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Comments (97)

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  CoolestBeans
  The discs have been a formality for longer than most gamers understand or want to admit. Sony is discontinuing disc sales as a response to how gamers are buying games not the other way around. So it's an irrational response but an understandable emotional response. It's a final marker of an era that realistically ended more than a decade ago. That video games are not an island: an enclosed experience of just you, the game, the console, the controller, the TV, and a bunch of wires connecting it all together. When we were kids, you had this little disc that exploded out into a world that was all your own to explore and experience. Now it's not all your own. When you bought a PlayStation 2 and some games, your relationship with Sony could end at any time and nothing would change in your day-to-day gaming experience. But today, buying a console is an ongoing relationship with the manufacturer every microsecond you play a game. And most people don't want to admit that. And ending disc production forces us to admit that old era has been dead and gone. More frighteningly, we helped it along every step of the way by overwhelmingly preferring digital downloads and always-on online games.
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  MBCook
  Discs don’t matter. The whole “bring back discs” thing is pointless. They’re gone. Period.Rights matter. If we had the same rights with digital purchases we had with old physical games the disc thing would be a much much smaller issue. Would many care outside true collectors?Don’t confuse the two. If you do, and you complain loudly enough, you’ll get the monkey’s paw version of discs. All the downsides of both, no upside at all.
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  beloch
  To provide a basic level of consumer protection, governments should:1. Recognize that paying for a game implies ownership. Developers must not employ methods that remove purchased games from online stores or become otherwise unplayable.2. Recognize the legality of cracking games to make them playable.To put it in the classic anti-piracy "You wouldn't steal a car, would you?" terminology, we need to tell developers, "No, you can't sell us a car and then steal it. Yes, we have the right to built tools to take it back if you try."
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  ksymph
  Not a great article, but a very real phenomenon. I recently picked up a banned Nintendo Switch Lite for cheap -- meaning it can't download games or updates off Nintendo's servers, but it can still play cartridge games. And while most games function, there are more often than not critical fixes or significant content updates missing. The console exists in a strange sort of limbo where everything is playable but not in its best form.The problem with Sony killing physical games (and the wider culture of digital purchases) is, unfortunately, a long-term one. Nobody will be seriously affected right now, as long as Sony's update servers are up and both digital and physical are supported. But 10, 20 years from now, both from a game preservation standpoint and from a consumer protection standpoint, this will be disastrous, when many games will still be charging outrageous prices (without the soft check of reselling/trading) or even no longer exist.
• anon
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  hollow-moe
  Got bitten by the deceptive nature of Nintendo "game key trash". Purchased a game online without reading carefully the description. Sent it back and bought a SteamDeck. I can't recall if the seller even put the correct visuals: game key trash have a banner telling that they are plastic waste and you should instead give all the money to nintendo by using eshop.
• glaslong
  Get a Mig Flash, rip your games, support the emulator communities, etc.It's so easy for DRM'd games to become lost forever as the rights transfer around, and the hosting or support costs stop being worth it for publishers.
• anon
  undefined
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  j1elo
  I don't understand how we are running into a future where I cannot buy the equivalent of "PS2 + 5 games" on a second-hand shop. That has been the main way to play games for a lot of people: buy a previous gen pack (with N games included) when the richer neighbour was upgrading to the next gen console.How's that going to work out today or in newer generations?
• alexfringes
  Fascinating listener comment, from a librarian to ATP, about the special legal exceptions with which libraries were equipped to have a chance against copyright and DRM tech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u11ar0649Y4&t=373s (timestamped deep-link)
• grimgrin
  I like to think this'll be around foreverhttps://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/
• mvanbaak
  Just to confirm the title: The Destiny 2 disc does not have a single playable mission on it anymore.
• polishdude20
  For an FPGA project I'm working on that requires a host software program on the host computer, I've been looking into finding a way to burn the host software or source code to the fpga itself. So you'd just plug in the USB port and it would automatically open a filesystem and let you copy over the source code or even binary blob for the software so it would work in the future.
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  gitowiec
  They have only 27 entries for a PC... Like PCMR does not care? The platform where cracks always were most important?
• LocalH
  This is why hacking consoles is paramount. These companies don't want you to be able to preserve what you paid for, and hacking enables that.Thank god we figured out the encryption on Rock Band content. Everything there is preserved now.
• Scoundreller
  Gamecopyworld continues to exist, which has been a while without any unnecessary interface changes.
• nekusar
  Just because the game is pirated DOES mean it will work in the future.
• p0w3n3d
  You don't need your right of ownership! Please resign from it as it is a relict of the past.
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  nonamee
  interesting article about doesitplay community and their observations, but it seems like a lost battle since majority of gamers simply do not care
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  boesboes
  jezus fucking christ, stop defending the fucking corporation sucking everything dry you will own nothing and enjoy it
• micromacrofoot
  yeah the backlash against sony is focusing on the wrong detail, disks don't mean ownership and digital doesn't mean you can't own itthe disks themselves are largely a relic already, not enough storage for some games... and I don't recall a game I've played recently that didn't require a download on first playit would be nice to have some regulation that at least requires games to have some sort of labelling that indicates a minimum length of support for online functionality requirements
• msarrel
  Nice to see someone drinking the Kool aid
• ethankatelyn1
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• selectively
  [dead]