SA game retailers here to stay

[Hanno Labuschagne]

SA game retailers here to stay

Despite physical video game disc sales declining substantially over the past few years, South Africa’s video game retailers are confident their services will always have a place in the country’s gaming industry.

With digital sales and video game subscription services like Microsoft’s Game Pass becoming increasingly popular, MyBroadband asked South African gaming retailers what they believe the future holds.

“Console game sales appear to have followed the path of PC games with the introduction of Steam about two decades ago now, with a steady decline in physical game disc sales,” Raru director Neil Smith told MyBroadband.

 

[Sapphiron]

not sure if I am their target audience, but I have not been to a gaming retailer since the middle 2000's

 

[genetic]

I must say I do miss opening the box of a newly purchased game. The artwork on the disc and booklet... skimming through the manual while you wait for the game to install. Those days are long gone.

 

[Sapphiron]

I must say I do miss opening the box of a newly purchased game. The artwork on the disc and booklet... skimming through the manual while you wait for the game to install. Those days are long gone.

For that to happen, games have to be actually done, but the time they ship.

 

[genetic]

For that to happen, games have to be actually done, but the time they ship.

Exactly! That will never happen in the online distribution world.

Developers have become so slack at finishing a game before launch, that they basically release beta versions on launch day, and use the public as beta testers. Then they release a myriad of patches until the game is bug free - sometimes months after release... Just look at Cyberpunk 2077. That game was a clusterf*ck at launch.

In the past, producing millions of physical media titles was a huge investment - it was expensive, which had a byproduct of at least ensuring developers properly tested their games before release.

 

[Okty]

Why is Mario giving that look like he wants to sodomise your ass?

 

[Pegging]

I must say I do miss opening the box of a newly purchased game. The artwork on the disc and booklet... skimming through the manual while you wait for the game to install. Those days are long gone.

Or the old PC Format magazine and it’s disc.

 

[Solarion]

People will always want their music/movies/games on hard copy especially if you are NOT someone who likes to have to open a computer and be ****ing around with accounts and logins every time you want to watch or play something. You just take a dvd or cd and pop it into whatever. The moment I have to flip open a laptop on my leisure time that's the irritation starts and I start getting the helling.

 

[Virex]

On PC all my stuff is digital. But on consoles I still prefer buy physical copies

 

[RedViking]

Well I guess if boardgames and card games are still relevant, game retailers will still have a place, as long as there are not many of them.

 

[Syphonx]

People will always want their music/movies/games on hard copy especially if you are NOT someone who likes to have to open a computer and be ****ing around with accounts and logins every time you want to watch or play something. You just take a dvd or cd and pop it into whatever. The moment I have to flip open a laptop on my leisure time that's the irritation starts and I start getting the helling.

So signing into steam once a month (it's really not rocket science to configure it to remain logged in) or any other service for that matter is more effort than finding the game case and swapping out disc's every time you want to play?

 

[stefan9]

I must say I do miss opening the box of a newly purchased game. The artwork on the disc and booklet... skimming through the manual while you wait for the game to install. Those days are long gone.

They stopped producing proper manuals long before the shift to digital happened.
Those boxes and manuals were nice.

People will always want their music/movies/games on hard copy especially if you are NOT someone who likes to have to open a computer and be ****ing around with accounts and logins every time you want to watch or play something. You just take a dvd or cd and pop it into whatever. The moment I have to flip open a laptop on my leisure time that's the irritation starts and I start getting the helling.

Only applies to people who still have disc drives. None of my last 5 systems have had one.


Haven't bought anything but digital for either gaming or music for the last 15 years.

 

[Guest 290922]

Sorry guys but times are changing Eg. Blockbuster* PS6 won't have a disc version or I'll eat my mane.

 

[Bruce Banner]

That's why I like XBOX Gamepass plus on the new next gen console ,switching between games is such a breeze and luxury, so why would I want Physical Copies , imagine everytime if I want to listen to music I have to get up and put in a disk , why , then switch again ,and again and again , everything digital and so what if I have to enter passwords each time ,it's much better than having to worry about physical disks that gets scratched as well