The General Future of Games, DRM and ownership. Not for me? How about you?

I just feel like rambling some thoughts about the current path of the industry, with Microsoft's announcements about how DRM and connectivity will work and the fact that Sony will likely wind up with similar features. Apologies if it's all a bit of a mess.

Heading into next gen and the all digital future, I'm beginning to think that I just don't generally want a part in any of this DRM business. Or at the very least, given my history with Steam, I guess waiting until I can get everything ridiculously cheap to the point where I con't care about ownership quite so much?

There's certainly a sort of inconsistency to my reaction to Console DRM and the fact that I have quite a large Steam library. I think part of it is that PC games have long dealt with things like CD keys and DRM, and thus Steam for some part felt like a lesser evil? For me personally it's also because I'm not much of a PC gamer, and so purchases there have been on something of an uncaring whim, whereas on consoles I like to buy new and typically in a game's launch period. On consoles I've always really cared about gaming there and owning many of the games I play on those systems. If that makes any sense.

All of this business with console DRM has definitely caused me to pause and rethink the way I've been spending my money on PC.

Perhaps I will ultimately at some point get in on the next generation of systems, but be far less invested?

I have also made mostly digital purchases on Playstation Vita, but on Vita there is a large, easily understandable advantage to digital purchases that come with Sony's DRM - on a handheld having access to games without having to swap physical media is great. Whereas I don't honestly care about having to switch discs on a console. I think it's also a case of, again, not being quite so invested in the Vita and what's available for it, the one game that I really care about on that system I own a physical copy of. At least on Vita you have options, you can still purchase games without having to deal with DRM if you don't want to.

The industry's larger endgame at this point seems to be the "all digital future", where they can far more easily control users' access to games and receive compensation for any sale. I understand why publishers/developers feel they should receive compensation for any of their games sold, and I try to support them by buying new and extremely rarely buying used - it's a shame that while I care about their position, they don't seem to give any sort of shit about my rights as a consumer or what I want ownership to mean when making a purchase.

I also care about this whole "internet connection once every 24 hours" deal. Put simply, I want to be able to play games offline if a situation arises where I don't have an internet connection. Over the last two years I have gone through periods of a couple of weeks at a time without internet while moving, and the ability to play videogames has been extremely welcome. I'm not particularly interested in owning a console that won't let me play games if I'm without internet for any extended period of time, it was annoying enough when my WiiU would repeatedly ask me if I wanted to set up my internet connection when it didn't pick one up!

So, with things feeling personally somewhat bleak at this point, what does the future of gaming hold for me?

Ultimately I'm left thinking that maybe videogames are heading in a direction that I just don't want to be a part of. I'm really beginning to think that for me the future of videogames means Nintendo (which have their own problems when it comes to digital purchases, obviously), Vita, "Retro" and DRM-Free PC gaming.

I've long been planning to hold off on purchasing either a PS4 or an Xbox One, in favour of purchasing them at a cheaper price and continuing to play my current gen collection and WiiU games. I've amassed a great library of games this gen that I either would be happy to return to, haven't yet finished or haven't gotten around to playing. It's almost like I've been hoarding games for this very scenario like a crazy person. Perhaps this just means I'll be spending even more time with this current generation of systems than I originally anticipated.

Indie developers often offer DRM free purchases of their games; just this week I bought Gunpoint DRM Free and got a Steam key with it, so I could still play the game with the things I like about Steam, but still own a copy of the game that I get to own without any restrictions! Fantastic! Humble is doing awesome stuff with its bundles, and in the case of Gunpoint acting as the service from which you buy a DRM free copy of the game. You can even now sign up for an account and get access to all of your bundles/games in one easy place, all DRM free! And then there's GOG.com, no longer just a place for old games specifically, you can now also buy new DRM free indie games and we're seeing more "old" games that aren't quite so old.

So while I'm really disappointed that Xbox One (and probably PS4, but we'll see) are doing things to keep me from a generation of games that will likely be awesome, at least there will no doubt still be options in this weird transition period. Like a stick in the mud, though, I kind of just wish things would stay the way they are.

Thanks for putting up with my rambling if you got through all of that! I hope I made some semblance of sense!