“Physical games” that dont run until patched with 5 day one patches because the game needed to be shipped with something.
Or you get a code lolback in the 360/Wii days you could often download and install updates from a disc or USB stick since they still had to be digitally signed anyway.
Not an ideal solution but still no reason why we couldn’t still do that to have offline copies of updates for preservation
Rip the base game + patches in a zip rather than the bare CD for preservation…
Right now the CDs are basically plastic waste inside more waste, sealed inside more waste.The problem with that approach is that the authentic disc is effectively used as your licence at the moment. There wouldn’t be any effective way to stop piracy with offline zip files
They will definitely be forgotten sadly.
Zero way they haven’t already been forgotten. Microsoft wants everything online all the time now
If people have a good internet connection, they prefer the convenince of downloading their games.
edit: a sizable portion of people
What even are physical games in this day and age? Sure, you can buy a disk but if you still need to download a zero day patch that takes approximately a buttload of time to finish before you can actually start playing, then it isn’t a physical game. Don’t even get me started on Nintendo’s links in a box. Perhaps we should start calling them physical DRM.
weren’t there a few titles where the disc was effectively nothing and the whole game just downloads anyway?
Honestly makes sense since you can then produce the boxes much earlier and ship them and go through all that physical distribution nonsense without worrying about patching from whatever is on disk to the actual finished product. Especially since I bet physical gamers want the game on day one too.
Eh, Nintendo games are still pretty complete on the cartridge.
But the real value of physical games is that you can resell them. So even if they’re essentially just “links in a box,” you can still sell/loan that to someone else and they can play. You can’t do that with digital-only media.
You can if it’s DRM-free.
Not legally AFAIK.
GOG’s EULA allows you to legally transfer any games as long as you destroy all not transferred copies.
How does that work with the licence grant in their systems? Is the burden of proof on you, or do they have a mechanism to transfer that?
It works on the honor system, which is just a fancy way of saying it doesn’t. Mainly because nobody wants it. Turns out reselling, as a concept, doesn’t really make sense when games go on sale all the time.
It certainly does, or at least trading does. There have been times when I want a friend to try a game, but they’re not willing to buy it. If I could swap a game with them (or just gift one), then they could.
