RetroGaming

I assume they're referring to actual hardware. I'd imagine the percentage of gamers playing emulated games is much higher than 14%.

Edit: Found the article

It appears I am correct.

Modern games: requires $300+ game console or a $300+ GPU to get 30 FPS

Retro games: runs on your grandma's Dell Pavilion still running Windows XP that she refuses to stop using, gets 50/60 depending on region

It should! It's allowed me to play so many games that are hard to find or expensive these days.

The survey question seems to make it seem like it's referring to original hardware, but I imagine a lot of respondents didn't limit it that way.

With emulation being common even officially these days (NSO, emulated games on Steam, etc), I think it's fair to factor that in as well.

I still own my real SNES from circa-1995, but I'd rather play on an emulator than put wear and tear on it, so yes.

Yes, the survey summary below shows no exceptions for physical hardware vs emulation in the question

https://article.images.consumerreports.org/image/upload/v1718112414/prod/content/dam/surveys/Consumer_Reports_AES_May_2024.pdf

Signatures as a form of authorization I think held up the facsimile tech way past it's best by date

People can't "still" be doing something that they were NOT doing before!

An individual cannot but a group of people can.

“Children are still fascinated by sticks” is as true as always, even though the individual children have mostly grown up, grown old, and died.

That stigma seems to be getting slightly better, but it's always bothered me.

"OMG you've been playing that game for hours! Why don't you go DO something! You're rotting your brain!!" -Someone who's about to sit in front of the TV until they fall asleep.

Hell, chess is huge right now, and it's over 1500 years old.

Oh man such a great game. Great couch co-op.

Gameplay is always king.

Graphics can contribute a lot - some games are fucking gorgeous, and I'll stop and appreciate good scenery in digital environment the same as IRL.

But jaw-droppingly incredible graphics can never compensate for bad or even mediocre gameplay.

And shit graphics will never kill a game with good gameplay. Done right, shit graphics can even be charming in a nostalgic kind of way.

My brother and I have opposing views on this.

He likes to collect hardware. He loves buying old systems and cartridges.

I like to collect software. Very few games are worth much to me individually, but I love the ability to fire up any old game when it pops in my head.

I ended up buying an SNES Mini on eBay that was jacked and loaded with ROMs from EVERY system it was capable of running. I understand wanting the original hardware, but for me, getting EVERYTHING preloaded for about $200 just made more sense for me.

I have bought two of those hacked systems from the same seller. I can check if they still offer them, and share a link to the product, but only if someone asks for the info. I'm not trying to promote anyone, but I feel like this is a market that could be prone to fakes, and I personally would appreciate someone suggesting a trustworthy seller.

I'm still trying to find a place that can resurrect my Atari 7800.

I have so many games for it.

The physical medium is a license as well. But that's semantics. We can all agree if you own physical, it cant be (realistically) taken away. You can still own physical. You can still take that power back (unless the game requires online). When I got a PS5, I was planing on finally ending my attachment to physical discs... but I just couldn't do it. To this day, I still buy PS5 discs, I haven't spent anything on PSN, but had PS+ for maybe two years and Im well aware those PS+ games were transactional. I cant do that anymore on PC so if steam dies, so does my library. At least my physical discs will be OK. Now on to my next fear... disc rot. Will I actually be able to boot up the Halo 3 DVD when im 80 and play it?