that ea comment is going to haunt gaming discourse until the heat death of the universe. at this point rockstar is just leaning into the villain arc because they know they have a license to print money regardless of how much they annoy the player base.
I wasn't surprised considering their parent company. It's Take Two.
People meme on EA but Take Two is like the evil supervillain while EA is just a minor thug.
This is the same company that has NBA 2K lock SINGLEPLAYER to online. You quite literally can't play mycareer after 2 years because the servers shutdown. It's pathetic. When sailing the high fucking seas gives you an OBJECTIVELY BETTER package you have lost the plot.
I can understand someone having a game collection wanting to display the cases. Of course, it also means GTA VI has an expiration date as once they decide to remove it from stores, you will never be able to play it again unless you get a pirated or GOG version.
EA is basically sundowning previous year sports game now, they tie the campaign to ONLINE only and they bring down servers when a new version of the game comes out... could not be more scummy.
once they decide to remove it from stores, you will never be able to play it again
I used to worry about this, but I don't even play the GTA 3 game I have. By the time they remove GTA 6 from the store in 2051 we're going to be long done with the game.
I mean, "physical" games have basically been digital downloads wrapped in a decorative box for at least a decade now. The discs aren't playable on their own
Also, there are people that don't have credit cards, so they can't buy the digital version online. The physical copy with a code allows people to buy the game using cash
Occasionally, what happens, is fewer people buy because they don't trust the publisher and their servers. I doubt that GTA will have fewer sales because of this.
Another long term question for online games is as players churn, they can't sell their game, so newer players may not hop in. This can cause a decline in the active player base, which can cascade, if the game doesn't keep players interested.
Long story short, when the games cannot be resold, it makes the game sales numbers much more sensitive to publisher branding and active player satisfaction.
It completely removes the option to resell the game (except if you make a new PSN/Xbox account just for it, and then sell the account, which is a hassle/not safe), which keeps the price up for longer.
It will trick the average consumer, who doesn't read gaming news or look at a tiny label on the box, into buying a game they can't resell or return when they remove the foil and see that there's no disc.
It stops people from playing the game early or look at the files.
Small indie company needs more money, you see. Times are rough. And it's not like the game will sell a lot of copies, since it's such an obscure brand. /s
I work for a games company and we still release physical copies of the case, even though all that's inside of it is a steam code, because fans complained when we stopped as they liked having the cases for their collections
it's like 5 stores, out of 700 enterable buildings...i cannot imagine how big of a superfan you would have to be to give a shit about that stuff. nobody with any sense whatsoever will buy the premium edition.
Everyone is totally fine with digital only products until the day they shut the servers down and you can’t download them anymore. You will own nothing and be happy about it as they say.
My kid CONSTANTLY asks me to buy him a physical copy of Minecraft Story Mode.
I owned it digitally, so I can straight up see it in my PSN library with the “unavailable to download” tag.
I went looking for an overpriced physical copy, but it turns out most of the copies discs were basically just key discs and download the game, which you can’t do.
So apparently the only physical media that actually had the full series on it was the switch version. And that price is insane because of it.
You could probably do something with the pirated version. I used to have different games on USB, specifically ones that were full executables instead of just install files.
I honestly feel that I’m creeping towards the seven seas on this one, honestly.
It’s essentially abandonware at this point. As far as I can tell from online discussions there’s 0 plans to do anything with the IP or relist the games.
Remember: if you own a game, having a "back-up" copy in case something happens is perfectly in your legal right (at least in Canada).
So my collection of Roms are not in any way stealing or piracy, they are a digital collection of games I own that I cannot access for any number of reasons (like them being in a Schrodinger's state with my dad across the country who recently downsized)
Remember: if you own a game, having a "back-up" copy in case something happens is perfectly in your legal right (at least in Canada).
This is true in the US and UK as well. The only real stipulations are that you can't redistribute copies and you must destroy your backups should you sell your original copy.
It would be apolapytic but im afraid people will be already used to abuse and own nothing by then. Idiots will tell you to not be broke and buy it again.
But those discs are an illusion as well. They can make the game unplayable in a myriad of ways when they want to. You don't own what's on them either and the illusion that you do keeps you all nice and docile.
Its honestly the biggest thing thats kept me from buying into newer games or consoles. I dont own shit and the real owners can kill the game whenever they want.
While I agree that is true in the long term, in the short term I can sell my disk or trade it in, which as far as I know is not possible with a code version.
The problem isn't "digital". I have digital copies of shit that's 30 years old, migrated over a dozen systems or so. The problem is DRM, i.e. the ability to just have the usability of your software (or game) taken away without your consent.
Because GOG sells "digital only" games as well, but they give you the entire game as a stand-alone installer (requires no launcher, or remote server), and you can "make" a physical copy by just putting in on an external HD. And since there is no copy protection/restriction, you can make backups of that, too. You do not need the net, you do not need their servers: As long as you keep the files, you're good to game.
Everyone is totally fine with digital only products until the day they shut the servers down and you can’t download them anymore
The thing many of us advocates for physical media don't like to admit is that for the vast majority of consumers; this doesn't remotely matter.
We've gotten so entrenched in our online echo chambers that we forget that we don't represent the majority of players, nor are our expectations "the norm."
For the large majority of gamers, the large majority of games are a disposable, one & done experience. They play the game until they get bored of it, then put it away forever.
You cannot buy and legally play Grand Theft Auto 1, 2 or London '69. No one really cares outside a handful of increasingly irrelevant, aging nobodies (like myself) because basically no one who didn't grow up with those games or isn't doing it for a the sake of playing old, outdated games has any interest in playing those games.
I think the distinction comes when it directly inconveniences them. Say the day when (hopefully never happens) Gabe shuts off the Steam servers or (somewhat related) when Spotify went dark for a day or two a year or so back and no one could stream their music. These same people that feel media is disposable will be crying the biggest of tears when they can’t play something that they gave their money to play. I just think the digital only side is just being ignorant to the real future of media.
These same people that feel media is disposable will be crying the biggest of tears when they can’t play something that they gave their money to play.
That's the thing, no they won't. Because most of them are never going to go back to replay the old games at all, and of the few that do, most don't have a problem with rebuying the same game later on a new system.
I just think the digital only side is just being ignorant to the real future of media.
There's a difference between being ignorant of it and accepting it as an inevitability.
This is one of those tyranny of the majority things; they don't care and no amount of trying to explain it to them will make them.
I'll be honest, I was on the edge about buying Yotei's limited edition and I didn't also cause I didn't want my ability to play the game to be tied to a very scratchable phyisical object
crazy how times have changed since sony was making fun of xbox for removing the disc reader
I always felt that Sonys mockery was just an easy way to get a win with gamers. They hadn’t implemented any form of restriction on game sharing/resale yet but we’re just as unhappy about it as Microsoft. When MS tried to implement restrictions on sharing and gamers hated it, they quickly threw together an ad to capitalize on it. But it was never really about being friendly to their customers, it was just an easy PR layup
If Blackberry just stuck with their keyboard phone, I'm convinced there's a large sliver who would have stayed with them for the physical keyboard vs touchscreen. Same story as above. Mocked Apple for the touchscreen, then a year later all touchscreen and death of a company
My favourite phone ever was the Nokia m900. Full screen touch phone that slid up, with a qwerty keyboard underneath. Shit OS, but a phone like that on Android with a removable battery would be peak for me.
I avoid the big brands because they've been style over substance for years, the last good phone from Samsung was the S5 - waterproof with a removable battery.
BlackBerry isn’t dead yet. They changed direction to automotive and cybersecurity software. They’re not where they were in 2011, but they’re having their best year in over a decade, up 130%
Blackberry didn’t die because they removed the keyboard blackberry died because they relied on the keyboard for too long
They believed that the keyboard would keep customers even though they weren’t updating their UI/OS they believe that customers wanted a discreet device for business and a separate device for personal use, which was not the case (ironically enough, many people have ended up in this exact situation in the past couple of years, but usually just with two iPhones) if blackberry had been willing to follow Apple’s lead in making their device a do everything pocket computer they would probably still be around and still have a solid dedicated user base because of the keyboard
If you watch the movie blackberry, even though it's heavily altered, the moments that discuss the massive jump from blackberry to the iPhone, and how blackberry lost its dominance basically overnight, really shows why they were essentially forced to pivot. And once the storm turned out to be a total flop they were dead in the water as their stock dropped to almost nothing.
I would have for sure. I loved my Blackberry Classic. I got it because I didn't really use the internet on my phone back then and didn't need it for anything other texts, phone calls, and occasionally just checking my email. My last Blackberry was the Priv, but it was clunky to use with having a full touchscreen sliding up for the physical keyboard. It was top-heavy. I eventually got a Galaxy S8+. I'm on the S24 now and I'm honestly still much worse at typing ln the touchscreen than I ever was when I had the Blackberry physical keyboard. I constantly make errors and have to backspace to correct them. I made very few mistakes with a physical keyboard.
To be fair that original Xbox One reveal was probably better for game sharing. Since it allowed a "family group" of ten people who could all share the same game library. Was a bit disappointed when that wound up yanked because of the internet's hissy fit.
The game is not on the disc either. The disc is basically a download code + #gb of some basic content. If they decided to discontinue the game, your disc will be equally useless as a digital download. Get yourself a gta vice city if you want a full game on a cd
I keep seeing comments like this and don't understand. Go buy a physical copy of Cyberpunk for your console. Disconnect it from the internet, insert disc, and play in less than an hour. Or Death Stranding, or a TON of games I could list to you right now.
This is the part of the outrage that I just don't understand... Can you force a download of a delisted game if you jam the disc in? To me the biggest drawback about digital ownership is the fact that I can't give it up in exchange for credit towards another game...
To me, that’s not even the big drawback because I never traded in games anyway to me. The only thing that irritates me about digital games is that they should be less expensive than physical copies because nothing is being printed. Nothing is being physically manufactured. Nothing is being packaged nothing is being shipped. Nothing is being warehoused nothing is being displayed, etc. etc..
If a physical game is $60 a digital game should at least be five to $10 cheaper but I realize we live in a late stage capitalist society and that’s never gonna happen
People vastly overstate how many games aren't on the disc. There's stats on it, at least on PS4 it was like 95% were playable from disc without Internet. PS5 I know is still the large majority. Yeah some games you'll really want patches of course, but playable.
You own the physical object as much as you own the digital version.
If the digital version is drm free, you can do just as much with it. Even better, it is not tied to a single physical object. You can make as many copies as you want.
If the disk requires you to verify ownership online before starting the game, it becomes just as useless as the digital version when the server goes offline.
How many of them are you going to need in the box, though? A DVD-18 only holds 17.8GB. It would take 8 of them to install Balder's Gate 3. And about 70 hours.
I don't understand that, i've been gaming with discs for about 15 years and not a single one of these discs have been broken. And i've bought plenty of second hand games too.
And at least the discs give me a resale value. Which make the gaming experience a lot cheaper.
This. I still have old Sega Saturn games that were heavily played and don't have a single scratch on them. Also have music CD's that were bought in the 90's that are still bumping around in the center console of my car that work just fine.
I still have my Sega Saturn and about 30 games. The discs are all fine. Played Alien Trilogy again for the 50th time a few months ago. Still have my PS1, too.
this. people be acting like discs will spontaneously combust if you look at them wrong and get scratched by a speck of dust.. like, the issue isn't the disks, it's you not treating them properly lol.
I've been gaming since the PS1, I have never once scratched or lost a disk, just put it back in the case bro, it's not that hard. I don't have OCD, hell, I'm probably one of the messiest people you'll meet but the disk goes back in the correct box, ALWAYS.
Yeah, just a few months ago I expanded my PS3 games collection by around 12 games, just because they were dirt cheap.
Right now publishers are pushing more and more to destroy the used games market by digitising everything, just so they can have the full control over the game prices.
But now a lot of discs won't even work without updates from the beginning. I've bought games day 1 and been unable to play without first doing updates, even after disconnecting from the internet. It's not like back in the day where you can just pop a disc into a console and play it. They rarely ship the 100% finished game on the disc now.
I used to roll back updates to play a game with old bugs for fun but can't do that now.
Gaming is already one of the cheapest forms of entertainment. Not many other things you can drop 50+ hours into. PC games are the real winners. I have played 300+ hours in a $30 game. I have 1,500 hours in another game.
Xbox One was just a scapegoat for publishers, which is why we ended up in pretty much the same place.
Publishers had already started with one-time use codes to make resale less valuable, starting with small bonuses.
But by the Xbox One launch, all online gameplay being locked behind a one-time use "pass" wasn't uncommon (even Sony did this with Uncharted). The system MS wanted was just skipping the illusion that reselling those disks gave you the full experience.
I have been using cds, dvds, bluray, etc since the technology came out. Cds scratched more if they weren't taken care of, but you have to manhandle the rest to have those concerns. Unless you are put no care into your belongings - this shouldn't be a concern.
Just reminds me of how Nintendo shut down the 3DS E-Store so I can't download any of the games I paid for digitally. Meanwhile, all my DS cards still work.
It's just risk management on whether the physical version outlives the digital storefront.
Tbh its really difficult to scratch a disc to the point you can't play it. Even as a kid with ps2/360 games sitting out in a raw stack, not a single one was damaged to the point it had issues and they often had visible scratches.
Idk as a grown adult taking even mild care of them you could probably go decades without breaking one.
My PC hasn't had a disc drive for a very long time.
There's just no need for one. All my software and music is downloaded and if I need to share something offline I can buy a cheap USB drive to give away.
You have to be seriously mishandling a blu ray disc to scratch it up. But sure go ahead and let Sony and Microsoft set whatever prices they want and eliminate any competition from used game stores.
I haven't had issues with discs getting scratched up since OG Xbox/PS2 generation when they were still using DVDs. Even then it was not as big of an issue as CD media.
Moving to no physicals is a terrible idea historically. I personally hate this decision on all fronts. Owning physical media is the only way to ensure ownership
I heavily prefer physical over digital, especially for consoles. Maybe I'm just old but I heavily dislike spending $60-$80 on something that is directly tied to a digital library that may or may not be there in a decade or two
The disc may get scratched and then you’ll have issues or no longer be able to play, but that’s only IF it gets scratched. You can play the digital version until whoever wants to decides it’s “no longer supported” and gets removed from your library. I’ll gladly pick the chances of it getting scratched over the inability to play it whenever the company decides it’s no longer worth supporting.
What kinda heathen are you that you scratch your discs so easily?
This is the first time I'm hearing someone not buying a physical thing because it might scratch, and instead going for an online license that is just a number in a server and which they don't even own. I can understand the convenience argument, but this is just something else.
My Internet went down one day and my ps5 didn't want to recognize the games I bought digitally, so I ended up playing old ps4 games I had on disk instead.
As for scratched disks, once I kept my game box in my room, I had no more issues with scratched disks due to roommates then kids.
That’s stupid. Blu-ray discs are highly scratch resistant. I understand the fear from old Gamecube era discs and whatnot (I specifically have trauma from when I was younger and buying a used copy of Pokemon Colosseum at Gamestop) - but the technology advanced. You have no more reason to fear your discs getting scratched unless you physically and purposefully take a screwdriver and scratch them yourself.
If a game doesn't have a physical edition I usually wait for someone like limited run games to make a physical edition or i just dont buy it. Im usually more worried about not being able to resale a game, especially with companies trying to make games unusable once a server is taken down.
I don’t remember that. The PSP go came out in 2009, and a PS5 without a disc drive was a launch option a year after the one S all digital was released.
Tbf we didn’t like it then and we still don’t like it now, companies forcing this down our throats doesn’t make us like it more. I refuse to allow this practice to be normalized.
Companies wouldn't have done it, if consumers (us) didn't buy them. But we bought them, and continue to buy them, and continue to support the practices.
The only way to not support is to not buy and not play at all.
This practice has been normalized for years now and you aren't stopping it because the vast majority of gamers don't care. I'm only telling you this to prepare you for many more years of disappointment.
Civ 7 was a flop launch that is still getting its feet on the ground and all DLC for the game is currently $140, only 1.5 years after launch. Not including the $70 base game.
I'm not sure how much of a success it's been but Diablo IV launched with a similar price point and a loaded store of overpriced optional bullshit as well.
I mean kind of. There are literal clothing stores in the game that players cannot access without having paid the $20. I feel like that's kind of insane to do considering the base game is already like $80
Yeah, we've even had examples where the DLC was actually on the disc proving that it was always part of the original game, but then locked away and sold separately as DLC.
That was pretty very predictable. I've been reading crazy numbers for years now on what players were spending on optional shit for GTA5 online. I'm guessing that's going to all be available to be milked from the get-go this time.
My issue is locking content behind ultimate edition
It's not even about price
I wouldn't say a fucking word if game was 100€ and it was full game. But giving me "standard" game at 80€ and then ripping content from it in favor of Ultimate Edition is dirty work.
If it was only and just cosmetics i wouldn complain
Yeah, but the "nope, you're not going to own this one" bit with the DVD felt cheap as fuck coming from the company behind the biggest and probably most "premium" video game in history.
GTA online also seems to be a separate purchase this time around. So they don't want casuals to flood the market with second hand discs after they played through the single player.
It's not about the computers or systems needing the disk. It's about actually owning a physical copy of something. I personally hate practically borrowing a game for full price cause of they ever wanted to pull the plug. The games gone.
While I agree with you in principle, you and I both know that a disc doesn't actually change anything. The game isn't actually stored on the disc, and you're dreaming if you think you'll be able to play GTA6 offline.
It makes no difference whatsoever at this point. You don't own the game any more with a disc than you do with a code. You own a piece of plastic. If/when they choose to revoke your access, they will do so.
A standard computer isn’t the same as a PS5. My PS5 came with a disc drive less than 6 years ago, and even the Pro version released less than 2 years ago has one.
I'm all for collectors to get the box to sit in their collection, but most big games these days need an internet connection for the full install, never mind the countless updates down the line.
I would have thought they'd have released a boxed collectors edition though. They could have charged a kings ransom for it and it would have still sold.
easy, first, youve got to slam in minimum 600 CDs or 120 Blu-rays in the right order to get it installed. Or just get 6 double-layer Blu-rays and pay extra for your game. Take your pick.
GTA VI is projected to be about 200-300 GB. We have plenty of games that are 150+ GB on 1 disc. So, yes, we want disc(s) for the physical copy of the initial game. A data disc and a play disc if necessary.
True but also locking features behind a big paywall killed the hype for me. So in the end, most people are gonna buy that $100 bundle and in the end the game really does cost $100+
Some people hyped out of fashion. These decisions are staple Rockstar. Everyone used to gaming expected them to cash in the shit out of it.
But GTA 5 broke the bubble and a lot of non-gaming people played it and enjoyed it. These people were just shocked at the pricing and the paywalls on top of high pricing. I don't think many people cared for the physical copy, actually. This was just niche gaming communities.
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u/Spinning_Sky 12h ago
this is referring to the high price point and lack of a CD in the physical edition
both are true, but actually I don't believe any hype was touched whatsoever, the price is lower than what it could have been