Tangential to this, I've always felt like this was a bit whacky, but I've caved in and started renting and buying DVDs recently. Paying nearly 100 dollars a month for streaming services and unable to watch a popular comedy movie from the 90s my daughter wanted to see. Got the DVD for €1.
Will keep buying physical game copies, thank you - thought not even that is entirely safe, see Driveclub.
The problem with physical game copies is they don't really sell physical game copies anymore. What's on the plastic disc you buy is an unplayable mess, or even just a key, and the game you're actually going to play gets downloaded the first time you put the media in.
And the newer games require always-online play so they can phone home when you launch them.
I know it’s not really full ownership in the same way but I’d also remind folks that digital movie purchases still exist and are often a very good value. My library is full of movies that cost me $5 or less. One example is Lawrence of Arabia in a beautiful 4K transfer. I’d recommend Apple for this as their streaming quality is top notch: they are cinephiles over there.
Also, you really don’t need a blu ray player investment to just buy blu rays, rip them with a USB blu ray reader, toss them on self-hosted jellyfin. It’s really better than the blu-ray player experience especially since you can rip 4K blu-rays without having to invest in the rather limited selection of expensive players.
My third suggestion is to just skip all this and sail the seas.
There is a history of digital copies being “pulled back” due to licensing changes and contracts expiring. This has happened with Steam, with Apple Music, Apple TV movies, and Sony is doing it at this very moment with PS5 games. If you don’t have the bits in your own storage, you don’t own it.
It has definitely happened in the past, but in practice it’s a very small percentage of titles that are fully removed from your account beyond delisting.
It’s a risk many people may be willing to take especially with low value purchases.
This is weighed against the costs and inconveniences of keeping physical disks or self-hosting infrastructure running.
Earlier this year 2 Xbox games I own started forcing an Xbox live subscription to work. WWZ used to let me play offline alongside bots, but no more. And COD:MWII went behind the same paywall. I refuse to pay the ransom and my 2 Xboxes have been unplugged and gathering dust for months while I migrated to Steam.
Tangential to this, I've always felt like this was a bit whacky, but I've caved in and started renting and buying DVDs recently. Paying nearly 100 dollars a month for streaming services and unable to watch a popular comedy movie from the 90s my daughter wanted to see. Got the DVD for €1.
Will keep buying physical game copies, thank you - thought not even that is entirely safe, see Driveclub.
The problem with physical game copies is they don't really sell physical game copies anymore. What's on the plastic disc you buy is an unplayable mess, or even just a key, and the game you're actually going to play gets downloaded the first time you put the media in.
And the newer games require always-online play so they can phone home when you launch them.
You could have downloaded the film from the high seas for free and saved the €1.
I know it’s not really full ownership in the same way but I’d also remind folks that digital movie purchases still exist and are often a very good value. My library is full of movies that cost me $5 or less. One example is Lawrence of Arabia in a beautiful 4K transfer. I’d recommend Apple for this as their streaming quality is top notch: they are cinephiles over there.
Also, you really don’t need a blu ray player investment to just buy blu rays, rip them with a USB blu ray reader, toss them on self-hosted jellyfin. It’s really better than the blu-ray player experience especially since you can rip 4K blu-rays without having to invest in the rather limited selection of expensive players.
My third suggestion is to just skip all this and sail the seas.
There is a history of digital copies being “pulled back” due to licensing changes and contracts expiring. This has happened with Steam, with Apple Music, Apple TV movies, and Sony is doing it at this very moment with PS5 games. If you don’t have the bits in your own storage, you don’t own it.
It has definitely happened in the past, but in practice it’s a very small percentage of titles that are fully removed from your account beyond delisting.
It’s a risk many people may be willing to take especially with low value purchases.
This is weighed against the costs and inconveniences of keeping physical disks or self-hosting infrastructure running.
Earlier this year 2 Xbox games I own started forcing an Xbox live subscription to work. WWZ used to let me play offline alongside bots, but no more. And COD:MWII went behind the same paywall. I refuse to pay the ransom and my 2 Xboxes have been unplugged and gathering dust for months while I migrated to Steam.
I really hoped Microsoft was gonna fix COD, they just destroyed it all.
I have an XSX, GamePass has been cancelled for years, X360 physical media has never been so fun.
XSX will only play single player game with physical media, everything else moved to Steam even tho I never liked much playing on PC.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"
Watching Sony fanboys losing it after making jokes for decades towards Xbox. Well, you not just don't own your console as you don't own your games :)
Xbox at least lets you play the X360 physical media back compatible with the latest console.