Comment on PSBLACKOUT (boycott of PlayStation)
terranoid@lemmy.cafe 1 day agoBecause you don’t own the game anymore. You’re renting it from them, as long as they decide to keep it online, and they won’t forever.
It’s like “buying” a movie on Amazon. It’s not the same as buying a bluray or DVD. It means renting it from them as long as they keep serving it. They eventually will turn that service off and you won’t “own” it.
tomkatt@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Right, but because the full content isn’t on the disc, that happens anyway even with physical media, and all you’re left with is a fancy coaster for your drinks. That’s why I don’t really get the fervor over discs.
Like, IIRC the God of War reboot was an example. The disc only held a key and about 950 MB of data. The rest (like 40 or 60 GB) had to be downloaded from their servers.
Even having a physical disc you don’t” own “ the game in the way you describe. As I said, that’s pretty much been the case for many/most games since the 7th gen consoles (XB360 and PS3).
I should disclaim that I abandoned consoles in Gen 7, partly because of this stuff (and bandwidth throttling, walled ecosystem, etc.), and that was nearly 15 years ago. I just don’t get why the discs being removed is cause for anger when the disc has been materially useless for two console gens now.
iamthetot@piefed.ca 1 day ago
Assuming you are speaking about 2018 God of War, you are mistaken.
The vast majority of games on disc play without any internet connection.
tomkatt@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I don’t own the console, just remembered reading about it and was mistaken about the specific game. Looked it up, Doom: The Dark Ages only has 85 MB on the disc, and God of War: Ragnarok was digital code only in the case with no disc. Jedi Survivor is another one with a required day one patch.
My understanding is around 30% of PS5 games are not playable without patch updates. This is something that started way back in PS3 with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 IIRC, as that game was literally unplayable due to crashing without a day one patch.
iamthetot@piefed.ca 1 day ago
Yes, there are some games that cannot be paid without internet. You’ll note that I never claimed otherwise.
Those game publishers should rightfully be called out and shamed.
What remains true is that the vast majority of games released on disc are playable without any internet at all. Discs are by no means “materially useless” in 2026.