Physical Disks Going Away

[OICU812B4]

Isn't it annoying or even infuriating to anyone that video game companies are throwing away the physical disks? Now it's all digital. Paradox hasn't released a single physical disk that I know of, and even Bethesda's Fallout 4 is just a download disk. Without physical copies, you can't just hand the game to a friend or loan it out or sell it when you're done with it, which means that others have to buy the digital version online if they want to play it. I think it's stupid since the digital copies seem to only have one pro: They're easier to buy than physical disks because you can do it on your computer quick and easy, and have the game downloaded within the hour.

 

The physical disks are so much better, though. You can physically see how many games you have, you can share them with friends or resell them if you don't like them, you get the cool box art, and the physical disks are a thousand times easier to play on another computer because unlike the digital ones you don't have to download them all over again.

 

I understand that indie developers and very small game companies can't afford to make their own physical disks, but bigger companies that can, should (in my opinion).

[iXenite]

I do agree about the decline of physical discs. However, I think it is mainly because Steam is such a incredibly popular marketplace for games in the PC industry that has created this decline in physical discs. It seems that only console users still have discs produced for almost all of their games.

[RattleAndGrind]

I too lament the demise of the disk. I am really old school, and have seen disks go from 9 in floppies to CD. I will miss the feel of a new game disk in my hand and the almost sensual satisfaction of inserting it into the machine.

 

But, all things must end.

[Vagrant0]

The physical disks are so much better, though. You can physically see how many games you have, you can share them with friends or resell them if you don't like them, you get the cool box art, and the physical disks are a thousand times easier to play on another computer because unlike the digital ones you don't have to download them all over again.

 

The reason why physical discs are becoming obsolete is because none of these things are beneficial to the publisher and game maker.

 

Physical discs have to be printed and shipped, this is money that is spent towards production. It is also lost money when it comes to copies which became defective due to printing errors, poor storage or shipping conditions, mishandling by people at the factory, warehousing, delivery, sales floor, or the end user. Along with the physical disc it becomes necessary to have a disc case, made in one factory, with artwork which has to be printed in another factory, shipped to an assembly plant for packaging with the printed disc, then shipped again to distribution warehouses. Throughout this line, the various parts may come from a half dozen countries (due to labor costs, laws, and materials) along with the import/export taxes of those countries. This also leads to lost money when it comes to producing too much of a given product since these items sit on store shelves longer, are more prone to being lost or stolen, lose value and are eventually discounted just in an effort to recoup the costs. There is a reason why packaging sizes and manuals have significantly decreased since the 90's and why it can cost 2-3 times the cost of the game for a collectors edition that often contains the sorts of stuff you used to get for free. Box art might be nice to look at, but the reality is that most people do not have the storage space for all the boxes of games they have and most the time they just collect dust on a shelf.

 

Resales only help those businesses that resell games. The publisher sees nothing of this, the developer sees nothing of this, meanwhile it creates a market where people are more likely to pay the reduced price for something from a reseller than pay the full price to make sure the money goes back to the developer. The switch to digital is one of the main reasons why even smaller developers can put more time and money into making their games; there is less cost and less interference from 3rd party resellers*.

 

Regarding piracy, physical medium has never done anything to prevent or slow it; it may have made it less widespread or more costly for people to run bootlegging operations out of their dormroom, but it was still very common even back in the 80's. There is a reason why game companies would often go to lengths to add copy protection to their games requiring among other things: a random word or phrase from a 200 page manual, code wheels, image decoders, special hardware plugged into the computer, ect just to discourage trading, copying, or resale. Naturally, most of these things got lost over time and may not have been included with the resale while the prompt to enter in this information was buried hours into the game or tied to something potentially missable which was required at a later point. This was probably more creative than more recent DRM models, but was still often a giant pain in the ass, particularly when your younger brother decided to tear up or disassemble part of the decoding gimmick. In most cases the DRM model currently being used is just Steam, Origin, or an account registration on your console of choice, and subsequently has led to a moderate decrease in the amount of pirated copies floating around. These services have also began implementing ways in which you can share games between family members or even play games remotely. They recognize these needs, but want to do it in a way which helps ensure their financial stability... understandably so.

 

The other advantage of digital format is that a company can more easily patch out bugs, add in additional content, release expansions, and similar. While this may have arguably led to a perceived quality decrease among newly released titles (companies deciding to just fix it in post-release), there are a good many games that were released in years past which had significant gamebreaking bugs, performance issues, compatibility issues, and similar. Some of these were eventually patched, but in those days you either had to mail the developer (with proof of purchase) to get a patch disc, later having to subscribe to gaming magazines to get patches... all because most did not have anything as convenient as a 800 baud modem and IP number to connect to a server to download a patch a few MB in size that required your phone to be tied up for the several hours it took to download. And let us not forget the pains and annoyances of having to swap out discs both while installing something and while playing it.

 

Nostalgia is well and good, but we're really better off.

 

*This is of course ignoring the current generation of 3rd party resellers, where their site practices and lack of concern are taking money from developers directly. Such as the case of certain sites that promote themselves heavily for having discounts, but where these discounts are due to keys bought in bulk in regions where the game is cheaper to discourage piracy, or where the keys are obtained by buying them with fraudulent credit card information. In both these cases, the site gets their cut of the sale but the end user may have something they cannot use, or something which will be eventually removed from their account since the original purchase was done with a stolen credit card. In the case of the stolen credit card, the developer is not only without a sale, but is now slapped with a fine by the credit card company. In the case of indie developers, some of them are being severely penalized to a degree of tens of thousands of dollars just in fines due to the way these sites operate. These sites, naturally, don't particularly care since they are stationed in Eastern European countries and are earning their money just fine. If a customer buys a bad key or one bought with a stolen card, it is only the developer (the one who sold the key) and the end user (the one who ended up with something they can't use or loses that use) who is at a loss. The site earned their cut of the sale. The reseller got the money from the end-user buying it, while the end-user has no means of getting their money back.

[CiderMuffin]

Physical disks were actually pretty annoying. For instance if they break or get damaged from stuff like flooding or fire you're screwed. Buy a new one. It also meant the games became harder to find especially when they went out of circulation or weren't that widely distributed. Digital is always there at the click of a button, it's easier to recover, it's easier to find old games or obscure games and download them. Digital in every way is just superior.

[TheMastersSon]

The demise of physical media is occurring everywhere, even Windows, Linux etc are distributed digitally with no physical disks. The downsides to it are few but they're substantial imo, e.g. being forced to beg for access to your own software, even AFTER buying legitimate copies (it recently took us over a week to get revalidated for one of our Steam games, and it's the third time we've had to go through it), another major problem is that it ties both PCs and their users at the hip to an internet connection. Nothing whatsoever beyond an OS is recoverable without one these days, in fact often not even the OS, and imo that's ridiculous. IMO paying $50 or $60 or more for a video game should at least include provisions to USE the game without being on the internet.

[Vagrant0]

IMO paying $50 or $60 or more for a video game should at least include provisions to USE the game without being on the internet.

The majority of games these days actually don't need a connection after they're installed. Steam in offline mode can remain offline for months and still allow access to things that have already been installed and played. Many more games can be run from the install directory itself without any modification to the Steam.dll file. Beyond that, almost everything sold on Good Old Games is DRM free, including many recent and newly released games. For those without a reliable internet connection, it is suggested that you familiarize yourself with what options are out there and ways to get around required online connections for games you have purchased.

 

As for downloading these games... That can still be a problem if internet is simply not available. But at that point you are in the 0.0005% of the world who: has enough money that they can afford a modern computer gaming setup, have enough disposable income that they can afford to worry about the newest games being released, are in an area of the world where they can obtain information about these new games on a regular basis, is not spending the majority of their free time being social with other human beings away from computers, but still does not have access to the internet.

 

However, given that we're conversing in some form of English, on a website which is somewhat off the beaten tract, I don't think you're in the above situation... statistically. If you are of that 0.0005%, Go outside and do something more practical with your life than playing video games for goodness sake. For everyone else, you're paying between $40 and $100 a month for internet anyway, you might as well make use of what you're paying for or just find more useful things to spend your money on than gaming. Gaming is a hobby, like all hobbies, it costs time and money. You can game on a very low budget sticking to retrogames, console games, or indie titles and only needing an internet connection on rare occurrences, or you can spend alot of time and money playing new and overly hyped games as soon as they come out. If you can't afford the hobby, change the hobby into something you can afford or consider another one.

[soupdragon1234]

Physical disks were actually pretty annoying. For instance if they break or get damaged from stuff like flooding or fire you're screwed. Buy a new one. It also meant the games became harder to find especially when they went out of circulation or weren't that widely distributed. Digital is always there at the click of a button, it's easier to recover, it's easier to find old games or obscure games and download them. Digital in every way is just superior.

Yes exactly and you almost always had to insert the disk in the drive and it would run a CD check to prove you actually owned the game, some of the older games actually loaded data off the disk too.

 

So if you moved and lost the disk or the disk got scratched as it inevitably did sooner or later putting it in and out the drive... oh dear. Oh dear oh dear!

 

The other issues is the sheer size of the data Fallout 4 is what, 25gb or thereabouts? Shadow of Morder was 30gb+ iirc. The only way to fit that much data onto a disc is on a Blu-ray. And the last time I looked those drives are expensive not to mention the physical space the discs took up. I used to have shelves full of games in CD and DVD cases. And everytime I wanted to play a different game, go searching on the shelf for that one title amongst countless others to stick it in the drive and put the old disc back in its case and back on the shelf, only to repeat again an hour later when I wanted to play a different game.

 

Can't say I miss it at all.

[kintaro12]

If you guys was living where i live, you'll beg for physical disks. Reason is the internet connections, i pay for the best possible and all i get is a MAX of 650kb/s Download with an even more unbelievable 45kb/s Upload. I can't even watch HD movies on sites like Netflix, youtube most of the times will give me the auto detect worst quality.

 

MANY times i didn't bought games coz im thinking like "Ohh till it comes... forget it" unless i find it in hard copy.

 

Now for those of you that download the games, nobody prevent you from making a backup copy.

 

About the esthetic side, i loved the dvd boxes, i loved to pick up and take a look at the manuals, their cover art, i even loved the smell of the inside :P

[TheMastersSon]

kintaro, thank you for the reminder that the world is a very big place. It's not 0.0005% of humanity in particular need of a social life. Sheesh.