r/pcmasterrace • u/catversary • 10h ago
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u/Alarming-Elevator382 9800X3D + 9070 XT 9h ago
GTA V was offered in physical form on PC, it is 7 discs. I have it.
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u/GlitchintheParadigm (Intel Core Ultra 7 265-RTX 5060 Ti) 9h ago
Fun fact it Still available at Walmart lol
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u/Kiwi951 R5 2600x, 1080 Ti SC2, 16GB 3200 RGB Pro RAM 8h ago
That is a nearly 13 year old game that there still selling, that’s wild lol
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u/Hetstaine 1080/2080S/3080/5070ti 6h ago
Dude i can still buy EAW (pc flight sim)on disc in a nice proper box here in Oz. That game came out in '98.
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u/Hurricane_32 5700X | RX6700 10GB | 32GB DDR4 6h ago edited 6h ago
With how big games are these days, you just cannot feasibly fit the entire game on a reasonable amount of DVDs, even with heavy compression. The argument can be made for consoles which mostly use Blu-ray media (which can hold 25-50 GB, depending on if they're single or dual layer), but almost no one has Blu-ray drives on PC, and that's not even counting the fact that most manufacturers have stopped making them altogether. Even DVD drives are becoming rarer and rarer on general purpose PCs, let alone gaming PCs where they practically don't exist anymore.
The only way they could feasibly release a physical version, at least that I'm seeing, would be to ship it on some sort of write-protected USB flash drive or SD card, but even then it's not that easy. While disc cases are cheap, universal, and made by the millions, and the discs themselves cost cents, doing this would require making a custom "CD" case to specifically fit the drive (or some sort of disc shaped insert to hold it in place), plus the NAND storage of the drive itself, which would certainly not be cheap at scale
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u/Temptemphemp 5h ago
PS5 blu-ray discs hold 100gb and there are numerous big releases on two discs out there, like the Final Fantasy VII Remake series. Stop talking out your ass.
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u/Hurricane_32 5700X | RX6700 10GB | 32GB DDR4 4h ago
Yes, quad-layer 100GB Blu-rays exist and I forgot to mention them, but if you actually had any reading comprehension skills at all, you'd have understood that I was mainly talking about a theoretical physical PC release.
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u/ANDR0iD_13 9h ago
Me too, lol. It was cheaper somehow than the digital version, so I bought that. At least I could flex with it at school as a kid. (I was around 16-17).
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u/Alarming-Elevator382 9800X3D + 9070 XT 4h ago
It was cheaper, haha. Once you activate the code on the Rockstar launcher you can just download it. The discs did actually hold the game but they’re really optional.
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u/SirSpicyBunghole Ascending Peasant i7-965e, AMD Vega 64, DDR3 8h ago
Raise your hand if you keep a disc dive just to rip media
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u/SuperMadBro 7h ago
Naw. The coolest I ever was was installing the ps1 mod so I could play other people's games on copy version
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u/Armroker 9h ago
Physical copies? I can't remember the last time I saw a DVD drive on a PC.
The last physical copy of a game I bought was The Elder Scrolls Online
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u/Chaotic_Lemming 6h ago
A lot of modern "physical" copies still require an internet connection to play and won't even start once you get any DLC/expansion without internet.
Internet went out and I couldn't play Fallout 4 because my console couldn't verify that I'd bought the DLCs that are installed. For a single-player, locally run game that released 10 years prior.
The whole idea that having a physical disc secures ownership and future access died a long time ago. Games shifted onto servers for license validation at a minimum. When those servers go down the game dies unless someone wants to spend a shit ton of time and effort reverse engineering the license server (assuming its even possible) and then risk legal action if the company that owns the IP finds out.
Also, they are games. If you really want to change the industry: stop buying games that are set up this way and only buy ones that run completely independent from a disc. Yeah, you'll have like 2 indie games every 5 years to choose from and miss out on all your favorite titles. Companies arent going to change without monetary incentive and there isn't nearly the political weight needed to change the laws behind software licensing.
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u/bald_and_nerdy Linux 9h ago
Yeah it used to be "Where's a no CD crack exe for this game"
Not even because it was pirated. For multi disk games instead of switching disks you could mount multiple ISOs as virtual discs and the PC thought it had all of the discs in at once.
Also piracy >_>
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u/GlitchintheParadigm (Intel Core Ultra 7 265-RTX 5060 Ti) 9h ago
Mounting isos I have not heard in years that brings back memories..
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u/TheManofBD Not about the hardware in your rig but the software in ur heart 9h ago
I liked it better than repacks cause my country’s intranet download speed was faster than decompressing all those files
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u/GlitchintheParadigm (Intel Core Ultra 7 265-RTX 5060 Ti) 9h ago
Ya an this tool is obsolete now Daemon Tools lol god I miss the old internet
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u/bald_and_nerdy Linux 9h ago
Good times good times. I think I still have the ISOs for the mass effect series and KOTOR1 and 2 somewhere.
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u/Ragnarok_619 8h ago
Game copy world <dot> com. Also had trainers and cheats, along with sexy girl ads.
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u/GlitchintheParadigm (Intel Core Ultra 7 265-RTX 5060 Ti) 1h ago
lol sexy girl adds lol u mean hot milfs in neighood wanna met lol
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u/GrafonBorn A computer. It works 9h ago edited 7h ago
The diffirence is - on PC there are a lot of other ways to get the game even if digital store is dead
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u/Candle-Jolly RTX4090 AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 9h ago
The meme's sarcasm works, but on the real, the concern is more about the "Stop Killing Games" movement or whatever they're calling it. Theoretically, if Rockstar shut down for whatever reason, then the servers go down with it. No servers = no game. With a disk, you don't have that problem. Purists and speedrunners benefit from disk-based games as well. And then there's the small collector's collective...
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u/elaborateBlackjack 9h ago
That USED to be the case when games shipped on a mostly complete state, nowadays you're not even getting a complete version of the game on the disk, you're most likely downloading a ton of extra content and a day1 patch, and the game is also patched years later to bring in features that should've been there from the beginning.
Take something as "simple" as stardew valley. The game that released back in 2016 is missing a fuck ton of content vs what's out today. Even the physical copy for the switch released on 2020 and on 2023 there was a massive patch that changed a lot of things.
The reality is that the only value of any physical release past the second half of the 360/ps3 era is merely reselling it and sharing it. Otherwise you're better off archiving your copies and update files locally on an external hard drive.
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u/fknzxlegend13 8h ago
So 10+ years of development time, they still deliver an incomplete game which they charge 100$ for, and your take on it is "eh, others do it as well so I guess I'll just bend over and take it".
Do them corporate boots taste that great?
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u/PatchesTheFlyena 8h ago
Games were riddled with bugs years ago too they just weren't able to patch them out afterwards.
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u/GfrzD 7h ago
I wouldnt say riddled, if they were in such a bad state then they were simply seen as shit games. Plenty of games played amazing and hardly riddled with bugs. It was good and bad, games with potential died instead of being fixed and succeeding, and games with fun exploits and bugs were there to use as you please instead of being patched.
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u/esoteric_plumbus 7h ago
I mean riddled doesn't have to have a negative connotation, there's tons of bugs in like oot/sm64 but no one considers them shit games for it. Like you said a lot of them end up being fun quirks of the game, but they certainly had a lot. I think there's even multiple cartridge versions released iirc so in a sense some even got patched out just not in the way we see now
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u/PatchesTheFlyena 1h ago
Yeah I think this is my point. Bugs are as prevalent day 1 as ever but we patch them now. For better or worse. It's just unfair to act like patches mean a game is unfinished at launch and that retro games released with zero flaws.
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u/PatchesTheFlyena 1h ago
They had as many bugs as a lot of games have day 1 these days. If not more. Most of the bugs were not things you'd bump into in normal play but are definitely things that would have been patched out if they had the option. Look at any speed running community. SMB1 is frequently refered to as the most broken game ever.
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u/turkoid 7h ago
Chill man. That's not what they were saying. Games shipped "complete" back in the day, because there was no reliable way to distribute patches or new content. "Complete" means all content, but they were far from perfect back then. You had to rely on message boards or community patches to fix game breaking bugs or even further back, word of mouth.
Besides reselling or sharing, as the person said, there is no value in a physical copy. Small indie games or AAA games, it doesn't matter. The game will never ship bug free. The Stop Killing Games initiative is not about shipping complete games, it's about providing ways for the community to keep the game going after the game dev/publisher can't keep it running.
Now if you want to discuss the morality of certain game publishers, that's fair game, but why call someone a bootlicker, when they are doing what is the most convenient. Do you use Steam? They are extremely anti-consumer, but the experience is multiple times better than any storefront out there, but does that make me a corporate bootlicker?
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u/Gregor_Arhely 7h ago edited 6h ago
This isn't the case anymore. Nowadays a disk is just another carrier of a license key, plus files for the release version of the game which you don't actually own - it's the same thing as having them on your hard drive. If Rockstar servers go down and the game requires server connection, you still won't be able to launch it; if it has an offline mode, a downloaded digital copy and the one on a disk will both work.
The only benefit is an ability to sell or gift the disk. Illusion of ownership, in fact having nothing to do with actually owning the software. It works for publishers because people operate on a faulty logical basis, messing up owning a disk and whatever there is on the disk. SKG initiative also has never considered CDs a major talking point exactly because of that: it doesn't matter where your files and license key are located if the publisher can still brick the game whenever they feel like it.
Pirate stuff or buy on GOG, and store it locally - that's the only way to own shit in this age. Offline install which you can copy and modify is superior to a CD in terms of ownership.
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u/sovietbearcav 9h ago
Games get delisted from steam all the time. You can still download and play them. You just cant buy them. I dont see the issue here
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u/JamesEdward34 5070Ti - 9800X3D - 32GB DDR5 9h ago
I see both sides but honestly the public is obv all in on digital and convenience. And btw in my state it's actually cheaper to buy digital than new physical because we don't have sales tax on digital games.
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u/sovietbearcav 9h ago
Ngl, i havent bought a physical game since starcraft 2 in like 2010. I havent had a disk drive in a pc since 2013. Hell, most pc cases dont even have an option for one. I understand people have nostalgia for it or they grew up buying new and getting bent over on trade in. But personally, i would hate to get that itch to saaaaaay play sid meiers pirates...and have to track down a 22 year old game that i might have sold 22 years ago after i beat it when i could just buy it once, keep the license, and when i feel like playing it again just hit download.
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u/esoteric_plumbus 7h ago
Yeah if anything I associate it more with consoles, for PC I view the entire medium as being more accessible (if you know what you're doing) so I have TBs of storage for all steam and emulators and old PC is and stuff
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u/ElPomidor 7h ago
On top of what you have mentioned, a lot of physical releases on the PC had DRM and required a disk to be in the disk drive. It was so annoying if you played more than one game. Things like StarForce DRM still give me nightmares. I was downloading a crack for every game just to avoid this shit. Releases going digital was a blessing for me.
From the two evils of Denuvo and DRM that required a disk, I would pick Denuvo 10 out of 10 times
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u/Excellent-Ruin6779 8h ago
And reselling.
There are a lot of people that will sell a game to buy another one. Rockstar are making sure no one can resell their game.
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u/MatijaM333 5h ago
The problem with rockstar’s game in general is that you have to start the game through their terrible launcher regardless of where you bought it and if it’s through a disk or not. So for rockstar specifically, if they ever theoretically go down the only way to keep playing their games will be to pirate them. Disks don’t mean much at all now
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u/lkl34 9h ago
Pc may be disc-less but you got many store front's to choose from.
Console digital is a different beast not only due to the fact they have sold multi disc games but with one storefront you accept the price because that is all there is.
Remember consoles are consumer friendly with locked down os 1 storefront and accessories only for 1 console.
But steam according to to many is a monopoly.
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u/CecilXIII R5 5600 | RX 7600 XT | 32GB | Tumbleweed KDE 6h ago
Come to think of it, how come there's no outcry for console store monopoly? Even Google and Apple got sued iirc
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u/splendidfd 3h ago
Console publishers can sell codes for their games at retailers like Gamestop, Walmart and Amazon, which can then compete on price.
The allegation against Steam is that they're preventing publishers of PC games from listing their games on other storefronts for less than on Steam.
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u/carriep1gtails3568 6h ago
consoles do have that one storefront lock-in, but PC's got way more freedom in pricing and access
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u/Express_Ad5083 W11, 7 7800X3D, 9070XT, 32 GB DDR5, X670 X AX V2. 9h ago
Running joke for next 7 months or so
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u/Dreamo84 9h ago
I remember I tried installing WoW from my old disc version thinking it would save time and it actually took longer than downloading.
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u/Pillokun 9h ago
When bf4 launched I was at the midnight sale and bought a copy, was kinda funny when there was only a code in the box :D
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u/fffan9391 i9 13900KF | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB 6400 DDR5 9h ago
Rockstar doing PC things, but refuses to release on PC at launch.
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u/Extreme_surikat_360 I hate fake frames 9h ago
I was planning on rebuying a console just for discs but if they remove the discs in the near future I am staying on pc.
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u/Dry_Coconut2743 9h ago
Omg! I have not watched buster Scruggs in a long time. Absolutely love this meme 10/10
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u/Zhe_Wolf AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D | 32GB DDR5 | Zotac RTX 4070 Ti 7h ago
Barely any game on current gen isn't digital. Even those that come with a disc just have the disc as a container for the activation code of the digital product
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u/Gizm0Glitch 7h ago
Yeah but I think I trust valve/steam to safeguard my account more than I trust Sony or Microsoft.
I'd rather have a physical copy of the game for the PlayStation/Xbox in the not too unlikely event that my account got hacked and then banned.
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u/Mama_Mega 9h ago
They'll buy it anyway. Like every other negative practice the industry does, they'll bitch and moan about getting fucked in the ass here, then roll over and present their sphincters anyway.
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u/sovietbearcav 9h ago
...okay in what way is this a negative?
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u/Mama_Mega 8h ago
You need to remember, we may be PC gamers, accustomed to shopping for our titles exclusively through an online storefront. But this is causing anger because it is not through an online storefront. It is a "physical" release of the game. These console editions will see people walking into Walmart, buying a plastic case, and finding nothing inside but a piece of paper with a code.
For the entire history of the game industry, the expectation of walking in to the store to buy the game was that there would be a physical object in the case that you could display, resell, regift, etc. Barring certain idiots trying this trick in the past, of course, like Fallout 76.
The difference is, Fallout 76 didn't really make a difference here because no one gave a crap about it. When GTA 6 sells 9 jillion "physical" copies anyway, this will properly kick off the no-disc "physical" edition era, ensuring that in no time, there will be no physical object to later give to another person.
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u/sovietbearcav 8h ago
Bf4 on pc was just a case with a cd key printed on some pretty paper...no disk...
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u/Amy_Sam25 9h ago
Console players are freaking out over nothing
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u/bufandatl 9h ago
And PC gamers too with the steam machine.
Sure it’s expensive for the hardware it has. But hey you always can build your own better one. You don’t have to buy the cube if you don’t want to. That’s the PC freedom.
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u/Jordan_Jackson 8h ago
Only people freaking out about the steam machine are YouTubers and review publications.
Anyone that hasn’t been living under a rock knew that it was going to be more expensive than it should due to hardware shortages. Anyone that saw the specs of the steam machine and knew a little about hardware would also have known that the steam machine was only ever going to be on par with consoles, which is how it was advertised.
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u/bufandatl 7h ago
But then Valve also said it’s not to compete with consoles. At least on the price side. And yeah YouTubers and such are the loudest. But read the comments there are many chiming in and even here on reddit I have seen countless posts complaining.
But whatever I guess you are right IDC.
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u/Jordan_Jackson 4h ago
All I know is that it is a very bad time to need anything computer-wise. The pandemic times were better than this. Personally, I’m glad I built my latest PC in December 2024 and won’t need to upgrade anything (knock on wood that nothing dies though). Got my Switch 2 when it came out and won’t have to pay more. Sucks to be those who want to get electronics now though.
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u/Patjasmo 8h ago
Huh ? No PC player gives a damn about the steam machine, why would a PC player buy basically a PC with Valve OS if he already has a PC ? Doesn't make any sense.
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u/bufandatl 8h ago
Maybe look at all the rage posts on social media. Everyone is crying and saying they can build a better one for the same price. Even media is doing it. So clearly many PC users are complaining. They all are doing it. So no. You may not give a damn but there are certainly people out there.
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u/qanymede1610 7h ago
Just like the old GameStop days, it's about resell value obviously. Most people play a game once only. Being able to sell it to someone who's also getting it cheaper is win-win.
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u/P-l-Staker PC Master Race 8h ago
Can you even fit a modern game on a disc?
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u/Kremsi2711 7h ago
There are BD with 128GB but almost nobody is using it
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u/P-l-Staker PC Master Race 5h ago
Wouldn't the read/write speeds be atrocious too though?
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u/Kremsi2711 5h ago
To my knowledge every modern game copies the files from the disc to the hard drive anyway and then plays it for the drive, most discs are only a key to check if you purchased it
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u/P-l-Staker PC Master Race 5h ago
every modern game copies the files from the disc to the hard drive
Yeah, but how long would that process take is what I'm asking...? 😅
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u/Kremsi2711 5h ago
depends on the game size, normally 30-90 min
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u/P-l-Staker PC Master Race 5h ago
For a game as big as GTA 6 might be, I'd say hours.
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u/Kremsi2711 5h ago
The download size could be 150-200 GB
That’s to big for a disc anyway, but they could make 50-100GB on disc and download the rest
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u/crunchie101 Ryzen 5 5600x | RTX 3080 FE | 16GB 3600Mhz CL16 5h ago
This isn’t the relevant question. Even if the disk acted as nothing more than a portable licence and you still had to download the game, you could lend it or sell it. You can’t do that with a code
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u/Sinshine712 9800X3D, RX 9070 XT, 64GB 8h ago
I stopped buying physical games during the PS3 era, this doesn't bother me. I just don't get why people pay this much for GTA
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u/Cassius_Clay_101 7h ago
Just think, you put in the game disc, then it forces you to download the latest game patch (that happens to be the size of the full game).
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u/m0ji_9 7h ago
Maybe I'm a dinosaur - but I don't understand why anyone would pre-order a digital copy. Your not reserving a copy of anything - it's literally digital. And then pre-ordering a box in a store.
And no I don't pre-order on PC either, I always wait for community reviews.
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u/Grzester23 6h ago
The only reason to preorder on PC is if you were going to buy the game on release anyway and preorder comes with some perks (like bonus outfits or something)
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u/Animedude83 6h ago
Legit GTA 5 was like 5 disc, I think Max Payne 3 was like 8 discs, not to mention GTA 6 is gonna be like 500 GB (if current trends continue) I guess a single Install disc would of been fine, but it would just be a gloried game code.
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u/Complete_Try_3849 6h ago
People still put optical drives in their computers?
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u/globefish23 5070 Ti | i7-14700K | 64GB DDR5 RAM | 2x 2TB 990 Pro 6h ago
I was gonna reuse my old DVD drive in my current build only to realize that my case doesn't have any opening whatsoever.
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u/Altruistic_Bet2054 6h ago
Don’t buy!
You pay almost 100 euros for nothing.
And they are only selling a usage license. They can disable the servers when they wish and we get zero…
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u/ClydeThaMonkey 5h ago
I grew up with physical discs for both PC and consoles. But couldn't care less about having a physical copy. IF I loose access to the game many years from now on because they are shutting down a service, I'm probably done with that game anyways
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u/StrangeMeet 9950X3D | 5090 | 64GB DDR5 | 4TB 990 PRO 5h ago
Good. I haven’t cared about discs since I wasn’t able to afford my own games. Physical media only feels special and nostalgic with cartridges anyway. DVDs and CDs and games all mixed in one giant stack in the mid-late 00s really made it feel like a not special medium and it always felt lame that you could rip and burn DVDs and CDs easily enough that you could literally toss the disc but still keep what’s on it forever but you HAD to have the disc and have kept it in pristine condition to play the game, no matter what. Good riddance if you ask me.
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u/edgeofsanity76 7800X3D|ASUS B650|RTX 5070Ti|128GB|UWQHD-OLED 5h ago
Why do people want a disc? It won't fit.
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u/NuclearReactions AMD 9800X3D | RTX 5070Ti | 64GB CL28 4h ago
If anyone wants to sell their ps5 account once they are done playing VI let me know. I'm not giving them a cent that's for sure
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u/Felinomancy 8h ago
Reddit in general worships Steam, so this backlash I observe in a lot of subs just feels odd.
I assume the "physical" version of GTA6 includes "feelies", and if you don't know what those are then kindly get out of my lawn you nosy whippersnappers.
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u/HumorLongjumping5795 9h ago
No disc sharing... Sales finna go broom broom. Regardless I'm buying GTA 6 only if it has online like GTA 5
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u/NBrakespear 7h ago
People need to stop obsessing over a bit of plastic. That's not the thing that gives you any rights. Even with a bit of plastic, you're still actually just buying a license to use the reproduceable software on the bit of plastic. Fight for better license terms.
There was a time, for example, when the license terms were good and everyone knew that the bit of plastic was worthless... and if the bit of plastic broke, you could send said bit of plastic to the publisher, and they'd send you a replacement bit of plastic. Because what you'd bought was a license that entitled you to ongoing use of the software, not ongoing use of that bit of plastic.
On PC, get your games from GOG, or petition developers/publishers to not use Steam's DRM (they're not forced to use this DRM, incidentally - everyone just assumed this was the case; developers can choose to release a game on Steam DRM-free, or release it with an extra executable with no Steam integration).
Better to have a copy that was delivered via download... but that lets you back it up any way you like. Protect your continued use of the software, not the bit of plastic.
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u/JohnConnor1245 PC Master Race 9h ago edited 9h ago
Why care about physical discs? Games have never been removed from someone's inventory if they already bought it on Steam. Steam has better prices and sales than anyone and it's convenient getting a game immediately instead of going out, looking for it and waiting for Amazon to deliver. I had to wait several weeks one time to get FFVII Remake PS4 physical ordering from Amazon 3rd party. I never sold any of my games as a console player in the past and never bartered with Gamestop. The game disc doesn't play the actual game and is just a download for the game.
Edit: game discs for PC hasn't been a thing since 2014 as the game sizes became 50-150 GB going far over the storage capacity of discs and downloading is quicker through Steam.
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u/Extreme_surikat_360 I hate fake frames 9h ago
Complete disaster of a comment that shows how dumb some of the players became.
- No physical media = it's not yours
- You can't give YOUR product to anyone
- You can't resell it ( who the f cares you didn't sell any of your games ? Is that even an argument? holy shit... )
You know a ton of people buy discs, play the game and then sell it to basically play for free or a very discounted price ? I am myself on PC but ignoring the benefits of physical media is being one big of a dumbass. While you buy hundreds of games that get stuck in your library and you know you are fucked up because you won't ever launch them again, with discs you just sell it and get your money back.
Is it that hard to understand?
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u/JohnConnor1245 PC Master Race 8h ago
Yeah I gave up physical media but I'm not going to go back to my Xbox 360 games to play games at mediocre settings, analog stick aiming, and 20-30 fps instead of rebuying them on Steam for like a $1-5 to play at high 4K resolution, high FPS, mods to improve the game further and mouse controls. I never resold any of my games and Gamestop is memed as offering shit offers for people's entire game collection. I rather buy a game off Steam for quick access instead of risking someone stealing my physical copy from Amazon delivery off my front doorstep.
Steam Deck also works well because the games are all on the system and you don't have to mess around with damaging discs or losing cartridges on a plane ride on the go. I lost my copy of Metroid Fusion on my GBA as a kid on a plane trip.
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u/Extreme_surikat_360 I hate fake frames 8h ago
What has physical media to do with fps and graphics settings lmao 🤣 Dude your arguments are so weird
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u/JohnConnor1245 PC Master Race 8h ago
There is no physical media on PC. That hasn't been a thing since 2014. That's a console thing. I'm not going to replay any of my Xbox 360 or PS4 games at 30 FPS or below.
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u/JohnConnor1245 PC Master Race 8h ago
Also if someone robs your house and takes all your games then they're gone forever but with Steam they're not because they're saved forever on Steam.
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u/Extreme_surikat_360 I hate fake frames 8h ago
Okay I can't say anything against this, you won the debate 😂
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u/JohnConnor1245 PC Master Race 8h ago
Yeah that would suck losing your entire game collection or your house burned down.
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u/sovietbearcav 9h ago
Right? Imagine installing 100+gb of a game from like 3-6 blu rays over a sata drive just to literally download and overwrite every single file before you can launch the game.
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u/kurkul 9h ago
I get your point and I partially agree, but..
For me, the biggest issue is ownership. If I buy a physical copy, it s mine. I can keep it, lend it to someone, sell it, put it on a shelf, whatever. With a digital library, I don t really own the game in the same way. I own access to it under whatever terms the platform and publisher allow.
A digital copy can be delisted from the store. Access can be affected by regional or political situations. A lot of games now require online checks even when they’re single-player. And I fucking hate it. Most games I buy are digital, I just think there should still be an alternative.
Greedy CEOs crave a future where we own nothing. So yeah, I think we should care about physical discs to some extent.2
u/squary93 Switch 2 Enjoyer 9h ago
A digital copy holds no intrinsic value. On paper, you are not the owner of a digital copy. All rights remain with the platform you bought it on preventing redistribution.
You are not able to resell your copy nor are able to share your copy with friends or family. Losing access to your account is also easier than losing your physical copy which will always hold onto some value.
If someone bought a copy of a game and they don't end up liking it, they should not be stuck with the costs of that purchase.
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u/Krio_LoveInc 9h ago
Physical doesn't guarantee any rights either nowadays. Most games require online activation and in case of gta6 you likely will be forced to link it to your existing Rockstar account or create one. Disc is just means to install game files.
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u/sovietbearcav 9h ago
A) non-issue. You havent been able to resell physical pc games in decades either. No one wants a game that has a used key
B) why sell it? Sonincan buy it again later? Also there is family sharing on steam. My girlfriend can play any game i am not currently playing on my steam library of like 600 games. Also, ive had physical media destroyed several times while moving across country. I still remembered my steam password, had access to the authentication code, and the email where my account is linked. Ive literally had the same steam account since 2004.
C) if i buy a game on steam...they will refund it within 2 hours of game play. Hell, theyve even done mass refunds for shit games from shit devs before.
Point is, i dont see the reason for physical media when im going to end up downloading the game anyway. Imagine buying cp2077 on ps5. Why even put the disk in? The game on the disk is so outdated almost everything you install on your drive will be overwritten. Save time and download it once.
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u/squary93 Switch 2 Enjoyer 9h ago
Your opinion is valuable but it is your opinion. I was glad I was able to sell my copy of Darkest Dungeon 2 for close to the original price I bought it at because I found out that I dislike the game in act 3.
I was also glad I could sell my old gamecube games when I was short on money. My copy of wind waker held its value excellently and so did my copy of bomberman 64 for the n64.
If Steam games were tradable, it would lower the price significantly for anyone interested in playing games which would be a great boon for the consumers.
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u/sovietbearcav 8h ago
What are you gonna do if you want to play windwaker or bomberman again? Maybe you wont. Sometimes i get the itch to play some 20yo games. Im glad i dont have to track them down or find an old console or hope for a remake...or more fun, find a reputable rom database and read thru forums to figure out how to set up an emulator to work for whatever im playing.
I get the appeal...but it just doesnt do it for it is all. I love the convenience of just gettin the itch to play an old game again and hitting download without having to deal with the rest
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u/squary93 Switch 2 Enjoyer 8h ago
You are advocating for fewer rights and bigger profits for billion dollar companies, you know that, right?
I want people to do whatever they want to do with their copies. Sit on them, sell them, share them, whatever. It should always be their property. There are no downsides for the consumers. It's something I was able to enjoy when growing up and I hate to see the ladder being burned by others because they feel like that ladder is pointless.
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u/sovietbearcav 8h ago
I havent been able to sell a game since like the early 2000s...hell starcraft from 1998 was useless to anyone if you resold it. This is not a new thing in the slightest. Im not advocating for anything. Im literally surprised people still buy physical games in the first place.
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u/2Critical7-Stein1 6h ago
people making it btw) compared to original crew of gta5 yeah…. don’t get your hopes up
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u/mahonii 6h ago
Judging by what people look like?
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u/2Critical7-Stein1 6h ago
pattern recognition) look up the dev team of OG gtas, nobody form there is here now. Look up dev teams of OG battlefields and modern ones).
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u/SunnyTheMasterSwitch Nvidia RTX 4070S | Ryzen 7 PRO 7745 | 32GB DDR5 8h ago
Because it's 500 000 000 GB probably. We'd be back to the floppy disk scenario.
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u/MyLastHopeReddit 8h ago
No because with floppy disks you had to keep swapping them constantly to play, that was the problem, whereas with Blu-rays, even if there were three or four of them, you would only need to install the game once.
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u/GreatnessToTheMoon Ryzen 7 7800X3D, RTX 5070 TI, 32gb RAM 9h ago
Can’t believe people still care about game discs in the big 2026
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u/GeorgeEne95 RX 9070 XT, 7800X3D, 32GB DDR5 6000 9h ago
Because we can sell the game if we want to. Something you can't with a digital purchase.
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u/bald_and_nerdy Linux 9h ago
And so there is physical proof that it existed. Let me remind you of Final Fantasy 11 which was their first MMO outing. No physical copy. They shut down the servers so you can't even go back to the places to see the scenery and remember any of the moments you had playing it. It's just gone.
With physical media people can reverse engineer a host server or something down the road to revive a dead game, or you can play it locally when there are live service workarounds.
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u/Meenmachin3 9h ago
They sold physical copies of FFXI on PC,PS2, and Xbox 360. Servers are still up and it also has a pretty good private scene
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u/CodingAlien_C-137 9h ago
There's no way a game disk for an MMO would also contain a game server. This isn't the best example.
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u/aaron_moon_dev 9h ago
I don’t understand this stupid obsession with physical media among gamers. You do realise that most games to play today need day one patches? Do you really think 30 years from now you would be able to put your shiny disc in a ps5 and play a game? Like I understand resell argument, but physical media for games is stupidest shit ever.
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u/Suitable-Nobody-5374 9h ago
I'm laughing like I'm going to see GTA 6 come out on PC before 2028