• Broken@lemmy.ml
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    7 days ago

    They talked about doing it this way at launch, which they should have. The drive is available as a peripheral, at the cost difference (actually cheaper) of the digital vs disc console. It simplifies manufacturing and distribution, which helps get more consoles on shelves. Now when it doesn’t matter as much, they implement it. Go figure.

    As far as killing off physical media, yes it pushes further that way, but honestly the game industry has been not favorable to retail stores for some time. This is the least of the offenses.

    • Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee
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      7 days ago

      “least of the offenses”

      I don’t think you’re zoomed out far enough. The constraint of physical media will be a deathstroke for consumers.

      • Broken@lemmy.ml
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        7 days ago

        I don’t disagree. In fact I agree fully. But when the industry promotes early access games (digital only) and digital day 1 with physical to follow 3 or 6 months later, it is pushing consumers to digital. So its irrelevant if they do or do not have an optical drive on the console.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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      7 days ago

      Yeah, but the disc drive is the first thing to break, and replacement parts don’t sell more consoles.

      Now that the Console is overpriced to the extreme, modular parts are an added luxury.

  • one_knight_scripting@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Uhhh. Maybe I’m a little TOO far from the console crowd but I’m going to say this anyways.

    Who tf cares? I’m a PC gamer and I’ve been without a disk drive since 2009.

    I will happily admit it is definitely a different situation. For one, this would essentially give Sony a monopoly on games. Which would mean that they would never lower prices and gamers have no one to go to other than them. You know what I’m talking about, all the same shit that Nintendo has been doing for years.

    I guess that I’m just curious how many people dislike this.

    • BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      cant function as a dvd player as well as console if there isnt a disc drive

      some people just have games on disc and without a disc drive they either have to buy the disc drive seperate or rebuy their game digitally

    • filister@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Actually the disk drives makes the console attractive, as you can snag cheap second hand games

      • one_knight_scripting@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Oh yeah, no doubt. One of the whole benefits of PC gaming is being able to snag games from other retailers. Honestly disk drive consoles have the advantage of being able to snag games from other users.

    • GeekySalsa@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Another big problem imo is also that you effectively lose ownership of your games. Inevitably, servers would be shut down and you wouldn’t be able to download the games that you own. And that’s if things go well. Some games could always just go away earlier as we’ve seen on other platforms. However, if you own the disk, then that’s that, you can play the game forever.

      On steam, the same problem could technically happen, but I trust Steam significantly more. It’s very much in their best interest to keep growing their library of games and not stop supporting them. I still have games from 10+ years ago on it and I expect to keep them 10+ years from now.

  • Lad@reddthat.com
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    8 days ago

    I think the steam deck is genuinely the only console worth buying these days.

        • Facebones@reddthat.com
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          8 days ago

          Wait can it run ps3 emulators?

          Double wait are ps3 emulators working now? I remember pscx2 or whatever being buggy as shit.

          TLDR I’m ancient in internet years

          • mrvictory1@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            RPCS3 can run most PS3 games but Steam Deck may fall short in some of them. Recommended specs include 6 core CPU but Deck has 4.

            • anivia@lemmy.ml
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              8 days ago

              Going by core count alone is a pretty shitty metric for CPU performance. The 4 core APU in the steam deck will outperform an 8 core bulldozer cpu by any metric

              • kurcatovium@lemm.ee
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                8 days ago

                Except for power consumption and heat generation ;-) This is where Bulldozers were hot shit!

          • anivia@lemmy.ml
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            8 days ago

            I’m gonna blow your mind by telling you there are already working PS4 and Xbox One emulators, although both only support a small number of games so far

            PS3 and Xbox 360 can be emulated very well by a modern PC, the majority of games work without glitches

            • Farid@startrek.website
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              8 days ago

              PS4 is actually easier to emulate than PS3, because former has regular x86 architecture, but latter has a very weird CELL/PowerPC architecture CPU.

            • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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              8 days ago

              PS3 is the trickiest. They had that weird Cell architecture which is more difficult to emulate than simply “less-powerful x86” emulation required for more-recent consoles.

          • smort@lemmy.world
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            7 days ago

            I’ve had good experiences emulating PS2 on my Steam Deck. PS3 I haven’t gotten anything to run well enough that I’d call it enjoyable. Some don’t run at all

          • Farid@startrek.website
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            8 days ago

            To be fair, PS2 emulation is still not that great, but I guess it’s due to sheer amount of games for that system. Last summer I decided to check the PS2 emulation after 10 year break and 2 out of 3 games I tested didn’t work properly. Granted, those are kinda niche games (Transformers (2004) and Free Running), but compatibility still needs work. Hardware requirements are decently low for the games that do work, though.

      • Farid@startrek.website
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        8 days ago

        Vita can Run 99% of PS1 games “natively” and has a bunch of PS2 ports (some through PSP). Not PS3 though.

      • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        I wouldn’t trust Sony to not fuck that up somehow like everything they do.

          • fluckx@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            To be honest my steam Deck doesn’t go that far beyond 4h either on a single charge when I lower all the settings.

          • iopq@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            Playing witcher 2 at decent FPS only gives me 2 hours on the original steam deck

          • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            8 days ago

            That’s the one drag for me about the PS5 contrllers, the battery life before recharging. The PS3 controller did great, but the PS5 ones have so many features built in they die to quick for my liking.

  • Don_alForno@feddit.org
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    8 days ago

    It would be so funny if the EU decided Sony was a gatekeeper on the consoles without disc drives and forced them to allow 3rd party app store on them.

    Hey, a guy can dream.

    • CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      What the EU actually needs to do is to spearhead and help find everyone a way to actually “own” digital things. I think I’d be fine with not having a disk drive if I could buy my game, not be reliant on servers to download it in the future, trade my games with friends, and choose to sell it when I felt like it.

      We need to find a way to get back (most of) the benefits of physical media without actually having to go back to it.

      • bufalo1973@lemmy.ml
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        8 days ago

        “If a game needs a server and the official servers shut down, the protocols have to be released to the public”. I think it would be a good starting point.

    • kalleboo@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      The gatekeeper legislation sets minimums for revenue before you’re counted as a gatekeeper, and all the game consoles are too small a market to count.

  • 4vgj0e@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    One big reason people still play on consoles to this day is because they own a physical copy of their games and can play on their consoles even offline.

    Sometimes

    • baggachipz@sh.itjust.works
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      8 days ago

      I couldn’t play Baldur’s Gate 3, a single-player game, when my internet went out. That pissed me right off.

      • 4vgj0e@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Yeah that’s what I meant by sometimes

        Its becoming a trend where game companies are now making single player games require a internet connection just to play. I saw some games on Steam where single player games come with anti-cheat, like wtf.

        • Gamoc@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Becoming a trend? This has been a regular frustration in gaming since the PS3 generation.

      • anivia@lemmy.ml
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        8 days ago

        If you pirated it you could have played it offline though. Paying customers get a worse experience than pirates

        • baggachipz@sh.itjust.works
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          8 days ago

          Xbox series X. I couldn’t sign in to my profile, so the game wouldn’t load because I bought it electronically and it’s tied to my user. I sent them a little love letter for that.

          • PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee
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            8 days ago

            Generally this works just fine if the console you are using is set to your “home console”. That’s what the home console toggle is for. I could see this being an issue if you have multiple consoles in your house, or you are game sharing with another profile.

  • Mwa@lemm.ee
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    8 days ago

    for that value just get a pc honestly not a locked down freebsd based console

  • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    At $700 you could build a pretty decent PC that would last a lot longer (3060 12gb, Ryzen 5 5600, 16gb of DDR4), and build a steam library that you’ll have 20 years from now. I’ve had the same monitor, keyboard and mouse for an easy 10; controllers don’t last that long. They’re reaching a point where there’s less and less of an actual argument for owning one.

      • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        It comes pretty close to feature parity in terms of ownership. My kids can play my steam library on their own computers, I can play it on any machine I own, I don’t have to pay them any kind of rental fee, and they maintain my software for me.

        Only thing I can’t do is what…sell my games to someone else? I don’t do that anyways.

        • iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works
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          7 days ago

          I’m not betting on Steam disappearing in the next ten years. I probably wouldn’t even bet that they’ll disappear in my lifetime. But, they could, anything could happen, and then you don’t have that library anymore. Physical is the only way to truly own.

          • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            But, they could, anything could happen, and then you don’t have that library anymore. Physical is the only way to truly own.

            That’s exactly my point. Steam has allowed me to OWN Half Life longer than I would have been able to with physical media. Those CDs don’t last that long. I’m not that careful.

            So the balance is “own my own stuff and all the problems that come with keeping it pristine so that it continues to work, taking up space in my house” - or the infinitesimally small chance that STEAM goes belly up. Steam has allowed me to own my games for a lot longer than I could have kept them myself. So the argument of “oh they could go away!” doesn’t really hold any water for me. Especially for games with an online component (which is all of them now) – What’s the use of physical media when the game requires some servers that vanished long ago anyways?

            • iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works
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              6 days ago

              That’s a strange point, imho. We disagree on what own means. You being bad with your physical media doesn’t mean you didn’t more truthfully own it. We will have to agree to disagree, have a nice day.

              • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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                6 days ago

                Well then you don’t own your home. With that argument, nobody does. Because the government has the ability to take your home from you, then you don’t own it.

                Ownership has granularity to it. You’re failing to see the grey spaces in between, and only seeing black or white.

    • narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      Replace the 3060 with an equally-priced AMD card and you’ll actually get something decent for your money. Nvidia is horrible at these “lower” price points.

      • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        I mean, if you like horrible driver stability; sure. There’s a reason NVidia has like 75% of the market share, and it’s simply because they have a better product. Drivers are more stable, everyone develops for CUDA processing, lots of games only support DLSS for frame-gen, all of the GPU accelerated AI stuff is all NVidia centered, etc.

    • realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.clubOP
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      8 days ago

      And something that can run PS3, PS2 and PS1 games!

      I’m sorely disappointed that none of that fancy AI-powered Sony upscaling can be put to use to any of those old games.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      I’ve had the same monitor, keyboard and mouse for an easy 10;

      I guess it depends on frequency of use, but I’ve never had a mouse last ten years. I wear through the switch on the mouse button in less than that, starts to act unreliably.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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    8 days ago

    Unfortunately, physical media for gaming died when always-online DRM was normalized. It doesn’t matter if you have a game on a disc when you have to phone home every time to use it. The corporation may still block your access.

    One more step in ensuring no one owns anything. Lease or rent are your options.

  • Lucy :3@feddit.org
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    8 days ago

    Reminder that you can put in whatever you want in a PC. And that you can get a decent gaming machine for 1k (700+PS plus).
    CD Drive? No problem. DVD? Of course. Another SSD? Get some random 50$ thing and throw it in there. Floppy? Harvest some old PC and voila.

    • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      The real point is that you can upgrade it incrementally, you don’t have to throw it away, and upgrading will allow you to play all your old games from generation to generation without having to rebuy them for the latest Gen.

      • essell@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Depends how old you get. After 30 years some games just don’t work like they used to!

        Thankfully we do have modern solutions for old fashioned problems now.

      • Saleh@feddit.org
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        8 days ago

        Within limits though. E.g. If your mainboard only supports old CPUs that is a huge limiting factor and we saw MS messing with older CPUs just not being supported at all by Win 11.

        Now i made the switch to Linux myself too and i am very happy, but for people who want to start somewhere, maybe starting with their own linux gaming PC is a bit much for the start.

        • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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          I think that’s overkill, but a Steam Deck is on par with a PS5, but portable, and for a cheap dock and a ps5 controller you can play it like a console.

          Linux has made such leaps though, have a container with lutris and vulkan and it can handle most basic gaming that doesn’t deal with modern AAA titles.

          • barsquid@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            I got a Steam Deck because it’s a little computer. I can put my own OS on it, that’s awesome. The marketing page was talking about DIY repairs and offering spare parts, too.

          • Saleh@feddit.org
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            8 days ago

            I mean i am fully in support of PC gaming and in particular Linux gaming. It is just not as easy to keep upgrading PCs component by component. Eventually there is limits, mostly from the mainboards limits.

              • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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                8 days ago

                I was using the same board and CPU I started with back in 2016 up until last year. My bottleneck wasnt even the CPU it was the fucken RAM.

    • polle@feddit.org
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      8 days ago

      While this is true, consoles still manage to have a way more convenient experience. Its the only reason why they exist (today)

      • vxx@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        I think that’s mainly a relic from the past. I didn’t have compability or driver issues for a long time.

        Once the PC is set up, it’s as comfortable as a console. Setting the PC up to console standards is reduced to installing steam.

        • polle@feddit.org
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          8 days ago

          Looks like you never played on a computer on a TV screen. The experience is plaged by pad connection problems (Bluetooth), windows popups, random no full screen issues, sound suddenly on the wrong channel, microphone not working, mouse cursor in the middle of the screen (often reset to the middle after launching the game, even when you are playing with a pad) and so on. You still need a keyboard and a mouse near your couch and there is always something. For sure iam still not paying the markup for a console, but i get why there is a big market.

          • vxx@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            What are you on about? I use my PC on my TV all the times and I don’t have a single issue you describe. I just have it connected with Hdmi. The TV even turns on and off automatic if function activate.

            • Katana314@lemmy.world
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              8 days ago

              I’ve definitely had some of those issues. I won’t count an old issue where my GPU needed a special connection to attach audio to its DVI output (rare oddity). Some others:

              • Most computers would need to swap default audio device between whatever you use at a desk, and the TV registered as an HDMI audio device.
              • Bluetooth connections to arbitrary controllers have gotten better, but they had often needed manual enablement each time through mouse-based menus or a number of firmware updates to work with Windows/SteamOS.
              • My Steam Deck, even in its current iteration, takes some time to recognize the connected TV and swap resolution.
              • The mouse cursor issue can come up if you had to do any mouse-based option swapping, like that thing with audio devices.

              I’ve definitely gotten it working and had a blast, but the number of button presses to get to starting the game can sometimes be hard to predict. Even when I had a computer dedicated to the TV (a long time ago when SteamOS was fledgling) it was pretty unreliable about having all the right updates and not needing a mouse.

          • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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            8 days ago

            You’re doing something wrong. I’ve been playing PC games on my couch for a decade and haven’t had any of those issues.

    • SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      They make pull out cup holders to put in the CD rom rive slot. There are so many goofy fun things a computer can have in it.

      • fishbone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 days ago

        Having a pull out cup holder seems insane to me, my personal rule is no drinks near my pc at all.

        That said, I have a drawer in place of my cd drive that holds all my small peripherals (thumb drives, usb to sd card adapter, stuff like that) and it’s great.

        • LordGimp@lemm.ee
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          8 days ago

          I can use it as long as I like. Ps plus just gives you 3 “free” games a month and let’s you play online with games that require ps plus. Imo the three games a month for six bucks and change is already worth it. And you keep those games for as long as you have your account, even if you don’t renew your subscription. You can also just get games that don’t require an online component, though those are becoming harder to find.

          • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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            8 days ago

            Eh, on PC you can keep your games forever as long as you don’t lose the drive they’re stored on. And you don’t need to pay extra to access online features.

            And you can play any generation of games going back to pong.

    • iopq@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Floppy drives connect to the PC via ATA. I don’t have that connector in my computer

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Physical media or full rejection. Fuck you business school zombies squeezing blood from rocks

    • kava@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I understand if you don’t have the CD they can remove your access to it arbritarily like when they lose the license but

      Nobody ever complains about Steam and they have a similar policy of no physical media going back decades. I have hundreds of gamed accumulated on Steam and no game of mine has ever been removed.

      I bought the cheaper Xbox last year to play Overcooked with my girlfriend and it has no physical media. I just download and play games no problem. I actually find it more convenient not to have any physical games.

      So I guess the question is- what is the reason for the strong rejection of the digital version? It is the natural evolution of these things.

      • Zeoic@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Valve has the reputation to back it up. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo’s reputations make all digital game libraries a guessing game for when they give up and shut it down.

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        7 days ago

        It’s all good until they pull the content you thought you bought. I also prefer the convenience of downloaded games, but if it’s a game I really like, I buy the physical version.

        • kava@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          They could still remove it if they wanted to.

          For example push an update so your console can’t read certain games when they lose license. Or simply break backwards compatibility in specific ways.

          I guess the games I really like are all digital. Games like Slay the Spire, Rimworld, Balatro, etc. I know that the data is sitting there in my hard drive. I can copy it, move it, delete it, etc whenever I want.

          I honestly haven’t included a disc reader in my PC builds for over a decade. I guess on Xbox it’s different because Microsoft has more control. But again, if they wanted to take away the games they could do it either way.

          If that’s main reason, I don’t see the point of continuing disc use

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        7 days ago

        Steam didn’t start with physical hardware and then try to remove it. And stream doesn’t design, own and operate the hardware for the most part.

      • TBi@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        On steam people know they have an option to sail the high seas. But the same concern is there.

  • kingthrillgore@lemmy.ml
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    8 days ago

    Sony’s problems are twofold:

    • They are charging an absurd amount of money for a game console
    • They are selling a game console that has practically no first party games for it.

    If they had plenty of the latter, they could weather this. But there are still games releasing for the PS4, and they have had 1, maybe 2 PS5 releases that would qualify as first party this year (that don’t bubble down to PC).

    Jesus christ, Nintendo is gonna win it all aren’t they?

  • beejboytyson@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    I stopped buying consoles after they wanted to charge me to use the internet. That’s not how this works.