Ducktales Remastered gets delisted, now DriveClub - why do people have faith in an all digital future?

DuckTales:

https://www.engadget.com/2019/08/07/ducktales-remastered-removed-digital-stores/

DriveClub:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-08-31-sony-under-fire-for-delisting-driveclub-a-day-before-it-said-it-would

This is one of the reasons why I don't believe in an all digital future. The publisher or the content carrier can decide to remove the game for whatever reason. That game then loses its footprint forever. Thankfully, we don't live in an all digital world, at least not yet, so you can pick these games up in their physical form.

So I ask you, SW? Why hold so much faith in digital products?

Do you also keep track of the physical games that are no longer sold?

I don't need to. You can always look for a used physical copy.

I don’t have faith in an all digital future myself, I greatly prefer to get my games on physical formats and in fact still buy my movies, music, and books on physical as well. Sure these physical products stop being produced all the time as well but at least people can still buy and sell them used so you can typically still be able to find most all of them if you want to. With these digital games you can’t do that. Hopefully we are a long ways away from an all digital future.

@Pedro: You do know that you can still buy physical retro games from over 20yrs ago right?

Your argument is lazy just like the people who like digital such as yourself.

You also miss out on all the dlc if you don't already have it. Digital is the best.

You can always buy accounts that have the game. ;)

See above and if going to the store to purchase a physical copy that needs to be installed slower than the digital version and updated seems like a more meaningful use of your time, more power to you. :)

I don't necessarily have faith in companies or licensing agreements.

I do however have faith in myself (to keep backups) and the internet collective (to provide me a way to play said backups).

Plus digital is way more convenient and vastly superior to handling physical copies of data when it comes to the day-to-day of just playing games.

I'm missing tons of physical games I bought because I loaned them, lost them, broke them, sold them, etc. I can sure play them digitally right now if I wanted to.

What are you gonna do after the servers go down if all you have is a console disc? Play the broken 1.0 version? Hope that the disc actually has the game data on it? Meanwhile if you got the GoG version you should have the game and all the updates backed up somewhere.

I'm of the opinion, any power in Publishers hand is bad.

Because... they are dicks.

Well you better hope you don't have to redownload the game for whatever reason lol.

Interesting video and on point!

@SolidGame_basic: I bought those games day one and as far as I know, I still own it! Rather it gets de-listed or not, I can still install it anytime I want because it's mine! Tell me again why physical lovers don't get this? If you wasn't gonna buy it when it first came out and all of a sudden it gets de-listed for some reason, you probably wasn't going to buy the game at all.

If a game is "de-listed" does that only mean it is unavailable for those who never purchased it prior? Can someone who bought it, deleted it and now wants it again is able to d/l it or are they SOL?

@Pedro: um I don’t gotta install SNES, PS1, GCN, N64 or PS2 games.

Alot of 99%ers in here.

@Pedro: Wow, you're REALY reaching here. I think its time for you to take a break.

If you bought the game on steam and it is delisted you can still download it, you just can't buy a new copy

Some folks seriously believe that when Steam, Epic, whatever de-list a game, it's gone from the internet and can no longer be found anywhere?

The internet never forgets.

@Pedro: That's why people can still buy NES games on eBay right?

TLHBO

This is mainly an issue with licensed games. DuckTales is a Disney license. And DriveClub has car licenses. It costs money to renew licenses. And if the publisher don't pay the license fee, they have to stop distribution.

What about future gamers who want to play the games? The great thing about the retro market is that players could buy games they never got to play. Many of these gamers weren't even born when these games came out lol.

What if Steam decides to remove the game or it goes out of business?

They can't do that and Steam will never go out of business. It just doesn't work like that for online only.

Fail to see how this is even a problem!? If you want to buy either of these shitty old games, you have had years to buy them...

yea sorry, I must have missed the DuckTales Remastered hype thread when it passed through here....

right.....

Seems like some digital only lovers have developed an “I got mine so **** you” mentality. It’s not like anyone is going to stop selling games digitally but to hell with anyone who wants more options on how they buy their games. Also what kind of rationality is “If you wanted the game you should have bought it when it came out”?

I don't know why people act as if you can't make a physical game a digital game, and a digital one into physical. As if licenses expiring, or any kind of license/IP disputes only affects digital games and never affected physical games.

That's why there is a 99% and 1%. The 1% keep taking and taking, and the 99% keep giving and giving.

You really think they're gone forever?

Every time a game is lost to time, it comes back. If people knew there'd never be a physical copy again, the hackers would make sure to keep an archive of the files.

What's a bigger problem, is DRM and online only games, when they die, it won't matter if physical or not.

Most games I play these days wouldn't even be made if they required physical distribution. Talk to any smaller/indie dev who have been around longer than Steam, they will tell you the hell of trying to get distributed.

I get all my games digital unless it's a really dope game I've been waiting a long time for and really want it then I get the CD. It's cleaner.

I get all my games digital unless it's a really dope game I've been waiting a long time for and really want it then I get the CD. It's cleaner.

I will always prefer physical.

Hell, I'm still collecting Sega Game Gear games. Next up is either Road Rash, Indiana Jones or Micro Machines.

That's why, with games I really love, I tend to get both physical and digital versions. Like Persona 4 Golden, for instance. With Vita's shitty expensive memory cards I'm glad I picked up a cheap copy of the game when I needed extra space.

People who own them still have access to the games. You just can't buy them anymore. Even some used games can be really hard to find (less so with internet nowadays.)

Buy NES games.... LMAO.

It's still in my library.

You must mean it isn't available for purchase because of licensing issues.

You say that like everything is just available for super-cheap at any used game store. Have you looked at the price of SNES/N64 games recently?

How about finding me a reasonably priced copy of Radiant Silvergun on the Sega Saturn?

An all-digital future where licensing isn't held by giant corporate greed monsters, and every title for a single platform is combined into a single download package (or streaming package) for a flat rate is where I'd like to see digital go.

I don't care about the nostalgia of the "thing" in my hand, I just want to play the software, and I'm not a frame-to-frame purist like a couple people I know (where if the emulation isn't "perfect", they won't buy/play it).

Ugh i was kinda hoping Ducktales would release on the Switch before this happend..

I got before it got removed so i still have it

True, but only to an extent. Take Battlefield 2 for instance (a physical game). When GameSpy shut their servers down, everyone thought that was it and the game was no more. But that isn't true. You can still play online with ranked servers to this day thanks to the community and their persistence.

As for DRM, cracks always exist for pirated copies of games on the internet. Just have to find a clean one to use on your legal copy and bam, good to go. I've actually done this several times over the years.

This hasn't been the case for PC since the last 90s

Well people who bought these games can still download them(for now though, look at Wii and Playstation Mobile or whatever).

The owners of the games can still download them, plus, as usual, the games will be back on sale as soon as the licensing issues are solved (by renewing the licensing or by removing the unlicensed content).

@Pedro: I stand by point that digital is for lazy people.

I have yet to see a convincing reason why resale of digital games shouldn't be protected under doctrine of first sale. Because there's no wear and tear, and so no material depreciation in value? OK, and...?

@SolidGame_basic:

To me, it's like hearing that they stopped selling a regular, physical game. Which has happened before. And just because it's been delisted, doesn't mean that the game disappears for people who have already bought it. So no, this doesn't change anything. Digital is still the way to go.

@SolidGame_basic: If steam ever goes out of business you can still create a physical back up of the game so you will still own it forever.

@i_p_daily: can you explain how digital is for lazy people, I don't understand

@foxhound_fox: very good point about the price of physical games, and that is something that physical purists ignore. Trying to find copies of old games is incredibly pricey and just not practical for the average gamer, there is also a finite supply of said games out in the wild.

Physical games also deteriorate over time, digitial games never do.

@vl4d_l3nin: Great point, digital has done a tremendous job of lowering the barrier of entry for game developers and as a result the gaming community benefits tremendously from a huge number of amazing games that would have never seen the light of day otherwise.

@saltslasher: DRM is not too much of a problem because it is pretty easy to find cracks out there that bypass it.

I'm more curious why he thinks being lazy is some kind of insult. This isn't some kind of competition where those who struggle the most to get a game are rewarded. It's getting a copy of "Control" or "Fire Emblem," not displaying plumage to attract a mate like a peacock.

Hell yeah! I switch my games with the controller because we live in a modern age. I treasure my time and physical space. Have fun sorting through discs. :)

This made me lol

and I agree, video games are lazy time for me, I work hard and when I'm home relaxing I want to do just that.

I would also argue that is more convenient than lazy. I own literally hundreds of retro games, but when I play them, I always use emulators because it is far easier for me to just load up the rom on my computer than sort through hundreds of games to find the one I want to play.

I also own over 1700 games on Steam, I can't even imagine what I would do if they were physical, I literally would not have the space for them.