Disk version for Xbone is also $30... (Destiny)

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, 23:34 (3737 days ago) @ Cody Miller

In case your tinfoil hat makes you fear digital...

Tinfoil hat? It's absolutely real. Just look at P.T. If you have it now, and lose it somehow (delete it or your drive goes), there's no way to get it back.

That's sort of a weird example, as it works against that argument in almost every way.

As a sort of a demo, there was no disk version of PT, nor would there ever be. So if you avoid digital, you'd never had a chance to play PT-- ever!

Also, if you have a game on disc and lose or damage it, that's pretty much it. Go buy a new copy. It's been a long, long time since I heard of a disc replacement service, and games go out of print all the time, whereas digital vendors like GOG and Steam pick up the slack by offering a long tail of older games packaged with emulators to run on modern hardware and OSes.

The real danger with regard to digital is the idea that without your consent or perhaps even your knowledge, publishers could revoke your access to a product you purchased or downloaded.

In the case of PT, they have not yet done this. You can't download it now if you hadn't ever, and now you can't replace your download if you lost or deleted it. But if you have it, you can keep it and play it-- so far. And if a free teaser for a game that now won't ever be made really was the be-all and end-all for a PS4 owner, well, I guess you could disconnect it from the Internet, put on a tinfoil hat, and play PT forever.

In every way that matters except resale, digital is better, and the situation with PT is one of the best possible examples. It's a product that would never have existed outside of digital distribution (or perhaps a gaming magazine disc, when those existed) and I can't think why you would cite it as the opposite.