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

[Kamikaze Revy]

I still buy physical but truth is games are all digital now. The version of the game you get on a disc is incomplete and usually a pre-release version. The disc is just a method of installing a digital copy and from then on the disc is just used to authenticate your license.

There's usually a needed day one patch that brings the game to an acceptable level. Thing is when they shut down the servers for your old console in 15-20 years you'll no longer be able to get the patches the games need to make them playable or to reach the proper version.

People who owned the Wii are about to experience this next year they're taking the Wii servers offline.

Your comparison to music and movies is flawed because both aren't tied to a piece of hardware like a console game is. These companies don't want to maintain their servers a day longer than they have to. If old hardware doesn't maintain the needed playerbase to be profitable for the company it's lights out and yeah at some point if you don't download and archive yourself on hard drives that will possibly fail one day you will lose access to the content you purchased.

There's always going to be a way to find content digitally. If your hard drive fails I'm sure the same content will be available online elsewhere except possibly some rare, very obscure piece of content that no one would remember to begin with.
This thread was never about the fear of losing access to a game. That fear doesn't hold any water considering access to any game whether physical or digital can be taken away from you over time if they really wanted to.
My whole point with this thread was a growing concern for how as we go to a completely digital world, compensation isn't clear. No one can define what one stream is worth, or one download, yet top tier content still costs as much to make as it did (generally speaking). What I fear is that given enough time, the arts in general will be cheapened and consumer experiences will suffer,

 

[winb83]

There's always going to be a way to find content digitally. If your hard drive fails I'm sure the same content will be available online elsewhere except possibly some rare, very obscure piece of content that no one would remember to begin with.
This thread was never about the fear of losing access to a game. That fear doesn't hold any water considering access to any game whether physical or digital can be taken away from you over time if they really wanted to.
My whole point with this thread was a growing concern for how as we go to a completely digital world, compensation isn't clear. No one can define what one stream is worth, or one download, yet top tier content still costs as much to make as it did (generally speaking). What I fear is that given enough time, the arts in general will be cheapened and consumer experiences will suffer,

One of my favorite games is Lunar 2 Eternal Blue. I have a physical copy of it and can still play it whenever I want. There were no patches to bring the game "up to date" because the developer rushed an incomplete version to print and out out a 2GB day 1 patch later. This game isn't even available digitally because it exist in a licensing hell where different companies hold licenses for different aspects of it and they won't come together to make it available but if you bought the product at the release you own it period. There's a value to owning that disc that today if I bought Final Fantasy XV I'm dependent on a company to maintain it's playability long term.

Because we've just entered this digital age inside the last generation console cycle we've yet to see the effects of the digital age on archiving games.

Other industries can move to a subscription based model with minimal ill effects because it's a song or it's a video and it doesn't have much dependence on the hardware. Maybe going forward all our game consoles will be x86 based and the PS5 will play the PS4's games and so forth but there's a certain value owning a physical copy of a game had that it no longer does.

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

One of my favorite games is Lunar 2 Eternal Blue. I have a physical copy of it and can still play it whenever I want. There were no patches to bring the game "up to date" because the developer rushed an incomplete version to print and out out a 2GB day 1 patch later. This game isn't even available digitally because it exist in a licensing hell where different companies hold licenses for different aspects of it and they won't come together to make it available but if you bought the product at the release you own it period. There's a value to owning that disc that today if I bought Final Fantasy XV I'm dependent on a company to maintain it's playability long term.

Because we've just entered this digital age inside the last generation console cycle we've yet to see the effects of the digital age on archiving games.

Other industries can move to a subscription based model with minimal ill effects because it's a song or it's a video and it doesn't have much dependence on the hardware. Maybe going forward all our game consoles will be x86 based and the PS5 will play the PS4's games and so forth but there's a certain value owning a physical copy of a game had that it no longer does.

I guess theres a valid concern somewhere in there, but like you said, we don't know at this point with certainty that we will lose access to certain games forever in a digital age.
What we can see right now is a cheapening of the art forms like I described in this thread.

 

[daze23]

I guess theres a valid concern somewhere in there, but like you said, we don't know at this point with certainty that we will lose access to certain games forever in a digital age.
What we can see right now is a cheapening of the art forms like I described in this thread.

at the same time, these different models provide access for devs that might not be able to do it otherwise. for instance the episodic model lets them release a game in pieces, if they couldn't afford to do the whole thing at once. things like 'early access' also let devs collect money to fund development of the final product

we've seen a lot of new and innovative ideas come from this

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

at the same time, these different models provide access for devs that might not be able to do it otherwise. for instance the episodic model lets them release a game in pieces, if they couldn't afford to do the whole thing at once. things like 'early access' also let devs collect money to fund development of the final product

we've seen a lot of new and innovative ideas come from this

It definitely has its benefits. I think the potential shift overall is troubling though.

 

[Pressure]

Continuous delivery and digital go hand in hand. It's the way forward and we're starting to see companies take advantage of it. We should, as a result, see a naturally extended life cycle for good games and a chance to fix popular but underwhelming games.

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

Strictly from an old(er) school gamer with a busy life standpoint: Subscriptions for games doesn't work out well for the way I consume video games. I'll play a game today, and never get back to it until several months later, and I may not finish a game for over a year. I stopped experimenting with games years ago, so I know exactly which games I want, and which ones I will enjoy. Have to pay a monthly sub to access 2 or 3 games I'm interested in playing today and a million others I have no interest in is not appealing to me. I value very much the ability to pay for something once, and never have to pay for it again. The perks of having access to more games does absolutely nothing for me personally. But this sentiment has little to do with the real purpose of this thread, which is to discuss how entertainment and art is being compromised to fulfill the demands of a completely digital world, and a world that will like be based on subscriptions.

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

The Wii Shop Channel Closes Forever Next Week

Digital distribution is an interesting thing, but it's still no doubt going through some growing pains. The question often arises of what happens when a company just decides to close up and shut down the shop, but it hasn't been too big an issue so far. That will change at the end of this week, when Nintendo becomes the biggest player in the game to shut down a digital distribution shop, in the future effectively ending the ability to download or re-download anything from the Wii Shop.

The shutdown, which was announced on Nintendo's support website, means that the Wii Shop servers will no longer be accessible. So if there's games you have paid for but do not currently have downloaded on your Wii, you have until January 30 to get them onto the system memory or associated SD card before Nintendo brings down the axe. This means WiiWare games and Virtual Console titles, as well as any content that needs to be downloaded, like channels. In theory, Skyward Sword's patch can no longer be downloaded, thus leaving a progress-blocking glitch in the game forever.

Transfers from Wii to Wii U will also be impossible unless the Wii transfer channel is already downloaded.

In March of last year, Nintendo closed the ability to add points to the Wii shop, meaning whatever you had left on the account was all that could be used. If you still have points in there, you must spend them this week or that money is quite simply gone.
The Wii Shop Channel Closes Forever Next Week

This is that basura anti-digital brehs been betting would happen.
Not a good look at all.
Shutting an entire shop down with no way to access anything you've purchased ever again is crazy.
Most of ya'll never care about stuff until it affects you directly but this is major.

 

[Deltron]

sucks because there were some gems on that service, like the Konami Rebirth games, and some VC games that never got re-released on the Wii U and probably won't on the switch

 

[Black Bolt]

This is that basura anti-digital brehs been betting would happen.
Not a good look at all.
Shutting an entire shop down with no way to access anything you've purchased ever again is crazy.
Most of ya'll never care about stuff until it affects you directly but this is major.

The Wii is 2 generations old, most people gained whatever utility they desired from it a long time ago. In addition, there's forewarning to download purchases if you wish.

It's not that deep, most would have moved on to Wii U/Switch. We don't expect Apple to supoorts IOS 5 or for Google to spupport Ice cream sandwich, seems unfair to expect gaming companies to support decade old properties.

There are genuine concerns with going all digital (eg: pulling games because of expired licenses) but this ain't it for me

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

The Wii is 2 generations old, most people gained whatever utility they desired from it a long time ago. In addition, there's forewarning to download purchases if you wish.

It's not that deep, most would have moved on to Wii U/Switch. We don't expect Apple to supoorts IOS 5 or for Google to spupport Ice cream sandwich, seems unfair to expect gaming companies to support decade old properties.

There are genuine concerns with going all digital (eg: pulling games because of expired licenses) but this ain't it for me

In the end....digital means no one will "own" anything.
We can argue whether or not you every "owned" the content to begin with....but in the general sense...we won't "own" anything...and to me....that's unfortunate.

 

[Black Bolt]

In the end....digital means no one will "own" anything.
We can argue whether or not you every "owned" the content to begin with....but in the general sense...we won't "own" anything...and to me....that's unfortunate.

It is I agree, but that's the way it's always been, from games, music, films etc. It's a new era, we'll get used to it.

People would have had the same grievances going from vinyl -> tape -> CD -> Minidisc -> digital -> streaming and yet here we are, things will always evolve.

The PC guys don't seem have been hurt by the transition over the past decade, think we'll be fine.

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

It is I agree, but that's the way it's always been, from games, music, films etc. It's a new era, we'll get used to it.

People would have had the same grievances going from vinyl -> tape -> CD -> Minidisc -> digital -> streaming and yet here we are, things will always evolve.

The PC guys don't seem have been hurt by the transition over the past decade, think we'll be fine.

The PC guys aren't hurt by this because most of PC content is forward and backwards compatible....which is how console game SHOULD be.
As far as music (and movies to an extent), we consume it very differently than with video games so it's not a 1:1 comparison.
If you buy a license to a product (specifically video games in this case) at full price, there is an assumption (whether it's grounded in reality or not doesn't matter from a consumer perspective) that it is perpetual, otherwise, why are you buying a license to begin with instead of just renting it?

 

[MeachTheMonster]

This is that basura anti-digital brehs been betting would happen.
Not a good look at all.
Shutting an entire shop down with no way to access anything you've purchased ever again is crazy.
Most of ya'll never care about stuff until it affects you directly but this is major.

1st we all know Nintendo isn’t the company that does digital/online right.

Second it clearly gives you a chance to download all your titles and keep them before the shop closes

This is the same as if a physical shop closes. Can’t shop there anymore.

What’s your issue here?

 

[MeachTheMonster]

In the end....digital means no one will "own" anything.
We can argue whether or not you every "owned" the content to begin with....but in the general sense...we won't "own" anything...and to me....that's unfortunate.

Why don’t you “own” your digital wii content when you can have it on your machine and play indefinitely?

If you own a physical copy of a game you can’t walk into a store and have them bring up a copy of your game and give it to you again.