This is how your physical games will be packaged now.

Eco-cases that tear the paper. (Because this really makes an ecological difference and isn't for PR.)

Stacked discs that that cause disc scratches.

Envelope cases and booksleeve packaging that scratches the discs.

What do you do, physical collectors? What do you do?

You go digital download as that is the sensible thing to do. Discs carry the same data as downloads. Why pollute more when you don't need to?

I don't think physical collectors give a shit what it comes with. As long as they get the discs in the palm of the gamers hand and insert the disc to the console, that's all that matters to the physical buyers.

And it's a good thing I went digital gaming for many years and don't even regret it.

Unless you're getting steelbooks and cloth maps or something I don't think you can call getting an installer of a digital game in a plastic case "collecting". That's my honest 2c. I used to collect old carts and hardware and such. I think a Nathan Drake Collection disc is essentially worthless other than being a more wasteful way of downloading the game.

At the end of the day it's tat, expensive tat.

Care not.

Let it die.

Let people buy flash drives if they really need it.

Can you imagine making millions of discs and cases to distribute digital data? What a waste.

blu rays supposedly have some scratch protection compared to cd/dvd's js.

The less I have to add to my 1 TB a month download cap (and the less I have to depend on some other companies and various online accounts), the better.

Wish PC had the option more often, to be honest, but Blu-ray never took off because of the annoying DRM, and I wouldn't wanna install twelve DVDs to play RDR2. It's much easier to play a DVD than it is to play a Blu-ray on a PC, which is why I only rip Blu-rays.

@ezekiel43: that's fair. I used to be all "no digital!". I don't care at all any more unless it's a cool collectible item. But I'm also never bumping up on a data cap (yet)

I sure hope not. I want a somewhat quality case at least and I do not like those cases with the “holes” in them. I’ll still buy them though as the physical product still holds more value to me then digital downloads but I don’t want those types of cases. I’ll just have to be extra careful with them. Oh how I miss the days of getting a game with an instruction manual as well. Really gave it some nice heft and something cool to read.

Blu-ray discs are more resistant to damage caused by scratches and fingerprints than DVDs due to a TDK hard coat applied to the surface of the disc, according to proponents of the storage format.

https://www.cnet.com/news/blu-ray-more-scratch-resistant-than-dvd/

@Archangel3371: right? Boxed games used to mean something to me. I stopped carrying when the thick manuals, maps, artwork etc disappeared

I'm mostly digital now, especially games. I will buy a movie or TV series occasionally on Blu-Ray. The packaging does suck, but they're a lot tougher than DVDs. Also, just don't be a slob with your stuff and there shouldn't be any problems. Some of my friends treat their stuff like shit. Discs all over the place, not in their cases collecting sun rays, dust, and shit particles. I never let those oafs borrow my things.

Blu-ray disc have protective coating.

@xantufrog: I really miss the Working Designs published games. They brought over some good niche Japanese games and put a lot of quality into the physical product. Nice embossed covers, thick colourful manuals, cloth maps, etc.

Some of those cases? You can replace with any standard case. Add the sleeve and there you go.

If the sleeve wasn't already torn by the eco-friendly (bullshit) holes during transit. Believe me, it happens.

You can't really keep the official art if it's booksleeve or envelope packaging, because they don't come with paper sleeves.

Then again, most video game packaging is very showy and hideous these days.

I would still be careful with them. Also, 4K discs (next gen game storage) are more sensitive to dirt and scratches than Blu-rays. Movies freeze more from the same dirt.

It's more than just collecting for me: it's sharing. I like to share my physical software, but not my physical hardware. Installing software from physical media is a lot faster for me than re-downloading from the net as well.

In the end, giving people options is always better than not.

I don't like most games or movies anymore, so deciding which format to not buy them on isn't too tough.

It is kinda sad that I already own most of the media that I ever will.

physical disk is so 1998.

all digital now.

Cool?

I used to be all physical disc only until they started getting scratched up and wouldn't run. So I started moving to digital and it's been a lot easier, especially not losing them. There was a point where I contacted EA and showed them my collection of games, CD keys as proof and they ended up just giving me the digital copies free. They probably don't do it anymore but those games are pretty old now (Sims 2/Command and Conquer).

I liked getting the steelbook box and maps with it. Nowadays i've just accepted this is the way it's going to be.

I stream movies and series now. And I'm not paying upwards of 35-40eur for a 4K UHD blu ray, that's not a sensible price.

Blurays don't scratch unless you go out of your way to scratch them. Don't use your games as frisbees for your dog and they'll be fine.

@ezekiel43: Then wipe it with microfiber cloth. It's all about proper handling

Still gonna buy limited edition physical just for the goodies.

Rest will be digital as it is now.

@Ice-Cube: What exactly do you do that scratches the game disc? I have disc based games all the way back to the Sega CD and they all look brand new or close to it. Its not hard to take care of disc or games in general.

I like the whole ecological trend. I hate it when i go to the beach and is full of plastic trash. Its seems like a small thing, but my hope is that many small things will add up to something significant.

Anyway, i am still torn regarding the physical packages. I do quite like them a lot and I like to keep my games in physical format. But the trash they can potentially generate is not the only drawback. I also have to deal with them taking valuable space in my home.

Also, the trend of putting a steam installer inside makes them really pointless. Like, what is the point of keeping something stored if i still need an internet connection to play it.

For now, i only feel they make sense for games you really love and that come with the information inside the disc.

Everything else I take digital (and after a discount, since i dont think they are worth as much without physical media).

I don't buy physical movies, series, music albums, or anything else that comes on a disc, and I will probably never do that again in my life. Even if I did, I wouldn't have any problems with scratches, since I know how to take care of my shit. It's not like the packaging scratches your discs while just laying there. It's user error.

I still buy physical Switch games, but those are cartridges.

Ah, if only there was an upvote option! Well said.

... and you usually dont even get the full game anymore. No point in buying physical, the data on the disc gets antiquated by a day 1 patch more often than not.

I realised that physical media from PlayStation and Microsoft is only good if you want to always have access to the earliest version of a game since none if the games run off the disc anymore, do I go mostly digital for those. Nintendo is still plug and play, so I'm all physical for my Nintendo games. CDs and movies are a tough pill for me. I love having the physical media, but unlike games, I don't revisit movies as often as I do my games so, I'm ok with going all digital for movies. Music, I still like having the disc for the cool art and for getting them signed by band. I go to a lot of metal shows and often meet bands. But, if I had to, I'd be ok with all digital for music too since I never use the CD once I rip them into my computer.

Physical copies don't come with anything cool anymore, unless you're buying some ridiculous $100+ collector's edition, and I haven't had limited internet in like a decade. Last physical copy I bought of anything was Bioshock Infinite, and I never took the disc out the case. Just registered the CD key in steam and downloaded it.

Meh, they sell game cases online so its fine.

I just hope xbox doesnt do the stupid thing of puting the disc on the wrong side again. Bone boxes are the dumbest

There is a small population of gamers this situation effects... For everyone else, you just go digital.

Let me get this straight...Y’all are buying 4K/HDR TVs and crazy surround sound systems but streaming your movies? UHD Blu-ray’s have far superior videos and audio quality. 4K streaming doesn’t even beat out 1080p Blu-ray’s.

@TheEroica: Small lol, physical is still damn healthy on consoles.

Dumbest thread I've seen in a while, and that's saying something.

No opportunities for re-selling and there's no guarantee you'll actually get to keep anything that you buy, in the long run.

I'm all for the less pollution argument, and I agree with it 100%, but I won't actively participate when companies have the amount of control over the content you buy from them that they do, right now.

FFS people just go digital.

Or stay physical and stop bitching.

Or, I don't know, buy after-market cases (I am sure they are out there) and print out your own sort of label system.

But above all else....stop whining. You've got plenty of options.

No, I'll keep bitching.

So, the upcoming Hitchcock 4K collection (Rear Window, Vertigo, The Birds, Psycho) is coming in booksleeve packaging, when it's obvious the people most interested will be collectors who care about quality. I'm excited to see them with good color accuracy and improved clarity, but it really bugs me they couldn't just put it in a standard package the discs won't slide across. I'll probably use the discs only twice. The second time will be after I buy a flashed 4K capable Blu-ray drive and finally build my 36 terabyte RAID.

I'm sure gamers (not all, obviously) would lose their minds if publishers started packaging games like this.

@mrbojangles25: Nah. I prefer physical myself but I want some quality to go into the product as well. Sure you could buy other replacement cases but that’s an unnecessary solution in my opinion. That’s not really “bitching” or “whining” asking for something that isn’t so flimsy when I’m paying good money for a product. Not really sure why some people asking for such would rustle your jimmies though.

This is actually what I have been saying, and hoping for.

I think the future is not going to be mass physical media distribution. I think we will see more and more limited, special-edition runs from either "artisan" distributors, respected collections (i.e. Criterion), and so forth. Steel cases, booksleeve packaging, etc.

I think physical, optical-disk media is going to more or less become like record collecting is for music. Niche, but large enough to warrant a few great distributors.

I don't think all physical media should cease to exist, I just think most of it is sort of pointless these days. It exists simply to exist.

@xantufrog: which is why I own the 3 separate uncharted remasters on ps4 instead of mate drake collection ; the discs have no patches.

Pc collection has always been useless due to keys but, at least on ps4 the disc is the key.

I love my retro collection but yes obviously physical means less these days.

It still makes a ton more sense than digital however where you own nothing, pay more money (outside of digital sales) and take power out of your hands and put it with the publisher alone.

@chozofication: you don't "own" your disc games any more either. They are usually just a medium for part of the installation, and serve as DRM. Many games can't even be played without the server for that reason - remember cd keys? There's a reason you don't need them now. Disc based games are often no different from digital games in terms of your dependence on the publisher and server. X1 requires "check ins" for games to pretend you don't have DRM, and ps4 pretends you don't need online - yet when the psn blackout happened many games, such as dragon age, refused to start because they couldn't handshake with the server

Also, I take it you don't game on PC? Digital games are regularly the same price or cheaper than physical. Moreover, GoG gives you DRM-free games - the only major platform now from which you can really claim ownership and freedom from the server side. More so than disc - any game from GoG you can back up and install/reinstall however much you want on any machine. Years from now, this last generation of disc games will start to be bricks as the drm handshakes go down, but your gog game can still be installed and played

Literally every game on my PS4 and Switch can be installed and played without connecting to the internet...

That is false. I own a PS4 and can assure this is not true. I already provided an example above with Dragon Age Inquisition. It caused a big ruckus at the time - the PSN down revealed that publishers were using web-based DRM handshakes and it prompted SW arguments about whether Sony had lied or overpromised on their mockery of XBox's "always online" policy

I said my PS4. I don't own Dragon Age: Inquisition, and it's obviously a rare example, made by a crappy developer.

By the way, if we're talking about ownership, any game key can download updates. The downloaded portion of the game is not tied to one account, unlike a key purchased digitally. If the server goes down one day, everyone loses access to the downloaded portion, but, overally, you're still less dependent on the distributors.

@ezekiel43: GoG is not tied to an account.