this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

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)

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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…

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

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.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Why? Not trying to argue, just genuinely curious.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can resell a disk, not a code that is one time use.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Or maybe it should be possible to resell a code.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

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.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

What's the purpose of a physical version if there is no disk included? This is nonsense!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

To make useless plastic cases to help the environment, of course.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (4 children)

We don't own media anymore

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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'

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

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.)

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

most people rarely read the directions (and it shows), but I recall loving reading the manuals to my Nintendo64 games

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Remember the little note section at the end of some manuals to scribble your tips and codes?

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

apparently they deleted this right after, but its a sign of some bullshit either way

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A lot of games haven't been released on disks anymore, it's a real shame really.

I understand that games have gotten bigger, but they could always ship with a really cheap'O USB stick for the people who really want a true physical copy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Since the 360 we've had install discs for sizes above Disc 1.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Perhaps they meant it will contain the disc AND a code? But either way it’s hopefully a mistake

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I think they have already done this back in the days of Fallout 76

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I can't say I'm surprised but its a testament of the slowly dying state of physical media

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

It's a 125gb game, what kind of disk were you expecting it to ship on?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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).

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

One that carried the game key, making it portabaly transferable.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It wouldn't have been the first game to have multiple discs to install it.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] little_hoarse 4 points 1 year ago

Did the same with Diablo 4 as far as I know. Companies are getting horribly greedy the past few years

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm really curious who the target audience for this is. I guess if you have gift cards for Gamestop, although huh, this kind of turns them into a key reseller with extra steps.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is really what NFTs were/are for. reselling digital content

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