3 ms·

It’s also bad for preservation because the disc doesn’t actually have the playable game anymore.

• TeMPOraL 2y ago
  Indeed; at this point, a disk is just treated as a cache for speeding up the initial installation.
• imiric 2y ago
  Physical media is almost entirely dead, and will not exist in a few years anyway. So, yeah, the move to digital releases, pervasive DRM, and live service games make preservation difficult. I hope industry heads realize that they're actively pushing consumers towards piracy. These days you often get a better experience with a pirated game than a legally bought one: it runs better without DRM and doesn't infect your system, you can play it offline, and no license change will take it away from you. At least GOG seems to be the only store giving you DRM-free and offline installers, but not all games are released on it.
  • liontwist 2y ago
    Right but physical media is not dead because of consumer demand. PS4 physical games were huge. In the US there are still a lot of regions where a 50-100 GB download is just not reasonable. I know console manufacturers hate retail and the used market, and want that sweet direct income. but it would be a powerful brand move to set higher standards for the physical release. I believe Nintendo has gone this direction.