People on Reset are losing their mind over this and I'm like...does it even
matter for Xbox? Don't the games that ship on discs (at least 1P) already basically DRM code unlocks? None of the game itself is on the disc, you have to download it from their end and the disc acts as a validation.
So whether it's a disc or just a piece of paper with a code, functionally it makes no difference. One of the other reasons I can't really see myself investing into that ecosystem: I'd like the ability to install a game between different systems easily and not be so pressed about stupid ISP data caps, and these games are often somewhere around 100 GB in size each.
you know, I gave it some thought and I guess your right. 120 million people do tend to have an issue with that. I wish I listened! /s
"Steam is a massive video game distribution platform. Launched in 2003, the service has gained popularity among gamers across the world. Today, it has more than 120 million monthly active users and a catalog of over 50 thousand games.
Year Active Users
2019 95 million
2020 120 million
Yes, by 2020, 120 Million hate steam. You have no clue what you are talking about lol. The number is even bigger now.
Users and buyers aren't the same thing. Someone else here in another thread showed what the actual audience of buying customers on Steam is and it's only around 30 million or so. The other accounts are people who might just use it for other reasons like buying really cheap indie games or playing F2P and MP games online with their buddies, or even just to socialize in community groups.
Anyway I think comparing the PC/Steam audience to console gamers when it comes to valuation of physical media is silly, they're two very different audiences in that respect. PC gamers have been full steam physical since the mid-2000s, but the reason they were forced to go digital was because of rampant piracy. Consoles do still have some piracy to deal with but it's nowhere near as bad as it was (is?) on PC, and discs aren't anywhere as expensive to manufacture as carts were.
This isn't even so much about physical vs. digital in Xbox's case so much as people are upset there won't be a disc, but AFAIK don't almost all MS 1P games simply use the disc as a validation check for a license of the game? The game code itself isn't on the discs; you download it from their servers. So it's effectively no different than what PC games were starting to do by the mid-2000s. Then Steam came, caught on, and PC gamers figured there was no point for physical at all if the disc was just a form of code validation for an otherwise digital game.
There are definitely more console gamers who are going digital these days but I think the impetus for them is more out of convenience and preference; there's not a rampant piracy issue forcing the industry to push digital, and you even lose a few options with digital (being able to trade-in, getting cheaper deals from 3P brick-and-mortar stores, etc.). There was also never a culture of physical collecting on PC anywhere near what there has been for console gaming, and there's no reason to completely phase that part of the culture out even if digital is growing. The physical copies actually having the game data on them is part of that side of collecting, as well, it's part of what adds value to the game and some actual worth.