Death of Physical Games

[@realicemilk5032]

i still buying physical games

[@mronewheeler]

There are probably many reasons why consoles wouldn't store saves on game disks, like accidental erasure of game files like you mentioned, but my guess to the biggest reason is that rewritable CDs can only be written to a limited number of times (~1000 times according to Wikipedia). This means game disks would become unusable after saving too many times and you could very well save 100 times for a single playthrough of one game, meaning you could only play through the game 10 times before the disk was destroyed. The writing process itself might also be a factor since a CD-RW needs to be blanked before each instance of writing to it. This means the console needs internal memory to store all the game files so they can be written back to the disk every time you save along with the new save data. This would likely take a long time and with that internal storage added you might as well just store the save data on that. So basically, it would quickly destroy the game disk, someone might put the disk in a computer and erase the game by accident, saving would take a really long time and the console would need a large internal memory which might as well store the save data at that point. On top of all this the price of consoles and games would increase since CD-RW and their readers are more expensive. So it's definitely a big no-no.

[@champsammy13]

NGL, bought a physical game today, IDK if I'll ever play it but I own it, goddamnit!

[@PrincessShokora2002]

Long live piracy

[@MetallicFear]

Even if you weren't for piracy, companies are actively pushing you towards it.

[@KobraEditing]

I'd still rather have the data on hand, thanks. What Activision did was unacceptable. At least they fixed Spyro with later releases, but that's the only one.

[@MetallicFear]

I was unaware they fixed the Spyro issue. That's good to hear :)

[@KobraEditing]

@@MetallicFear Yeah, wish the box art said it, but they didn't change that. The only difference between the discs is the copyright dates.

[@CasperEgas]

They didn't loose all meaning. It still means ownership, free competition between stores and resale/trade possibilities.

[@MetallicFear]

Absolutely. 99% of my console game library is physical since it's cheaper. But since games nowadays are deliberately fragmented to save cost (companies only putting partial data to disc) + sell DLCs, once the servers go down, it's over. It's a definite downgrade coming from PS2, PS3 era, where you actually owned the game no matter the status of servers.

[@CasperEgas]

@@MetallicFear I agree with that. It is a downgrade. Not all companies do that though. So support the good ones.

[@TAttila84]

They are still very much alive on switch.

[@MetallicFear]

Mostly....There are still few titles that does gamers dirty. Like Pokemon Scarlett/Violet + Expansion Pass (The Complete Edition) requiring downloads when the Sword/Shield version was all on cartridge.

[@filip050689]

Almost every game for ps4 can be installed offline. The data is on the disc. The disc is used to install the game for the first time, when you put it in you can hear the drive spinning as it installs the data. After that it acts like a key, insert disc to unlock and verify ownership. The majority of the ganes are on disc. Installing on the hdd for better loading times etc. Physical games will not die LOL , enough with this crap. In the future they will become niche but they will not vanish for good. We can see in the ps5 era that games are printed for less time

[@KobraEditing]

I agree with everything you said except that they won't die. It sucks, but they will. This video was highly exaggerating where the state is at currently, but I wouldn't be surprised if PS6 doesn't have a disc drive. PS7 almost certainly won't. Right now, it's mostly been Activision and some of the Telltale season pass style discs that have been killing things. Or games like Alan Wake 2 just skipping a physical release. Hopefully we get more companies like Limited Run picking up the slack, but if there's no disc drive in the future, then even those companies won't have an option.

[@flamestoyershadowkill6400]

@@KobraEditing I hope sd becomes cheap enough that sd express in a fullsized sd form factor replaces optical media for consoles

[@KobraEditing]

@@flamestoyershadowkill6400 The only problem is that SD has a lifespan that is much shorter than optical. As long as you take care of your discs, MOST will last longer than your life will, though there are a few exceptions with bad pressings. Good luck keeping the metal on SD and other elements from degrading, haha. But I do wish there was a better solution. Time seems to be an enemy of everything.

[@flamestoyershadowkill6400]

@@KobraEditing being a ripper, pirate, and data horder is still the best option then. Buy new drives every 4 years or so to transfer and backup also

[@KobraEditing]

@@flamestoyershadowkill6400 Shit. I hate that you're right that data transfers better from drive to drive. But a lot of these recent consoles don't have good (or any) emulators, so you'd be stuck with hacking the consoles... and no. That's a dangerous game these days.

[@RLfilmz]

You’re exactly right about disk based games. They’re read only to prevent players from writing over it since unlike cartridges, disks can also go in a computer

[@shigshug8581]

Good video on the death of physical games, keep making more like these...

[@Wierie_]

welcome to the realm of pc games, only steam is a lot better then xbox & playstation combined when it comes to games actually being tied to your account :P

[@Area51UFOGynaecology]

thing is that almost all games that come out today are just copypastes of 10-15 year old games so not much point in buying anything, i just buy the occasional zelda and mario game etc, dont care about that activision and ubisoft crap

[@AnakiinOkay]

I only buy physical games on my nintendo consoles if Imma be honest