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This means you can't pass the game around to your friends or sell it afterwards, which completely ruins the purpose of physical media imo. I mostly play PC these days so this doesn't affect me, but it's a disappointing direction for console games. At least they could've used an empty disc that has proof of ownership.
EDIT: Bethesda has confirmed that only the PC version won't include a disc. Physical versions of Xbox will include a disc. Whew.
Physical media is dying a slow and painful death. Sad to see really. I'd say to make a fuss, but most people don't seem to care.
Honestly, No disc + always online DRM is making me turn to piracy more and more. I want to be able to buy a game and just have a permanent offline copy of it. is that really too much to ask?
Physical media is dying a slow and painful death.
Depends on the medium really.
The Criterion Collection is still kicking so its selected works are still getting highly curated physical releases. Vinyl records are growing in popularity for those enthusiasts.
It's video games that have the biggest issue, and it's saddening because they are the most in need of preservation due to patching, updates, licenses, DRM, etc.
Wish the big three would come together for some type of preservation goal at the very least.
Wish the big three would come together for some type of preservation goal at the very least.
It's sad, but I doubt this will happen if it isn't profitable in some ways. We need an external organization to do this, as it happens with the preservation of every other media (at least I think)
You’re going to run into video game preservation issues with or without physical media. I’ve been playing through the GBA/DS catalog and some of the games are selling at prohibitively high prices. Not that I needed a lot of nudging to find another way to play the games…
Playing on original hardware has its charms but emulation is often a better experience anyway. I have an N64 sitting in the closet collecting dust because a) it’s a PAL console (sigh), b) the analog stick is shot and c) my TV doesn’t support SCART. I know I could get an NTSC console, buy replacement gears for the stick, buy a RetroTink to get HDMI support, etc. At some point it’s just too much of a hassle for nostalgia’s sake.
Yep, I’ve had similar experiences with handhelds even for games that I own. I could play Metroid Fusion on my SP and get cramps in both of my hands trying to hold it.
Or I could just find a way to run it on the DSi.
I am not really worried about the discs or DRM as those will eventually get cracked. It is the multiplayer games without user hosted dedicated services that bother me.
It does suck. I buy used games for a fraction of the price new/digital usually is, but there has been a few times over the last few years where the game has no physical edition and it annoys the hell out of me. I'd go full digital if it meant I actually own the media I am purchasing and didn't have bullshit online requirements. Oh well, back to more piracy.
What's the purpose of a physical version if there is no disk included? This is nonsense!
They are trying to appeal to collectors but also want to squash selling or trading your game. MS has been trying to do this for 10 years.
From the business side Pretty much just being able to give it as a gift. Also make it more discoverable to people who aren't able to buy it online for whatever reason.
From the personal side No damn idea
To make useless plastic cases to help the environment, of course.
This should be illegal.
Why? Not trying to argue, just genuinely curious.
If they’re calling it a physical copy it should be a physical copy of the game data. Having a case to hold a code is a ridiculous slap in the face. And a waste of plastic
You can resell a disk, not a code that is one time use.
We shouldn’t have to rent everything. If you want free market economics (which corporations claim) then don’t hold the market captive. You cannot have it both ways.
We don't own media anymore
I never thought I'd write something like this but by pirating it and downloading it on our hard drives, we come closest to what we used to know as 'own'
Mmmmmm my torrents say otherwise. Can't stop me! Shit like this is why I torrent unless you've got tapes or wax for me.
(This message was brought to you bt Piracy.)
Pirate -> burn to disc
Congrats, you own a physical copy.
Buy only from gog.
True, that's why I only buy at rent price.
Some will never experience the wonder of intensively reading the manual of a game on the way home from a store. Discs are becoming as rare as Manuals now.
most people rarely read the directions (and it shows), but I recall loving reading the manuals to my Nintendo64 games
Remember the little note section at the end of some manuals to scribble your tips and codes?
apparently they deleted this right after, but its a sign of some bullshit either way
Well, isn't that exactly where Microsoft wanted to go in the first place all those years back when Sony made fun of them in E3?
Yep, this is the same shit they were trying to pull with the Xbox and Sony out a bunch of commercials of them handing their games to each other to let their friends borrow the game.
This is dumb.
I recently got a ps3 from a friend and have been buying cheap games and having a blast, this will be impossible with the newest consoles
The fact the tweet this information came from has since been deleted could mean it's false info. We'll see if Godd Howard clarifies in the coming days.
Perhaps they meant it will contain the disc AND a code? But either way it’s hopefully a mistake
I can't say I'm surprised but its a testament of the slowly dying state of physical media
I think they have already done this back in the days of Fallout 76
FYI: The Xbox version will still contain a physical disc. It is just the PC versions which will not.
Not that you should preorder in the first place, but before someone cancels their Xbox preorder over the news, figured some clarification would help.
The only reason they didn't go down the path of serialized discs was the digital market being on the horizon. They were always going to nuke the second hand market.
It's a 125gb game, what kind of disk were you expecting it to ship on?
An Ultra-HD dual layer blueray disc can hold nearly 100gb of data. It's not especially complex to have a game with 2 physical discs that encompass different parts of the game. They've been doing it since PS1 (FF7 was 4 iirc).
One that carried the game key, making it portabaly transferable.
Yeah, so the issue here isn't "omg how can they sell a case with no disk" it's "hey, I want to own my game", which is totally fair. Seems like people focus on the most superficial part of the whole issue, a literal shiny piece of plastic.
Multiple install disks? That I can still install in my basement without an internet connection many years later like we did with games on floppy disks?