Square Enix has committed support to Xbox, but it has come with a caveat. Seemingly, there are no physical versions of its upcoming games for Xbox. This seems to be happening more and more, but why?
The reality of the Game-Key Carts is that they are the response to the outrage of digital only games not being transferable or resold. With the license on the cart, you can resell “digital” games. There are reasons why devs do digital releases for things in the switch… it wont fit or it’s too slow are some big ones.
It’s not just a new thing, when I bought Skyrim at launch on the PC it came with a disc… which did nothing but link my Steam account and download the game from there. That was way back in 2011, and damn I feel old now.
You’re not wrong, it’s just nuts no one has specifically worked on a method of transferring digital licenses, which seems crazy considering how long steam and such have been around.
I know everyone hates Nfts but it’s literally made for exactly this kind of thing, verifying and transferable ownership
I refuse to pay $70 let alone $80 for not even a complete game but also that doesn’t include its dlc at that price. I buy most games when they go on sale
I don’t really care much about that side of things, I simply don’t feel the value proposition to me personally is sane at the price points new games on consoles cost. The disc can be the key for all I care, but by the time I pick it up second hand I expect a fully patched experience.
Note that due to blackmagic fuckery and import fees for the UK, everything game related is sold at equal cost to the US. Example: Xbox Series X was UK£450/US$450. These prices are therefore convertible as 1:1
Back in the day I paid £60 for a game (£40 base) plus season pass, discount bundle. According to an inflation calculator that value = £90 today.
Ignoring the difference in time to develop and the manpower involved between these two reference games, only taking into account the reported playtime…
Overall reception for the games vary massively…
MW3 2011
MW3 2023
Let’s just say I still wouldn’t pay over £90 for the entire game. Notwithstanding that many games today are released unfinished due to crunch time culture and the ability to update, or finish development, after release.
If I can’t buy Xbox games second hand then I’m done with the platform going forward. Release prices take the absolute piss.
If this article is any indication of the state of phsyical media, then I’d expect the next generation to simply not have it at all
https://gbatemp.net/threads/new-fiscal-report-shows-that-physical-game-sales-only-made-up-3-of-playstations-revenue.675322/
Nintendo is already flirting with this with game carts that are just license keys to download the game.
The reality of the Game-Key Carts is that they are the response to the outrage of digital only games not being transferable or resold. With the license on the cart, you can resell “digital” games. There are reasons why devs do digital releases for things in the switch… it wont fit or it’s too slow are some big ones.
It’s not just a new thing, when I bought Skyrim at launch on the PC it came with a disc… which did nothing but link my Steam account and download the game from there. That was way back in 2011, and damn I feel old now.
You’re not wrong, it’s just nuts no one has specifically worked on a method of transferring digital licenses, which seems crazy considering how long steam and such have been around.
I know everyone hates Nfts but it’s literally made for exactly this kind of thing, verifying and transferable ownership
I refuse to pay $70 let alone $80 for not even a complete game but also that doesn’t include its dlc at that price. I buy most games when they go on sale
I don’t really care much about that side of things, I simply don’t feel the value proposition to me personally is sane at the price points new games on consoles cost. The disc can be the key for all I care, but by the time I pick it up second hand I expect a fully patched experience.
Note that due to blackmagic fuckery and import fees for the UK, everything game related is sold at equal cost to the US. Example: Xbox Series X was UK£450/US$450. These prices are therefore convertible as 1:1
Back in the day I paid £60 for a game (£40 base) plus season pass, discount bundle. According to an inflation calculator that value = £90 today.
Ignoring the difference in time to develop and the manpower involved between these two reference games, only taking into account the reported playtime…
Overall reception for the games vary massively…
MW3 2011
MW3 2023
Let’s just say I still wouldn’t pay over £90 for the entire game. Notwithstanding that many games today are released unfinished due to crunch time culture and the ability to update, or finish development, after release.
the last game i paid ‘full price’ for was hl2.
hl2 was also the last game i bought on release day.