barry the thing with appstore and steam is that when games get to old or not succesfull at all they simply put it of the digital shelf. so after you buy it. and let us just say you uninstall it. and later on you realise that you actually wanna play it again. and then?
not on steam anymore
boxed is the best
ok for rereleases and small type games its ideal. but big ass games such as brderland ye know better have it boxed.
this doesnt mean i dont understand why they go digital. but a smart consumer who wnts to litteraly own a game. does actually fully own it when its in his own real wooden shelve.
I have no idea what situations you're referring to.
Midway games were pulled from XBLA after the company closed, but the game's files are still on the servers. Anybody who spent money on the games still owns them, and can delete and re-download them regardless of their absence from the store. As long as they have their XBLA account, they have access to the games.
Same goes for Outrun Online Arcade, which I own but it was removed from XBLA a year ago. I can delete it if I wish and still download it.
On the App Store, same deal. Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games was only on the store for a short while, but was removed. Yet I can still download it if I wish. It's in my listing of purchased apps.
The only time, and I mean ONLY time that I can see one losing access to a digital title is if it relies heavily on servers and the company (like EA on the App Store) decides to stop supporting it. But again, this is no different from Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast. A good chunk of the game is now inaccessible.
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I'm a game collector, and I appreciate boxed games, but I completely understand digital titles. Really, in the end, it is boxed-only minded gamers who are hurting themselves by ignoring fantastic titles simply because they cannot pop in a disc and play it. Aside from that little moment of removing the disc from the case and opening the tray, games like Outrun Online Arcade, Afterburner Climax and Hell Yeah are no different from Binary Domain or Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Still the same console and controller, games even appear in the same menus (the disc title appears with the digital titles).
The only way I can see digital download naysayers being right is if we were to look off to some distant hypothetical future when a company like Microsoft or Sony goes out of business and the ability to re-download titles disappears. But even then, there are a whole host of possibilities that could still allow us to access the games.
The one thing I do agree with, when it comes to negatives of digital titles, is that I can never justify spending more than $20 on a game if it also exists as a boxed release. Like Nintendo's thing of selling digital titles the same day as retail releases. I'd prefer to physically own a game like NSMB2 than download it, if I'm spending $40.
If I give someone money they sure as shit better be handing me something in return.
Fuck digital.
Ha! I love this sort of attitude. Yes, fuck SEGA and their digital titles. Because really, a game is not about the game itself. It's about a disc and a box. Something like Hell Yeah or Monster World 4 or JSR HD are nothing unless they are on a disc and sitting on a shelf. Until SEGA does so, which ain't happening with titles like those, then those games should never be played.
Honestly, are you serious? I mean, if you really mean "fuck digital" then you might as well get out of gaming now before the next gen consoles come. Or just stick to retro consoles.
I wonder, if SEGA were still making consoles and they had a digital download service (and face it, they would given how innovative they are) would we be saying "fuck digital" or would we be happily downloading digital titles to play on our Dreamcast 2?