otoh the no discs thing is kind of emblematic of all the problems with video games, i totally get why a lot of outrage is coalescing around it, and i understand the attachment to physical media, i think it is nice. but DRM is the core of the issue and that was already the case long before they looked to go fully digital
this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2026
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Agreed 100%. I have physical PC games that don't work without cracks on any computer now.
Yeah I agree, I feel like physical media has been dead for awhile outside of the ability to put a bunch of plastic cases on a shelf. The discs almost never contain the full game and you are still dependent on the digital license in most cases. So its just a more expensive way to buy the same product, with all the plastic waste physical media entails
Oh yeah, I didn't even mention the Switch game cards that have like half of a game or only one game in a trilogy collection. Like the website Doesitplay.
Can't wait for a future where all consoles eventually turn into bricks because their respective mega corp pulled the servers offline.
I kinda regret buying a PS4 even though I got it secondhand and cheap, but all of the online consoles are at minimum gonna be more annoying to manage than say a PS2.
I think you're overstating the 'uselessness' of discs. You can download updates from pretty much anywhere and apply them. That's certainly how we used to do it before everything was digital store. Even if Sony melted your PS4 and shut down all their servers, you'd soon put it in a computer and play it on an emulator.
When that data was in your hand, and you didn't have an alternative people could (and did) find a way to play the data that's on it, even with DRM or whatever. It wasn't much, but it was surely an aspect of control that could never be taken away from you, a viable backup route if all else fails.
I agree piracy rules more anyway. But this was the last arguably legal method of preservation, now there is basically no such thing for such games.
You can download updates from pretty much anywhere and apply them.
On the X360 and PS3, you download the title updates from the servers that Sony and Microsoft host. It's not really like patches on floppy/CD/from a BBS that you could just apply. Myrient used to have PS360 games with their updates, but you have to have a PS3 running HEN or a 360 running BadUpdate and Idk if people should need to be that technically-knowledged just to get updates for a 360 game.
Even if Sony melted your PS4 and shut down all their servers, you'd soon put it in a computer and play it on an emulator.
Hence, priacy is the only preservation. The trouble with updates to console games is that the data isn't ever in your hands, it's on the servers and then installed on your hard drive, past that you have to sail the high seas, which people should. I guess we'll see what playing PS4 games is like by the year 2040, but you don't have to hack a Super Nintendo to play F-Zero with critical updates, y'know?
I mean it seems we basically agree, I'm sure not saying it's "easy", but having a disc means you can play it, even with difficulty. Not having a disc means you're entirely boned and have no legal recourse.
Plus, emulators are not (necessarily) piracy.
Almost, the core difference is that PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and Wii stuff you just use the disc. For preservation purposes though, you have to keep a DVD-R/flash drive/hard drive with updates on it. It becomes a worse problem as the 8th gen systems will have gigabytes and gigabytes of updates. It feels like taking chunks out of the ease-of-use of a disc. You're right though and regarding discs I don't disagree.
That's true about emulators too, even if using your own games is often a huge nuissance, (Xdvd mulleter) and I dunno how confident I am that I can put a PS4 game into shadps4...
Mostly my post is pedantic and annoying 
I mean I also know nothing because I've not owned a console since like PS2, I only speak from second-hand knowledge.
Don't be rude about your post, I like it >:( I think the sentiment is still relevant and important, I was just saying I think discs do represent a tiny value. Still agree with everything else.
The kind of preservation that would even be legally allowed is the Video Game History Foundation getting to put a digital installer file or just a raw data dump on a hard drive and burned blu-ray disc in a vault and then never interacted with outside of that. Maybe it gets to be accessed by companies in the future when they want to do a 6th remake-ster of Resident Evil 1 or something.
USA film archive type shit.
what
Op made a very cogent argument imo
what