244
This means you can't pass the game around to your friends or sell it afterwards, which completely ruins the purpose of physical media imo. I mostly play PC these days so this doesn't affect me, but it's a disappointing direction for console games. At least they could've used an empty disc that has proof of ownership.
EDIT: Bethesda has confirmed that only the PC version won't include a disc. Physical versions of Xbox will include a disc. Whew.
Physical media is dying a slow and painful death. Sad to see really. I'd say to make a fuss, but most people don't seem to care.
Honestly, No disc + always online DRM is making me turn to piracy more and more. I want to be able to buy a game and just have a permanent offline copy of it. is that really too much to ask?
You’re going to run into video game preservation issues with or without physical media. I’ve been playing through the GBA/DS catalog and some of the games are selling at prohibitively high prices. Not that I needed a lot of nudging to find another way to play the games…
Playing on original hardware has its charms but emulation is often a better experience anyway. I have an N64 sitting in the closet collecting dust because a) it’s a PAL console (sigh), b) the analog stick is shot and c) my TV doesn’t support SCART. I know I could get an NTSC console, buy replacement gears for the stick, buy a RetroTink to get HDMI support, etc. At some point it’s just too much of a hassle for nostalgia’s sake.
Yep, I’ve had similar experiences with handhelds even for games that I own. I could play Metroid Fusion on my SP and get cramps in both of my hands trying to hold it.
Or I could just find a way to run it on the DSi.