LogFAQs > #977125140

hereforemnant posted...

The cost of entry existed whether you got a PC or PS5 though, yeah double dipping can be a factor, but you wouldn't be playing Spiderman 2 for instance unless you bought some sort of hardware. The PC is likely to run you more as well if you want it to last for a long time, the PS5 is guaranteed good enough for the generation or whatever. I'd never suggest buying a console for just one game though, so yeah for timed exclusives just wait till later.

Yes, but thats irrelevant in the context of what you replied to. When choosing a platform, PC is objectively the best one, cost of entry aside, as it gets all exclusives but Nintendos (and it can emulate the Nintendo exclusives better than Nintendos consoles can natively run them). Plus, theres no concern about backwards compatibility, as thats just the default.

Not all games are like that though. A lot are license checks, but this happens at least one time with steam games or demos as well. You could actually resell the physical media too. The issue with PC gaming is that it started the trend of all media being made digital, paying the same if not more for the product, & not being able to resell anything later on. Or even to give a copy to a friend if they want to play it like that fire Sony meme from years ago.

You can resell the physical media for a pittance, unless its out of print and rare like any other collectible. As for the rest, youre completely uninformed about the PC gaming marketplace. Steam sells games directly, and outlets like GreenManGaming, Fanatical, Amazon, GamesPlanet, Humble Bundle, etc., sell Steam keys. They are constantly competing with each other on price, and there are constant sales, so you can buy games for a fraction of the cost of console prices if youre willing to wait a short time. For instance, at launch, you can basically guarantee a game will be 12% off or so at GreenManGaming. When I bought Tales of Arise, I got it for 35% off a month or so after launch. Humble Bundle in particular is ridiculous value wise, you get games for pennies on the dollar.

The convenience of digital has long since been a red herring for consumers to get screwed on markups where games never decrease in price & you end up paying the same even if the overhead was much less since the company didn't have to produce boxes or discs. Alan Wake 2 being exclusive to epic games right now(lmao) & only digital else wise is pretty good reason for me to never play that game now because there's two factors layered on top making it unappealing.

Youre wrong though, as I explained above. They drop in price quickly and drastically on PC. The reason they dont on consoles is because consoles are closed platforms, and Microsoft / Sony / Nintendo have the only storefront and they can charge whatever they want, as theyre youre only option. Physical plays a part here too, as Wal-Mart and such would throw a shitfit if Microsoft and Sony were undercutting physical games with digital prices, so they literally couldnt even if they wanted to, or stores would refuse to stock physical games.

The digital age has just made it easier for as you say, companies to just shit something out then fix it in 20GB day one patches after the fact. That didn't start occuring until that "convenience" for digital games popped off. I bought a game cube or PS2 game, odds are it just fucking worked out the box if it wasn't just shit anyways to play.

Thats not a digital games thing, its a broadband becoming ubiquitous thing. They started doing patches long before digital games were a thing. The difference back then was that they couldnt assume everyone had broadband. A 10 GB patch was a non-starter when most people had shitty internet, so they had to make sure the actual released product was good.

Valve has permission to through their ToS to revoke your access to those games at any time whenever they want as is per usual. Valve may be a golden goose in a sort of way but I'd rather roll the dice on my house burning down(I've had a basement flood before & thankfully didn't lose much that time), but being able to carry like 3DS games with you & have permanent access to them so long as your 3DS works will never be a bad thing. Physical media needs to be preserved before we own nothing & like it.

I trust Valve not to do that, as theyre a privately owned company who isnt beholden to shareholders and they have a long history of being extremely pro consumer at this point. If they ever do that in some hypothetical dystopia, Ill just start pirating games again and I havent really lost a thing, because Im on PC, am open platform where its easy to do whatever I want.