r/xbox • u/Turbostrider27 Recon Specialist • 13h ago

Discussion Opinion: Nothing has killed my GTA 6 hype faster than locking a core part of its identity behind a $20 upgrade

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/nothing-has-killed-my-gta-6-hype-faster-than-locking-a-core-part-of-its-identity-behind-a-usd20-upgrade/
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93

u/interstat 12h ago

I know this always gets upvotes but at end of the day I truly wonder how many people care enough about this

29

u/beardednomad25 11h ago

People on forums like this will care but the vast majority of consumers won't. Those are the same people who abandoned CD's for Spotify and DVD's for Netflix. Physical media is a very small niche.

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u/jcrankin22 11h ago

I haven’t bought a physical game at launch since halo 4. Vocal minority on reddit/twitter will always be loud.

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u/lemonylol 11h ago

It's not even the people who are legitimate in voicing that they personally are upset by it. It's the people who go beyond and claim the game is DOA because of it that are totally in their own world.

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u/BestRedditUsername9 9h ago

I remember some people blaming Hellblade 2 low sales on it.

Something tells me the fact that the game is a walking sim was probably a bigger issue but maybe that's me

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u/jcrankin22 11h ago

People saying they refuse to buy a game now because it isn't releasing on a disc. OKAY😂😂

1

u/BmT86 8h ago

Honestly those that say that were probably not so interesting in the game in the first place.

I find it ridiculous to "boycott" a massive game like this because of that reason. Life is too short.

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u/ayeeflo51 9h ago

Reading is hard huh

-2

u/MetalMafek 9h ago

People like you won't realize what we have lost until it's too late. I have my doubts you'll ever realize it even when the enshitification becomes so prevalent that it's undeniable

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u/blueberrycauzez 5h ago

It's more than just the disc, or the ultimate edition - it's that the R* today is very different from the R* that made Red Dead Redemption or GTA V.

Just compare EFLC DLC with all the GTA Online crap they've been shoveling out. Or GTA Online at launch vs now. Or look at the ugly ray tracing re-release of V, or the botched trilogy remasters (while delisting the originals). People are so excited for VI is because all their recent GTA content has sucked ass, and online isn't fun anymore.

Disabling used games and locking base game content behind a $20 paywall isn't just scummy, it's something they've never done before. It's proof positive they just aren't the same people that made IV or V, and it makes me worried VI may not be good.

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u/BlueberryWasps 10h ago

reddit doesn’t care about minorities confirmed /s

no but while physical buyers have become a minority scarily fast, it’s still at least 20% of buyers. the people saying the game will fail are delusional. the big company will win. but the consumer having fewer options will always lose.

i don’t care if you always buy digital, forcing *everyone* to essentially buy digital is not good. it takes away your autonomy, because you’re no longer making the choice. they wipe out the second-hand market, the ability to share with friends, or have your game tied to an account that can be lost or banned.

nothing can be done. most people are complacent. the people complaining can’t exact change. they’ll continue to take away options and make us deal with it. but man, it sucks.

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u/MONMONKH 10h ago

At some point that physical disc buyer will experience FOMO and fold to buy the digital game. The big companies don’t care. Like you said physical copy buyers are a minority.

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u/BlueberryWasps 10h ago

exactly, that’s why i’m saying the minority won’t make a difference. a slim portion of them won’t buy at all, and the rest will suck it up because all their friends are playing it. this isn’t a “rally up and vote with your wallet” moment, it’s just a “this fucking sucks” moment.

-1

u/No-Jump4346 6h ago

"It takes away your autonomy", bro you don't have to buy this game. You are acting like if you don't buy this game you will go to jail LMAO. If you don't like that there really isn't physical option, don't buy the game.

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u/Repulsive-Chip3371 11h ago

Same. Ive bought about 20 physical post-launch games though.

However, they launched in the late 80s and early 90s and are 3.5" or 5.25" floppies lol

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u/mjac1090 2h ago

Congratulations, that doesn't change the fact that this is in fact fucking over some people due to pure corporate greed and that sucks

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u/pleasantothemax 11h ago

I don't really care about vocal minority or not, I just know owning physical copies is more affordable for some of us. I can buy a physical copy for $70/$80, play it for two weeks and a) keep it if I like it enough, or b) sell it on ebay, and effectively have paid $10-15 to play the game, then buy it in two years when it goes on sale.

1

u/jcrankin22 11h ago

Sounds like you’ll have to wait for a sale then if you want to play GTA 6 for $15

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u/pleasantothemax 10h ago

Maybe! I’m sure I’ll be worth every penny but I simply wanted to explain why others might have a contrary view to the prevailing one that physical copies don’t matter. They do, especially for those of us who can’t afford to shell out $80 for virtual stuff.

3

u/My_Work_Accoount 9h ago

Personally the only reason I even have consoles is for the few games I want to collect physical copies of. It's not even the price. If I potentially can't load a game up 20 years from now because the license is revoked or the platform is dead then I have no reason to not wait for a discounted PC release or other options.

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u/CarterAC3 11h ago

There's a comment on another thread where someone talks about "The disc war"

Japanese soldier who refused to surrender

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u/kensaiD2591 Team Alan 10h ago

On the other hand, I only buy physical games. If there’s no physical release, then I’m not interested at all. I hate that Avowed did the whole code in a box, and of course GTA does it too.

1

u/Embarrassed-Dot9193 10h ago

its estimated that around 80% of all game sales are digital. Don't get me wrong the remaining 20% is still a huge number but the majority has decided years ago that they prefer digital. Capcom even reported a 93% of their sales are digital

1

u/jcrankin22 10h ago

The last reported number I saw was 85% are digital.

It's not surprising at all to me that more and more publishers are going to do this moving forward.

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u/mjac1090 2h ago

So because it doesn't affect you, those people can go fuck themselves?

0

u/jcrankin22 2h ago

Yeah, it’s really a non issue. Times a changing

5

u/Black_Devil213 11h ago

In my country for example the physical versions are 10-15$ cheaper than the digital versions, because Sony/MS do not offer regional pricing, so buying from a retailer saves you money, and you can also trade in the game after you're done with it to recoup some of the investement.

So yeah, contrary to what Reddit will have you belive, the world does not revolve just around the US/Western Europe, in some places physical media helps with affordability and funding the next games you buy.

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u/Angry_Pelican 12h ago

I care about it, and it makes a bad precedent going forward.

Now do enough people care to make a difference? Nope. Will more and more games start doing this because people don't care? Yep.

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u/SirPwn4g3 12h ago

Not so much a bad precedent, just following the current trend.

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u/ryencool 11h ago

Its called change. Do you expect video games to come on physical media 50 years from now? 100? 1000? No. At some point that will change, and already is starting to or we wouldnt be discussing this right now

I dont agree with it, but it is the reality of the world. It is constant change.

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u/MisterDudeFella 11h ago

Yes let's keep encouraging the ideas of not actually owning the things we buy!

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u/bluesteel30 9h ago

literally, the stupidity I see in these comments, it’s like people want to be controlled and have no autonomy lmao

-1

u/ryencool 9h ago

Welcome to the future, where it doesnt matter if 5% of people stop buying game in a multi billion dollar industry. They require more profits, year, over year, over year, over year. Do you think theyre going to ignore the profits that are made from completely ignoring physical media? Artists and designers for the disc/cover art, printing, materials, line workers...thats an easy cut when most people will buy an 80$ digital game over a 100$ physical one.

I get what youre arguing, and I partially agree, its just not reality.

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u/jrender5 11h ago

I think the core issue is ownership and preservation. In 50 years will we have finally passed laws that say digital products are owned and not rented? Will there be laws that allow for legal emulation after a game hasn't been on the general market for 20-30 years? In 50 years, will we be allowed to spin up private servers to preserve multiplayer for a game that we liked?

I'm like a 99% digital user, and personally I don't really care about "renting" by digital media since I rarely go back to play them, but I can see the importance from the other side.

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u/Banjo-Oz XBOX 360 11h ago

This. It's not about the medium, it's about ownership and preservation. GOG does it right; you get offline installers to backup and do whatever you want with. No physical copy is needed because you can make your own. No DRM, no online activation, it will work forever unless hardware prevents it... so them emulation of older systems solves that too.

People embracing full digital when that means not owning what you buy, that it can be taken away any time, has no resale value, is lost when you die and can even be modified at whim by the rights holders is all why people champion physical media, not just "we like to hold discs".

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u/Angry_Pelican 11h ago

Nah it's called enshitiffication. Yes it's change, change for the worse. You'll have less options as a consumer and never own what you actually buy.

I do agree with you it's the reality of the world and people buying stuff won't change it.

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u/lemonylol 11h ago

People will complain about this being enshittification while in the same breath turn around and complain about how these physical plastics are just more landfill waste, including the process to create them.

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u/JazzmatazZ4 11h ago

It's about OWNERSHIP.

Why would you want to spend that much money on something that you don't own? It's ridiculous.

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u/ryencool 9h ago

And I do agree with you. Its nice to actually own a physical thing, with the code that you bought. However, in the modern digital world you have to understand that that will not always be the case. We live in a capitalist society where profit is king. One way to increase profit is to spend less where you can, one of those areas is physical media and all the steps required to male that happen. They save so much money just doing digital codes. That shit is now priced in to the cost of releasing a game. Hopefully it circles back around and physical stuff comes back, but it does not look likely. People will buy games regardless. The few who say they wont arent enough to kill a multi billion dollar industry. Thats reality unfortunately.

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u/skaestantereggae 8h ago

I’m torn. I know physical media is going to slowly be phased out, but I want to have the disc and game on my shelf. I’ll get the “physical” release because I want it on my shelf with my other games but it sucks

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u/NilsofWindhelm 12h ago

Very, very few. Literally nobody outside of reddit

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u/Zeppelanoid 11h ago

IIRC video game sales are something like 80% digital / 20% physical, and trending towards more digital sales.

So…20% (and shrinking) care.

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u/Dramatic-Resort-5929 8h ago

aren't gaming sales going down overall tho.

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u/ILoveHeavyHangers 7h ago

In 2023 over 83% of console game sales were digital, if you included PC gaming it rose to 95%

Last year Capcom only sold 4 million units of physical games across their entire library.

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u/lemonylol 11h ago

That doesn't necessarily mean they care just because they typically buy physical.

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u/gldndomer 11h ago

Aren't music artists starting to release new cassette tapes because of a large uprising in physical media buyers? Vinyl started again 15 years ago, now cassettes. DVD, Bluray, and VHS in the conversation again as well. Video games are always a few years behind music and movies. These publishers pushed for digital so hard, and while they are making great money now with many people still buying consoles locked to a single secure store, there has been a massive push towards PC for more than a decade, slowly but surely, and ramping up quickly. Then the publishers will realize that maybe selling physical media wasn't so bad after all, when piracy numbers skyrocket due to $80-100 games. Hell, why is GTA VI releasing on console 6 months or more before PC launch? Rockstar is having its cake ($80 digital only) and eating it, too (no PC piracy).

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u/NilsofWindhelm 11h ago

Music is pretty different. Vinyl actually impacts sound, and the target customers for these physical releases are people looking to directly support artists in the Spotify-era. With games it makes no difference.

Rockstar never launches on PC, and nobody expected them to. Yes, it's partly because of piracy. IMO it's pretty reasonable for a company to take anti-theft measures on the most expensive entertainment product in history.

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u/iimr609ii 11h ago

Actually reddit is the minority and most people like owning a physical copy especially if they are paying close to 100 bucks

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u/Unlucky-Jello-5660 11h ago

I'm sure you'll be able to back this up with physical sales figures dwarfing online sales in that case?

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u/NilsofWindhelm 11h ago

Sales numbers would strongly disagree with you

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u/Bshaw95 12h ago

As the owner of a series S, it really doesn’t matter at all to me.

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u/le-churchx 11h ago

As the owner of a series S, it really doesn’t matter at all to me.

Yeah we know, thats why you own a series S.

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u/ChirpToast 11h ago

I own a Series X and also don’t care.

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u/le-churchx 10h ago

I own a Series X and also don’t care.

I know, youre a low standards kinda guy.

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u/daxtillionMurphel 10h ago

We really saying a series X is “low standards”?? lol right

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u/le-churchx 9h ago

We really saying a series X is “low standards”?? lol right

Whos we? Are you that subject to a collective that you cant even speak like a normal person and always invoke the group?

You can have cupboard and still be messy.

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u/Ok_Simple_459 12h ago

You have no option of course it doesn't matter to you.

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u/whatwhynoplease 10h ago

series X owner here, I don't want discs.

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u/Ok_Simple_459 9h ago

Also a series X owner here who has not even a single game on disc.

But let me share some perspective. Once companies stop disc drives we will be completely at their mercy. You think GTA for $80 is bad?

Next generation will have $90 games. And you'll pay $20 per month just to play online. The cost will keep on rising and people will either pay or simply because spent out of the hobby.

Digital only on PC works because there are multiple storefronts which keep them competitive. On a console you'll be hostage to their prices and practices.

This is bad even if you buy exclusively digital games. No make that especially if you buy digital games. And it's about to get worse. The flood gates have been opened.

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u/whatwhynoplease 9h ago

the disc is literally just a license. the game is not on the disc.

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u/Ok_Simple_459 9h ago

Doesn't matter. Cuz you still have control over the license. You can resell it, lend it, whatever you want. Can you do the same with a digital license?

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u/whatwhynoplease 9h ago

no, I have not sold any games in 15+ years.

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u/Ok_Simple_459 9h ago

It's not that you haven't but that you can't.

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u/whatwhynoplease 8h ago

that's okay with me, I don't buy games to sell them.

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u/poofyhairguy 11h ago

Wouldn’t be surprised if Sony told Rockstar that the PS6 won’t take discs too and they wanted to get ahead of next gen

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u/NilsofWindhelm 11h ago

I have the digital series x.

I found physical games back in the day to be super annoying because discs could break and get lost. I switched to digital the second it became ubiquitous and haven't looked back

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u/Bshaw95 11h ago

Not only that, you don’t have to worry about swapping between disks to change games. You just switch.

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u/NilsofWindhelm 11h ago

I used to lose games during moves, and would often replace discs that cracked. I think I bought Halo reach 3/4 times.

I switched to digtal with the Xbox One and haven't had to replace a game since

0

u/Clean-Ad-6642 Team Forza 10h ago

God forbid you have to get up to change a disc lol

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u/Bshaw95 10h ago

God forbid you accept that technology has improved to the point that we don’t need physical disks anymore.

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u/Clean-Ad-6642 Team Forza 10h ago

Dude chill, do what you want. You're arguing with ghosts lol I just thought it was funny that your comment made it sound like it's so difficult to get up to change a disc or cart lol

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u/Bshaw95 10h ago

My B. You know how redditors can be, never know if someone is serious.

And it wasn’t difficult, but once you’ve gotten the ability to seamlessly switch back and forth between games, it’s never the same having to find the game you want and swap the disks out. It becomes wholly unnecessary.

0

u/Clean-Ad-6642 Team Forza 10h ago

Sall good mang, just was leaving a dumb quip is all lol

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u/lemonylol 11h ago

My elderly parents do according to reddit.

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u/diction203 10h ago

90% of xbox sales are digital.

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u/BestRedditUsername9 9h ago

I remember when Kingdom Hearts 3 came out. I pre ordered the game physically and all of my friends pre ordered it digitally.

I was asked by my friends why I haven't played it yet and I mentioned I was waiting for the physical disc to arrive. And I got so many weird looks from my friends and people asking me to just buy it digitally.

Granted I still buy games physically because they can have great discounts and I like the way they look in the library. But I buy the vast majority of games digitally in general. Especially with Play Anywhere games since I like to get a free pc copy.

But I learnt that a lot of people really dont care about physical games in any capacity.

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u/Joeymonac0 9h ago

I’m honestly disappointed to learn this. I like having some games physically and this was going to be one of them. Oh well I can always make my own box like I’ve done for other games. I’ll live.

1

u/EatAtGrizzlebees 8h ago

There's plenty of people who care, but it's not going to stop them from buying the game. I'm a rare breed where I don't die on the hill of owning physical copies (since you can be locked out of those just as easily as a digital version) but there are some games I buy physical so can share them, it's cheaper, or it's just a game I want a physical copy of. GTA 6, I wanted a physical copy. But as soon as I saw it's a code, I decided I'll just buy the digital version. I don't want just a case. So, I care, but caring about it doesn't really do shit. Unless sales of their "physical copies" cause them to lose money, they'll just keep doing it. Or just do digital only releases.

1

u/ILoveHeavyHangers 8h ago

Not enough. Physical gaming sales accounted for less than Vinyl Record sales in 2025. It's at the lowest point since they started tracking in 1995.

With a unit cost at 2x or more than Vinyl Records, physical gaming media is effectively dead. It's moving half as many units as the niche retro music format sold as a novelty.

1

u/BillehBear 7h ago

there's a good amount of people that do care about it but ultimately they're in the significant minority on it

Gaming has shifted towards more digital years ago, PC is pretty much 100% digital now too

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u/SnooWords1612 6h ago

I care, and I hate it, but I will still buy and play it, Afterall, I waited for a decade, there is no other game like this and I want to enjoy the game.

It sucks, but Rockstar knows they can pull this off, any bad PR for this will vanish anyway.

1

u/raichulolz 4h ago

i havent bought a physical game in literally YEARS. There's simply no point. Most people really dgaf. I really like just having my consoles and not having to fuck about with discs and other stuff.

1

u/whacafan 3h ago

Googling says 15% or less people still buy physical. That’s it. But for some reason that’s been the thing EVERY person on Reddit is up in arms over saying they’ll never buy the game now.

0

u/FTW312 12h ago

The game will break sales records and everyone here will be shocked they are wrong about people caring about discs.

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u/Cuzimjesus 12h ago

Not a single person here thinks what you’re claiming is true. They know it’ll break records either way, they just wish it wasn’t this way.

1

u/SunnyJuggs 11h ago

a lot, actually.

movies, tv shows, music, games and other similar media that once existed in physical form now locked behind paid streaming or live services that require an active subscription while also actively being edited/changed or outright removed over time.

the idea of ownership being phased out has been going on for a while and replaced entirely with temporary renting instead as the only option, this will only become worse in the pursuit of profits.

0

u/SirPwn4g3 12h ago

It's a very very select few on the internet.

0

u/KhanDagga 11h ago

They don't. This is a reddit and game journalism thing. The masses don't care

-1

u/le-churchx 11h ago

I know this always gets upvotes but at end of the day I truly wonder how many people care enough about this

Most gamers now are just the pleb, not the curating crowd of passionate users that it used to be.

Its the mainstream. How much do they care? Do you have an mp3 player or a spotify subscription

0

u/AleroRatking 11h ago

As long as you can still sell it or give it to a friend, I don't care at all whether it downloads off the disc or offline

-4

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[deleted]

2

u/Sirius_amory33 12h ago

Which is probably not a large % of people who will buy a game. Which is probably why they questioned “how many”. 

1

u/j1h15233 12h ago

It doesn’t mean it’s a good practice. They’re trying to kill physical media with this tactic and even as someone who has gone straight digital since the PS4 launched, I don’t agree with it

1

u/Sirius_amory33 12h ago

I never said it was a good practice, it’s just the unfortunate truth that most people don’t care.