The point is: the whole appeal of the PS was, having the disc. Many would only have a PS because of the Disc. Now that there is no longer a disc what’s the point of having a PS? It has more expensive games, shittier graphics and performance to a PC.
Problem with your logic here is that physical discs haven’t been anything other than a key to unlock the exe you download for years. You aren’t getting anything off the disc, it is practically just a key. So what players are mad about is the illusion of control being ripped away, which I don’t really have any sympathy for.
It’s not illusion of control, the disc allows people to buy from other stores and allows people to resell their games. Games on disc go down in price much earlier than in the store. Spider-man 2 still costs 80€ in the PS Store, I can get it for half of that on disc and that’s not even the used disc price. Sony removing the disc option gives them full control over game prices. On PC you can buy from some other store, but that also comes with its issues.
You could still sell or loan that disc to shops or friends. Digital only games also mean no used games. Nintendo mitigates the issue with their virtual game cards, but you can’t sell it, and you’d have to gift the game to a friend every 2 weeks.
I agreed with you up until more expensive games, shittier graphics and performance. For the price of the console when it released it was a solid choice and was hard to buy a PC at the same price point that offered better performance. 6 years later and this holds true even more now than it did before. Steam box is apparently around the same performance with some things better and some things worse but at over $500 more for the one. Ps5 really holds its value for the price for what you get. I do wonder if that will hold true for the ps6 though (not holding my breath).
Yeah, but I can edit docs, send emails, run services (looking at you JellyFin), etc from a steam machine / similar Linux gaming box that I can’t from a PlayStation.
Obv its not the goal of the machine, but in a pinch, it’s an option.
The point is: the whole appeal of the PS was, having the disc. Many would only have a PS because of the Disc. Now that there is no longer a disc what’s the point of having a PS? It has more expensive games, shittier graphics and performance to a PC.
Problem with your logic here is that physical discs haven’t been anything other than a key to unlock the exe you download for years. You aren’t getting anything off the disc, it is practically just a key. So what players are mad about is the illusion of control being ripped away, which I don’t really have any sympathy for.
It’s not illusion of control, the disc allows people to buy from other stores and allows people to resell their games. Games on disc go down in price much earlier than in the store. Spider-man 2 still costs 80€ in the PS Store, I can get it for half of that on disc and that’s not even the used disc price. Sony removing the disc option gives them full control over game prices. On PC you can buy from some other store, but that also comes with its issues.
You could still sell or loan that disc to shops or friends. Digital only games also mean no used games. Nintendo mitigates the issue with their virtual game cards, but you can’t sell it, and you’d have to gift the game to a friend every 2 weeks.
I agreed with you up until more expensive games, shittier graphics and performance. For the price of the console when it released it was a solid choice and was hard to buy a PC at the same price point that offered better performance. 6 years later and this holds true even more now than it did before. Steam box is apparently around the same performance with some things better and some things worse but at over $500 more for the one. Ps5 really holds its value for the price for what you get. I do wonder if that will hold true for the ps6 though (not holding my breath).
Yeah, but I can edit docs, send emails, run services (looking at you JellyFin), etc from a steam machine / similar Linux gaming box that I can’t from a PlayStation.
Obv its not the goal of the machine, but in a pinch, it’s an option.
Steam box =/= normal gaming pc
My 5 year old pre built acer laptop is around the same price and specs, and only the cpu is better on the steam square.
Comparing the release of ps5 with current day stuff seems weird. Why not compare with the launch of valve? Or personal computers in general?