Xbox Isn't Trying to Push Customers to All-Digital

[pg2g]

@KakkaKarrotKake

…e platform much more enticing for buying games there

If people can get some money back from the games they buy it would potentially get them to buy and play more than they would have before, kind of like the GP method

If people sold their license, make it go back into their account as credit that needs to be spent on other games as it ensures that money stays in the ecosystem

Assuming third party publishers were on board, let’s say Capcom, if someone bought RE4 at launch, sold the licence to get I dunno, 10% back, that 10% would have to go into another Capcom published game

I do think if Xbox was able to get some major third parties on board and the right restrictions were in place it could be a very good idea and maybe lead to increased revenue and engagement for a lot of publishers

I guess to me a 10% return is low enough for it not to exist. People would be giving up ownership for a 10% coupon. If people are OK with that I think the rest of your points make sense.

[KakkaKarrotKake]

@pg2g

I guess to me a 10% return is low enough for it not to exist. People would be giving up ownership for a 10% coupon. If people are OK with that I think the rest of your points make sense.

I think a decent # of people would tbh, how many people out there actually replay their games?

10% is just an example though, I’m really not sure what would be the best pricing to go with, regardless I’m sure there’s lots of people that wish they could refund a bunch of digital games even for a small amount of credit

[Swanlee]

I mean look at the reality of it

Stores are removing all physical media not just games, As Phil pointed out Consoles are about the last mass market product with physical media drives in them and that has driven up the costs. I hate to point this out also but physical is a plastic blight on the world and we’d be better off not having these plastic discs.

I mean the current physical media is not even used to stream the data from the disc but just install the game to the console and then probably download a huge day one patch. A game code in the box would be a better solution then a plastic disc.

The only reason in gaming physical media is still around is because ALOT of gamers are too afraid of change and flip their shit at everything.

Realistically we have no use for physical games and it’s just a waste of plastic and money.

[Searsy82]

Bigtime Batman Begins vibes:

“I’m not going to kill you, but I don’t have to save you.”

[Swanlee]

@peter42O

That’s good. Hoping the next generation Xbox console has an internal disc drive as opposed to the optional external disc drive that Sony is doing with the current PlayStation 5 model.

Na, it will be much better if they design the console from the ground up without a Disc drive, the console can be a much better shape and or smaller without one and have better cooling.

Just license an external USB drive for this purpose and call it a day. You want physical? fine buy the drive and the discs but for the most part the world has moved on from that.

[Zip]

@cinste

There were some patents reported a couple of years back on this but they seemed to revolve around using a separate device to read the license from the disc to validate on a discless console. Which I guess could only ever be a temporary solution as if it was a one and done then theoretically you could just then give the disc to how ever many other people to do the same thing.

I can’t think of any way to do it on a one off/permanent basis that wouldn’t require you to hand over the physical disc afterwards either directly to MS or to a store (as reported by Brad Sams around the X1 launch).

Yeah the only thing I can think of is if the disc has a unique ID and they can essentially blacklist that disc from proving entitlement after you do a transfer. Still use as an installer but not to authenticate that you have rights to it. Almost definitely an ant the case for older stuff and that would be an invitation to piracy unless you mailed it in.

[SilentJay76]

@Swanlee

The only reason in gaming physical media is still around is because ALOT of gamers are too afraid of change and flip their shit at everything.

Pretty much. If by “a lot of gamers” you mean a small but vocal minority of console gamers.

In 2022 we were already at 94% digital across PC and console. (Excluding Nintendo, I believe, since they don’t share their digital sales.)

[Freed]

The best thing about physical games is that you can resell them and buy cheaper, but even that market got significantly worse with the more digital dominance, physical buyers are now less, and are mostly collectors who don’t intend to sell their games.

[Swanlee]

@Freed

The best thing about physical games is that you can resell them and buy cheaper, but even that market got significantly worse with the more digital dominance, physical buyers are now less, and are mostly collectors who don’t intend to sell their games.

Even back in the mid 2000s Id only get about 1-2 dollars each for most of my used game trade ins.

It was a pretty useless perk and I always felt ripped off

[saintsflow20]

@pg2g

I don’t think we ever see a reality where you would be able to re-sell digital games or DLC. In my mind, when you buy a used product you’re paying less because it has been opened/touched/handled/possibly been degraded, there are also a finite number of copies in existence.

With digital, the used product is identical to a new one and there are no limits in copies. I don’t see what terms would make re-selling digital copies realistic.

IMO “digital trade ins” would always have been $0.10 at most. (Well, hyperbole, but worthless nonetheless) There’s almost no benefit for the walled gardens to support it.

[Astrakan]

I wonder how much Game Pass has normalized digital games for people in the Xbox eco system. I know for me it’s a huge contributor.

During the vast majority of the Xbox One generation I only bought physical. I’d shake my head at the Xbox storefront, and didn’t understand why anyone would ever want to buy games digitally. I had my usual reasons: buying and selling on the used market, and bargain bin deals on older games.

Then Red Dead Redemption 2 came to Game Pass. I loved the first one, but never got around to playing the second one at launch. I wasn’t even aware of what Game Pass was at the time, but read up on it when I heard that RDR2 was coming and decided to join.

I haven’t bought a physical game since. Plenty of digital games, just no physical.

I hadn’t thought about the correlation until just now, but I’m guessing something about getting used to the digital experience by using Game Pass also made me accepting of browsing for and buying digital games.

And now I’m never going back. Digital is just so convenient, and for me convenience will win almost every time. I could probably save money by buying physical, but the hassle just isn’t worth it.

[Astrakan]

@pg2g

With digital, the used product is identical to a new one and there are no limits in copies. I don’t see what terms would make re-selling digital copies realistic.

Agreed. I do wonder if an adaptation of the economics of trading in games could be done digitally in a way people would accept. Like… long-term rentals? That’s effectively what you do when you buy a game, play it, then trade it in. The difference in the buying price and selling price is what you paid to “rent” it.

And so when a new game launches, there’d be two price points: $70 for brand new, and $40 for a limited-time license.

It’s not 1:1, since there’s a time limitation factor, but it’s decently close to emulating half of the used market: the one of someone buying and re-selling.

Emulating the other half, the one where someone buys a used game and keeps it forever is trickier. It’s sort of done by publishers like Ubisoft who discount their games a certain time after launch, but that varies a lot.

Still, done right I think the above rental model could work and be beneficial to both publishers and consumers.

[Flligher]

By not releasing games full on disc is actually pushing people to all-digital

[CallMeCraig]

@Astrakan

I wonder how much Game Pass has normalized digital games for people in the Xbox eco system. I know for me it’s a huge contributor.

Physical lost me when the plastic box only contained a plastic disc and nothing else. Why would i want to collect this trash?

This happened over 10 (ten) years ago and way before Game Pass so

[JonnJonzz]

Hopefully this means the next gen Xbox has a disk drive, so I can buy all those new games that way. Plus so I can play my last gen Xbox Series X games.

I’m fine if the disk drive is an add on, even though I’d prefer it to be not, but just give me the option to own my games.

[EPC]

If I compare with the movie industry, Bluray and UHD players are becoming scarse. The big companies push for streaming and only small editors like Criterion assure that the market stays alive. Retail is not dead but we have seen pictures of retail shops closing their BR space, because the market becomes elitist (and amateurs like to buy online). In all words, the market is becoming digital rapidly.

As a consequence, video game consoles are the only support to ask for such hardware, making the cost heavier and not easy to swallow. This is very different from the ps2 area where the quick adoption of DVD made the price of the unit goes down. Here, we see the opposite trend.

The possible add-on strategy could be a short term solution before going all-digital, which will happen some day (PC is already at that stage).

I do not see that as MS pushing for digital, this is anticipation of the market trends.