You have the same problem with Steam already for years… I mean you do not have a physical copy anymore. In fact if Steam is down, you might not be able to download, play or play multiplayer. So you own nothing and be happy - WEF.
I did thought you were crazy in the past indeed. Since digital is the future, right? It might still is, but for some reason all game studios, producers and distributors like ubisoft or steam just create bad software/games. Where you need 24/7 internet connection and doesn’t allow you to own a digital offline copy of the product. It’s not just games.
Steam is different, though; many games have no DRM and even more just have Steam’s DRM that’s already been cracked globally and is super quick to patch. They also maintain access to paid games even after they’re delisted.
AFAIK, the only problems with maintaining access to Stream games are software-as-a-service games when servers go down (MMOs and multiplayer servers, basically) and music with expired licenses (fuck the RIAA and copyright law for that one; not much Steam can do about that.) I have many delisted games in my library and I can download them any time I want.
Sure, Steam could go down, at some point. Maybe. But it’s not a big concern.
The next evolution is Gamepass. Once they get peopled used to games as a subscription the price will go up intil you’re paying more than you would’ve than just buying your games outright. At least Steam is not a subscription, and you can play locally even if the connection to the service is not available. So theoretically as long as you didn’t uninstall your games you could play them indefinitely.
Nope… Some games will fail to start if the “main” server is down or some authentication server or whatever server it nowadays might depend on. So even if you install a game now and let it rest of years, the changes it will start again over 10 years is very low. I’m not even talking about multiplayer, since multiplayer will be definitively broken by then. And LAN features are no longer implemented by game devs.
I do agree that gamepass will only make matters worse.
You have the same problem with Steam already for years… I mean you do not have a physical copy anymore. In fact if Steam is down, you might not be able to download, play or play multiplayer. So you own nothing and be happy - WEF.
And people think I’m crazy for buying physical discs of movies and having 20+ hdds spinning
I did thought you were crazy in the past indeed. Since digital is the future, right? It might still is, but for some reason all game studios, producers and distributors like ubisoft or steam just create bad software/games. Where you need 24/7 internet connection and doesn’t allow you to own a digital offline copy of the product. It’s not just games.
That is crazy. Why not upgrade to SSDs instead of HDDs?
Cost per GiB is higher and long term reliability is lower in most scenarios.
The failure scenarios for spinning rust tends to work better with large storage arrays as well.
Not all absolutes, but enough of them are true on a common enough basis that spending the extra on SSD’s isn’t usually worth it.
If you want some real in depth explanations there’s probably a datahoarder community somewhere or reddit if you are so inclined.
https://www.redswitches.com/blog/ssd-vs-hdd/
This looks like an okay analysis.
I can get a 20tb HDD right now for $300. When I am talking about 100s of TBs it makes a difference
Steam is different, though; many games have no DRM and even more just have Steam’s DRM that’s already been cracked globally and is super quick to patch. They also maintain access to paid games even after they’re delisted.
AFAIK, the only problems with maintaining access to Stream games are software-as-a-service games when servers go down (MMOs and multiplayer servers, basically) and music with expired licenses (fuck the RIAA and copyright law for that one; not much Steam can do about that.) I have many delisted games in my library and I can download them any time I want.
Sure, Steam could go down, at some point. Maybe. But it’s not a big concern.
The next evolution is Gamepass. Once they get peopled used to games as a subscription the price will go up intil you’re paying more than you would’ve than just buying your games outright. At least Steam is not a subscription, and you can play locally even if the connection to the service is not available. So theoretically as long as you didn’t uninstall your games you could play them indefinitely.
Nope… Some games will fail to start if the “main” server is down or some authentication server or whatever server it nowadays might depend on. So even if you install a game now and let it rest of years, the changes it will start again over 10 years is very low. I’m not even talking about multiplayer, since multiplayer will be definitively broken by then. And LAN features are no longer implemented by game devs.
I do agree that gamepass will only make matters worse.
I’ve definitely played singleplayers when steam is unable to connect. You’re extremely confidentally wrong.
Some games might work fine, I mentioned “some” game will fail. Especially if they require you to login first to some kind of auth. server.