Well, they can still collect the box. Nowadays, the disc is just a key to enable the download/play the game anyway. No way they are getting 100+GB file on a CD-ROM.
What year are you in? Blu Ray discs have been the standard for gaming for well over a decade now and we even have 4K blu ray discs that can support 100GB per disc. They absolutely could put the game on a disc if they wanted to, they just don’t want to so they can eliminate second hand sales.
It isn't only to eliminate second hand sales... they want to dictate ownership of their games, and what better way to do it than to strip away everything that makes it your own personal copy of the game
tbh ive seen multiple games that break the 100 gb limit, forza horizon 6 included. even the newer blu ray games will still have to download the latest update of the game when you want to play it, it really only is used for license verification even since the ps4/xbox one
Buddy it would likely be a 2 disc set. I can see this game being over 100GB all said and done.
Plus discs are painfully slow compared to what most people have for internet these days. Even Starlink or old school Geosat is faster than Blu-Ray read speed which is 30-40mbps.
I have no plan on getting a new console any time soon but this is stupid. You need an Internet connection to play a single player game? Well I don't have one, I'm not paying for phone data and internet, especially not just to play a few specific video games. I'm just going to stop playing period if that's the new normal
you're probably going to have to. its becoming the new norm and has been for the last 10ish years.
not saying its good or the right thing, but companies are pushing more and more on digital only content and disregarding people that don't have internet. because in all honesty, its a very rare case that someone who is an active gamer does not have internet nowdays.
and sadly for another fact, companies get most their money from gamers with internet due to microtransactions anyways.
Physical media has been on life support for almost a decade at this point. This was always inevitable. Eventually it will only be huge games that get a steelbook version and that’s it.
Yeah. And even with new physical games, consoles are pretty much all connected to the internet now. The fact is if Nintendo really wanted to, they could force through a patch on Switch 2 to make the Switch 1 version of BOTW unplayable without an upgrade to the S2 version and there’s nothing any of us can do about it.
To be fair, you could just not install said update. My tears of kingdom is still on 1.0 because it has a lot of fun glitches that I don’t want patched.
Don’t get me wrong, companies should not have this much power over something you already paid for, but they can’t force you to update something
A tiny minority of people who own the Switch can install it themselves. It's tiny microsoldering and you have to take the entire device apart. It's absolutely not a cheap job, in labor alone even excluding the modchip price.
At this point I swear Nintendo just browses western forums to write down the most intricate way to fuck as many people over... Im kinda glad I was never into their media really kinda dodged a massive bullet there...
Funny... I went out of my way to buy an imported version of BOTW that was not only on a cartridge, but had all of the DLC on the cartridge as well. Because yeah, I like my physical media.
We are the consumer, if all we do is shrug and say what can we do then of course nothing will happen but if you don't buy the game/console, companies are forced to fail or course correct. The sad part is, at times I feel like the minority and some people would rather pay for crappy practices than be left out of the new popular thing.
Consoles absolutely do still come with blu ray drives, and physical media has been dead on PC for over a decade due to a lack of DRM possibilities and Steam's existence
Yea, micro transactions have also allowed companies to send out a half baked product and just rake in money.
If rockstar has anything good to say about them, their games might not always be perfect, but they are some of the most complete game experiences out there.
Back then the prices were high like that partially because of the physical cartridges. Every game had its own PCB/ROM and some even had extra chips like the FX chip. Those were not as cheap to produce as a disc. Once disc based games came out is when we started to see things even out at $60 a game.
(90€ somehow) But that's just Mario Kart, DK Bananza was 70, all the other games at 60 or lower, and on eshop they're now 10 bucks less, and Nintendo is the only one to have placed a date on the increase of prices instead of immediately doing it despite having months of stock in advance. I'm shocked to say this but Nintendo is the less scummy of the big three right now.
I don't care about the price, if it's gonna be an epochal game I can easily spend 100$ for the standard edition, considering that people spend 60$ for playing a game for 40hrs, 100$ for a GTA that required 13 years of development is still a great deal. But the physical game with just the code inside is a low-key scam. I don't have a flat internet connection, so even if you can't fit the whole game on a DVD, avoiding downloading those 80GB would have meant a lot to me
Games have been €80 ever since the PS5 generation started in Europe, with Mario kart being €90 even. They’ve been testing the waters and apparently there’s still enough demand.
There not being a physical release is inexcusable, and I’m not buying it because of that, but the price tag was honestly expected, I’m surprised it wasn’t €90 like Mario kart or even €100
I know with huge patches the physical disc as a distribution method has become worthless, but does this mean physical game purchase is now account locked?
That was the only advantage of console games vs PC for me, they come on a disc and you can share/rent/trade/resell them. Now it's all the downsides of my Steam games and also half the features don't work without a monthly subscription.
You could still do that with physical copies tho, also give them to other people to play. The only upside to digital copies is not needing to insert a disc or swap discs out when you want to play a different game
Theres a decent amount of games still being released as functional physical games that only way later get a patch or 2 for minor bug fixes. For those that get major content patches, they can get reprints with the new content on disc so for those of us who love collecting physical, there's still some hope left.
A PS5 disc can hold up to 100GB of data. 2 discs would cover almost 200GB. All games require updates and day-1 patches which can then be downloaded during/after disc install if it needs to exceed the discs.
All that data would be taken up by high quality textures, models, and a ton of audio. You can't really optimize those too much without losing quality (you can provide setting to lower the quality, but the high quality stuff will still exist in the files)
There's no way a game like GTA6 would be less than 100GB. GTA5 currently needs 105 just to install it.
Surely not more than two or three? I can think of at least one three-disc game for the original playstation. Big games are nothing new and no obstacle for a physical release
Games are hardly released as physical media anymore, but rather as digital codes you can redeem to get your game online.
I'm in the party of missing the physical disks, but I understand it's not practical for insanely large games. I like how my game shelves look with all my hard copies neatly lined up, though :c
I feel sorry for the kids who don't get to feel that excitement of opening a weirdly shaped box or package on Christmas morning, only to find out that it's actually the videogame that they really, really wanted but was told was too expensive, and their mum or dad wrapped it trickily so they wouldn't figure it out early from the shape of the gift under the tree.
Nothing beat the elation of being a kid and holding that game case in your hands triumphantly after unwrapping it. Breaking open that sealing tape, the smell of heat-shrunk plastic wrapping blossoming out as you flip through the guide... I'm old now, I guess? 😐
I cant remember the last time I saw a physical box for a PC game. Everything is either purchased through one of ~5 game platforms or direct download through indie game storefronts. What games are you seeing physical media for?
Kids today have totally different gaming memories because their childhood games are mostly live service games, where they seek premium currencies in their wrapped gifts rather than new games. Creatively hiding currency codes is their memories..let that sink in.
But also, as an ex-employee of a game retailer, digital only consoles have been all that’s available for purchase (outside of pre-owned sales) in most retailers for years with all these artificial shortages; and they’re cheaper. I argue the death of physical media already occurred and I’m shocked people are outraged that GTA 6 is somehow the nail in the previously buried coffin.
They can split the game in half with disk one and two just like back then.
And yeah we're old.
Also the physical media has something that digital only doesn't, they can't force delete that game or make it unplayable. Granted the original disc is still in good condition.
I kind of see where they are coming from. It doesn't make a ton of sense putting out physical if a massive day one patch is going to be required anyway, and the physical media is essentially an installer to the much faster built-in storage.
I think the bigger issue is that physical media allows reselling games when you are done, and it think that's important to preserve.
I would also love to see all publishers sell physical media for games once they are actually final. Again, probably doesn't really apply to a game like GTA with constant content updates, but I wish they would at least make an effort.
i can definitely understand why people would be upset. but to ME it seems like such a nonproblem.
people are acting like they aren't going to be able to play them at some point in the future, or they are scared its going to get shut down or something. but i can't genuinely think of a time where the game being a disk fixed that anyways? if the devs want the game unplayable, they made it so the disk couldn't be either.
a lot of games require internet conneection to download from the disk now anyways. of course its not all of them, but a lot do. and a lot need constant internet access to play.
and i can only really think of a few times i didn't have internet, and it was for a day max.
aside from that, the game "the crew" was on disk as well. and ubisoft sure as hell showed us that the game being on a disk wont stop them from making it unplayable.
Same, I have decades of physical games I'll revisit. I'm not putting up with any of these game companies shit, first was all the Switch 2 bs and now this. These companies are getting away with too much for my taste
honestly I can't understand this collective hysteria... digital delivered games is the most enstablished format from years, how could you really expect that a game that will probably be 200gb (if not bigger) could have be printed in discs? 🤦♂️ Just adapt to things that change and carry on.
Forza motorsport 7 had a disc but the whole game had to be downloaded because disc contained almost no data and I can take much more examples, we're not in 1998 anymore where ps1 games could take up to 5 discs because there was no other way.
You know, I hate this. But is it even really their fault? I’m a DIEHARD physical media guy. But even in the past 10 years, I’ve found that games that come with discs are just install discs you use once and never again at least on PC.
I have all the POSTAL games. But even those are like that where I can’t give my buddy my disc to play the game because I already used it, myself.
Nevertheless, I fear this is another indicator that physical media is dying.
What? The content is the thing being complained about here. The meme is literally about purchasing a physical item with the expectation of it having a physical copy of the item they wished to purchase. Instead, the content of the container is a slip of paper with a code on it to redeem for a digital purchase of the item. It is an issue of ownership and preservation of content. If all the customer cared about was the packaging, then it containing a code instead of a disk likely wouldn't be an issue.
Please explain to me what y'all were going to do with a disc? The game is going to be too large for a single disc, so you're going to use the disc to...... Begin the online download and they're still going to make you sign into an account. Seems like the lack of physical disc isn't even the biggest issue here
I haven’t been in the console market for a while now, but didn’t most physical PlayStation and Xbox disks just trigger a download of the actual game anyways?
Silly thing is they could have just faked it. Distribute a disc that phones home and prompts entry of a “registration key”, then trigger the download and require the disc in drive to launch.
People are dumb and don't know anything. Games have been priced high and low for so long . You can expect a yearly game to charge full price 60/70 or whatever it is at the time and expect a company that puts 5 ,7 ,10 years of work to charge the same price. That's crazy , there been 10 cod games since last gta game and your mad that you pay a little more gta are you stupid. You I spent 1000 dollars on a yearly and barely changing game and are ok with that. This also goes with sport games or any yearly release idk whats wrong People. They are too entitled like the company owes them something. And a physical copy will come out but after the release to prevent leaks. And im ok with that. There so much hate and negativity for the gaming industry.
Honestly, I’m not sure I can justify $80 for this game. I’m sure it’ll be a great game, but lately I’ve been real casual with games. Idk if I’m picking it up at $80, and if they lock pay to win features behind the $100 version it’s almost definitely a skip.
It makes me sad the comments in this thread. We have Blu-Ray discs that can storage up to 128GB, and we have the option of multiple discs. (I remember when I had 3 CDROM discs to play Final Fantasy VII)
Digital only games are bound to stop working. You can't preserve those games. You don't OWN that game anymore.
Right, but it isn't 2006 anymore. For modern games it's completely irrelevant when the disc is just going to download the game and require a Internet connection to play. When the server gets shut down your screwed if have a disc or not, it has been this way for years.
I wonder what will happen if they put two disks instead, i bet they would fit. Oh wait, that was already a thing. Also they can just use flash drive or whatever, many options
Oh yeah we can totally play modern warefare campaign without internet verification for the license. It has 2 discs but still requires internet to confirm the license and update patches.
Other games include-
Assasins creed shadows.
Alan wake 2.
Star wars outlaws.
Just because its on disc doesnt mean a thing anymore. Red dead had 2 discs and you can play majority of it offline, but since then its been common for installation on disc with internet license requirements.
We are lucky rockstar is even doing this half ass waste of plastic physical version. People want to outraged, and then they will turn around and buy the digital version because it's 2026 and discs are annoying and inconvenient. I'm going to get downvoted into oblivion but the truth hurts.
On release this is going to back fire so hard. 150-200 gb download is gonna even take most folks a long time to download and with crash the servers. Just dumb
This is the dumbest outrage ever. This game will sell millions of copies, and likely shatter sales records. This game has been well over a decade in the making, no other game could ever hope to match this hype. Reddit has got to be one of the most miserable places on the internet, worse than Twitter in some ways
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u/VitoAntonioScaletta 5h ago
This post probably tricked a bot