MaxLevel: "The value of a Blu-Ray will depreciate during the next gen of gaming. With HDD installs being unavoidable through either format and the ability to store digital items on cloud servers, the value and convenience of digital copies are elevating. Do you think the PS4/Xbox One generation will be the final generation where physical copies will be the standard? Here is why I think it will."
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
INDIE Live Expo, Japan’s premiere online digital showcase series , will debut never-before-seen games & content updates across more than 100 titles on May 25th.
Phyical forever! Collectors editions will never go away. Forcing gamers down a path never works. Look how we changed policy just on this Next Gen to come. A digital copy has less of a emotional connection to me. I can't hold it, read it, look at the artwork, etc. It's all part of the experience. I'm a collector of games and I can pull one at any time and recall all the memories of the day I first bought it. Having a first version of a game, vice a remaster or reprint. Having a GOTY Edition all still on one Blu-ray disc.
All digital sucking up your HD. Upgrading that at some point because it's going to happen. Renting cloud space for more storage because again it's going to happen given the length of these consoles life cycles. I ran over 200+ games on my PS3. All without having to load the full game on the HD. I did the base install, beat it and would delete it. It's a 80g Phat PS3 too. But putting the game back on the console is not big deal. Not like downloading the whole entire game over again.
Install speeds, my god this has been the nightmare thus far with anything digital. Brb, taking 10 hours to download a game. Thank goodness you can download and play the game as it downloads in the background now on the PS4.
Out of sight out of mind. That's what digital means to me.
boobs
Hahha he forgot to mention the bandwidth caps that Internet provider are starting to implement.
Me: he'll yeah! Downloading my new next gen now. It's only 50gb
Internet provider: bam! You reach you cap.
Me: my game is not finished downloading yet
Internet provider: sorry you either have o pay more for bigger caps or wait until next month to finish Downloading.
Me: Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu....@$#!!!!
No, it won't stop after this gen. Do you really think today's gamers, the ones that went completely ape @%&* over Microsoft's policies, will change their mind of the subject only 5 years from now? Today's gamers are too conditioned to physical copies. You have to ween them first. You can't just magically get up, say "No more physical disc", and expect it to go over smoothly.
I don't want to watch the video, but that picture brought me here. Is that a Blu-Ray disc?? If so, man, you gotta take care of your stuff. BR discs are pretty durable and scratch resistant, so to do something like that to one... You better have children or else I recommend you go all digital.
It's been over a year, and I still haven't forgiven my cousin. He probably left my Gran Turismo 5 somewhere his baby brother could grab it. I miss that game :(