5 ms·

With this, there is a loss of a large culture of game boxes. They used to contain so much physical art, manuals and secrets, which do seem to have been left beh

With this, there is a loss of a large culture of game boxes. They used to contain so much physical art, manuals and secrets, which do seem to have been left behind. Current process is very simple and direct, and you can go from seeing a game on Steam to installing it in under a minute. That is a huge win for customers and publishers both. I do wish there was still a way to replicate it, and I do laud the few game developers who do put their manuals on Steam, as the service definitely offers it.

FirmwareBurner 2y ago
>With this, there is a loss of a large culture of game boxes. Where have you been living? Big-box releases of PC games have been dead for at least 10-15 years now since digital downloads like Steam took over and people stopped queuing en-mass for midnight launches of physical copies. Only special editions still come in boxes now but those are mostly for AAA games and for enthusiasts and collectors of the franchises as they come with a hefty markup.
- rightbyte 2y ago
  What boxes do you mean? HL2 was not in a big box but "dvd case" and that was released in 2004.
  - Lightkey 2y ago
    MobyGames is a helpful website to search for physical releases, as they include box scans. Sometimes not just of the cover but also the sides.. and top and bottoms of big boxes, where the system requirements were printed back in the day: https://www.mobygames.com/game/15564/half-life-2/cover/group-16318/cover-346510/ https://www.mobygames.com/game/15564/half-life-2/cover/group...
    - rightbyte 2y ago
      Ty
  - slavik81 2y ago
    It was in a small box, not just a DVD case. I still have mine, with Alyx Vance on the cover. I see there are big box versions on eBay, so that might have existed in some regions too. Ironically, I don't have my Half-Life 1 Anthology box, because it was huge.
    - rightbyte 2y ago
      Oh. I completely forgot about that. As I remember it DVD cases was when big boxes were abandoned, but in that case there was a lot of overlap.
- goosedragons 2y ago
  Consoles still tend to have physical releases. Granted they have gotten worse, with most just being a disc or cart in a case.
  - rchaud 2y ago
    Aren't a lot of these discs that simply contain a download code?
    - goosedragons 2y ago
      No. They are discs or carts that contain game data. Physical console games don't use codes, you can use a game on a multitude of consoles with different accounts with no issues. Some games don't include the entire game on physical media and have to download the rest but this isn't all of them. There's been plenty of multi-disc Xbox releases as of late too like Dragon Age Veilguard.
      - ThunderSizzle 2y ago
        How is that possible considering Xbox One doesn't have a disk port anymore?
        goosedragons 2y ago
        Um, Most Xbox Series X consoles still have a disc drive. Most Xbox Ones had a disc drive. There are disc driveless models like the Series S and white Series X but there are millions of Xboxs that are still current and have a drive.
- rchaud 2y ago
  This is true for music CDs/Vinyl as well. I remember having detailed game manuals for Diablo and C&C:Red Alert in the '90s. I don't play games anymore but do buy music, and it's shocking that CDs and even $40 vinyls usually come in cheap slip cases with no liner notes or additional art.
djtango 2y ago
I miss manuals. I still have my FFXI manual lying around which is a mini tome and it still gets me excited
- wink 2y ago
  But I don't miss manuals printing black on brown things for copy protection.
turing_complete 2y ago
The big loss of game box culture already happened sometime in the 1990s. Before that, games often came with various kinds of "feelies": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feelie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feelie
ajsnigrutin 2y ago
Yeah... "used to"... 20 years ago. Now it's one standard dvd-case sized box with one sheet of paper and a cd... or not even a cd, but just a download code. The good thing about CDs is, that you can archive them and use them even after 10, 20, 30 years, you cannot do so with steam, if they decide to remove that game or when eventually steam disappears. On the other hand, many games don't even work anymore without an internet connection and some backend service (that'll disappear soon), even single player ones.
- tsimionescu 2y ago
  Honestly, I've had many more game CDs (or DVDs) fail than I've lost access to Steam games. Sure, in the long run, physical storage beats anything, but in the medium term, and for regular users, it's actually very likely to deteriorate quickly.
  - mathgeek 2y ago
    In the long term, most original physical media will degrade over a few decades. It's the ability to create new backups/copies and port media to new formats that beats everything.
    - actionfromafar 2y ago
      Pressed media will last an incredibly long time if produced correctly and not subjected to violence.
      - mathgeek 2y ago
        Some CD-specific stats here from about 16 years ago at the Library of Congress (which thankfully disregards CD-R's and the like): https://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rt/CDservicelife_rev.pdf https://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rt/CDservicelife_...
        actionfromafar 2y ago

FirmwareBurner 2y ago

>With this, there is a loss of a large culture of game boxes. Where have you been living? Big-box releases of PC games have been dead for at least 10-15 years now since digital downloads like Steam took over and people stopped queuing en-mass for midnight launches of physical copies. Only special editions still come in boxes now but those are mostly for AAA games and for enthusiasts and collectors of the franchises as they come with a hefty markup.

rightbyte 2y ago
What boxes do you mean? HL2 was not in a big box but "dvd case" and that was released in 2004.
- Lightkey 2y ago
  MobyGames is a helpful website to search for physical releases, as they include box scans. Sometimes not just of the cover but also the sides.. and top and bottoms of big boxes, where the system requirements were printed back in the day: https://www.mobygames.com/game/15564/half-life-2/cover/group-16318/cover-346510/ https://www.mobygames.com/game/15564/half-life-2/cover/group...
  - rightbyte 2y ago
    Ty
- slavik81 2y ago
  It was in a small box, not just a DVD case. I still have mine, with Alyx Vance on the cover. I see there are big box versions on eBay, so that might have existed in some regions too. Ironically, I don't have my Half-Life 1 Anthology box, because it was huge.
  - rightbyte 2y ago
    Oh. I completely forgot about that. As I remember it DVD cases was when big boxes were abandoned, but in that case there was a lot of overlap.
goosedragons 2y ago
Consoles still tend to have physical releases. Granted they have gotten worse, with most just being a disc or cart in a case.
- rchaud 2y ago
  Aren't a lot of these discs that simply contain a download code?
  - goosedragons 2y ago
    No. They are discs or carts that contain game data. Physical console games don't use codes, you can use a game on a multitude of consoles with different accounts with no issues. Some games don't include the entire game on physical media and have to download the rest but this isn't all of them. There's been plenty of multi-disc Xbox releases as of late too like Dragon Age Veilguard.
    - ThunderSizzle 2y ago
      How is that possible considering Xbox One doesn't have a disk port anymore?
      - goosedragons 2y ago
        Um, Most Xbox Series X consoles still have a disc drive. Most Xbox Ones had a disc drive. There are disc driveless models like the Series S and white Series X but there are millions of Xboxs that are still current and have a drive.
rchaud 2y ago
This is true for music CDs/Vinyl as well. I remember having detailed game manuals for Diablo and C&C:Red Alert in the '90s. I don't play games anymore but do buy music, and it's shocking that CDs and even $40 vinyls usually come in cheap slip cases with no liner notes or additional art.

djtango 2y ago

I miss manuals. I still have my FFXI manual lying around which is a mini tome and it still gets me excited

wink 2y ago
But I don't miss manuals printing black on brown things for copy protection.

turing_complete 2y ago

The big loss of game box culture already happened sometime in the 1990s. Before that, games often came with various kinds of "feelies": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feelie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feelie

ajsnigrutin 2y ago

Yeah... "used to"... 20 years ago. Now it's one standard dvd-case sized box with one sheet of paper and a cd... or not even a cd, but just a download code. The good thing about CDs is, that you can archive them and use them even after 10, 20, 30 years, you cannot do so with steam, if they decide to remove that game or when eventually steam disappears. On the other hand, many games don't even work anymore without an internet connection and some backend service (that'll disappear soon), even single player ones.

tsimionescu 2y ago
Honestly, I've had many more game CDs (or DVDs) fail than I've lost access to Steam games. Sure, in the long run, physical storage beats anything, but in the medium term, and for regular users, it's actually very likely to deteriorate quickly.
- mathgeek 2y ago
  In the long term, most original physical media will degrade over a few decades. It's the ability to create new backups/copies and port media to new formats that beats everything.
  - actionfromafar 2y ago
    Pressed media will last an incredibly long time if produced correctly and not subjected to violence.
    - mathgeek 2y ago
      Some CD-specific stats here from about 16 years ago at the Library of Congress (which thankfully disregards CD-R's and the like): https://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rt/CDservicelife_rev.pdf https://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rt/CDservicelife_...
      - actionfromafar 2y ago