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NEWS: Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception, Mask of Truth Games Removed from PlayStation Store in the We




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Vanadise



Joined: 06 Apr 2015
Posts: 531
PostPosted: Sat Jan 23, 2021 11:03 pm Reply with quote
It's worth noting that prices for physical editions of the games are already going up quickly on eBay; there's only two copies of Mask of Deception for Vita listed and they're both >= $120. Prices for the PS4 versions haven't skyrocketed yet, but they probably will soon. If you've been thinking about getting the Utawarerumono games on consoles and haven't yet, this might be your last chance.
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monsieurb1982





PostPosted: Sun Jan 24, 2021 6:33 am Reply with quote
Meanwhile, on Steam, these games are both at 50% discount.

I love consoles, I have tons of them and I play and collect physical games since the Nes era, but I just don't understand why I should buy digital games on consoles that disappears when the next gen begin... I prefer either physical games or digital games on PC.
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Maciste



Joined: 27 Jan 2008
Posts: 151
PostPosted: Sun Jan 24, 2021 8:39 am Reply with quote
monsieurb1982 wrote:
Meanwhile, on Steam, these games are both at 50% discount.

I love consoles, I have tons of them and I play and collect physical games since the Nes era, but I just don't understand why I should buy digital games on consoles that disappears when the next gen begin... I prefer either physical games or digital games on PC.


That's the same way I think and the reason why I only buy physical copies. I am in control. No one can take the game away from me.
BUT, nowadays, we are in a semi pyhsical-digital state when it comes to videogames.
Sure, I got my copy of Cyberpunk 2077, but I need to rely on a patches for it to even run somehow properly, because playing it on 1.00 is outright impossible. Say I want to play that game again in the future. I was on a PS4 before and now I want a fresh start on my PS5. So I slip in my disc, but (for whatever reason) SONY removed it (again Very Happy ), including the support and patches - my physical copy would virtually be a coaster, nothing more, maybe even less.
Say what you will, but in the cartridges days, they were forced to deliver a finished / polished game and (pretty much most of the time) were able to. I know, modern games games are bigger and more demanding, but game companies and their revenues also grow. You have to adjust accordingly. I don't see any (morally) valid reason why a consumer should be a beta tester these days.
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roxybudgy



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 132
Location: Western Australia
PostPosted: Sun Jan 24, 2021 9:34 am Reply with quote
I bought the UtaMono games on PS3/PS4/Vita for the limited edition stuff. Other than an old Nintendo DS, I don't own any consoles, so I was stoked when they announced that it would be available on Steam meaning I could actually play the games.

Unless the prices on eBay get ridiculously high (talking 5-digits or higher), then I probably won't be selling my console editions. I used to tell myself that I'll buy a PS4 one day, but since I now have the games on Steam, that idea has been put on the backburner.
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Egao



Joined: 24 Jan 2021
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Sun Jan 24, 2021 10:36 am Reply with quote
It should be noted that the game got delisted only from the US PSN. Other regions still have it.
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Vanadise



Joined: 06 Apr 2015
Posts: 531
PostPosted: Sun Jan 24, 2021 12:28 pm Reply with quote
roxybudgy wrote:
Unless the prices on eBay get ridiculously high (talking 5-digits or higher)

Well, they'll never get that high; even classic Super Mario Brothers cartidges don't break four digits, and this is a niche visual novel.

I won't be surprised if all of the games eventually end up in the >$200 range, though, which is sad because it's going to be impossible for new players to get into the series on consoles.
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MoonPhase1



Joined: 29 Nov 2007
Posts: 500
PostPosted: Sun Jan 24, 2021 12:40 pm Reply with quote
These companies really need to learn to warn people in advance with these kind of things.
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Vanadise



Joined: 06 Apr 2015
Posts: 531
PostPosted: Sun Jan 24, 2021 2:15 pm Reply with quote
monsieurb1982 wrote:
I just don't understand why I should buy digital games on consoles that disappears when the next gen begin...

Most of the time, the main reason to buy digital is just for convenience. I don't have go to go a store or wait for an order to arrive, I don't have to switch out cartridges, and I don't have to find room on a shelf for it. I've been gaming for a long time and already have multiple boxes and bookshelves filled with old games; space is at a premium, and I can't keep expanding forever.

And being realistic about things, I'm never going to go back to most games after I beat them. I play through them once and then move on to something else. I'm never going to play most of the games I have in boxes ever again, and the only reason not to sell them all is that most of them aren't even worth the time it would take me to sell them. I've got a handful that fetch a good price, but those also tend to be ones I've got a sentimental attachment to and wouldn't want to give up.

In fact, for many of these old games, a DRM-free digital copy is much more reliable than a physical version. I've got old MS-DOS games on floppies that I'm sure are completely unreadable now, but I've got digital copies from GOG that I keep on a RAID5 Btrfs NAS that is much more reliable than any cartridge or DVD-ROM.

Really, the only reason to buy physical games nowadays is for console games that I know I'm going to want to revisit in the future or if there's a limited edition of a game I'm excited about that has some goodies I know I want.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5505
PostPosted: Sun Jan 24, 2021 4:48 pm Reply with quote
Maciste wrote:
That's the same way I think and the reason why I only buy physical copies. I am in control. No one can take the game away from me.
BUT, nowadays, we are in a semi pyhsical-digital state when it comes to videogames.
Sure, I got my copy of Cyberpunk 2077, but I need to rely on a patches for it to even run somehow properly, because playing it on 1.00 is outright impossible.
Yes it's amazing how almost every game needs at least on patch. the only game I can sort of think of was 13 Sentianals as that was just for the delayed English dub and nothing to do with the actual games performance.
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JeffreySweeney





PostPosted: Sun Jan 24, 2021 5:00 pm Reply with quote
I've been gaming since I was a child in the late 80s/early 90s and I've always bought physical copies of games for the consoles I own at the time, even to this day. I'm fine with having a digital copy though when it comes to emulation for retro games that are no longer being distributed. I've never really been into Steam and I don't think I ever will be. I honestly don't know a lot about it. Do you actually own what you download as a file on your computer or is it tied to an account on their service? What would happen one day when Steam no longer exists then? I'm just SOL and no longer have access to any games I paid for through their service?

Sadly it's a win/loss situation with either physical or digital. At some point your physical copies of games won't work anymore, many, many years later, but at least you actually own the game. With digital, you own the file of the game, but what happens 20-30 years from now when Nintendo no longer supports the Nintendo Switch and your Nintendo Switch with all your downloaded games and data breaks and no longer functions? I guess you're not going to be able to recover all that huh?

The way I look at it right now is, I buy physical copies of games I'm interested in hopes that I will eventually play them one day. If not, at least they'll probably go up in value at some point and I can turn a profit if I decide to ever sell them. At least with games that are 20-30 years older or more, I'm fine with using emulation and having digital copies of them, because I know that old media isn't going to last forever. Apparently disc rot is a thing with old CD based games and emulation is much more convenient for playing something like NES, PS1, etc.

I also prefer that games be released in a completed state like the old days of gaming, but I can understand the value of having DLC and patches, but I think it's a bunch of BS having to pay more for content that should have been in the game upon release. I can't begin to fathom why we should have to spend $100+ on one game when factoring in DLC in order to get the "complete" experience. Just look at something like Pokémon. Was only around $40 brand new on the 3DS, but now we're paying nearly $100 when factoring in the DLC on top of Nintendo and The Pokémon Company purposely jacking up the price of the main series games just because it's on the Switch. Not to mention having to pay money to use their online service, which is a whole other can of worms for another day.

What's going to happen 20 years from now when these current-gen games and consoles are no longer supported and we lose access to downloading DLC? Will they be available free of charge to download and update our games with or will they be lost to the sands of time?
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joeydoa



Joined: 30 Dec 2014
Posts: 121
PostPosted: Sun Jan 24, 2021 7:51 pm Reply with quote
As long as you have bought them digitally they are still in your library. I have games bought digitally back in the PSP days that are still in my digital library. Sony seems to be pretty good about digital rights. I now have an even bigger digital collection on the Switch and it's wait and see how Nintendo treats these rights - although I think it will be the same as Sony. I checked to see if the recently released Utawarerumono Prelude to the Fallen was still available for the Vita and its still there in the digital store (although you can only buy Vita digital stuff via the store app on a physical Vita now). I would characterize Utawarerumono as more of a visual novel with a heavy element of turn based strategy.
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MKVarana



Joined: 05 Jan 2005
Posts: 79
PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2021 10:34 am Reply with quote
I hope this isn't a bad sign for the Dokapon crossover coming out over here...
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