As annoyed as I am personally withStar Wars Jedi: Survivorfurther cementing the trend of $70 games, if any title’s gonna deserve that price, it’d probably be the one that takes up 150GBs of storage — and nobody’s getting off easy. Outrage sparked a couple of days ago over the leak that physical copies of the game arestamped with the ‘Download Required’label.
Now, for me, this isn’t exactly big news. I rifled through my physicalXbox Onegames and only found one that didn’t require a content download. In fact, many required practically all the content to be downloaded. I can distinctly remember getting Garden Warfare 2 for Christmas as a kid, and how it took an entire bloody afternoon to download. Perhaps that’s the warped perception of a child aching to play one of their most wanted games talking, but 20 out of about 32 GB is nothing to sneeze at. Nonetheless, a lot of people were hoping that buying a physical copy of a game so big that there was a whole escapade about ‘preloading’ it (is that a thing now? That’s not even me being snide, I’m genuinely curious) would shield them from the wait.
However, it got me thinking. While I was looking through my physical games, the most recent one was, fittingly enough, Battle for Neighbourville — which releasedthree years ago(almost four!). Granted, I believe I got it a good while after it released, but either way, physical games make up a very small part of my Xbox library — even when accounting for compatible 360 discs. TheSwitchis more of the same for me, with only 3/10 physical entries (yes, I mostly just play Odyssey on repeat. Don’t judge me).
Software downloaded directly from digital storefronts do more than the bulk of the heavy lifting in regard to the games I play — and it’s easy to see why. With a download, you don’t have to go anywhere or wait for anything to arrive, nor do you have to eject one game and insert another. The difference in convenience before and after purchase is more than a little noticeable. While I have said in the past thatStadia’s space-saving selling pointwas a pretty silly pitch, there’s no doubt that purely digital gamesdosave physical space. If you wanna play a lot of games but have little real-world room for them, digital copies will suit you all the better.
Physical games are at nearly every disadvantage, and I don’t think that’s at all a coincidence. We can trace this back to game stores and second-hand games, with the latter being a big part of revenue for the former. I’m not sure how it is for other countries, but here in the UK, we have whole shops like CeX dedicated to selling used games. According toEurogamer, AAA execs have likened the used market to piracy or ‘thievery’ and have made legal attempts on the concept, particularly in Japan. In addition to failed legal action, I’m sure a lot of us recall wacky schemes such as Project Ten Dollar,EA’s plot to fine you $10 for the heinous act of buying a used game.
RELATED:Jedi Survivor’s 150GB File Size Has Totally Put Me Off It
But with downloadable games on digital storefronts that house titles stretching back multiple console generations, as well as the advent of cloud gaming services likeGamepass, endurance may have won the day. Everything’s moving to the digital space; even collector’s editions, which may embody of the value of a tangible, physical product as opposed to a digital one, have more and more beenreplacing discs with codes, like in the case ofBaldur’s Gate 3orGod of War: Ragnarok. We seem to be on a warpath towards a possible future where games are downloaded almost exclusively.
If we weigh up the pluses and minuses, there’s actually a lot to like about this. There’s of course the immensity of conveniences I mentioned earlier, but another thing I’ll throw in is it being better for the environment. I reckon even the most hardcore lover of physical releases will admit that the box and disc are far from the most important part of a game, and axing them would reduce waste. At the same time, the whole ordeal threatens your ability to re-sell your games, limiting what you can do with your purchases. Furthermore, it’s not great for archival: hypothetically, if all digital storefronts were to go under, emulation would be the only answer — and that’s something that publishers hate far more than physical copies.
This is one of the few game industry topics that has me on the fence rather than feeling strongly one way or the other, but if the issues of resale and archiving can be solved, a fully digital future could be a good thing for gamers.
