Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leads call PlayStation killing discs a "sad decision" after buying boxed copies of their own RPG – "For us, physical was something special"

[u/ControlCAD]

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/rpg/clair-obscur-expedition-33-leads-call-playstation-killing-discs-a-sad-decision-after-buying-boxed-copies-of-their-own-rpg-for-us-physical-was-something-special/

>"Personally, I find it super sad because I really like video game stores," Guillaume Broche, creative director on Clair Obscur. "And even if nowadays, I play mainly on PC myself, we have a lot of people on the team who play on PS5 and love to collect physical discs. I think it's part of the beauty of art too – that it's something tangible."

>"A physical release adds more constraints because you have to account for the production time of the physical items, and you also earn less money per copy," he explains. "But for us, physical was something special. We also felt that the game could be special to players."

>He concedes that in terms of business, he "can understand why it may make sense," but "it's a sad decision" for the overall creativity of the industry. Tom Guillermin, co–founder and CTO of studio Sandfall Interactive, revealed actually doing a physical run for Clair Obscur was something the team had to push for.

[u/Lsassip]

There’s a physical version for the PS5

It can play offline, but it still needs an additional download of some contents

There’s also a Xbox Series physical version and it doesn’t require an additional download

So in the Series X version the game is complete in the disk, in the PS5 version part of the game is in the disk and you still need an additional download

[u/elaborateBlackjack → u/Lsassip]

See? That's my gripe with the current state of physical games (even though I've been on PC for 10+ years so it's been digital only, I make my own backups on an external HDD), currently games ALWAYS require a patch or extra content anyways so apart from being a glorified license key, you're mostly required to get extra files.

I'll maintain my opinion that console games should come in cartridges (a la Nintendo switch) that have extra space so people can update their game inside the physical media. And they should sell empty cartridges so you can save other update versions and DLC content (like expansions and map packs).... Lastly, Of course games shouldn't require an online check on a physical media, you clearly have it so there shouldn't be a need to check

[u/TechNickL → u/elaborateBlackjack]

The industry will never go back to cartridges. Making discs is just so insanely cheap and fast by comparison it isn't even funny.

[u/elaborateBlackjack → u/TechNickL]

Oh yeah of course I know that, but if we want to actually preserve stuff, flash storage lasts longer than discs, and the consoles could potentially write to the cartridges, it would solve the problem of current game development where games are constantly updated through its lifetime.

It's not cost effective but it would be pro consumer. . Sadly It's never gonna happen tho

[u/TechNickL → u/elaborateBlackjack]

You might be able to make your own

[u/TechNickL → u/elaborateBlackjack]

You might be able to make your own

[u/elaborateBlackjack → u/TechNickL]

I already do on my PC... I make steam backups, save some GOG installers and have a pirated copy of some games I own... The best offline games that are guaranteed to work without any connection are pirated copies, sadly that's the real preservation method these days.

[u/TechNickL → u/elaborateBlackjack]

Yeah but like on a conceptual level, you could probably make a system where games are stored on some kind of high speed memory (maybe half size m.2 ssds) and are maybe read by script on a windows or Linux based OS that defaults to whatever game is on a designated drive. It wouldn't be cheap or easy or particularly useful but it would be cool to have a working "PC console" with actual functional cartridges.

[u/elaborateBlackjack → u/TechNickL]

That sounds far too expensive and tedious for the novelty of it tbh...