- cross-posted to:
- gaming@lemmy.ml
- games@sh.itjust.works
- cross-posted to:
- gaming@lemmy.ml
- games@sh.itjust.works
Phil doing what Don couldn’t
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So, the physical release is just… actual garbage? Like sure, someone may proudly display it in their bookshelf or whatever, but then, it eventually becomes trash, and there’s no reason to keep any of it because there’s no physical copy of the game which can be resold or even borrowed out to friends?
That’s not a “physical release”, that’s a piece of merchandise, as useful as a Funko Pop.
Only if you paid $$$ for the “Constellation Edition” - that includes a digital watch, a nice case, and a few other physical goodies. It’s already sold out though, so yeah don’t bother now to buy any physical edition.
Welp. With this and other AAA games like Alan Wake going full digital, I suppose the end is nigh for physical media. It’s a real shame. I own tons of physical games dating back to the Atari 2600. I tend to view things like Limited Run Games to be collector bait, so I guess most of my games are going to be purchased on GOG or Steam once the plug is pulled(I do not trust digital storefronts on console).
What really sucks is that it eliminates any sort of trade-in systems. I rarely have the desire to play a game I’ve already finished, at least I would be able to recoup some of that money towards a new game. There goes that along with lending games to friends
How often does that happen these days though? Trading in games or lending to friends hasn’t been worth it for a while. Trades are worth a handful of dollars and if your friends are adults they can probably afford their own game anyway. We cling too much to an era where people could still believe the earth would be fine. It’s a hobby, is it really worth it?
they can still support encrypted format usb sticks which technically doesn’t have storage limit. (then decrypt/then encode again when transfer to your console. as if they are downloaded from the server)
Like windows OS is selling on usb sticks.
Things like this is why I already made the switch to digital games. If the one point of having physical media was to have a backup, and nowadays most games aren’t even fully on the cartridge/disc, whats the point? At that point it’s just another form of DRM.
This isn’t too surprising though, Microsoft has been big into getting rid of physical media.
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That’s not really a physical release then? It’s basically one of those cards they have hanging up at walmart, but with an unnecessary box. And the whole point of the box is as a protective distribution method for physical media.
If it’s just a code in a box, does that mean it can’t be resold?
Yes
Look around and realize how you got here to Lemmy/kbin/beehaw/etc - you were betrayed by a few VC-captured executives that made profit-blinded, consumer-hostile decisions about an important product you used frequently. They ruined it.
Anyone here defending digital media or saying it’s not that bad or they should have done a digital lending system, you’re not remembering the recent past.
The only acceptable ground to give here is NONE. Physical media needs to start mandatory, or your purchases are never owned and you’re always at risk and at the whims of someone like Spez.
This.
Also, AAA companies shouldn’t be able to ask for pre-orders and them deliver botched games that require terabytes of network traffic just to be playable. Physical media should be playable (decent framerate and seamless-enough gameplay) from the beggining.Alternatively downloadable self-contained installers like what you get from https://www.gog.com/
I mean, even the Skyrim disc for PC just ran a script to download it via Steam. This has been coming for a long time.
Microsoft tried to kill borrowing and lending, and this just seems like ankther attempt. Someone with a real presence on other sites (and is good at social media) should stir up a backlash.
I hate digital-only media. :/
I mean, who would expect Starfield to fit on a disk?
then put in X Disks.
we did that with (floppy) disks forever, and CDs too.
I don’t remember any DVDs using that, but they surely existed
A single Quad layer Bluray could fit the entire game, but not a ton of PC users have an optical drive, much less a Bluray capable one. A microSD card or USB drive might be more viable these days. A 128GB costs less than $10. When you want to stick to DVDs you would need either 27 (DVD-5), 15 (DVD-9) or 8 (DVD-18). Multi-DVD releases are definitely a thing. Star Wars Battlefront comes on 4 discs. I suspect they would opt for a DVD-9 release as this allows you to print artwork on one of the sites and you likely need a few extra discs as you cannot use all of the storage for data. So we talk about a 16-18 disc release. ~22mm (7/8 inch) of DVD goodness.
while I referenced DVD on the top end, I was assuming Blue Ray for the game fyi.
not sure how big the game is, but rather sure it fits in <4 Blue Rays.I think for USB drives and micro SD the durability is terrible (like trying to read it after 5 years has a 10% failure rate, No Idea about the stat, just to illustrate)
Star ocean the last hope on the 360 had 3 disks
Recently red dead 2 had a game disc and a play disc.
It actually does. Blurays go up to 128GB and the game needs 125GB.
I think that out spec current xbox consoles? cause I remember reading series x only supports up to the dual layer 66gb ones.
They most definitely can read triple layer discs as they are commonly used for 4K Blu-rays. And when a drive can read TL-Blurays it most likely also can read QL-Blu-rays just fine. However, those are rare so I would suspect a 2x TL release.
And who the fuck has a Bluray drive in their PC?
I’m disappointed that there isn’t a consumer protection law against this.
No matter where you look in Media, digital copies have outpaced physical. And it´s not even close! So the step is not really a surprise. Also, some games are already essentially a digital copy, even if “some” game files get delivered on a disc. But the lack of a physical medium is not what sucks about this. It´s the fact that you link the purchase to your own account of whatever store it´s in and that´s it. No lending, selling or gifting once you activated the code. I actually prefer to buy cartridges for the switch because of that very reason.
But with digital downloads being so much more convenient and instantly available, I don´t see how any market forces would ever change this. Also, people pre order digital copies as if they worry the store wouldn´t have enough copies on launch day, which is also quite telling.
Yeah the bummer is the system they were going to implement for Xbox one was going to allow game lending which would have been a decent first step towards proper digital ownership of games.
They’re now saying that this was incorrect: the Xbox release will include a disc.
https://www.gamespot.com/amp-articles/starfield-does-have-a-physical-disc-after-all/1100-6515495/
There ought to be a law that a physical release of a game sold in a box has to include some kind of physical media that contains a version of the game. Yes, I get that a multi-gig Day 1 Patch is inevitable, but as someone that had to rely on a craptastic mobile broadband connection for a solid year or two, this is a travesty.
If you wanna just sell a code for a digital version in retail stores, just sell code cards without the plastic disk-like box. It wastes less resources, and makes it more clear what it is.
The stupid reason for the box is probably that people equate size with value, and stores have a harder time charging $90 for a slip of paper.
Easy fix: Print the install size on the slip of paper in big letters.
In Bytes if need be.
More than 1 billion bytes per dollar!
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Well, the PS5 and XBOX Series X still use disks as their physical media… but yeah, the Series XBOXes in particular could switch over to those storage modules you can slam into the back of the consoles. At least for exclusives - the XBOne has no port for those.
But for PC… I reckon most people buy games on Steam there anyway.
And while I would appreciate swag… I think most developers would only go with cheap non-brandname USB sticks with the logo of the game printed on it, that’s built just good enough to not spontaneously combust if you look at it funny.
No, they would spend way too much money on custom USB drives. There would be 20 different kinds, with the super premium gold edition* only being available as a preorder bonus that costs $20 extra.
*does not contain real gold
CDs in current gen physical copies aren’t really much more than a license to download anyway considering many require a gigantic day 1 patch to play. So the CD doesn’t really give you anything anymore (except I guess you could lend it to a friend).
You also can’t sell it, and thus also can’t buy it used. This is the final move to end the used market for console games.
I’ll continue to avoid digital-only games copy for as long as I can because of this.
After a few years I typically replace my console, and sold the oldgen along with physical game copies. Sometimes I sell games sooner.
Each time I reconsider whether to buy Xbox vs Playstation, availability of physical copies is always a precondition.
