said by neill6705:Does the idea of not physically owning the game disturb anyone else?
Yes, it does. I've been saying for years that the game industry is going downhill.
Even now, can you truly "own" a copy of a game? I mean you buy the disc, put it in the console and what's the first thing that happens? It goes online and downloads a 100-500MB patch. Then right off the bat there's a bonus/extras section where you can buy a crap-ton of add-ons for the game. Not to mention that half the game content will be DLC that you have to buy separately.
said by neill6705:I suppose it's the same as streaming movies from Netflix.
Sort of, but not really. Movies are much more universal. Converting a movie from DVD or Blu-Ray to a digital format isn't that hard. The digital files can also be converted fairly easily with the proper tools. There's no reason that a computer a century from now won't be able to play these same files.
However, unlike movies games need specific hardware to run. How does a streaming game company upgrade its systems to run newer games while keeping it compatible with all the older titles?
I seriously doubt that today's titles will still be available as streaming games a decade from now. The back-end hardware will have changed too much to run them. And once you no longer have a physical disc, you'll have no way at all to play those games.