media going away and us being constantly connected to the devs and pubs, we are at their mercy in too many ways.

 

[Easy-E]

The chaos in the music industry right now concerns me very much about the future of the video game market. Right now, there is no official set price per stream on music.

My concern is that the future of the video game market will be filled with soul-less, ad-driven, DLC, micro-transaction laden unfinished content.

And as much as thecoli complains about the state of music, I don't get the "" from dudes on here simply because they don't wanna get up and put a disc in and out.

We are sold convenience to the point where we won't have to get off our couches and the price is privacy and the little bit of ownership we have.