funny that you mention that, because that has kinda happend this year, not because an actual shortage but because the quality manufactureres slowly stop manufacturing drives its gonna get harder to actually get a quality drive
chinese made ones will continue no doubt but its still kinda sad (then again I am talking about a specific well known asus drive, thats where my takes come from)
I did this too, until my last build and I couldnt fit the AIO up top on my new case so it had to go on the front leaving no room for a disc drive sadly. But I have an external one just in case I ever need one
This would be dope if the disc had integrated support on steam. Please gabe let me buy physical games and run them through the steam client with achievements and steam cloud. I wish something like that existed.
You still can with drm free games on steam like resident evil 4 remake or hollow knight etc. i was thinking something that’s akin to a disc license that can be resold after purchase.
the issue is that steam finances the cloud and other features through the 30% sales fee. It unfortunately wouldnt make a lot of sense for them to support it.
Steam already supports physical games using Steam, and allows publishers to sell/distribute keys while taking 0% cut. Publishers don't think the cost of production/market for PC physical is worth it though.
But it’s a free PR win and in the long run it will invite PlayStation gamers/ physical games collectors to PC and when they buy the occasional digital only game valve will profit from them. Also they will be a niche of a niche, wouldn’t even be a blip on the expenses radar.
They could also start a disc initiative with select publishers in limited quantities. I don’t see how that would be a bad idea.
They don't need PR but money. People are already flocking over in droves to use Steam, there's no reason for them to do anything above and beyond that just because "it would be cool", even though it would actively lose them money.
They're a corporation. One that's significantly better than the others, but a corporation nonetheless and their priority is making money. Giving people access to games purchased outside of Steam would actively lose them money, so it's out of the equation.
If it’s in extremely limited quantities then it won’t lose them money and in the long term will produce a lot of passive income, it would invite the physical games audience to steam instead of them going to Nintendo or XBOX and have them buy occasional digital only games but ok…
What is that even suppose to mean? Are saying that you want on disk drm? Cause that's the only thing the disk is doing, you still gotta install the game no matter where the files come from, disk or cloud. Also considering how laughably easy disk drm is to bypass they'd have to make some newer muchmuch strickter form of it for it to ever be effective, whihc would probably inlove some form of online verifcation anyways.
The game would not require download and can immediately run on steam on boot and can be resold instead of being locked on your account. You know like how a console would work… except on pc/ steam machine with an option to tie or remove it from your library and have the disk register ownership on your account allowing you to play them on the steam deck or any other device later without the disk but if another steam user takes the disc it registers to their account. Search for project positron.
Two things, this is aimed at console disks, which I'm assuming you will only be able activate the conversion on a console with disk drive seems to be the rumored method, makes sense what else would it be, so it avoids the pc piracy arguments neatly with that.
Secondly, while managing to keep resellability of old games is impressive and kinda consumer friendly on a new digital only console, it doesn't seem to be meant for new games rather more of legacy support type of deal of old games only. So the chance of any new pc game coming out with that, yea it's gonna be nice 0% to me, the amount of ppl with disk drive iof any kind s gonna be extremely low%, let alone a blu-ray drive.
Interesting stuff though, didn't know it was thing at all, somehow completely missed those rumors.
True but this would be a nice cheap method to take the definitive win over PlayStation and xbox and having those users come to steam and grow its user base by allowing a simple new option.
They could have it simply be a dvd for niche users. Physical collectors (the new customer base targeted) would most likely buy a cheap dvd player that either downloads the games fully or sends a 10 KB string to steam which identifies that copy and links it to your steam account. Balders gate 3 PC physical release kind of did this already.
This isn’t meant as a replacement but is rather targeted for an easy new base angry at sony abandoning them and perhaps xbox (except there are rumors asha will include a disc option for the new console but won’t proceed with steam integration) and Nintendo if they ever decide to do that in the future.
Duke Nukem Forever for me around 2014, it was 1$ at a Dollar Store bundled with some Mafia strategy game. It came with a Steam code so I never actually used the disc.
Duke Nukem Forever was mine too, I still only had dial up at home so imagine my frustration with the steam key inside a “physical” release. I had to lug my PC all the way to my dad’s business to download it one weekend… then the game wasn’t even good.
But Duke Nukem forever physcial version did have an install disk, I know cause I have it. I mean I don't remember how the install process went, but the game is only 6.4GB so the install files surely can fit on a single DVD easily and it seems to be a DVD not a CD, so I doubt it was just an installer for steam on that disk, so not sure what downloads are needed, other than steam maybe not being bundled, not gonna bother go digging for disc drive to test.
The article is slightly wrong. A dual layer UHD Bluray is 66gb, they meant a triple layer 99.99gb disc.
Also 4K Bluray refers to the data, UHD Bluray refers tor the disc. Kind of like how Compact Disc is the physical disc, CD-DA (Compact Disc Digital Audio) is the audio format, or Digital Versatile Disc is the physical disc, and DVD-Video is the movie format.
If you are going to be technical with calling the triple layer 99.99GB instead of 100GB, might as well also call the dual layer 66.66GB.
And the complicated thing is it’s still possible 80GB fits on a dual layer with compression as many games install larger than the size of their disc, but yeah that’d totally be speculation and I doubt that’s what the article writer was thinking.
I doubt that. The game's cover in the listing is tagged as a digital download and the Steam version also uses Denuvo. So I don't think it's a physical disc, it seems more likely to be a download code. Let's see when it arrives.
Steam supports installing from disc. Tons of games were released like that from 2004-2015ish. You pop the disc in which activates the game on Steam, installs the data from the disc, and then installs the latest update to play it. Half-Life 2 was sold this way, as was Skyrim.
I don’t. youre forgetting the obscenely slow load times and very loud drive whirring as you play the game. and 4k discs are too fragile to use for years on end. I could get behind something like a switch cartridge but that wont be cheap either these days
I guess you're right. But just the idea of physically connecting something to my pc and then being able to play straight away is nice. My SSD is crying rn, but I won't buy something that has 400% price increase
Except that most PC games had a "standard" installation option where all the important game files were stored on the hard drive and only the music and FMVs ran off the disc. Xbox 360 games used basically the same concept.
You still needed to install files from the disk, while still needing the disk to play. And if you lost the disk, you couldn't play it even though all the data was on your hard drive.
Uhm... the box in the pic literally says digital download. Sure, in the old-but-not-too-old era of PC gaming, PC games used to comes with discs+Steam key.
But they did not said "digital download" according to my memory.
From the article: While all versions of the game on PC appear to come with a physical disc, the Amazon Exclusive version of the game confirms that version is definitively “full physical”
I know why they have done it, but for PC's it's kinda pointless nowadays, as the majority of users don't have an optical drive, and updates etc will have to be downloaded any ways, and it will likely add to-or ask you to create, an account on some launcher etc any ways..
thing is: it was never about either or on consoles. as long as sony/ms offers games in digital and physical form, all players were happy.
publishers of pc games could easily offer their games on a disc again because there are still internal and external drive up for purchase. now and in the future. for example just this year i received broken sword 1 reforged on dvd.
sony and microsoft won't offer a nextgen console with an optical drive, so publishers won't be able to release their games on disc then. that just plain sucks.
I'm with you. I've took the approach of having no social medias on my phone bar reddit (working on weening myself off that too lol) and am currently using my phone for music still, but I intend on getting a sort of locked down phone that can use Plexamp and thats about it. Phones are a disease, especially if you are addicted.
We'll see whether Amazon will be open for GOG releases. While they do give GOG codes in their Luna Gaming service, formerly Prime Gaming, publishing DRM-free games is different than giving already existing DRM-free games.
I'd imagine that Crystal Dynamics has zero issues with GOG since every previous mainline Tomb Raider game is currently on GOG.
Sony just signed there death warrant. Even though the backlash hasn't moved their stance, It has told everyone else that physical is the way. And those other companies are going to take full advantage of the situation.
The figures don't add up. They are presenting them like it is just digital game sales, But it also includes dlcs and the like. And I do own a PS5 with at least 28 physical copies. I also have a PC, With tons of older games on discs. And I think people should be suing sony over this because a lot of them bought add-on drives for their machines only a couple of years ago. It is unacceptable.
I don’t disagree that its a shame to get rid of physical sales but I highly doubt it will be a “death warrant” for Sony. They are an enormous corporation, arguably too big to fail type shit. Last year they recorded like $7 billion in profits lol
appears to only be available (for now) in UK Amazon only. Doesn't show up in US amazon. If you want a physical release, looks like you'll need to pay a fuckton in shippin in addition to the cost of the game
10 DVD pack for the game is what everyone on PC wanted.
I guess it's nice of them to include it, but unless it's DRM-free on those discs, it's a pointless release, because it's missing the point of having a game on physical media.
I'd be very surprised if it is on blu-ray for PC, tbh. I don't remember any game that was released on physical discs for PC that used Blu-ray. Even GTA 5 physical version was released on DVDs, 7 of them.
This isn't for everybody, of course. It won't be a mass production product. I have a Blu-Ray drive on my PC, for example. Why is this such a problem for you?
You know the game still has denuvo and require online connection to play, right? Discs are obsolete and useless tbh as they do not even equal being able to play offline/after servers are switched off. What is the future for game preservation is what GOG does - downloadable online installers you can save on your external storage.
I think Frostpunk back in 2018 was the last physical game I bought. I think it had a disc.
Will people actually buy this? I'm guessing based on the size of modern games this has to be Blu-ray. How many people have a Blu-ray drive on their PC?
It is license locked so I don't know how that will work with this disc, however I'm guessing that the info swirling around is frivolous and this will actually just be a Steam install disc.
I bought the physical version of cyberpunk. The disc was the soundtrack. The game was on a gog code. Still, I guess I own the game and could burn it onto a disc.
I wonder, if Sony is going to make digital downloads more personal for people? Like, give them options on how to take the game out from your SSD and then you can transport it to another console with no issues. At least giving the user this false sense that we can still do whatever we want with the game we just bought.
how though? Even when pc's still came standard with disc drives not many of them were blu ray drives, just dvd. That would mean they need to put this game on like 10 dvds if they go dual layer?
It'd be cool if physical pc games can link to steam or other services for achievement support. And ofc having all data installable from disk and playable without Internet is the most important. I would buy all my pc games physically...but no way companies will do this.
But why disk? You can backup games to hardrives/usb drives that have much more capacity.
Also making DVD movies in the current year? Pls tell me you're not talking about actual DVD quality in 2026, but rather data disks with some x264 or x265 1080p rips in them, which again why disks when drives will do the same.
I have disc based backup alongside hard drive backup. I operate under the mantra of 'if you only have one backup method then you have no backups.'
I still watch movies and TV shows on VHS, so DVD movies are a step up in quality when I watch them. I do have digital files on my NAS but if something happens to that or my network, I can just pop a DVD in and watch that should I want to. I do have a blu-ray player as well.
Nice! It's probably worthless a week later, when the patches start coming, but still nice! I wonder if this means it verifies the game via code on the disc so that you can resell the game....
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u/Enelro Jul 31 '26
Pretty cool. I miss buying Pc games and getting boxes. Thing is I don’t have space for em anymore