Contents
Microsoft and Sony have both had their big console reveals in readiness for the holiday season. The next generation of Xbox and PlayStation 5 have been unveiled and will be hitting the shelves soon.
Source: OfficialFR
The base version of the Xbox, series S starts at $299 while that of the PlayStation will retail at $399. The stage for the next generation gaming console wars is set, and it will be bloody.
However, the real losers in this new development are physical gaming stores. It appears that 2021 is the year these shops will begin following the path of BlockBuster movie stores.
Console Beginning to Come With No Disc Trays
When it comes to gaming consoles, the price always matters. Microsoft and Sony emphasized the pricing of their consoles for this reason. They expect more buyers will go for the cheapest versions of their new consoles than the high-performance versions.
Both the PlayStation 5 base version and the Xbox Series S have one thing in common: neither has a disc tray.
The development spells doom for businesses whose primary product is selling and renting gaming discs. Does this remind you of the fate that met businesses that thrived on renting movies?
The popularity of Online Games
Video games are among the most popular forms of entertainment in the world. The video game industry is valued at over $93 billion in 2020. The Coronavirus pandemic has forced everyone to stay home, and most have sought virtual forms of entertainment. Consequently, the gaming industry is expected to grow even more rapidly in the coming years.
Around the world, new gamers are trying out online games, and it appears to be working well for them. Such games as Fortnite and dragon tiger online have had massive success over the past couple of months. This proves that the future of gaming, and where to find the games, is on the internet.
Benefits of Online and Downloadable Games
There are more benefits to online and downloadable games over physical disc games.
In fact, the only advantage disc games have is that they require no internet connection to play. Considering that the internet is faster and more accessible worldwide, this advantage is slipping away fast.
Retail gaming stores may soon need to change their primary service from selling the latest games to storing the classics.
The most significant notable that downloadable games have is that they cannot be lost or stolen. Losing a gaming disc is a big problem for gamers. A single scratch could often render a game unplayable. For this reason, a majority of gamers look forward to storing all their games on the console storage.
The Small Matter of Massive Storage Space
Gamers are hoarders. They like to call themselves collectors, but in the real sense, they have a habit of keeping games they never really play again.
Considering that modern games are getting larger, the matter of storage space is a severe issue. For instance, Microsoft’s Flight Simulator requires a whopping 150GB of storage space. It comes in 9 physical discs, and the original compressed files are over 90GB.
Both the Xbox and PlayStation 5 consoles come with about 1TB of storage space. This space is enough to store a handful of games, but certainly not all the games a typical gamer owns. Luckily, they both offer expandable storage to cater for the hoarders.
Conclusion
Every game is digital. Most current generation games come in physical discs and businesses such as GameStop have made a name dealing in them. However, this is changing and no one can stop it.
Do you prefer disc versions of games or have you already accepted that the future is in downloadable games? Regardless of your preference, we are witnessing the beginning of the end of retail game stores.