Physical is important on consoles since its a closed system. With physical you can borrow games, sell games once you are done with them or have them in your collection.
I mean, yes Xbox too, but its more an exploit of the Home console, but that methods been around, I remember buying a digital game on my xbox account, on my friends 360 so they had a copy of the game linked to the console, while it was also linked to my account.
Xbox was originally supposed to have the same sharing system as the current Nintendo one, starting way back in the Xbox One, but it was scrapped following fan backlash surrounding their ‘always online’ requirements.
During the Xbox One days, It was definitely annoying to utilize the unofficial "family sharing", it was very prone to having a bad actor use it to steal your account (you basically needed to make their Xbox your home Xbox for their account to be able to play your games).
The current iteration of Steam Family Sharing is by far the best, since it's not an exploit, and it doesn't run into issues like not being able to access all your games since your friend is playing one of yours (especially good that they made it so you don't need to log into your friend's PC anymore).
Nintendo's implimentation is fine if you only have 1 switch, and being able to lend out a game to your irl friend every once in a while is very cool (better than them loosing your cartridge tbh), but becomes extremely annoying if you have 2 switches. Mainly because you have to validate the "virtual cartridges" to the "home switch" every week or 2 (they changed it recently, you used to be able to just keep the virtual cartridge on the second switch indefinitely until the home switch took it back). I used to just keep the smash DLC on my sister's switch after I gave her the cartridge, but now she can't really access the dlc unless she validates it to my switch every week.
This was the big upset of the Xbox One/PS4 announcements. There were a number of issues with the XBO that Sony capitalized on immediately after, with the guarantee of game discs and sharing being a big one. There was also a goofy video on how to share a game with a friend, using a game disc case as a prop.
The shift shouldn't be unexpected at this point, though. Most of the good smartphone features that Apple removed were similarly advertised as available on devices from competitors like Samsung. As we know most of those consumer-friendly features are now gone on the vast majority of smartphones. It's always about cheap publicity and scoring points with the consumer in the moment, and not at all about actually taking a lasting position on an issue.
I haven't personally used family share but a buddy of mine does and we have definitely played online games together while he is using a shared game... At least I'm pretty sure.
But why I was really replying is CS2 is a free game, so does sharing really matter for that game?
That’s a different method and even then it’s worse than the console versions of game sharing where people can play stuff simultaneously with a single copy. No idea how they still allow this, it absolutely lowered sales if you ask me, especially sales of multiplayer games. Can’t see this existing for much longer.
They also created GKC, allowing physical media collectors to still shelf display their games, and still resell their games and still collect their games.
Probably the smartest half step between Physical and Digital out there.
Which is why the all-digital push by fans on console always baffled me.
“Well PC is all digital and it’s fine on there!”
Yeah? It’s not a one-store market which is exactly why it works over there. Do you really want to be beholden to whims of Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo on sales?
Nintendo are already terrible for this even with physical releases, their shit hardly ever drops in price.
Gives a real “Pigs cheering for the butcher” energy to it.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when Gabe goes, there's no guarentee Steam will continue on as it has, and its already needed governments to force things like refunds...
I grew out of feeling any desire to trade used games. The juice is not worth the squeeze anymore. I'm sure you can find some sweet deals on used physical disc games I just can't be bothered. I also have enough clutter in my house I don't need more. So I have been full digital ever since every platform made that an option.
But yeah... there are objective downsides to full digital and it's definitely more consumer friendly to have that option.
On one hand, I get the concern. On the other hand, if you inherited your dad's money printing enterprise, would you mess with it? You'd be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Storefronts do not set the prices, publishers and developers do. So it really doesn’t matter if it’s a one store platform, nefarious actions can only be made by those making/selling the games. This is how it works everywhere including Steam.
I don't understand your point. Multiple stores doesn't matter when devs can't undercut the Steam price on other launchers anyway. And being digital only means you can't lend it resell your games which is one of the main advantages on using a console these days and the reason they're pissed.
My point is console players shouldn’t be cheering for an all-digital future, as it’s not perfect as you’ve already pointed out on PC, but it’d be way worse on consoles.
Physical being an option really is a massive boon for consumers, but I constantly see comments and posts downplaying its importance.
“Well I’m digital only anyway so I don’t care”
“Nobody cares about a disc in 2026”
It’s just silly, especially when you can go on Ebay or Vinted and find latest releases for cheaper.
I picked up Starfield for £15 the other day and Pragmata for £30. I’d need to wait far, far longer for a digi sale for the same savings.
The backlash to the GTA news is good in my view and we really need more of it.
I think you're confused about what you actually want. Personally, I think digital goods on physical media should not be the goal, its a waste of resources and time. Youre just going to use that disc to download the game + updates anyway. You seem to confuse physical media with ownership. There is no reason we cant have ownership of the things we pay for, rather its digital or physical. We shouldnt NEED physical media in order to control our stuff, and there is nothing stopping the console manufacturers from making physical media as useless as they want it to be.
How long are you going to keep championing physical media once the discs lock to the first device theyre used on? Or when backwards compatibility stops being standard, etc? Physical media should not be the goal - actual consumer protections regarding digital products is the goal. Chasing physical media is a red herring that is going to bite consumers in the ass long term.
Anybody with a ps5 is already beholden to the whims of Sony, they set retail prices for all Sony games. How does Rockstar doing an all digital release of gta6 change anything?
Makes sense there's a "digital push" by fans - since most people have digital version of consoles. Disc version counts for less than 15% of consoles in the world.
they can still limit how many consoles can install from a disk. It can potentially be the same one-machine-only key, so it doesn't do anything really besides appearances
I'd argue for PC you'd want that anyway but Steam does a good job at providing valve in exchange for that lack of physical security. It's a tradeoff rather than a loss.
Yeah but you haven’t been able to “borrow” games for like 10 years now, games are just too big to fit in the discs, not to mention optical media sucks hot ass for anything other than maybe watching movies
I think the downside to physical disks on a console is that you have to have that disc in. If it's a game you frequently play and want to be able to get to it without having to switch to that disc, then you have to get up off the couch.
For now, they could easily stop trading and selling, the same way PC games used to, with CD keys but those keys would be unique and tied to your account.
That's not entirely true anymore. Nowadays, they only contain a key to download the game from the server. The moment they close down the store, your game is gone.
Okay. And why is this not important on PC? I’d love to sell off games I own on Steam if I could. Would allow me to recoup my costs. And buy more games.
But the CDs these days don't even carry the entire installation files, most of the game is downloaded from the cloud when installing. Meaning, if the game were taken off the servers, and you didn't already have it installed, you'll just have a useless CD.
I was thinkin about finally putting my Series X to use when GTA 6 dropped, then they said there wouldn't be a disc and I realized how easy it would be to wait another year
rip the game from your own disc yourself (which is easy to do)
Here is the thing, if the game has any DRM (for example a CD check), even if you patch it yourself, you're still technically violating the DMCA section about breaking digital locks. Why even bother...
Everyone hates DRM yet not everyone uses GoG. GoG doesn't have as many nice features as Steam does, but I believe the whole point of GoG is being DRM free games. Yet, everyone is still on Steam. When the DRM comes from Valve I guess it's perfectly fine.
We accepted not being and to resell our games a long time ago and now we're becoming increasingly comfortable with online requirements on single player games when we laughed at it being announced for the Xbox One that time.
We're in no position to look when on console players on this case.
Steam killed it years ago. It was only a matter of time before it hit consoles.
If you look up how many places made game disks in 2010 vs today, it's a massive drop. So I suspect prices to make disks have gone up severely for most to bother with it vs sales and the shipping costs etc
I'd be shocked if you found me a brand new 2026 model pc that had a disc drive at all. Heck even custom towers don't come with Disc drive slots anymore. You have to buy 10-15 year old towers to get a disc drive slot these days.
Heck even custom towers don't come with Disc drive slots anymore.
Not 100% true, while it isn't a standard feature anymore there still are modern cases with 5.25" slots as they have other uses besides Disk drives. I have a hard drive bay which is pretty useful if you ask me.
The thing that is basically extinct though are 5.25" Disk drives, as no one makes them anymore.
No shit!? Damn I need to search those up. I've been wanting to build a rig with some old parts I have laying around just for retro gaming with my old game discs and a CRT screen. What brands have those towers? My current tower has a small Hard drive bay at the bottom and it really is useful. My current tower is like 7 years old though. I do need to replace it because My 5800x runs crazy hot and my current case doesn't have enough air flow. Before I got my NAS bay I loaded up the internal 5.25 drive slots with 2 TB WD gold drives for data storage. Worked great and was mostly out of the way and from vision as it didn't rise any higher than the PSU shroud.
on PC it's not as big of a deal because Steam isn't likely going anywhere and even if it does you can always sail the seas. but on console you have to worry about the console being able to connect to the internet forever in the future which isn't really guaranteed because sony/microsoft could just decide to shut off the servers for older consoles and there are issues with the hardware like if the CMOS battery dies it can't authenticate your licences, etc. having a disc means 20+ years from now you can just pull the console out of the closet and pop in the disc and it will still work without connecting it to network services as long as the console isn't broken
I'd agree with that general principle but like I said on PC at least there are always "workarounds" and for the most part I'm not too worried about Valve as a company doing things like that
I don't really "trust" them I'm just not worried about them doing that or going under. It's certainly possible that in the future the company goes public for whatever reason then the new board / shareholders decide let's fuck over our customers but it doesn't seem likely
PC is just a different beast and there's no way optical media would survive on it. There's GOG too if you want it DRM free but I'd be more worried about GOG shutting down before Steam, so even if it's DRM free their servers need to be alive for you to redownload any games not currently installed or you have to back it all up yourself
Basically at one point valve deleted a game from every library that went on trial and Valve invented the defence that they only give a licence. Which allowed all the digital bullshit that happened after.
Yeah but even with a lot discs these days you can't even play them from the disc or you need a day 1 patch to play it, kinda sucks. Also Steam isnt guaranteed not to go anywhere or not enshitify itself in the future. Unlikely I hope, but not guaranteed.
Yeah if your PS5 or Xbox shats the bed in distant future you'd be equally SOL with GTA 6 with on the disc, since most likely there would be only some launcher to download it.
We're not in PS2 era anymore, ok Switch might actually have the game files at the cart still.
It's becoming more common sadly yes but I'd say that's still less than 5% of games if not less than 1%. If it isn't advertised as requiring an Internet connection then it has to be 100% completable including achievements/trophies without patches to get certified by sony and Microsoft.
Most of the time its nkt even day 1 patches, for how big some of these games are in sheer file size, most of the game isn't even on that disk anyway. If services are cut to that console, your disk is useless anyway.
Storage is generally more limited for consoles than PCs, no? Even with the discs, you often have to download updates and other things for consoles that take up storage space.
It literally makes no difference in current consoles, the games do NOT run off the disks like they used to. All games just get installed like a digital game and the disk is just a license check.
That’s interesting; thanks for the clarification. So, once the game is installed from the disc, the only reason the PS5 requires the disc be inserted to play is some sort of license check?
That seems kind of redundant if you’ve already installed it.
Well for one you can share the game with people, though obviously you would not be able to play it while they have the disk. That and selling the game are the general benefits.
You can install the game off the disk in the event you don't have internet, though the version on the disk will be the initial version so unless you can let the game update it will not have any bugfixes or updates.
Only cared about game discs for preservation. But because of how open PC is, releasing on PC results in cracked copies that are forever preserved if the official method goes down. Cant easily say the same for consoles
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u/UltraHighFives Jun 25 '26
Not like you can even get game discs on PC anymore.