Jo22 wrote on 2026-07-05, 20:43:I have my doubts that users will accept this.
Most will.
Again look at the outrage over Steam, its requirement for activation of HL2 back in 2004, and the shift to digital only game distribution. All that passed. This will pass too.
This seems at least vaguely related to this conversation.
Lists of DRM-free games on Steam (meaning, they do not require Steam to run once downloaded):
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_DRM … _games_on_Steam
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_big_lis … _games_on_Steam
(Second list has more detail but not as many games currently.)
Interestingly, a good portion of Valve's own games are listed here, including Half-Life: Alyx which is somewhat more recent. You can run these games without Steam.
With most of the games on these lists you can just zip up the install folder and put it on a DVD or old hard drive if you need a physical backup copy that can be installed after the AI-pocalypse. Honestly though, since Valve is a very successful privately owned company and isn't diving headlong into AI or other extremely risky\dubious ventures, they have a much better chance of keeping things basically as they are for the foreseeable future.
Also, here is a Steam curator that keeps track of games that have third-party DRM or other features that are highly undesirable:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/261360 … -That-Hate-You/
Now for some blitting from the back buffer.
The only problem I see is it's the end of the traditional second hand disc market and that's a pretty big deal. The collectors will still be able to buy a box at retail though AFAIK. Can't just drop that Walmart et al presence after all. It is fun to peruse second hand media shops but their game prices are often not great anyway.
And yeah the PC download lifestyle hasn't turned out so bad. I don't think we'll be getting console GOG soon though.
I think the drive in my PS5 might be getting flaky at reading discs. Good ol console optical media issues and noise.
The loss of second hand market is very much 'The Point' behind antics like this, as evidenced by *the arguments* these tools are making about 'not buying games, you are buying licenses.'
Specifically, the publishers want *non-transferrable* licenses, for that long tail, and to control retail pricing.
Global leadership is too busy getting complimentary cocktails and massages with their yearly campaign contributions to *actually care* about nakedly anticonsumer behavior like this, so it goes unregulated and unpunished.
Until the legal system forcefully asserts and enforces against such actions, (and as long as the legislatures and judicial systems of the world keep acting like hogs at the trough), the trend will continue toward draconian enforcement, and from absurd notions of 'resold devices and licenses are direct competition' toward 'and this competition is illegal under copyright law, which gives *US* exclusive control over licensure!'.
fair uses, lawful resale, and the second hand market will not only vanish, but be treated as criminal behavior.
I dont like it at all.
I'd fire the lot of our legislators over this shit if I could.
Digital Foundry covered the Sony situation in their latest video.
As proponents of physical games, they make some excellent points. Especially about games getting delisted from digital storefronts due to expired licenses. Sometimes after just 5-6 years.
Shponglefan wrote on 2026-07-05, 21:02:Jo22 wrote on 2026-07-05, 20:43:I have my doubts that users will accept this.
Most will.
Again look at the outrage over Steam, its requirement for activation of HL2 back in 2004, and the shift to digital only game distribution. All that passed. This will pass too.
But Steam didn't remove the optical drives on PC platform.
It also allows offline play, refunding and transfering game library etc.
The way Sony acts is more like good old Japanese business tradition of "burry and forget" (pretending that failed things never existed).
After 3 years of inactivity, a PS account will be deleted, too it seems.
Maybe the PS6 will be as popular as Windows Me or Vista. Or the Wii U.
It could be that people/players might decide to skip it. Who knows. 🤷♂️
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
//My video channel//
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-07-03, 14:43:On the subject of enshittification , Sony recently announced that it will completely halt the production of physical games in 2028.
While I doubt the RAM price hike caused that directly, it may have been a contributing factor due to cost cutting. Needless to say, their customer base is furious, and rightfully so.
I could say F Sony but I saw the market heading towards an all well subscription future. What can we do. Nintendo is maybe the last company to do carts but everything requires a day one download to play. You cant stream from disc anymore like PS2
Shponglefan wrote on 2026-07-05, 21:02:Jo22 wrote on 2026-07-05, 20:43:I have my doubts that users will accept this.
Most will.
Again look at the outrage over Steam, its requirement for activation of HL2 back in 2004, and the shift to digital only game distribution. All that passed. This will pass too.
i remember when that happened and i was pissed, thankfully i was able to play HL2 on xbox at a friends house offline. This wont pass this the future unless you find a way to sell complete offline games on usb flash drive at a cost of 120 USD MSRP
Shponglefan wrote on 2026-07-05, 21:02:Jo22 wrote on 2026-07-05, 20:43:I have my doubts that users will accept this.
Most will.
Again look at the outrage over Steam, its requirement for activation of HL2 back in 2004, and the shift to digital only game distribution. All that passed. This will pass too.
I’ve never bought a download, paid for an account, or paid for a streamer
I stopped at physical media, I still only buy vintage physical media including games.
I’m guessing I’m not the only one and foresee efforts to move me into digital biometric land as a failed effort.
They have just passed a misnamed “kids act” in this country that doesn’t protect kids but will make doing anything online worse than a rectal exam for adults, nothing like making access to every web site require in effect a passport and account. If said “bipartisan expansion of mass surveillance “ goes to law, it seems more like they are trying to make the juice not worth the squeeze and many will just have to discontinue using the web traditionally.
The way this act is setup it seems like a massive amount of online retail and games sales will just go away as the process to do so will become complex and likely unstable.
Ah well had a good run.
Joseph_Joestar wrote on Yesterday, 18:16:Especially about games getting delisted from digital storefronts due to expired licenses. Sometimes after just 5-6 years.
The concrete example for this was Forza Horizon 4, which was released in 2018 and delisted in 2024.
On the PC side, most rally games suffered a similar fate. Colin McRae: DiRT was released on Steam in 2009, and then delisted in 2012. BTW, I have a physical copy of that game which still works fine. Many other non-racing games have been delisted for various reasons, and there's even a website which tracks that. So yeah, the all-digital future isn't all sunshine and rainbows.
I think digital downloads will end up biting them in the but because sooner or later somebody will end up cracking the system and allowing people to play them all free.
The XBOX360 was the last console I bothered buying and was the last where you could play pretty much all games without needing a download.
Collector of old computers, hardware, and software
Your outrage is late, gentlemen. You already bought into all this.
I looked at PS4 and XBOX back when and thought: You get the game, you have to install it as if it were a PC, you have to download gigabytes of patches and updates to run the game - and at some point those things stop being available. What good is it to have a disc with a game that's in a buggy/incomplete state on a platform that has a planned EOL (unlike your PC, for which you can technically store all the downloaded updates and assets)?
To me physical games stopped being a real thing for consoles when online accounts and patches became a necessity. For a PlayStation 2, you pop the disc in and play. Those games will live as long as the hardware and the discs do. HW can be fixed and discs can be backed up - but this online nonsense... nope.
Selling me a box with nothing but a download code inside? What good is that ten years from now when the servers are offline and the game is discontinued. All I'll have is an empty box.
[Install Win95 like you were born in 1985!] on systems like this or this.
leonardo wrote on Today, 10:05:Your outrage is late, gentlemen. You already bought into all this. […]
Your outrage is late, gentlemen. You already bought into all this.
I looked at PS4 and XBOX back when and thought: You get the game, you have to install it as if it were a PC, you have to download gigabytes of patches and updates to run the game - and at some point those things stop being available. What good is it to have a disc with a game that's in a buggy/incomplete state on a platform that has a planned EOL (unlike your PC, for which you can technically store all the downloaded updates and assets)?
To me physical games stopped being a real thing for consoles when online accounts and patches became a necessity. For a PlayStation 2, you pop the disc in and play. Those games will live as long as the hardware and the discs do. HW can be fixed and discs can be backed up - but this online nonsense... nope.
Selling me a box with nothing but a download code inside? What good is that ten years from now when the servers are offline and the game is discontinued. All I'll have is an empty box.
Yey brother, when you have to install games and can't play them day one on the disc itself forget it. Go PC and you'll be stuck with old games or games that are drm free
Jo22 wrote on 2026-07-05, 20:43:Who knows, maybe the popularity will eventually be close to that of MS/Win 11? ;) I mean, those two caused not a few users of th […]
lti wrote on 2026-07-05, 18:25:I hear lots of people claim that they don't like what's happening, but the "pushback" is just a few angry social media posts while continuing to use enshittified products. They don't take any real action against it because they've convinced themselves that they're such an overwhelming majority that the corporations and government will listen and naturally revert everything.
Who knows, maybe the popularity will eventually be close to that of MS/Win 11? 😉
I mean, those two caused not a few users of the past years to make a switch already.
There's only so much people are willing to endure until they finally have enough.Edit: I think what the PS company misses to understand, is, that people want to have options even if they don't use them.
The planned model for digital distribution is less sophisticated than that of other platforms.
It's very top-down, very authorian. I have my doubts that users will accept this.Edited.
Sony will go the way of Amazon Luna, a pure subscription cloud thing where your PS6 is a dumb client or thin client only doing bare necessities to play online. They got that PS uh Portal device that was like the Wii U handleset or tablet. I dont do Sony anymore because my microsoft account is too integreated with windows and minecraft and the downloads which i should just give up i dont own minecraft or the maps i make because the maps will be broken in few years anyway
All that will happen is some people will complain online while the vast majority just buy all digital games from then on. PC gamers accepted it years ago , console gamers will too.
rmay635703 wrote on Today, 03:46:I’ve never bought a download, paid for an account, or paid for a streamer
I stopped at physical media, I still only buy vintage physical media including games.I’m guessing I’m not the only one and foresee efforts to move me into digital biometric land as a failed effort.
Steam currently has active users in excess of a hundred million users. So while you might not be buying digital PC games, plenty of other people are.
Steam has also been around for 22 years. There are PC gamers that have grown up in an environment where Steam and digital distribution of PC games is the norm.
Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-07-04, 16:51:The ever dropping price of games
Hold up, the what now? Big name games are more expensive now than ever before. In AU pricing, 007 First Light was $100. Resident Evil 9 was $108. Death Stranding 2 was a whopping $125.
I think the reason people accepted digital only on PC is because a while before that became the default choice there was online activation anyway, which meant you couldn't sell or lend your games any more.
I have enough PS1, 2 & 3 games to keep me busy anyway. Never saw the need to get PS4 or 5. Too few exclusives.
How on earth do you put a 150 gb game on dvd's?
It worked fine when games were like 500mb to 10 12 gb.... but 150gb...?
bitzu101 wrote on Today, 14:48:How on earth do you put a 150 gb game on dvd's?
It worked fine when games were like 500mb to 10 12 gb.... but 150gb...?
Bluray disks can store in excess of 100 gb.
