The Sad State of Future Retro Gaming (and Managing Storage on New Consoles)

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Retro STrife
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The Sad State of Future Retro Gaming (and Managing Storage on New Consoles)

Postby Retro STrife » March 7th, 2018, 6:20 pm

Today you think of the PS1 as retro gaming, but flash forward 20 years and the PS4 will be just as retro. But how playable will it be? With today's world of patched games, digital-only games, online-only games, etc etc etc, I have concerns that advances in modern gaming will lead to a degradation and slow death for retro gaming. I strongly disagree with the claims some people make that the pre-online consoles (NES, SNES, PS1, etc.) can sustain the retro gaming hobby at its current level of success--people want to play the systems they grew up with, so 20 years from now a healthy retro gaming scene depends on people being able to play the PS4 games that they grew up with.

Today I downloaded the PS+ free copy of Bloodborne to my console, which was like 60 GB. To my surprise, my 500 GB of PS4 storage is already full, even though I've only had it a year or two and feel like I don't have many games on it. Of course, the PS4 downloads many disc games onto the hard drive, and adds patches and whatnot-- so I deleted my stored copies of Uncharted 4 and Titanfall 2 since I don't play them anymore (they'll get re-downloaded and patched if I ever put the discs in again). As I looked up this issue in forums online, a lot of people were very dismissive of storage concerns when other people raised them, saying things like "Well maybe you shouldn't play 8 games at a time, and just delete the ones you're not using." That's all well and good now, but let's think ahead to the future... In 2037, the PS4 network will likely be completely down. Your system will still work, but if you pop in a game, it will no longer download any patches, DLC, or other improvements. Who knows- some games might not even be playable anymore without certain patches or online accessibility. So, now that I've deleted Titanfall 2 from my hard drive, I won't have those patched features if I pop the game in my console in 2037. Or, take a game like Final Fantasy XV, which has been vastly improved by patches and upgrades since it's release... if a collector buys that game in 2037, he will never be able to get it to function in the same state that you could in 2018, because he can't download the extra features. People who owned the game before servers went down will have those extra features, while retro gamers buying the game in the distant future will have a far inferior version of the game.

While my experience described here is with the PS4, it's not the only culprit- this thought applies to other systems too. And things will only get worse with each new generation. Am I crazy? Is there a way around this happening? And what's the best way to store my PS4 games so that I have all the games in place, without having to delete them?

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pacman000
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Re: Managing Storage on New Consoles (and The Sad State of Future Retro Gaming)

Postby pacman000 » March 7th, 2018, 6:35 pm

"I have seen the future, & it doesn't work."

One of my 1st PCs was a refurbished Compaq with Win95. The OS alone took up 1 to 2/3 of the hard drive space. Ran out of room constantly.

When the X-Box came out with internal memory I was afraid a day would come where all games had to be installed to a hard disk, that game systems would eventually have the same problems as that old Compaq.

Flash foward till today, and my fears have been realized. What's next?

I don't see retro gaming going away entirely; as you said folks get nostalgic for the systems of their childhood. I do see it changing. We probably won't be able to play most old games on real hardware in the future. We'll need emulators or ports. Most likely only the most popular games will get emulated/ported. Think of it like classic films; Gone With the Wind still has an audience; it's still avaliable in high quality formats, but Zenobia? Try finding a copy of that in your local Barns & Noble.

Sut
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Re: The Sad State of Future Retro Gaming (and Managing Storage on New Consoles)

Postby Sut » March 8th, 2018, 3:19 am

It’s not a perfect solution but it will preserve the games you collect now but not obtain in the future.

PS4 allows you to have games on an external HDD. So once I’ve beaten a game it’s moved onto my external drive (you can also run them from there if you wish, but I don’t like USB cables hanging out of the front of my PS4).

This way you save all the updates etc so your games will still be workable in the future (except those with always online requirements).

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pacman000
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Re: The Sad State of Future Retro Gaming (and Managing Storage on New Consoles)

Postby pacman000 » March 8th, 2018, 9:02 am

"PS4 allows you to have games on an external HDD."

For about 20 years now that's been my idea of a perfect PC; a small OS on ROM or Flash memory, with changeable hard drives in cartridges.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: The Sad State of Future Retro Gaming (and Managing Storage on New Consoles)

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 8th, 2018, 9:12 pm

This is why I only purchase games on physical media that operate offline.
I don't do patches. If a game can't function without them it's not worthy of my time.

I agree that the fact that modern today's games that are at the mercy of remote servers will not be playable in the future.
However, this won't kill retro gaming. It'll just make the older offline-only systems all the more appealing (and valuable).

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DrLitch
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Re: The Sad State of Future Retro Gaming (and Managing Storage on New Consoles)

Postby DrLitch » March 9th, 2018, 12:49 am

Thing about today is probably 80-90% of the titles that are multiplatform are available on the PC as well - sites like GOG and Steam have a whopping great vintage game list and most of them work on currently OS with some tweaks. A current game 20 years from now will likely still be available for download and will run on the hardware of that time. Cannot say the same for PS4/Switch exclusives, but PC emulation will likely be an option for those wishing to play their retro games. I know it is not the same or as appealing as having physical copies and original hardware.

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Re: The Sad State of Future Retro Gaming (and Managing Storage on New Consoles)

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » March 9th, 2018, 7:11 am

My guess is that the AAA industry wants retro gaming to fail, unless it's reselling the past to you itself. Past a certain point, there's not going to be any real leap forward in graphics technology. We've already reached the point where you need to be a snob to care.

More than that, who has time to play every good game, when so many are designed as time sinks?

What's going to drive future sales?

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pacman000
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Re: The Sad State of Future Retro Gaming (and Managing Storage on New Consoles)

Postby pacman000 » March 9th, 2018, 9:50 am

They're not planning on selling software in the future; they're planning on renting it through "the cloud." They might sell upgrades, level packs, power ups, and the like, but actual game sales are going away, if current trends continue.

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Retro STrife
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Re: The Sad State of Future Retro Gaming (and Managing Storage on New Consoles)

Postby Retro STrife » March 9th, 2018, 5:40 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:I agree that the fact that modern today's games that are at the mercy of remote servers will not be playable in the future.
However, this won't kill retro gaming. It'll just make the older offline-only systems all the more appealing (and valuable).


I agree with the statement about appeal and value, Critic, but I disagree with the sentiment that the old systems will always keep the hobby going strong. I strongly believe that a healthy retro gaming scene depends on being able to play the games that you grew up with. The 30 year old guys of 2038 will want to play the games of their youth-- PS4, PS5, Xbox Two?, etc. Take that option away from them and you never get them hooked on retro gaming.

At that point, will the hobby entirely die off? Of course not-- there will always be a few really old men (us?) straggling along in 2038 that continue to play the NES and SNES. And sure, you might get a few 30 year old hipsters in 2038 that think it's cool to play an NES or SNES. But that "hipster" scenario is the exception rather than the rule - IMO the rule is that most of us get hooked on old systems from our youth, and then maybe expand beyond that after we're hooked. But without that, I foresee the hobby fizzling a bit over time, if today's games become difficult to play when the kids of today are grown up. And once modern gaming turns to digital-only, then you can really forget it...

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: The Sad State of Future Retro Gaming (and Managing Storage on New Consoles)

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 9th, 2018, 6:09 pm

Game companies are counting on is people buying the same game for new hardware - with perhaps a few minor upgrades. It worked for VHS/DVD/Blu Ray. We're already seeing it now with reissues of games like Crash Bandicoot.

Game companies really want nothing to do with retro-gaming unless it makes them money. Selling you a game that will run in 10 years prevents them from selling it to you again later.

Not totally convinced retro gamers only want to play what they grew up with. Most of the retro systems I have now I never had a chance to play back in the day. Heck, when I was young having multiple systems was pretty much unheard of. Even in the 90's owning a Genesis and SNES at the same time was a luxury.

Plus there are a lot younger kids who think NES games/carts are really cool even though they were way before their time.


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