this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2026
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Games

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[–] blobjim@hexbear.net 13 points 6 days ago (7 children)

physical discs is such a dumb hill to die on. They're pointless (you have to download updates from online anyways), and they create waste. There is no going back.

[–] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 29 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The correct choice is moving to ban this digital licensing bullshit, if you buy a copy of a movie or a game or whatever you fucking own it forever, you can move it onto offline storage, etc. Mandating the continued production of blu rays or whatever is just a jobs program for the people making the discs that doesn't address the core issue which is ownership rights over digital content

[–] gila@hexbear.net 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yes, but it's also literally just cheaper to buy physical copies on launch. To remove access to the limited benefits offered by discs would still be a clear detriment to consumers

[–] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

you know that prices of digital goods are the fakest thing since property rights came to fake town, right, and those were even more fake than when Fake arrived

why bring up such an easily solvable problem when we're already talking about changing laws on digital rights ownership to begin with like at that point price controls aren't an option

[–] gila@hexbear.net 2 points 5 days ago

Just that - it's easy to modify purchasing habits and get a better deal today, so preserving access to that option is where the action is today. Unfortunately I don't think we really are talking about amending or repealing DMCA than we were in 1998 besides grumbling about it online. The most likely path toward tabling that discussion being the new golden age of piracy that is upon us, but that is not practical means for everyone

[–] TheModerateTankie@hexbear.net 17 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Physical games allowed people to pick up releases for relatively cheap, depending on the game. Sony is planning on keeping prices high and fleecing their customers.

[–] blobjim@hexbear.net 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

yeah I forget how ridiculously expensive console games are compared to PC games.

[–] TheModerateTankie@hexbear.net 8 points 6 days ago (2 children)

People need to just switch to PC games exclusively at this point.

[–] starlight32@hexbear.net 11 points 6 days ago
[–] WokePalpatine@hexbear.net 3 points 6 days ago

show me a pc as beautiful as the nintendo gamecube.

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 6 points 6 days ago

Digital games on devices which are actually under the control of their users allow people to pick up releases for free

[–] Orcocracy@hexbear.net 14 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Hardly pointless. Discs are often cheaper than platform app stores, then there’s the second hand market, lending and borrowing, public library collections, imports, being able to move countries without worrying about whether shit locked up in your account is portable across borders, getting your account compromised or banned, stuff getting removed or delisted, other platform lock-in nonsense, etc etc etc.

Also, It’s nice to have stuff on a shelf that isn’t sorted by another fucking algorithm.

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

being able to move countries without worrying about whether shit locked up in your account is portable across borders

Discs have region locks lol

[–] Orcocracy@hexbear.net 4 points 6 days ago

PlayStation games haven’t been region locked for decades, that all went away with the PS3 in the 2000s. It happened a bit later with movies, with all UHD/4k discs being region free.

But even region locks were still a thing, if you move you can bring your discs and player with you and not lose anything. This is not always the case with online accounts.

[–] D61@hexbear.net 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

My Playstation bought in the USA never stopped working when I physically moved to a different country.

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 1 points 6 days ago

I'm not a PlayStation guy but the early PlayStation as well as movie DVDs/Blurays had region lock. Basically it only lets you play media from the same region you bought the player/console.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_lockout

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code

[–] Blakey@hexbear.net 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'm torn. Losing physical disks won't affect things like game preservation, but losing the second hand market sucks.

[–] ryepunk@hexbear.net 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The second hand market has always been weird. Sometimes it's great, but then it flips and eventually things there become more expensive.

The only thing for it is to simply embrace pirate-jammin

[–] Blakey@hexbear.net 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I would never dream of doing such a deeply immoral thing and certainly haven't put together a sizable collection of emulators and ROMs

Did you know an Oppo A80 - a barely above entry level Chinese phone from a few years ago - can emulate a PS2 at full speed now pretty stably? Who knew.

[–] starlight32@hexbear.net 10 points 6 days ago

DRM is the issue, not the format they are released on.

buying a cheaper second-hand game doesn't really matter if you wont be able to play the game when the PS7 is out and the PS4/5 update servers are closed. or if the servers for your always online game go offline like concord (not that you would want to play that anyways lol)

[–] Moidialectica@hexbear.net 3 points 5 days ago

Discs carry ownership and can be re-sold, so it's not pointless for a lot of people who might want to buy them to sell them for cheap later

[–] imogen_underscore@hexbear.net 4 points 6 days ago

DRM is the core issue of course, but i understand the attachment to physical media it is basically nice

[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 6 days ago

I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: