So, "collectability" of digital games and DLC in the future...

[GREEN00]

A strange topic, but here we go.

PSN for PS3 will eventually be retired. From that point on, all digital only content, whether it's full games, DLC, or patches, will not be available to new customers, will not be redownloadable, and access to it on a macro scale will be limited to people who already have it stored on a HDD or somehow saved on a PC/etc. storage device.

My question is,



What form do you think the aftermarket will take for the buying & selling of such content?



There are many digital only games only available on PS3/360/both, that will never be rereleased. Will people attempt to "collect" those games in the future?

And the same goes for DLC and significant patches, presumably those will have value as well.

How about retail compilations of digital games? Such as Journey CE and Best of PSN Vol 1. Journey for instance was a very well received game, yet the majority of its sales were digital copies. Long term, if people want to play Journey, will the disc version not be the prefered means?

Another point of discussion that comes to mind is "Game of the Year" rereleases with DLC and patches on the disc. My feeling is that those versions will be vastly more valuable than vanilla releases, and the GotY versions probably have smaller printings to boot.

[badinsults]

Perhaps the best analogy is with the Satellaview. Check out the Satellablog (http://superfamicom.org/blog/) to see the efforts at trying to archive Satellaview stuff. Alas, if it is anything like that, there will only be a handful of people who make the effort of trying to collect and preserve DLC stuff.

[jonebone]

You can collect digital content if you'd like, but it would never catch on because it's not transferrable. People may "collect" roms of their favorite games or mp3s from their favorite artists, but that stuff is never going to be worth anything other than play value.

So no, I don't see digital content being collectible, and anyone who buys it would be buying it to actually use. I can't imagine someone buying a digital download game for $10 just to have it in their collection and not even play it. That's ridiculous.

But yes, for games that have success digitally with some physical releases, I assume people will collect the physical stuff.

In my case, I played Plants Vs. Zombies on my phone and on my Xbox 360. Then I bought the limited DS collector's edition w/ figurine from Wal-Mart just to keep sealed. I'll never play the DS version, but the game was great and I wanted to have a physical collectible since it was such a great game.

[Alpha2099]

My dad and I have often talked about this when we buy games from Steam. Since they're all digital, what happens if Steam ever retires? Will those games be lost to the ether? Will we have to buy them all over again from somewhere else? I hope not.

[sloan]

This is exactly what the game developers and publishers are hoping for. Wait a generation or two down the road, after no collectable games for any systems from the most recent generations, and those old Master System and SNES games are not aging so well from a playability standpoint, and they are hoping that game consumers' wallets open up with relative ease. All a carefully crafted plan...

[Zthun]

My dad and I have often talked about this when we buy games from Steam. Since they're all digital, what happens if Steam ever retires? Will those games be lost to the ether? Will we have to buy them all over again from somewhere else? I hope not.

Most likely..yes. They will be gone. This is the major downside to having a 3rd party company manage your collection. This is the root flaw with DRM.

[Gameguy]

My dad and I have often talked about this when we buy games from Steam. Since they're all digital, what happens if Steam ever retires? Will those games be lost to the ether? Will we have to buy them all over again from somewhere else? I hope not.
I'm pretty sure most of those are downloadable, you can just save those games and use a crack to run them. I'm pretty sure plenty of people are doing this already without installing Steam.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I don't buy digital games to collect them in the same manner that people who collect physical games buy them to collect.

I buy them to eventually play.

Yeah. (Keep telling yourself that. Maybe you'll believe it one day.)

Also cracks woohoo. Too bad about people who buy digital games for consoles. Y'all are boned when the switch goes off - unless you modify / crack the consoles...

[Buyatari]

In most cases a used Ipod with 300 songs on it is worth just as much as one with zero.

[Greg2600]

There's NO collect-ability of course! Now, someone mentioned preservation, that's a different story. Are DLC from Xbox 360 or PS3 being archived? I would think so, by people who have modded their systems. I would imagine, similar to how almost anything that was available on WiiWare is "available" now for modded Wii's. I just haven't checked the other systems because I don't have them.

[PreZZ]

I believe that when the final system firmwares are released for 360 and ps3, they will be cracked to death somewhere down the road and you will be able to play them without paying like the wiiware and vc games on wii. I dont see myself hoarding multiple ps3/360 for having "legit" dlc and digital games with all different psn/xbox live accounts that are not mine. But I believe some people will sell their gamertags so you can log in and have their catalogs of digital stuff and starting new gamertags/accounts like people already do with steam.

[Tanooki]

As to the comment about Steam.

My understanding before I jumped in and used it for awhile was that Valve had this bailout setup in case they ever folded up shop. Supposedly they have a feeling of responsibility to their buyers and if they quit running it (went under?) they'd distribute some application that would disconnect the games from Steam so they'd work without the online connection or front end being required. I don't have a link to this nor care to google it up either, but you can.



On topic, no I don't think digital will ever have the value physical does, perhaps in a sliver of a way some of it might as digital may get re-released over time much how Super Mario Bros has been whored out how many times now over how many systems and services since it popped up in 1985 on a cart in the US? A few games will get a release again in time and some memories will rush back to someone and they'll want a crack at it, but it won't be like with physical where any of it can be salvaged and enjoyed if a physical copy still exists. Also in the case of physical if there's a threat of failure you can find a means to make a copy while stuff on downloadable services on consoles and all that don't work that way so well.

[goob47]

I suppose there is a large chance that every game on the PS3 will be uploaded to the internet, and the PS3 will eventually be jailbroken or whatever. Then, just like the PSP, every game will be available to everyone.

[Tanooki]

Those sure, but the downloads on PSN and XBL that stuff would be more tricky to preserve than ripping a disc.

[Greg2600]

Those sure, but the downloads on PSN and XBL that stuff would be more tricky to preserve than ripping a disc.

Any of those games reside locally, so they can/have been preserved.