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    Erik the RedBrendan Hesse
    10/06/20 11:04am

    I take things like my ISP and storage as fixed costs. You’ll need to download most games to the drive anyway, regardless of which console you get. So I don’t consider those as a weighing factor in digital vs. disc versions of the consoles.

    And in this day and age, you’ll be able to delete the games as you need to free up space, and then download them again when you want to play them again.

    The only thing I’m considering in digital vs. disc is the cost of game. As long as Sony/MSFT provide sales on games, as well as the “free” games via PSN and Gamepass, then I think I’m ok with this.

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      sighingErik the Red
      10/06/20 11:27am

      That would be nice. A single 50GB game on my internet is a 12 hour download when no one else is using the internet. If one or two people are watching something throughout the day or night then it becomes about 20 hours or so.

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      nekkedsnakeErik the Red
      10/06/20 2:16pm

      The biggest factor for me about Physical vs Digital is the actual ownership of the games I buy. While I have one foot in each arena, I do favor Physical over Digital. Games can, and have been removed/delisted (and still are), from digital storefronts all the time. Transformers WFC/FOC from Steam, PT from PSN, Wallace & Grommet from Steam, Deadpool from Steam, etc. Either licenses expire, or Publishers just remove them outright from digital stores. I like knowing that what I paid for with my hard earned money is literally mine, something tangible. One interesting thing to also note is what Nintendo is doing now with Super Mario 3D Allstars, having the games, physical as well as digital, be only available for purchase for a limited window. I still don’t get why they’d do something like this for highly sought after Mario classics. I was lucky to acquire my physical copy on the day of release. 

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    Shabaab KamalBrendan Hesse
    10/06/20 2:55pm

    I’m not sure if storage is going to matter any more than on the disc-based consoles. You have to install everything (especially now that the SSD is so important), and in my experience it’s the same file size whether you download or use a disc.

    And honestly, I don’t think the prices are going to be that much higher unless you insist on buying games shortly after launch. On the PS Store, at least, there are so many flash sales that I never pay full price for a game anymore haha

    edit: obviously storage WILL be a problem for the Series S, but that’s because it has a smaller SSD, not because it’s digital only.

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      Mr. FuriousShabaab Kamal
      10/06/20 3:05pm

      Yeah, so many people seem to be operating under the obviously false premise that games are played from the disc, when the reality is that they’re copied to local storage and played from there. The disc is simply a physical version of DRM. PRM, I guess?

      Look at it this way - a Blu-ray drive is significantly slower than an external SSD, and the latter is too slow to play PS5 games from.

      I think the main difference will be for folks who have really slow internet; it will be a lot easier for them to reinstall a disc-based version of a game since they won’t have to re-download it to do so. I have a gigabit fiber connection at home, but I preordered standard PS5s for flexibility.

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      showjoShabaab Kamal
      10/06/20 3:38pm

      exactly, physical games for the past few years are just big dumb keys that give you access to a digital download. but people like the box i guess. 

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    Kinja's Basking LizardBrendan Hesse
    10/06/20 11:08am

    Since they’re consoles I understand why some people might be apprehensive with digital only. The PC market has been digital only for years and no one seems to care with that.

    I’m getting Series X because I’d like to have the disc drive for BC games that I don’t own digitally and I like integrated systems so I don’t have a separate blu-ray player for my 4K discs. But for games I’m planning on being more digital than physical this time around for the convenience and I feel like that’s where the market is moving. I wouldn’t be surprised if in 10 years from now consoles are completely digital.

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      Murry ChangKinja's Basking Lizard
      10/06/20 1:18pm

      Yeah I built a new PC in 2016 and didn’t even bother to put a CD/DVD drive in it.

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      BlueBeetleKinja's Basking Lizard
      10/06/20 1:46pm

      The PC market has multiple storefronts for games.  You are at the mercy of Sony/MS on pricing for console games.

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    grant8418Brendan Hesse
    10/06/20 11:23am

    I’m fine with the vast majority of my games being digital-only, but I’m still not considering the virtual-only PS5. I do like owning physical films, and I use my current PS4 as a DVD/Blu-Ray player. I have a small collection of Criterion Films that I want to be able to keep using, plus I like to pull out my Reno 911 DVDs from time to time. Also, if the internet is being wonky, I like the option of still being able to watch stuff, since my PS4 is also my main media player.

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      Kinja's Basking Lizardgrant8418
      10/06/20 2:34pm

      That’s what I do with my Xbox One. I’m pretty much all digital already but I’d still like the disc drive for occasional BC games and for Blu-ray.

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      AKA HermioneKinja's Basking Lizard
      10/06/20 4:13pm

      Agree - I’m in the same boat. I understand those who go the GameStop model so they can afford playing games, but I’m lucky enough income wise to buy full priced digital copies - plus, I am one of those people who are “pay the full price” for a piece of media - whether that be streaming, going to the movies, concert tickets, gaming, whatever. The publishers are all jackholes, but devs and studios who spend years and years making a game deserve to have that game bought at full price.

      HOWEVER - I can’t let go of my blu rays. I’m a SW freak and streaming 1080 on D+ is not the same as watching it in 4k, whenever I want, no matter if I have an internet connection or not. So I’ll still be getting the Series X specifically for that reason + some of my 360 BC. 

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    FullMetalPancakeBrendan Hesse
    10/06/20 11:17am

    I think with PS5, there’s no reason to get more internal storage than with the disk version. It’ll be equally annoying either way. While you could reinstall games from disk and save some internet/time, I’m guessing most games will save on disk cost by making the “high res texture pack” DLC anyway (which will have a nice touch of irony, I’m sure).
     However, the XSS’s half-sized SSD makes it a complete non-starter for me. It definitely will need extra storage, which pushes that price greater than an XSX.

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      wekilledbambi03FullMetalPancake
      10/06/20 11:58am

      “While you could reinstall games from disk and save some internet/time”

      In my case, my internet is faster than the read speed of the disc drive. So its faster to download it. But it would save a little bandwidth.

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      SteveFullMetalPancake
      10/06/20 12:54pm

      Uh, in reality the Series S might end up being *better* than the PS5 digital for storage space. I’ve seen some assuming it’ll have the same 200GB hit to the SSD as the X but I don’t buy that for a moment. That space presumably includes all the room for quick resume virtual machine dumps and recording footage for the share function, for instance Those numbers will be significantly lower on S as you’re dealing with 1440 res at most, not 4K and the memory footprint of a game is likely to be significantly lower too. Plus the OS will have a lower footprint, less space reserved for system updates etc.

      We’ll need to see how it works when both consoles release but if smart delivery works as advertised coupled with needing less storage for system functions thanks to the lower res then the S could surprise people. 

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    sighingBrendan Hesse
    10/06/20 11:25am

    I play PC and console. I am much more likely to abandon console as they become digital only. I may miss out on a game or two but I don’t want a bunch of what are essentially PCs laying around. The physical media is kind of the main distinction for me between PC an console. Take that away and it is just two gaming PCs with the difference being games on Steam (and PC in general) go on sale for pretty big discounts. Also, AAA games already take 12+ hours to download on my internet. I don’t need additional systems adding to that. A couple GB day 1 patch is one thing but 50+GB means I am not playing until the following day.

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    SteveBrendan Hesse
    10/06/20 12:48pm

    Sorry but disagree with almost all of this. Let’s start with storage. How the hell does a console with a disc drive “store games locally in a playable state” in a way that digital doesn’t? Has the author actually *used* a console in, oh, 15 years or so? Games don’t run from the disc anymore, they’ve all got to be installed regardless of whether the install media is on a shiny disc or downloaded from afar.

    Now about expanding that local storage. Why, pray tell, is there an assumption that MS won’t bring that cost down? After all it’s in their best interests to do so as SSD’s get cheaper and if there’s sufficient demand they’ll need to in order to keep pace with Sony. Though that’s not straight forward either as only certain drives are likely to work in the PS5 so... Either which way this is just the price you pay for SSD and, again, doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the digital only versions. If you’re looking for the best way of managing your library it’s far better to archive installed games out to a dirt cheap HDD than uninstalling and putting it back on from disc in a few months or years. Quite aside from anything else your archived version will still be patched to the point it was when you mothballed it including any DLC. Your fresh out of the box disc version... not so much.

    Upgrading your ISP and improving your wi-fi leads me back to the ‘have you used a console in this century’ question. It’s now common place for games to come with day one patches in double digit GB territory. The ‘saving’ from having the disc is minimal at best for most games (note, not all) and as mentioned above might actually result in *larger* downloads depending on patch process.

    You can’t refund your digital purchases? Yes you can providing you meet their T&C’s (believe MS is 14 days from purchase, less than 2 hours played). Digital games rarely go on sale? There’s a new sale literally every week on both Xbox and Sony platforms. You can’t rent games digitally? Leaving aside that I can’t remember the last time I saw a physical rental service just sub to GamePass or PS Now for the digital gaming equivalent of Netflix.

    Yes, the point about being stuck with a game if you don’t like it is a valid one but that’s about all I agree with here. Huge amount of misinformation seemingly to fit the narrative of the article and a real disservice to gamers IMO. Digital consoles in 2020 represent a ludicrously cheap entry point (especially the Series S) when you combine with the sub services out there. It would have been much more interesting, and a better service to your readers, to look into the benefits (MS effectively giving you two licences for instance) of digital and dispel some of the myths rather than recycling an article that could have been written about the PC moving to a mostly digital model a decade ago.

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      Kinja's Basking LizardSteve
      10/06/20 2:44pm

      The storage has always confused people. I’ve seen comments on Kotaku with people saying they buy physical cause the install space is smaller than digital.

      As for the memory it should get cheaper over time and MS did say they’ll have other manufactures in the future. This is just the first option they’re offering that matches the internal SSD on Series.

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    NobodyBrendan Hesse
    10/07/20 3:00pm

    You’re joking, right?
    Internet is a given, and the global average Internet service speed is 48Mbps.
    You’re fearmongering with regards to storage. I, personally, can only fill my 1TB HDD on my Xbox One X because GamePass allows me to dump too many games that I don’t even have the time to...

    *Sigh. I... can’t even finish this rebuttal. My mother-in-law is sitting here watching this Tom Scott computer history something on YouTube that I started watching, and she’s reeling back in her recliner, loudly guffawing at every somewhat-clever-timing/entertaining cadence thing he’s saying, just with entirely too much energy. I guarantee you she doesn’t understand what’s happening in this video, and she’s just looking for the standard cues in the tone of the guy’s voice, for things to react with. I literally can’t watch anything with her in the room. Any movie, she’s constantly asking about what’s happening next, or why someone did something, or what other show she knows an actor from, and it’s like, just watch the thing - we don’t know the answers to your questions, or you’d know if you were actually watching and not on your phone/if you were aware of anything in your life.

    So... uh...Hmm.
    Oh, right. Something about storage - it’s fine. Next-gen games will be compressed - the new systems will have dedcated decompression chips. Also, there’s Smart Delivery on Xbox games - new games will only install versions of games that work best with your system. Cyberpunk 2077 won’t install on a Series S with 4K textures - the LOD that the system can handle is what you’ll get, etc. Non of the extra stuff (and games these days are largely textures and audio files).

    Unless I’m wrong/reading too much into all these things that are being told to us/are clearly observable. Whatever. I’m going to go work on my GamePass backlog of too many game to even bother with... I should get a job.

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    BlahBlahBlahXXXBrendan Hesse
    10/06/20 12:26pm

    (the GameSpot approach)

    you might as well kiss your GameSpot membership goodbye.

    lol

    Buying a physical copy of a game ensures you can play it whenever and wherever you want

    Well, it means you can play whatever incomplete base game beta that’s all they put on the discs anymore nowadays...

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    DakeBrendan Hesse
    10/06/20 1:57pm

    I guess I’m part of the problem but I never buy consoles at launch, and have in fact waited to buy the launch version used once the updated version comes out ever since the PS2 (and yes, my fat PS2 and fat PS3 are still doing fine).

    I also don’t buy games when they first come out; it’s either when it gets a “Classics” designation and you can score it plus all DLC on a disc for twenty bucks, or I’ll buy it used for twenty bucks.

    That being said, I was ready to buy a launch version of the 5 if they’d worked in full backwards compatibility. As it stands though, I’ll stick with my usual strategy and snag a used disc version in a few years.

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