Submitted 19 hours ago by inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
People have been buying more and more physical media recently due to the enshittification of streaming. I’ve been buying blu-rays for movies I really want to ‘own’.
It just clearly not up to some people’s standards. Imagine how much more $$$ valve would make if they published physical copies for their steam machine.
People have been buying more and more physical media recently due to the enshittification of streaming.
Have they? More and more, really?
I guess I must have missed the memo, because I no longer have the giant storage cases full of plastic discs or tapes. I’m hard pressed to name anyone else in my social circle who still does.
I’ve been buying blu-rays for movies I really want to ‘own’.
I just pirate that shit. Why on earth do I want a hard copy of something, plus a device to play it, when a 2-TB hard drive can host more media than I could watch in a month. That’s before you get into degraded quality of older discs and machines. Or my increased appetite for foreign media - shit that was never on offer in the states without knowing a boutique distributor or a friend traveling overseas or someone with a subbed copy.
Imagine how much more $$$ valve would make if they published physical copies for their steam machine.
Getting this from Valve is absolutely mind-bending, given how much of their library is exclusively digital.
Can we stop spreading the propaganda for them? Sony lied about digital sales by including digital-only games in their figures.
Every game with a physical release, according to their developers, makes most of their sales on disc (60%-80%) every single time.
Where can I learn more about this. Frankly, I will not just take your word for it.
Search Twitter and Bluesky for official game studio and personal developer accounts. They almost always post about their sales soon after a launch. I don’t have any on hand, sorry. I do remember suckerpunch and insomniac doing so all the time
I believe you, and im sure it’s because I’ve lost passion for just about everything at this point, but if the disk doesnt hold the game what really is the point anymore. If we bought the entire game on hard drive and the console had a hot swappable port so we used them like cartridges that would be great. I shouldn’t need internet access to play a game by myself. But with the current fuckery, the disc just holds part of the game right, and you have to download the rest of the game when you put it in the console.
You can also use that license thatvomes on that disc and transfer it and sell it or trade it to someone else if you choose.
That choice is being taken away.
I like Valve but stfu dude.
Physical discs was the only thing that was a plus side of consoles compared to PC gaming (you could trade and resell it).
This is so clearly a company employee portraying a certain sentiment that the company stands to profit from and acting like that is what consumers chose.
Sony, chose this. I didn’t chose this. And valve knows that now 30- 40% or better of PlayStation players will be making their way over to them in the next 5 years with this very sentiment of “oh well its what consumers chose”
I know it wasn’t the company of valve that said this and just an employee but still fuck this dudes opinion on the topic. Of course he shills for the end of discs that was the only thing that set consoles apart from Steam.
I like digital games on PC, not gonna lie.
But the only money I’m spending on the consoles I have is on used games. That’s what makes them worthwhile for me. I spent stupid money on the ps5 and psvr2 because my library of games could be built at a discount, and maybe every now and then I’ll get a new game that looks interesting because I have the system already. I bought the disc version of the ps5 specifically, not right at launch but close enough to it that I had to look around to find one (and said no thanks to the driveless ones that were available). Can’t remember if it was for the ps5 or psvr2 but for one of them I even held my nose and got it from walmart, which I try to avoid when possible.
Though the writing is already on the wall with these things. So many games are already just download codes even if they are on a disc or card, which means they require active support just to install and once that’s gone (either by Sony or publisher’s choice), then that game is gone. And I know you assholes think that’s a good thing because it means someone who would otherwise be playing that game needs to find something else to do and that something else might be buying another new game. So ultimately it doesn’t really matter if you (Sony) use discs or not, since removing them entirely is really just slamming that final nail in the coffin, but it’s already there just waiting for the hammer. I probably won’t get the next PlayStation either way.
Hey guess what. Companies retain less popular options all the time because it makes them more attractive as businesses.
What nonsense. What matters isn’t whether we use physical disks or not. And it’s all digital anyway, you don’t get many games on vinyl these days. The real issue is whether you own the games you buy. As GOG is proving, game ownership is something that publishers can easily offer, regardless of the delivery mechanism.
GOG doesn’t give you ownership of the game the way physical media does though. Unless they’ve added a feature to sell your used games?
Hard drives are physical you can even put it on tape or break out the floppies. No drm is the real winner and true ownership
Download the offline installer and now you have possession.
Further, because GOG enforces no DRM or mandatory sign-ins, so that means that you also have control over that copy of the game - you can install it and play it however and whenever you see fit.
For GOG games were you downloaded and kept the offline installer, the only way that the righsholder has of stopping you from installing and playing that game is to sue you, which is:
With other stores they can just force the store to take down the game and now it’s up to YOU to sue THEM to get restitution and the “not worth it” is now something that goes against you (unless you have access to a Small Claims Court in the jurisdiction you’re in, are you really going to sue them for a 50 bucks game?)
In fact, physical media is worse than digital GOG games, because the former can have phone-home DRM or mandatory sign-ins so you have possession but not control.
Good point, I’m guessing it probably falls short of physical media in that way. As I understand it, they let you download an install file for the games you purchase, which you can save and use offline. I doubt that publishers would put effort into enabling a second hand games market
I just wanna say this is my opinion.
98% of the shit we deal with. Not just game shit, but everything…all boils down to these folks with power being utter rotten puss filled cunts.
Like honestly. Fuck disc. I hate em. I love digital. But fuck me. Let it be mine. Let me mod it (without cheating in it) let me play it on any console I want. Let it be my $80 of the game to do with as I want.
Like stop being such assholes. Why do these folks gotta turn into hateful cunts cause they got money or they made a game or media or whatever the fuck.
Consumers wouldn’t be as pissed if they weren’t being fisted constantly.
Baby, you keep giving them the money they use to fist you.
True, but ain’t that a bit unfair for you to say? Do you not play games? Or watch stuff?
Isn’t this a “you complain yet you live in a society.” Or whatever.
I also grew up playing games. I won’t stop. And yes, while getting fisted, I’ll complain. You wouldn’t tell someone not to scream when getting attacked.
Isn’t this literally victim-shaming? It’s not just game companies doing it, after all. What’s the alternative, to go live in the wilderness and not participate in society at all??
That’s why I love gog, and it’s the only store that gets my gaming money. The games are mine, as long as I keep a backup of the installer. I can do with them what I want.
I see why the newest AAA games are a must have for younger gamers, but as an older one I now have the patience to simply wait until it releases on gog if I actually have the urge to play it.
Digital is fantastic, I miss the boxes and handbooks and feelies, but I don’t miss the discs.
Other stores have DRM free games too. For example Cyberpunk 2077 is DRM free on Steam. DRM, for the most part, is forced by publishers rather than stores.
feelies
You are sufficiently old. Good job.
I always wanted Wishbringer SO BAD because it came with that damn rock.
You can do that with Steam games too. The ones without DRM.
And it’s the developer that chooses if they want DRM.
99% of games will never release on GoG no matter how old they get though, because once they’re on GoG they’re essentially free.
Hell yeah. Love GOG.
But for me, while I love old games, I need my new shit lol.
Like bf6 has been a gem for me. Some bugs and bullshit, but I do like it. Which, call me stupid for this but bf6 and modern battle/war games are a bit of therapy for me. I joined the Marines, got to last week of basic training, came back from team(?) Week and was told to get my shit on the front deck or whatever. Ended up I had hep c. Paperwork fell through and it wasn’t caught till I was almost done
And grant you, I wanted to “fight for America and the people in it” since I was like 7. I was 20 just outta h.s. It tore my world apart. Had to do meds and all that. Pills and injection.
Anyways. Games like battlefield or even the more serious ones like Insurgency helped me use some of the stuff I learned on my own over the years and stuff in basic to not feel like it was all a huge waste of my life.
Tl"dr I enjoy modern fps games because they help me deal with my trauma in life.
Let it be my
$80$59,99 of the game to do with as I want.
Never forget, never forgive.
Nintendo 64 games cost like $60-$80 back in the late 90s.
If the game is honestly updated with effort and hard work I will pay $80.
I clean air bnbs, houses, condos, and all that for a living. I don’t do shit for less than $100.
I get folks gotta eat. But if you want my money for your product, it better be that good dick shit. It better be high quality and ducking finished. Not this “oh here’s we got updates coming, the game is has a roadmap.”
Like motherfucker the game can’t drive it doesn’t need a road map, it’s need to be finished.
Wanna release the unfinished version? $20. But give me user support, working graphics, good multi if it’s that game, all the bells and whistles and I’ll pay $80 if you show me you goddamn actually care for the thing you are making.
Show me the love for your product/art/work and I will gladly give you money to support you for doing something you care about. And I mean even the ceos. Have some goddamn integrity and humility for fucking once.
Sorry to rant.
It was $50 before that and as high as $90 before that. $60 is kind of arbitrary, honestly.
$60 in 2007 is a bit under $100 now in terms of purchasing power. Games have essentially gone down in price.
On console, digital only means the only market is them. That’s why this is happening, and it’s the real issue. The ownership thing is an issue too, but that’s been dead for a while, even with physical disks. Very few games worked with only the disk install and no internet, so the disk doesn’t let you play without their support anyway.
I’ve been PC only for a long time now, so I’m fine with digital only. On PC we have some choice of marketplace. Sure, (I’m probably going to get flammed for pointing this out) Valve has used their market dominance to force price parity, but it’s still better than consoles. Console players are about to get fucked, and they’re probably going to turn around and thank them for it.
There’s nothing wrong with getting fisted.
No, I love fisting. But with consent.
Because people with money have the time and patience to arrange an eloquent argument to legislators.
Easy, and correct, to say “But a lot of those guys are bought and paid for.” They are, but they also need to convince the gullible representatives; the ones that want to think they’re doing the right thing, and will vote yes anytime a bill has “For Children” in the name.
But senators aren’t convinced by “Like stop being such assholes.” They need a mature, well-arranged argument that demonstrates unfairness and harm. SKG showed when it’s well-described, it can have effects.
The problem isn’t with digital. The problem is with digital licenses and rights.
Exactly. And geo restrictions.
Which stems from licensing and rights
Discs are just as digital as internet data piped through fiber optics. It’s a deceitful term which doesn’t cover the true change: perpetual license vs time limited license.
You can resell or trade a disc though. Or at least have been able to up until now I bet they start tying those to specific accounts now while they still make them until 2028.
This intentionally misses the point.
It’s physical and digital distribution.
Valve, who ushered in the digital only landscape for PC, is like, “We’re all trying to find the guy who did this!”
the “choice” was shoved down your throats
No, I made the choice for physical. I don’t own a single digital game on a Sony console. Don’t put this on me.
He’s right though. The consumer has chosen sure a small minority might buy physical but the majority don’t.
This person is saying that’s untrue sh.itjust.works/comment/26484937
It was shown that for PS5 exclusives the split was in favour of physical though. And that doesn’t even count the people that buy second hand
Yes it is a conspiracy. Sony doesn’t want physical games for a whole bunch of reasons not least of which is control and greed. And if you think this is a new thing you would be wrong. They have been pushing this quietly for years. Second hand sales, game rentals, trading… these are all things that cut into Sony’s profits. If you ever want a reason follow the money.
I had a PS4, witch was sold and didn’t have coonsole for years. Then I got a PS5 and my account was deleted with all my purchases.
That didn’t happen to my steam games.
Agree with your point, but why did you own a witch, and why did you sell her?
/s
Because of the coonsole. (that’s necromancer slang for raccoon soul)
Companies offer games as a digital download or physical disc.
Consumers buy physical disc out of a desire to preserve media.
Game is unplayable off the disc without a 98GB download that installs a digital copy of the game onto the hardware. Disc is essentially a physical license to play the game and is useless otherwise.
“You chose this”
Fuck right off. At this point, if a game isn’t either available on GoG or as a FitGirl RePack, it does not register as an option for me anymore. That is my choice.
and seems like ppl don’t realize the disc being the license means when the dig store removes the dig licenses it’ll also remove the versions that apply to that 98gb update for a disc license.
People keep pre-ordering absolutely everthing no matter the price because they need to have it the moment it comes out. THIS means companies can do whatever the fuck they want because people will let them do it.
The solution is so easy stop buying their shit. Yes you won’t play on the second it comes out 6 months later its like 50% at least.
Nothing will change because people value convenience over change.
He isn’t wrong how many people here buy from steam - it’s rare if ever you get a physical release of a game on steam.
Now physical rights vs digital are the issue;
Buying a physical item means you own it and can use it whenever you want.
Buying a digital item means you buy the license to use that item. That’s a concept that’s been around for software purchasing for a very long time.
People want to own the digital item the same as the physical and not have the license pulled when a publisher decides to. Sony just doesn’t have the trust of the gaming community for this.
GOG, you buy it and can use it whenever you like and its digital. Best of both.
Yeah, even physical pc games often just have a download key inside and no disk, and computers haven’t had disk drives for a while.
(I know you can get external ones, but even cases nowadays don’t account for the ability to have them as an internal component)
I did manage to snag a copy of House Flipper 2 for 6€ a few months ago when the lowest historical price at the time (according to IsThereAnyDeal) was in the 20s or 30s, so I’m very much in the camp of physical releases in any platform. There is much more choice for consumers, game preservation arguments notwithstanding.
Also a ton of games have day 1 patches that you’d need to download anyway from their servers. I don’t recall seeing standalone installers for patches like we used to have. So buying a physical copy just makes you feel good rather than actually avoiding the problem with digital copies
well, having a physical disk doesnt guarantee ownership. companies can still leave critical things off the disk and require you to download them when you install, or there can be some verification system. And if corporation servers go down, you still cant use it.
What we need is all the files and data we buy to be fully functional and not behind any encryption or other gate, be it digital or physical. Then make your own physical media of it or back it up whereever you want.
To be fair, physical media has been dead before the whole sony debacle. What’s the pint of ownjng something like cyberpunk when you own the release version?
I’d argue the right fight here is to reliably obtain “permanent ownership” for either kind of purchase. Anyone who bought their games digitally for the past generation and doesn’t follow gaming news (basically a silent majority of gamers) probably doesn’t even care about this ongoing disc backlash/boycott.
But highlighting things like the sudden pull of people’s owned movies, that may matter to them when applied to games.
I see no reason not to pirate a game I bought digitally if it is then removed as a playable game.
I bought it spent time in it the achievements and memories tied to that game are mine and mine alone.
Sorry your wrong physical media has always still been a license to use it.
A license that can be resold or given away. Not so with digital only licenses.
I bought physical disks until they were basically phased out. A large chunk of them just registered on Steam and downloaded the latest patch before they would run anyway. I have been against Steam and its DRM for a while, but everyone else chose to have no rights to their games, no ability to sell or loan them or give them to others. You will own nothing and love it.
If you vote with your wallet, it just means those richer than you have a bigger vote.
Sorry, I’m not sure what your comment is supposed to point out exactly. Are you saying boycotting is pointless because there are other people giving them a lot more money than you anyway? I mean it would still cut into their profit
Are richer people buying 12 copies of a game?
Kinda; that’s often the reason you see $120 SuperDeluxe editions of games, where the protagonist’s pants have a bit of purple trim. Or $20 “boosts” that skip the first 3 levels (which you’d get by playing two matches)
It’s very much an artifact of wealth consolidation.
“You chose digital.”
Chooses DRM-free, piracy otherwise
“Not like that!”
Exactly. DRM is a far bigger problem than physical/digital. Fortunately GOG is a solution to it. Stop buying games with DRM.
That can be another problem: Just like digital, people choose DRM.
There’s only a small crowd that actually makes things like Denuvo single issue; the huge majority of the PC crowd sees they can still play DRM locked games at decent performance, as soon as they buy them, and even play them offline on their Steam Decks. So it’s hard to demonstrate a salient point to them that DRM is bad.
“Means you can play the game anywhere” - They already can, though!
Honestly, in my lifetime I’ve bought maybe 7 physical games, and that was the Myst series.
I was too poor when I was a kid so pirated, now I use Steam, and if that goes to shit, I’ll be sailing the seas again, just like with streaming.
Playstation was dead to me once they released the PS3 and did the bait and switch linux thing (again).
Why do you care what Sony does, just avoid them all together.
I hate that I am going to say this: a blockchain of key/ownership?
Blockchain doesn’t necessarily need to have “Proof-of-Work” which is what makes Bitcoin and other cryptos so environmentally unfriendly.
It would be a fine method for tracking ownership from a trusted centralized source. And I mean “trusted” in the sense of “they probably won’t just make some shit up because they’d get wrecked in court”, not in terms of actual trust lol.
But you say “decentralized”, for most blockchain projects that’s just a buzzword lol, it’s very hard to actually pull off. Especially without a financial incentive ie operators taking a cut of every sale made.
I have no love for disks. It’s a dead technology. We should work on software ownership instead.
Friendly reminder that GOG exists and has a backlog of great games that can keep you entertained for ages. If you want to put your money where your mouth us, I suggest putting it there.
Buying the hot new thing no questions asked is how we get more of the Sonys of the world.
I agree physical games are dead, but I’m sure as shit not buying digital from anyone with a history of plucking purchased shit out of people’s libraries.
This is what I will do. I’ll play my backlog, buy used games on disc and newer releases on gog.
I hate it as much as the next person here, but it was always inevitable. It was never a question of if, but when.
I know a lot of people look at physical media from a preservation angle, but in an era where games have a long tail of post-release updates and DLC, I'm not so sure they even serve that purpose anymore. If I want to replay my old games in 50 years, in many cases I probably don't just want to play the 1.0 that's on the disc. If I'm still dependent on the availability of a third-party download server to get the remaining data, do discs even still matter all that much?
physical media from a preservation angle… If I want to replay my old games in 50 years
And don’t forget bitrot. The modern bluerays are scarecrow and wind chime material in like 2-3 decades after manufacturing.
I’ve been downvoted en masse for saying that physical media doesn’t last forever, and that many of my PS1/2/3 physical copies no longer work due to labels peeling off and disc rot. It doesn’t happen apparently.
Also Blu-ray players/drives need regular updates for the encryption keys, it’s why the PS3 gets updates every couple years still. Sony will stop updating them some day.
LOL what? This is some „your carbon footprint“ level horseshit. It‘s like saying you the consumer chose global warming or to lose your job to automation. I mean, did you choose to live near a data center that was build last month? I didn‘t think so either.
We‘re not one tightly organized mass making decisions with far reaching consequences together as consumers. Providers on the other hand practice price-fixing and lobbying in an organized manner. That‘s where I would start pointing my finger at to explain this mess.
I, the consumer are terribly powerless. Only we, the people can change these things for the better by gutting these corporations.
Inf act some of us chose NOT to live next to the data center and they built the fucker anyway.
Agree with all points.
eventually an internal document will leak that details how sony colluded with other corporations and orchestrated the whole thing but it will be like big oil’s climate research where even though they knew first and covered it up, its all our fault and we are responsible for fixing it while they continue to make it worse faster than we could possibly handle
Yet older generations get blamed for causing the climate crisis.
they voted for and continue to vote for the people that actually cause it
So some people bought digital and therefore that is justification to get rid of physical?
Chet Falisek has been on a crusade to have bad contrarian takes since he left Valve. His stance on Stop Killing Games was downright stupid.
I would happily buy steam physical games if they existed
In this sense, Chet is right, the 'democracy' of consumers has prevailed, and the people have spoken. They said 'digital.' I myself have been a PC gamer for over a decade now and I can't remember the last time I bought physical media.
"You as the consumer have forced the large corporations hand, and you've told them 'Stop with retail.'"
But then Chet shows his entire rancid asshole by actively ignoring the power dynamics between corporation and customer. The corporation always has the upper hand because the customer CAN ONLY buy what the corporation is OFFERING to sell. The corporation is always, at all times, presenting the customer with a false choice. A customer who has shitty internet and has to purchase all physical media, they may be in the democratic minority but that doesn't mean we feed them to the wolves. But an ex-Valve writer wouldn't know shit about that, they haven't shipped a physical game since Portal 2. What choice did you give consumers for Counterstrike, 2023? Half Life Alyx, 2020? **Dota, 2013? **
Once you, apparently, regretted your decision to invest almost entirely in digital, you didn't start buying Crimson Desert discs while you could, nor did you abstain from making digital purchases altogether. Now it's too late, says Faliszek.
Suck my dick, clown.
Last time I bought a disc it had just a downloader on it
Guitar@lemmy.world 33 minutes ago
Digital games are nice. There was a good chunk of time during the ps4/xbone era where I bought a lot of digital games. But in recent years as I have watched how these companies have acted, I have switched back to buying physical as much as possible. I realized I actually prefer having the thing in my hands. Being able to look at it on the shelf with the rest of my collection. Now I only buy digital as a secondary more convenient copy when there is a good sale. Otherwise, I want to own my game and feel it in my hands as I insert a cart or a disk.
For me, improving digital rights is only a partial compromise, when we should continue to have choices. Losing secondhand copies and hurting that part of the industry is unforgivable to me. My choice is not for digital, and these companies moving away from it is a dealbreaker for me. If this is the route all of them go, I will no longer play modern games. Fuck it’s not like most of them are actually worth buying and playing these days when it’s all designed to squeeze as much money out of you as possible.
I have hundreds of physical games, and there are so many more I can still collect and play. I feel comfortable enough with my old games that I could never touch a new game again and have plenty to play for the rest of my life. If this is where the companies choose to try to force us to go, then I’m out. I’ve managed to live my whole life without playing a PS6 or GTA 6. I’m not going to be strongarmed into losing my choice.