GOG is exploring the possibility of bringing back boxed PC games by letting customers order physical editions directly from their digital libraries. However, the idea remains in its early stages, with logistical challenges and publisher approvals still standing in the way. In the meantime, the company is taking smaller steps to revive the appeal of classic big-box editions.
The only way I can see this working is if GOG uses the “Bandcamp” method. I’m pretty sure most of you reading this knows what Bandcamp is but just in case: Bandcamp sells music, predominantly from indie artists and labels, which you can then download. Like Steam and GOG for games, Bandcamp is geared towards digital consumption.
However, Bandcamp allows artists and labels to sell merchandise along side digital music purchases. This can physical formats like CDs, vinyl and even cassettes. And shirts too.
GOG could encourage developers and publishers to sell physical copies along the digital purchase for slightly higher price than digital alone.
The problem is convincing developers and publishers that it’s worth it. In their view, why would spend money printing physical copies for that a platform that went digital two decades ago? Consoles, at least, still have reasons for having an optical drive.
(Fuck you, Sony!)
I think a usb card would be the most cost effective option and It also has enough space to slap a sticker of the game on it. They would have to research it it’s something others would like or if limited edition reprints would be the most wanted ones, it would certainly be more profitable.
The disk is likely more cost-effective ( if only they’d continue to manufacture them ). Flash memory also degrades a lot faster than disk, especially if not read periodically.
Flash memory data retention isn’t that long unless it’s periodically powered up, the higher the levels per cell the worse it is (so, SLC - single level cell, where each cell only encodes 1 bit with 2 values - has far longer memory retention than QLC - quad level cell, where each cell encodes 4 bits with 16 values).
Meanwhile as somebody else already pointed out, stamped CDs and DVDs will last decades (this is not so for recordable ones, though if I remember it correctly even those last longer without content corruption than QLC flash).
A well manufactured laser disc can easily last 44 years as -somewhat- proven by the history of the compact disc. A solid state memory chip that can hold over 10 gigabytes of data -at a reasonable cost- cannot say the same. Maybe really good quality chips that nobody would ever pay for alongside a game could last 20 years, but realistically 10 years is a stretch without rewriting the data.
Even Switch 1 catridges are a bit suspect despite most of them being less than 32GB in capacity & thanks to scale being much much cheaper than anything GoG will be able to get their hands on for this.
I mean yes they could get manufacturing costs down to $3 per unit I’m sure, but that kind of defeats the purpose of anyone ever wanting to have a physical copy of a game. I think discs are just a much better long term storage medium.
I don’t think this is difficult. On GoG you are allowed to download your game installers & burn them to physical media if you so please. It’s not unreasonable to think that GoG could do the same at your behest, with some professionally printed art added in. I don’t really see a circumstance where anyone would oppose this.
As I see it, GOG would have to themselves provide the service that makes short custom runs of physical game DVDs complete with cover art and then ship it.
Economies of scale make a single company doing all the work of physical production cheaper and more effective than a ton of companies (including some - indies - generally too small to have the scale to do it) doing it independently, and whilst subcontracting that work should be possible, it would still be more costly than just one company doing it for everybody plus there’s still the shipping part on top of the manufacturing part.
Of course, this assumes that things like DVD masters can be made cheaply for short runs (yeah, using recordable DVDs is possible but those are much more costly than stamped DVDs plus their last a lot less).
Without all this, I don’t really see how, for example indies would be able to participate in this even if they wanted to.
I agree mostly, but I think the way this could be made to work is made on-demand, maybe without a physical disk. Basically just have a bunch of empty boxes and print the cover when someone orders a case. I guess it probably wouldn’t be too hard to print the disk on-demand either, but it’d be easier not to.
Still, regardless of how it’s done, I won’t be purchasing it. I don’t want to store a bunch of cases. It was cool back in the day, but it was also a pain in the ass. It was just a necessity. Now it isn’t. They’d literally just be clutter.