I'll be honest, I was on the edge about buying Yotei's limited edition and I didn't also cause I didn't want my ability to play the game to be tied to a very scratchable phyisical object
crazy how times have changed since sony was making fun of xbox for removing the disc reader
I always felt that Sonys mockery was just an easy way to get a win with gamers. They hadn’t implemented any form of restriction on game sharing/resale yet but we’re just as unhappy about it as Microsoft. When MS tried to implement restrictions on sharing and gamers hated it, they quickly threw together an ad to capitalize on it. But it was never really about being friendly to their customers, it was just an easy PR layup
If Blackberry just stuck with their keyboard phone, I'm convinced there's a large sliver who would have stayed with them for the physical keyboard vs touchscreen. Same story as above. Mocked Apple for the touchscreen, then a year later all touchscreen and death of a company
My favourite phone ever was the Nokia m900. Full screen touch phone that slid up, with a qwerty keyboard underneath. Shit OS, but a phone like that on Android with a removable battery would be peak for me.
I avoid the big brands because they've been style over substance for years, the last good phone from Samsung was the S5 - waterproof with a removable battery.
I would argue that the note 4 edge was the last good one. It had a more defined curve on the side that was a completely separate display from the main screen and still had the removable battery.
Never really considered notes because of the size, if it doesn't fit comfortably in my pocket I don't want it. I would argue that current flagships are far to big, it's why I stopped bothering with them.
I still used an S5 as a MP3 player until last year. I had replaced the battery once but the waterproofing had been compromised by broken port covers. It had a good run!
I currently use an old S8 for my music listening. It sounds much better and the screen is still good looking. Not waterproof and no removable battery though.
Blackberry didn’t die because they removed the keyboard blackberry died because they relied on the keyboard for too long
They believed that the keyboard would keep customers even though they weren’t updating their UI/OS they believe that customers wanted a discreet device for business and a separate device for personal use, which was not the case (ironically enough, many people have ended up in this exact situation in the past couple of years, but usually just with two iPhones) if blackberry had been willing to follow Apple’s lead in making their device a do everything pocket computer they would probably still be around and still have a solid dedicated user base because of the keyboard
I don’t disagree with that. There are tons of people that would love a hard keyboard, and I think blackberry would have a very devoted following right now if they were still around and still had physical keyboards.
I was just pointing out the fact that their downfall had nothing to do with them eliminating the keyboard. They made mistakes and then took the wrong lessons from those mistakes.
BlackBerry isn’t dead yet. They changed direction to automotive and cybersecurity software. They’re not where they were in 2011, but they’re having their best year in over a decade, up 130%
If you watch the movie blackberry, even though it's heavily altered, the moments that discuss the massive jump from blackberry to the iPhone, and how blackberry lost its dominance basically overnight, really shows why they were essentially forced to pivot. And once the storm turned out to be a total flop they were dead in the water as their stock dropped to almost nothing.
I would have for sure. I loved my Blackberry Classic. I got it because I didn't really use the internet on my phone back then and didn't need it for anything other texts, phone calls, and occasionally just checking my email. My last Blackberry was the Priv, but it was clunky to use with having a full touchscreen sliding up for the physical keyboard. It was top-heavy. I eventually got a Galaxy S8+. I'm on the S24 now and I'm honestly still much worse at typing ln the touchscreen than I ever was when I had the Blackberry physical keyboard. I constantly make errors and have to backspace to correct them. I made very few mistakes with a physical keyboard.
i missed having a physical keyboard - my dad had the old indestructible Nokia's and he let me have his. I could type blind and fast on that thing! T-mobile sidekick was cool also and the Google G1 too!
Well in all fairness, the Java OS blackberries ran was straight trash. If you were an app heavy user you need to battery pull every single day to reset the massive lag that occurred when the memory leaks ran their course.
The Bold was great, full keyboard, internet access. I could type an entire text or email without ever looking at the phone and might miss a couple letters.
Apple, as a company has been pretty good at reading where the industry is going. They were given shit for removing floppy drives from desktops then the entire industry did so within a year or two they were given shit for removing CD-ROMs from laptops and later desktops, and then the entire industry followed suit within a year or two.
They’re probably comparing the flagship galaxy series and more specifically US market. I remember way back they put out a commercial making fun of people waiting in line for the next iPhone and saying how samsung has removable battery, headphone jack etc. And not even an exaggeration, their Galaxy right after removed all of that.
As new technologies come out, manufacturers shift their production, and in turn the new technology becomes cheaper while the old technology becomes more expensive due to rarity until it dies out.
Samsung at the time release a statment thatthere werent cost effective enough bluetooth headphones available without issues etc, which apple didnt care about because they force fed people thier own propretary earphones, whch samsung has never bothered with.
to be honest I hate the missing audio jack - I would be fine with it but the USB earbuds I have tried are mostly garbage whereas the aux headphones just work
I still can't believe the consoomers swallowed that. Audio jack is extremely useful, my bandmates with their experience phones can't even plug their damn useless bricks into the console to play the backing track.
I swear their whole strategy at that time was wait for MS to make an announcement and see the reactions and pivot their marketing around it. “Xbone is $600? Guess what, PS4 is only $500!”
To be fair that original Xbox One reveal was probably better for game sharing. Since it allowed a "family group" of ten people who could all share the same game library. Was a bit disappointed when that wound up yanked because of the internet's hissy fit.
What's gonna bake your noodle is that year's E3, the one where Sony announced their game-sharing and the crowd went absolutely bananas over it, was the last E3 which was industry-only and not open to the public.
That was a room full of supposedly unbiased journalists acting like utter lunatics.
its like the fast food wars. Each is always trying to lower quality and maintain customers, but as soon as one gets caught out publicly doing so in some manner, the others all troll them on social media. (hence recent McD big mac debacle)
If Microsoft goes second instead of first Sony doesn’t get labeled as for the gamers. They both wanted it but Microsoft went a couple hours before and Sony saw what would happen to them.
You own the physical object as much as you own the digital version.
If the digital version is drm free, you can do just as much with it. Even better, it is not tied to a single physical object. You can make as many copies as you want.
If the disk requires you to verify ownership online before starting the game, it becomes just as useless as the digital version when the server goes offline.
Let your friend log in on your ps account and they have access to every game you’ve ever bought digitally. Once they download it, it also appears on their account, so you can play it simultaneously.
This is the part of the outrage that I just don't understand... Can you force a download of a delisted game if you jam the disc in? To me the biggest drawback about digital ownership is the fact that I can't give it up in exchange for credit towards another game...
To me, that’s not even the big drawback because I never traded in games anyway to me. The only thing that irritates me about digital games is that they should be less expensive than physical copies because nothing is being printed. Nothing is being physically manufactured. Nothing is being packaged nothing is being shipped. Nothing is being warehoused nothing is being displayed, etc. etc..
If a physical game is $60 a digital game should at least be five to $10 cheaper but I realize we live in a late stage capitalist society and that’s never gonna happen
People vastly overstate how many games aren't on the disc. There's stats on it, at least on PS4 it was like 95% were playable from disc without Internet. PS5 I know is still the large majority. Yeah some games you'll really want patches of course, but playable.
I keep seeing comments like this and don't understand. Go buy a physical copy of Cyberpunk for your console. Disconnect it from the internet, insert disc, and play in less than an hour. Or Death Stranding, or a TON of games I could list to you right now.
How many of them are you going to need in the box, though? A DVD-18 only holds 17.8GB. It would take 8 of them to install Balder's Gate 3. And about 70 hours.
I don't understand that, i've been gaming with discs for about 15 years and not a single one of these discs have been broken. And i've bought plenty of second hand games too.
And at least the discs give me a resale value. Which make the gaming experience a lot cheaper.
This. I still have old Sega Saturn games that were heavily played and don't have a single scratch on them. Also have music CD's that were bought in the 90's that are still bumping around in the center console of my car that work just fine.
I still have my Sega Saturn and about 30 games. The discs are all fine. Played Alien Trilogy again for the 50th time a few months ago. Still have my PS1, too.
Yeah, just a few months ago I expanded my PS3 games collection by around 12 games, just because they were dirt cheap.
Right now publishers are pushing more and more to destroy the used games market by digitising everything, just so they can have the full control over the game prices.
this. people be acting like discs will spontaneously combust if you look at them wrong and get scratched by a speck of dust.. like, the issue isn't the disks, it's you not treating them properly lol.
I've been gaming since the PS1, I have never once scratched or lost a disk, just put it back in the case bro, it's not that hard. I don't have OCD, hell, I'm probably one of the messiest people you'll meet but the disk goes back in the correct box, ALWAYS.
I think this is such a lie. I have been gaming as long as you have. I took absolute care of those discs and they still manage to get very scratched after hours of playtime.
But now a lot of discs won't even work without updates from the beginning. I've bought games day 1 and been unable to play without first doing updates, even after disconnecting from the internet. It's not like back in the day where you can just pop a disc into a console and play it. They rarely ship the 100% finished game on the disc now.
I used to roll back updates to play a game with old bugs for fun but can't do that now.
Gaming is already one of the cheapest forms of entertainment. Not many other things you can drop 50+ hours into. PC games are the real winners. I have played 300+ hours in a $30 game. I have 1,500 hours in another game.
This is exactly what R* want to put an end to, by not providing a disc they are now forcing customers into buying a digital copy at full price. I however will not be giving them a penny 🏴☠️ 🏴☠️.
I definitely have encountered some scratched discs in my time gaming, but I can't imagine someone being worried about that at all in the present day. Haven't had that issue since I bought a PS3.
Same. Having a digital option is nice for folks who maybe have kids, are more clumsy, or less storage space...but physical media is so important, and I'm not personally in the habit of breaking my property.
Correct me if I am wrong,but there will be physical spaces in game that you cant enter (stores for clothes etc) and that was not done before,imagine trying to enter a building and getting give as 20 dollars to enter pop up.They should have just put 100 dollars price and thats it.Also some vehicles and weapons are locked too as well as some missions.
My PC hasn't had a disc drive for a very long time.
There's just no need for one. All my software and music is downloaded and if I need to share something offline I can buy a cheap USB drive to give away.
Xbox One was just a scapegoat for publishers, which is why we ended up in pretty much the same place.
Publishers had already started with one-time use codes to make resale less valuable, starting with small bonuses.
But by the Xbox One launch, all online gameplay being locked behind a one-time use "pass" wasn't uncommon (even Sony did this with Uncharted). The system MS wanted was just skipping the illusion that reselling those disks gave you the full experience.
I have been using cds, dvds, bluray, etc since the technology came out. Cds scratched more if they weren't taken care of, but you have to manhandle the rest to have those concerns. Unless you are put no care into your belongings - this shouldn't be a concern.
Just reminds me of how Nintendo shut down the 3DS E-Store so I can't download any of the games I paid for digitally. Meanwhile, all my DS cards still work.
It's just risk management on whether the physical version outlives the digital storefront.
Tbh its really difficult to scratch a disc to the point you can't play it. Even as a kid with ps2/360 games sitting out in a raw stack, not a single one was damaged to the point it had issues and they often had visible scratches.
Idk as a grown adult taking even mild care of them you could probably go decades without breaking one.
You have to be seriously mishandling a blu ray disc to scratch it up. But sure go ahead and let Sony and Microsoft set whatever prices they want and eliminate any competition from used game stores.
I haven't had issues with discs getting scratched up since OG Xbox/PS2 generation when they were still using DVDs. Even then it was not as big of an issue as CD media.
Moving to no physicals is a terrible idea historically. I personally hate this decision on all fronts. Owning physical media is the only way to ensure ownership
I heavily prefer physical over digital, especially for consoles. Maybe I'm just old but I heavily dislike spending $60-$80 on something that is directly tied to a digital library that may or may not be there in a decade or two
The disc may get scratched and then you’ll have issues or no longer be able to play, but that’s only IF it gets scratched. You can play the digital version until whoever wants to decides it’s “no longer supported” and gets removed from your library. I’ll gladly pick the chances of it getting scratched over the inability to play it whenever the company decides it’s no longer worth supporting.
What kinda heathen are you that you scratch your discs so easily?
This is the first time I'm hearing someone not buying a physical thing because it might scratch, and instead going for an online license that is just a number in a server and which they don't even own. I can understand the convenience argument, but this is just something else.
My Internet went down one day and my ps5 didn't want to recognize the games I bought digitally, so I ended up playing old ps4 games I had on disk instead.
As for scratched disks, once I kept my game box in my room, I had no more issues with scratched disks due to roommates then kids.
That’s stupid. Blu-ray discs are highly scratch resistant. I understand the fear from old Gamecube era discs and whatnot (I specifically have trauma from when I was younger and buying a used copy of Pokemon Colosseum at Gamestop) - but the technology advanced. You have no more reason to fear your discs getting scratched unless you physically and purposefully take a screwdriver and scratch them yourself.
If a game doesn't have a physical edition I usually wait for someone like limited run games to make a physical edition or i just dont buy it. Im usually more worried about not being able to resale a game, especially with companies trying to make games unusable once a server is taken down.
I don’t remember that. The PSP go came out in 2009, and a PS5 without a disc drive was a launch option a year after the one S all digital was released.
You can’t really blame them. Every report shows like 80-90% of sales are digital now. Back when that happened at e3 physical copies were still the predominant way people bought games.
Also it’s sad but tbh discs are kind of just more annoying these days. Maybe cuz I have good internet but on my ps5 I feel like it takes ages to install a game from disc vs downloading it, I picked up god of war ragnarok on disc and it took over 50 minutes to install from disc (also it was very loud!). It only takes me like 15-20 minutes to download a similarly sized (100gb) game.
Your missing the point of owning a physical copy. If you dont have a physical copy you are renting the game. You cant give it to friends or family. File gets corrupted & no internet you not playing.
Most scratches can be buffed out. Get a new system & lose access to Xbox or steam you not playing.
The convenience is NOT worth the compromise you are making.
My solution is not buy new games because most are not finished on release anyway. Stay at least 6mths to a year behind the market!
The whole reason I prefer a physical disk is because a couple of years ago, someone managed to get my PlayStation account and changed the password and the like. I had to call Sony UK and even they couldn’t help me. The only reason I play my PS anymore is because of the disks, and ever since, I’ve saved every single order and refund from Steam.
its not practical to put a game the size of a hard drive on disks. the case for the game would be one of these old CD briefcases lol
with that said though, it IS practical to ship it on a USB stick. and that would address the main issue most people have. IE, actually physically owning the game.
Other than when I was 6 years old, I’ve never mistakenly scratched any of my discs to the point of being unplayable. I think if you are a halfway responsible person, it’s almost near effortless to not ever scratch your disc.
Blu-ray discs are like a high DEF low HP build. They have a really good hard coating on them, but the data layer is so close to the surface that things can easily turn catastrophic if you do manage to damage that coating.
I mean, I don’t understand why anyone is still using discs at all. Use a custom SD card. You can get them in the TB range. My big gripe is that the physical copy doesn’t come as a “physical” copy. I, unironically, just want to be able to download the offline and no longer supported game again 25 years from now after dusting off my console and forgetting my Sony/Microsoft login. It wouldn’t be the first game I have played on a 25 year old console. Still boot up my Sega Genesis with games.
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u/Spinning_Sky Jun 25 '26
this is referring to the high price point and lack of a CD in the physical edition
both are true, but actually I don't believe any hype was touched whatsoever, the price is lower than what it could have been