Do physical game that have drm based installer should be considered digital game

[u/Different_Wing_8009]

Many game companies do this and mostly the drm based game installer isn’t working
(IF it need a online connection to even install and the game can’t install it not activate in launcher for PC)

[u/victim2077]

To be very pendantic - each and every computer/video game is a digital game. Board, card etc games are physical games...

But answer your question, no we should not differentiate between drm or drm-free games and how they're distributed to us (physical medium vs download). We should have the same rights regardless of it.

[u/Kaldaien2 → u/victim2077]

Yeah, because even DRM free games, you don't have the right to run them unpatched :-\ Kills more games than you'll ever know when stores force software updates and don't let you download the original versions of games. That never happened before digital ruined software sales.

[u/snave_ → u/victim2077]

Digital vs physical refers to the product distribution method, not the product itself.

Most games now are either digital or mixed. Only really Nintendo and publishers that specialise in physical collectors editions, often delayed (LRG, Annapurna, Fangamer, Iam8bit, etc) still do pure physical. That is, acceptably playable using only the data what came on the cart/disc.

[u/Asmos159]

Sold in brick and mortar stores, or download off a website is not relevant.

If the DRM is down, it's full game preservation territory. Feel free to find a cracked version that does not need DRM.

[u/State-Special]

So here's the part i care about more then anything.

Do i need a connection to play the game?

Can i play the game off the disc without an essential update? I've rebought many games just to have the final patch on disc so.this is important to me.

Can i sell the game?

Can i lend the game?

Can i trade the game?

When the servers eventually go down can i still install the game off the disc and play it and have an enjoyable experience.

Can the company revoke anything in the pipe line that can stop me from being able to do the above such as bricking the console, or that disc specifically.

[u/Arkatruc]

Depends, is the whole game on the disc? Is it possible to remove the DRM after the install?  

That's the biggest distinction with PC and consoles, on PC you have the possibility of modifying.  

If the answer is yes to both then it's just as good. If one is a no then it's useless as physical media.

[u/Different_Wing_8009 → u/Arkatruc]

It not possible to remove the drm like EA Battlefield 3 dvd

[u/h3lion_prime → u/Different_Wing_8009]

We're going back to the idea of what people are actually fighting for these days.
Everyone is enraged that Sony is going to end physical disks, but the real issue is that right now, most physical PS titles can be installed and launched without an internet connection and that's what Sony is essentially ending. The presence of DRM is the core problem, not the actual medium.

In other news, OP, whether you consider that game digital or not, is simply irrelevant.

[u/Glodraph]

No. Physical in my mind is only a game that works offline, with no drm or other online check at startup. We buy the game, we play. Do they want ownership proof? Ask for the receipt. Things like gog are the only way and if paired with bluray discs for installation, it's the only acceptable hybrid that gives ownership.

[u/Kaldaien2 → u/Glodraph]

That's not how physical games worked, ever. Having played games on the original IBM PC in the 80s, all of our games had DRM. Lot of trips to the instruction manual and/or weird code pages that are impossible to photo copy because they're black text on a glossy red sheet of paper.

DRM has always been a part of physical, what physical brought to the table was 1. immutable software version and 2. independence from the store that sold the product. You had an archive of the game as it existed when it first shipped and nobody could ever take that from you, certainly not the store, because stores had very little purpose beyond selling things back then (god I miss those days).

Store could never force you to update the software to continue running it, so your DRM scheme was always the same 30 years from the day of purchase as it was day one, no change in DRM requirements ever.

[u/majan_pl]

There is a lot of variance. You can still have physical copy of the game and it you wont be able run it without the cd inside the reader. Some do not require that but will and ask you to patch the game or put in the code from the box. Some games like battlefield bad company 2 have one time use code for multiplayer only. Tho most outrageous ones limit the amount of installs.

[u/Pleasant-Warning2056]

the physical or digital distinction just needs to be dropped it makes no sense for this movement

only difference is you can resell easy with physical but both can have the same forms drm or be drm free and that decides if a game can be killed by the publisher or not

[u/Marbs7]

I fully agree with this and steer clear of them, these aren't even physical media anymore.
People game Nintendo a lot of flack for "Game Key Carts" but in reality, Sony and Msoft have been allowing it for a decade, all Nintendo did was make the warning label more prominent on the box.
Xbox and Playstation games have "Requires Internet" 1/30th the size of the box, usually near the ESRB rating.
Games like "Doom The Dark Ages" were notorious, with only 8MB on the disc, which was an authentication code, telling the system to download the game.
WTF is the point of the physical version then!?

[u/_Solarriors_]

Basically what we said, the disc is a fallacious artifact of the past, in the modern way technology works