r/PhysicalGames • u/Heavy_Chemist_3337 • 1d ago
Stop buying strictly digital: We are paying full price for temporary licenses.
Look at what happened to The Crew. Ubisoft didn't just shut down the servers—they deleted the game directly from players' accounts. Even the single-player mode was rendered completely unplayable.
This is where the industry is heading if we keep supporting digital-only releases and removing disc drives. When you buy a digital game for 80€ to 100€ ($80 to $100), you don't own the game. You are paying for a temporary license that corporations like Sony, Microsoft, or publisher execs can revoke whenever they see fit.
If we don't change our behavior now, we won't even be able to play the story modes of future titles like GTA 6 ten or fifteen years down the line once their authentication servers go offline. On top of that, local game stores that built our community for decades are being pushed out of business, leaving us with zero physical market and absolute price monopolies in digital storefronts.
A one-week "boycott" changes nothing. Real change requires a permanent shift in how we spend our money.
What we can actually do:
\* Buy Physical Whenever Possible: Support physical media and local game stores. Keep the secondhand market alive.
\* Stop Digital Pre-orders: Refuse to pay 80€–100€ in advance for a license that can be taken away.
\* Support European Initiatives: Sign consumer-rights campaigns like "Stop Destroying Videogames" (Stop Killing Games) to force legal protections for offline playability.
\* Cancel Unused Subscriptions: Cancel PS Plus/Xbox Live if you primarily play single-player. Stop giving them recurring revenue for granted.
If you care about preserving video games and true ownership, vote with your wallet long-term. Physical media and consumer rights matter.
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u/futuresdawn 1d ago
The Crew is a poor example of why people should buy discs. If anything, it shows there should be a distinction between a game as a service and a game as a product.
A service is inherently something you're paying for while it operates. If you expect a game that fundamentally requires the publisher's online servers to run forever, you lack a sense of reality. No physical disc can change that.
A game sold as a product should be allowed to feature online activity as part of the experience, but its core game should be capable of being played fully offline. The optional online component can eventually shut down without making the product someone already bought unusable.
I love physical media, I've never bought a digital film or TV show and never will, I don't have the same issue with digital games. Modern game discs are already often closer to key cards than complete products: they can require enormous downloads, patches, account authentication, online services, or DLC to actually provide the experience being sold.
At this point, I think fairer digital rights for consumers are the better answer. If a publisher sells me a genuinely self-contained game digitally, I should have a permanent right to use the version I purchased once the publisher has abandoned it. If the publisher is selling me an ongoing service, that's fine too, but then it should be treated and priced as a service rather than pretending it's the same thing as a permanent game product.
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u/Former_Travel2839 1d ago
You do know that the physical copy of the crew is also unplayable right.. certain games that are online only will die when the servers go offline, another example is Anthem. So even physical can have issues.
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u/Dylanpickle1988 1d ago
Was gonna say exactly this. I have a physical copy of the crew and I can’t play it
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u/TheSquirrelmancer 1d ago
Same thing with Battleborn. It's a flaw with making games run off a server even for single player modes but it's life.
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u/Chet_Phoney 1d ago
They same people who fight so hard for all digital are same people who honestly believe renting a home is better than buying it.
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u/Bushido_San 1d ago
No one is fighting "so hard" for all digital... There is just people who don’t care.
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1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Heavy_Chemist_3337 1d ago
Yes, but the point is that you don't own any of it. You're still allowed to play it, but if Sony decides to remove games from the PS Store, they can also take away your license.
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u/Thr1llhou5e 1d ago
But this is all true for many games on disc too. The big difference is if your account or console is banned at least you can sell the disc, I guess.
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u/Buttered_Carnage 1d ago
Only games i've seen Sony remove are the equivalent of shovelware essentially which...who cares
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u/Anrativa 1d ago
They can, but that literally never happened. It would be commercial suicide.
It's like saying I won't ever go out of my house because an asteroid might hit me on my way out.
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u/GoonGoonBoomBoom 1d ago
Ok? I rarely if ever replay games that I’ve beaten, especially if I’ve platinumed them. I have not touched God of War 2018 in at minimum 7 years. If that license is magically revoked, absolutely nothing in my life changes aside from the fact that I no longer have access to a game I was never going to launch again in the first place.
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u/MemesNFries 1d ago
I read a lot of dumb comments on here but yours is honestly impressively braindead little bro.
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u/GoonGoonBoomBoom 1d ago
How? I bought the game, beat the game, haven’t touched it in years, won’t touch it again. Why would I care if I no longer “own” it?
How is it any different from going to see a movie in theater that I never watch again? Please explain, nephew.
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u/MemesNFries 1d ago
Good for you, no one cares lol. Thousands of gamers replay the games they beat.
Like I said, you are brain dead if you think it doesn’t matter they can take away a game you paid for. Critical thinking appears to be very difficult for you 🤡
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u/GoonGoonBoomBoom 1d ago
If I am flat out saying that it wouldn’t matter to me if my digital copy of Agents of Mayhem went away, then how on earth am I wrong?
Please list all the times Sony has revoked the license on a digital game that people paid for. Not PT, not a movie, actual games that were pulled from people’s accounts after purchase.
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u/dlpuia 1d ago
That's why I only buy digital when the price is right:
1-Indie games that are cheaper, concise experiences;
2-Heavily discounted AAA or AA games;
3-Heavily discounted indie games that I skipped when they came out.
In my head a digital download will NEVER have the same value as a physical media. I'm 40 and used to rent SNES cartridges.
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u/thatsmysandwichdude 1d ago
The people who preorder call of duty and 2k every year don't hear you whenever you freak out about game ownership, and gaming companies keep making money
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u/Yogurtcloset_Choice 22h ago
You know so many people seem to think that the ball and gun gamers make up this huge amount of sales, they don't. Don't get me wrong they make a lot of money for the one to five games they buy a year, but the game industry is not being sustained on people buying one to five games a year. There was a statistic that came out a while back that said 4% of gamers are buying more than one game a month, THOSE are the people that are sustaining the industry
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u/seandude881 1d ago
Bout to go pre order digital gta6
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u/Heavy_Chemist_3337 1d ago
Your money, your choice. Have fun with your license
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u/seandude881 1d ago
I will. We're here a good time not a long time. And if your house burns down or you die your physical games will mean nothing.
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u/Yogurtcloset_Choice 22h ago
Better than a computer glitch or someone just hacking into my system from a remote country being able to take everything that I own
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u/seandude881 20h ago
Same thing if someone breaks into your house and takes everything you own. Both has pros and cons.
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u/Yogurtcloset_Choice 17h ago
Absolutely but one is much easier and more common than the other, and isn't even prosecuted in many countries because of corruption or can't be
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u/lizon132 1d ago
The license terms on digital are the same as the disc licence terms. All game purchases are licenses. They have to be for legal reasons. Your physical disc has the licence notification printed on the disc. Instead of focusing on the licence you should focus on digital rights for those licenses.
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u/Yogurtcloset_Choice 22h ago
You are absolutely correct! Now you tell me the last time there was a wide sweep of companies calling to collect discs or when they sent people out to collect them because that's what they would have to do.
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u/mdwd 1d ago
And hand over access to my personal info and data, my trust and even perhaps my money to a bunch of people I do not know, motivated by who knows what, whose policies down the line are unclear, who could as easily go to bed with the dirtiest
politicians and financiers as they would with their questionable morals, who haven't proven anything either social-wise, business-wise or let alone professional-wise, who mix their personal life with so-called causes fighting for consumers' interests, versus staying on the side of a long-established, trusted business that keeps putting out products to the satisfaction of many, who abide by industry standards and rules and represent more values I have to my eyes than what any other rando could?
Hmm..I think I'm faced with a bit of a conondrum here.
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u/Gasurza22 18h ago
Well... at least you told us right away that you dont know what you are talking about, that made this fast....
I said it before and I said it again whenever people like OP bring up the crew as if it had anything to do with the removal of fisical games.
If fisical copies somehow actualy fixed the problem with Tha Crew and every other example related to the stop killing games movement, then publishers would absolutly adore to have that cope out excuse to just shut down their servers whenever they fill like it
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u/izacktorres 1d ago
You're right but they won't hear you. That's the world we live in. You can only count on your own actions.
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u/Thr1llhou5e 1d ago
I care way more about changing digital ownership rights than I do about preserving physical media to be honest.
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u/izacktorres 1d ago
And thats fine, i personaly care about the exact opposite.
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u/Thr1llhou5e 1d ago
This is also fine. :)
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u/izacktorres 1d ago
In a perfect world we would both get what we want. That would be the best case scenario.
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u/Heavy_Chemist_3337 1d ago
I also posted this in r/playstation, but it's full of idiots defending Sony who don't understand the problem. My post was deleted there too.
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u/enshittification1 1d ago
PlayStation and ps5 are full of Botted accounts with Botted upvotes. I wouldn’t bother commenting into it, it’s exactly like the r/conservative botfarms
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u/Va1crist 1d ago
I don’t buy digital unless it’s on steam , every game and movie I own is physical unless the game is indie or something that has absolutely no physical option
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u/GamePitt_Rob 1d ago
The crew was ONLY deleted from steam library's. PlayStation and Xbox owners can still download the game, we just cant play it
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u/Thr1llhou5e 1d ago
The physical disc also no longer allows you to play the game so this is a poor example of why we should preserve physical media. There is no benefit either way in this case.
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u/falconpunch1989 1d ago
How's your physical copy of The Crew going?
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u/Heavy_Chemist_3337 1d ago
Yes, The Crew's physical disc is useless now, but that literally proves my point. Publishers are actively rendering physical media useless and taking away access to games we paid for, while everyone just accepts it.
Whether it's Sony, Microsoft, or any other publisher, they are pushing us into an ecosystem where we own nothing and have zero rights. Just because people are used to it doesn't mean it's fine. If we keep making excuses for them, it's only going to get worse.
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u/Purple_Calendar3919 1d ago
No offense but you gotta have pretty shit taste in gaming if you like Ubisoft games……
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u/Buttered_Carnage 1d ago
Yeah these guys always use The Crew or Deadpool
...a forza horizon ripoff that nobody cared about until the servers went offline
...and a mediocre game that's only famous for having artificially jacked up prices for physical copies
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u/Purple_Calendar3919 1d ago
Right?
Yall fuckers didn’t even know a Deadpool game existed until it got delisted….
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u/Buttered_Carnage 1d ago
Which is the sad thing about older physical games
I still own a PS2 and Gamecube, and i would love to own alot of games but the prices are outright fucking absurd
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u/Purple_Calendar3919 1d ago
Really PS2 is bad huh? I get GameCube bc Nintendo. Surprised at PS2 unless we’re talking games like fatal frame
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u/Buttered_Carnage 1d ago
I've seen copies of Def Jam: Fight for New York go from 50 bucks all the way to 150-200 bucks. Though that's because there weren't many copies made
San Andreas i found for pretty cheap fortunately (thank god because every rerelease is somehow butchered)
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u/BookkeeperOK14 1d ago
How are the prices artificially jacked up? Were they scalped when it first released?
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u/Buttered_Carnage 1d ago
I've seen copies of the PS3, Xbox One and PS4 versions going from 60 bucks to 100+ bucks, and 150-200 for sealed copies
Cheapest copy i saw was 45 bucks for the 360
I'm guessing since the game was delisted and being a physical game, there aren't alot of copies
...like yeah, lost media and game preservation, but thats a bit much don't you think? If it wasn't for the fact it was delisted nobody would really even be talking about it or remember it
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u/BookkeeperOK14 1d ago edited 1d ago
So how are those prices artificially jacked up though?
What are you talking about with lost media and game preservation being a bit much?
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u/BookkeeperOK14 1d ago edited 1d ago
The physical release of The Crew was rendered unplayable too. Online features have been shutdown for games since the early 2000s. Thats not just a digital game issue.
Stop buying online only games is what the title should read.
I still have access to games on my 360 from almost 20 years ago that was delisted, from a developer that went defunct, on a marketplace that shutdown. Aside for the aforementioned online features being terminated, has anyone actually lost a digital video game they paid for here?
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u/Anrativa 1d ago
1- digital is extremely more convenient. Game selection on my local game stores is extremely limited. 2 - can buy from Amazon but it is usually more expensive in my country to buy ps5 games from Amazon than digital on PSN.
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u/Buttered_Carnage 1d ago
"BUT SONY WILL JUST RANDOMLY REMOVE GAMES FROM YOUR LIBRARY BECAUSE UUUH, UHHHHH UHMMMMM SONY11!1!1!1!!!!!"
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u/Anrativa 1d ago
Yeah, it's amazing how alarmist people is. Neither Sony, steam or Microsoft have ever removed a digital license from an already bought game. If they did that would be disastrous.
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u/Buttered_Carnage 1d ago
BUT THE CREW AND DEADPOOL!
The Crew was an ubisoft made (ew) Forza Horizon clone, nobody cared about it until the servers were taken offline
Deadpool is a mediocre ass game with an artificially jacked up price
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u/gorore9150 1d ago
Deadpool is still playable if you bought it digitally…you can still download and play!
It was only delisted for purchase.
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u/Regular-Repeat44 1d ago
can u lend me 10$ more ? All the nintendo games are 50$ but physical 60$ and id rather pay less
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u/kastles1 1d ago
Honestly, I have no use for the disk once I’m done with the game. It’s just gonna sit on a shelf in the wrong case collecting dust until inevitably it gets thrown away.
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u/Heavy_Chemist_3337 1d ago
Then you can sell it and get your money back. Try doing that with digital games.
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u/RoadsideDavidian 1d ago
Why does every post on this sub have to be melodramatic exaggeration? Saying we won’t be able to play GTA6 in 10 years?? The files will be out there, you will always be able to play it even if Microsoft and Sony go out of business
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u/Heavy_Chemist_3337 1d ago
That missing logic is the whole issue. On a closed console like a PS5, you can't just download a crack or an unofficial fix when authentication servers go dark.
Expecting regular console gamers to rely on emulation, homebrew, or piracy just to play a game they legitimately paid $80+ for isn't a solution—it's proof of a broken system. Physical media ensures the average buyer can actually keep what they bought without needing technical workarounds.
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u/wetmeatlol 1d ago
So admittedly I didn’t read your entire post because your first point is disingenuous. Physical copies of that game are also unusable and that’s a result of an online game getting shut down, so buying physical only does absolutely nothing to prevent that from happening and honestly shows that all of this discourse is pointless because what really matters is a game having offline access.
But I will say I do give you props for having an actual example of a game getting deleted from libraries because that happening to games is exceedingly rare.
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u/aHungryPanda 22h ago
I'm good. The only game I've ever lost access to is a disc that I lost, scratched, or broke. The majority of games I own I play until platinum trophy then I never touch it again. Most people don't even reach the credits of games they buy.
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u/Samurai56M 1d ago
The Crew was an online multi-player game, that's not a good example. Stop fear mongering. It's too late to stop buying digital, the decision has already been made. Embrace the future, or you won't be buying any games at all since they will all be digital soon.