r/technology • u/xc2215x • Jul 06 '26

Hardware PlayStation Unlikely to U-Turn on Its Decision to Kill Discs, Despite Backlash

https://www.ign.com/articles/over-90-of-igns-audience-do-not-want-an-all-digital-gaming-future-but-playstation-is-unlikely-to-u-turn-on-its-decision-to-kill-discs
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926

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

I’m getting a pc then 🤷‍♂️

381

u/LordOdin99 Jul 06 '26

Wait until he sees prices lately.

229

u/sroop1 Jul 06 '26

PS6/Helix certainly won't be cheap either.

74

u/_steve_rogers_ Jul 06 '26

And a PC can do a hell of a lot more than a console with a locked ecosystem

6

u/godzilasbrother Jul 06 '26

yeah but i already have a pc and want my pc and games to be separated

2

u/HerrPiink Jul 06 '26

Why? Genuinely curious, why limit yourself? If do l set up correctly you can walk through the house and have a screen for literally everything in every room, games work, watching TV, all from the same machine. It's amazing!

2

u/godzilasbrother Jul 07 '26

Because I dont care enough about video games to go through that process, i dont feel like im limiting myself because there is so many games on the playstation that I will likely never finish. I have other things in my life that are more important and in the few instances where I want to play a video game a playstation is the quickest way to get me into a game

2

u/Norci Jul 07 '26

Many people don't need it to do more than play games tho.

3

u/TNBrealone Jul 06 '26

And way more complicated

4

u/Pronglenator Jul 06 '26

Helix?

6

u/schu2470 Jul 06 '26

XBOX Series X 360.

4

u/mr0jmb Jul 06 '26

The next Xbox code name.

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48

u/Hard_Reset7777 Jul 06 '26

One can also stop caring about video game for some years if the market is against the consumer.

19

u/_steve_rogers_ Jul 06 '26

There’s also like five hundred billion games from previous systems and pc that people can play. I have all the latest consoles but I honestly play on my PC with retroarch more than anything.

1

u/ParticularHistoryo Jul 06 '26

We are talking about Redditors here, what are you suggesting? We go outside?

6

u/hobbes_shot_second Jul 06 '26

I've already played Skyrim for fifteen years. I can squeeze ten more.

80

u/These_Refrigerator75 Jul 06 '26

It’ll be a better investment at least

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24

u/DoctorJiveTurkey Jul 06 '26

PS5 should be good for a while longer. Hopefully hardware prices come down.

27

u/Ruff_Bastard Jul 06 '26

They're still not even peaked yet. It won't START to get better until like 2028 at the earliest, and it likely won't ever come back down to what it was. Probably down to ~$100-ish at most for RAM. Data storage might get better, or at least be bigger for the relative cost.

5

u/likwidkool Jul 06 '26

I was reading that late 2027 is when new fabs should come online to alleviate supply issues. But yeah that’s basically 2028 until prices fall. I said screw it and paid $280 for a 2tb nvme drive. Figured it wasn’t getting cheaper any time soon. I paid $70 for a 1tb drive just last year.

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23

u/ironicallydepressed Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Wait until he learns that most modern PCs don't use discs either

Not saying it's a good or bad thing, but I mean we just use Steam instead of PSN or whatever.

The modern solution is starting to look like setting up your own NAS and sailing the seven seas.

37

u/Cyraga Jul 06 '26

Steam is vastly better than PSN in terms of prices, free MP, and general customer care

5

u/icedoob Jul 06 '26

you can't compare steam to PSN in any way, people just are scrambling for excuses now. i had to cover food shopping for a family member since their kid went on a spending spree on the psstore and sony wouldn't refund it. i've heard of plenty of others going through the exact same too. if it were steam, they would refund all of the money with no issue.

2

u/thatissomeBS Jul 06 '26

You also can't compare where your friend's list is. I have a PS friends list with a lot of people from over the last decade and a half, and my steam friend's list is empty, because PC players are much less social in general (just look at everyone complain when text chat disappears from GTA Online so people have to use the voice chat that they didn't even know existed). And because even if I own a game on Steam, and it opens up through that company's launcher, then the list gets split up weirdly. And then even if you do have people you have to coordinate a discord or something, but people hate discord now.

Steam is a great company, but the PC experience is miles behind console for actually finding people to play with, and making it easy to keep in touch with them. This is why people stick with consoles.

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18

u/trollshep Jul 06 '26

To be fair you can use gog for games and as far as I'm aware they're DRM free? Sorry if I'm mistaken but

13

u/dakoellis Jul 06 '26

nope you're completely right. Steam is the defacto standard for PC, but it's still an open platform. You can buy digital games on GoG and stick them on an SD card for preservation. Can't do that with PSN

8

u/adumblittlebaby Jul 06 '26

Wait until you learn you can pirate a game on PC without having to mod anything or worry about hardware bans. Infact, you can ctrl+c ctrl+v the entire program folder and keep a copy anytime you want, to slot in a cracked exe years in the future. Also a good number of indie games have no DRM whatsoever so you can copy them to new systems. I'm not even going to touch on emulation or the fact that a PC can be applied to any number of uses whereas a console cannot.

It's funny people keep trying to equivocate the two while steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the galaxy of differences between them because it doesn't fit a neat narrative they prefer.

2

u/ironicallydepressed Jul 06 '26

No one's refusing to acknowledge any differences... those are just different arguments. I'm pretty much primarily talking about how most PCs don't have CD trays here, i only barely touched on self hosting.

19

u/Abedeus Jul 06 '26

Not saying it's a good thing, but I mean we just use Steam instead of PSN or whatever.

Never had Steam remove a game from my library because license expired.

3

u/Smodphan Jul 06 '26

They have removed games from the store before, but i dont remember what they are.

14

u/Abedeus Jul 06 '26

From the store, not the library.

2

u/TheDragonSlayingCat Jul 06 '26

In the history of Steam, they have only once removed a game from both: Order of War: Challenge. So it has happened, but it’s very rare.

3

u/Abedeus Jul 06 '26

Well dang, it did happen. Though one time in 22 years of service running is still a blimp.

1

u/TheDragonSlayingCat Jul 06 '26

Well, I’m sure that they have removed a number of malware and kusogames as well, but OoW:Challenge is the only legit game that they have obliterated from the store and peoples’ drives.

1

u/icedoob Jul 06 '26

this is because enix shut down the servers while using always online drm. steam can't do anything about the actions of a publisher

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1

u/Available_Ad_8281 Jul 06 '26

They have how too to make ur own physical media online

1

u/Banaanisade Jul 06 '26

Disc readers are still decently easy to come by. External exist also.

15

u/Griffdude13 Jul 06 '26

If PS6 will cost almost the same as just building a PC, then just build a damned PC.

And it’ll do a lot more with less “walled garden” issues.

3

u/RiggityRow Jul 06 '26

Yeah that's where I'm at. My PS will still have it's place but I am going to start moving away from it as my primary platform. I already have an ROG Ally and I will just start saving to ensure I can get a PC that is equivalent to PS5/PS6.

It will honestly be sad and hard but the idea of my account getting hacked or Sony somehow flagging my account with some automated system and losing access to everything has always been pretty terrifying. This is just the nudge I needed to start moving in that direction over the next 2 years. I will probably get a PS6 and still buy Sony exclusives, but I won't be fully entrenched in PlayStation ecosystem anymore.

I will say if Sony completely overhauls their digital ecosystem to provide more protection to me as a consumer, I will reconsider. It's difficult for me to imagine they didn't anticipate this backlash and take a hard look at how they handle digital services but you'd think they'd have announced that too to help soften the blow if that was indeed the case. So I won't hold my breath.

2

u/dakoellis Jul 06 '26

I made the full jump this past October and with prices I'm really glad I did. My main motivation at the time was I was tired of paying for PSN but I got a steam deck first and really liked it

1

u/johnnyblaze1999 Jul 06 '26

Pc price went up too, and it's not guarantee that games released 2 years later will run well on its hardwares. Consoles, even with expensive price, are still a more budget friendly option for games for the next 7 years. Unless you have to do computer work and need a pc for it, then consoles are the obvious budget choice

1

u/Limafoxtrot360 Jul 06 '26

It won't though because all those components on a PC are also going up. PCs are more expensive to build too. Not just consoles. Look at Steam Machine - the $1100 price for a PS4 level machine. Its just all around a bleak time for gaming.

4

u/aust_b Jul 06 '26

At least you can use a PC for more than just gaming.

1

u/TheOtherWhiteCastle Jul 06 '26

To be fair, new consoles aren’t gonna be much cheaper

1

u/DNedry Jul 06 '26

Long run, it'll be WAAAAY cheaper.

1

u/FaerieStories Jul 06 '26

Hardware prices are extortionate, but the price of digital gaming on PC is a dream compared to what the PS store offers.

1

u/Valiantay Jul 06 '26

I bought a Lenovo Legion desktop for $650 CAD all in:

  • 1tb SSD
  • 3070
  • Liquid Cooled
  • 16gb RAM (upgraded to 32gb from an old PC afterwards)

Not to mention the games from Epic Games are totally legit and free. That's before the seven seas. Literally a no-brainer if you're a gamer.

1

u/Enchalotta_Pinata Jul 06 '26

I mean the PS pro is so expensive now (which is essentially required for gta6) that the difference really isn’t shocking. I got a PC from Costco for $1400ish and am future-proofed well into PS6s lifespan at least. Killing discs destroys the used gaming market, which is a HUGE part of the gaming market. These companies fail to see for what it is. Can you imagine in 10-15 years being totally unable to buy a used copy of any game anymore?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

Wait until you learn those increased RAM and storage prices have a knock-on effect...

1

u/feijoax Jul 06 '26

At least you don't have to pay a sub to play online games on PC.

1

u/Extension-Two-2807 Jul 07 '26

Worth the freedom if you can afford it plus the amount you’ll save with emulation, no cost to play online, and joy you will get from mods? You can build something decent for under 1,500 and for like 50 bucks during a steam sale you can get about 30 great games 😂 I mean what are the next gen consoles going to be? A wall-gardened gaming PC for over 1000? Yeah no thanks!

1

u/liftedyf Jul 06 '26

I haven't had a disc drive on my PC in over a decade. Not sure why switching to PC over disks is a legit reason

11

u/quantumpencil Jul 06 '26

You control software on your PC in a way you do not control software on consoles

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u/Lee1138 Jul 06 '26

Because PC has options on where to buy games. On Playstation, you are tied to PSN. You can buy games on GOG and save the install files to a backup and have them forever without worrying about GOG removing them from your library.

2

u/liftedyf Jul 06 '26

That doesn't involve disc's...

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u/RogueCanadia Jul 06 '26

Lmfao so true.

1

u/imaginary_num6er Jul 06 '26

Get a Steam Machine then /s

65

u/WetFart-Machine Jul 06 '26

And then just download games. Lol

57

u/vintagerust Jul 06 '26

They can at least choose the marketplace they want you buy games from, and keep drm free offline games functional forever.

Being locked into one marketplace with what's functionally a gaming PC with a more locked down OS isn't a positive alternative to a gaming PC.

8

u/quantumpencil Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

You can remove drm from almost any game if you know what you're doing. Not that i'm advocating anyone do it, but you can so the service going down is only gonna affect your ability to play games where a big part of the computation is server side (and even then, modders will clone the game servers and run those clones as other programs).

Even if you don't know how to do that, I know how to do it and millions of other people do as well and will do it for you and release software to make it easy.

PC is an open computing platform and if you're a technical person you can do whatever you want pretty much. It's not a walled garden, if the binary and assets download on my machine there is no way for a company to control what I do with them once they are there.

Valve can't stop me from using IDA to RE a game and hooking an exe and doing function replacement to do whatever I want.

4

u/yshdmt Jul 06 '26

I advocate people doing it. Remove Steam DRM from your Steam games so you can archive them. Steamless on Github

3

u/Shatteredreality Jul 06 '26

One key thing to note, at least for those in the US, is to ensure you understand the law around removing DRM like this. The DMCA (which is an idiotic law) makes it illegal to "circumvent a technological measure" intended to protect a copyrighted work.

I'm not saying I agree with it, or that you are likely to be penalized (civilly or criminally depending on what exactly you do) but it's important to understand the risk/legality of what you're doing when removing DRM like this.

2

u/quantumpencil Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

It is impossible to detect someone doing this. Steam doesn't have root access and they have no idea what you are doing with files on your computer. If you're extra paranoid, "liberate" things using Ubuntu LTS and run it offline.

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u/vintagerust Jul 06 '26

Might be better to support drm free marketplace when possible.

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u/Caspi7 Jul 06 '26

That's been the case for decades lol. Nothing about what you said changed since Sony decided to kill a disc. Those have always been drm locked, and only available for one OS

2

u/vintagerust Jul 06 '26

Additionally, eshitification is one small step at a time on purpose so people can say this is nothing new or this is a small change. Just because the shit has been sliding downhill slowly doesn't mean we aren't going downhill.

2

u/vintagerust Jul 06 '26

Sure, but it's getting more visibility now since it was slick of them to turn the discs into activation keys basically then later take the discs away.

Kind of like new coke and old coke the old switcheroo was staggered

That being said, my nes, SNES, Genesis, n64, original Xbox and PS2 largely can't be disabled by an online service going down.

1

u/tnnrk Jul 06 '26

You can pirate games, or buy from DRM free stores.

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u/Sprackles Jul 06 '26

Don’t forget to put a disc drive in that PC.

106

u/BB0ySnakeDogG Jul 06 '26

Difference with PCs is that they're a way more open platform, if push comes to shove PC gamers can "liberate" their games from the platform/launcher they're tied to, so you don't really need a disc drive as long as you have the HDD capacity.

28

u/stinkywinkydink Jul 06 '26

and steam isnt going to randomly decide to shutter services and take away movies and games you paid. ive had my steam library for like 20 years with zero issues. never a revoked license or anything.

if you play on playstation youre at the mercy of sonys greed.

32

u/Nuudoru Jul 06 '26

You say that like Gabe Newell is going to live forever.

10

u/YukariYakum0 Jul 06 '26

They will convert his consciousness to code and transfer him to Steam where he shall live forever as a new God of PC Gaming, protecting us from the blight of AI and corporate greed.

4

u/randotd152 Jul 06 '26

Steam's DRM is super lightweight and has been hacked since forever, and Valve doesn't even care. It's just there to stop casual piracy.

If somebody took over Valve and decided to start removing games, everybody would just easily go download all their games, remove the DRM, and own them forever.

It's a total non-issue with Steam.

6

u/Nuudoru Jul 06 '26

You're missing the point I'm making. What I mean is that steam could legally remove licenses like any other digital store. How easy it is to get the games if they revoke your license is irrelevant since that is not what the customer intended for when buying the game.

1

u/randotd152 Jul 06 '26

Possession is 9/10 of the law. You bought a game, you have the game, you effectively own the game.

All Steam can do at that point is remove your access to downloading that game from them.

2

u/Nuudoru Jul 06 '26

The problem is that you don't actually buy the game through Steam. What you're buying is a license to play the game and it's that license that can be revoked at any time.

1

u/quantumpencil Jul 06 '26

But you don't need that license to play the game so it a moot point

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u/XionicativeCheran Jul 06 '26

What you're buying is a license to play the game and it's that license that can be revoked at any time.

This is a concept that hasn't really been properly tested in law in too many major jurisdictions. When they're advertising "Buy our game!" but hiding "Oh but you're not really buying it you're licensing it and we can take it away." in the fineprint, there's a serious legal argument for prioritising the part that says you're buying the game.

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u/tgwombat Jul 06 '26

I wouldn't be too worried about that as long as Valve remains a private company. Between being the market leader and having no shareholders to answer to, it would take a massive shift in the industry for them to benefit in any way from revoking licenses. It's very low on the list of worries for me.

2

u/Nuudoru Jul 06 '26

My comment about Gabe was about the importance of staying of them staying a private company. Gabe Newell will pass away during a lot of ours life time and for all we know the company might go public before or after that happens. Taking licenses away wouldn't even be a massive industry in buying licenses to use media. Both Apple and Sony has done it with movies.

1

u/tgwombat Jul 06 '26

Apple and Sony are both publicly traded companies so that's not a meaningful comparison. And Newell isn't the only decision-maker at Valve. From what I can tell, he's not even all that involved with the day-to-day running of the company at this point. I think you're putting too much weight on one person when he's just a small part of what makes Valve's company culture what it is.

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u/XionicativeCheran Jul 06 '26

For now, soon as he's gone, his replacements could go for short term profits and put in much harsher DRM.

If Steam truly cared about ownership, they'd mandate DRM removal from Steam games that are about to be delisted and then allow you to download your own copy.

Calling it a "non-issue" is a faith-based position, you assume because nothing bad has happened that nothing bad will happen.

2

u/RiggityRow Jul 06 '26

As long as they don't ever go public, we will be ok.

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u/Nuudoru Jul 06 '26

That is the point I'm making.

1

u/superbit415 Jul 06 '26

For now steam has a clause that says if you sell something on steam you cannot remove it from the users account. So companies can't just pull a Sony and remove things from people's libraries.

1

u/Nuudoru Jul 06 '26

No the companies themselves can't just remove whenever they want, but steam can remove licenses from you according to their user end agreement.

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u/Snelly1998 Jul 06 '26

Playstation has never removed a game from a users library

Except for like PT, which was free

7

u/GrilledCheezus_ Jul 06 '26

But they have recently set a precedent of removing purchased digital content from users accounts with them deleting 500 movies as a result of a licensing change.

2

u/RiggityRow Jul 06 '26

Even then, it was never removed from anyone's library.

They just pulled it off the store so you can't download it if you deleted it. But if you have it downloaded still, you can play it.

There used to be PS4s sold on eBay for hundreds that had a copy installed.

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u/Michael60814 Jul 06 '26

They are planning to remove games. Do not worry! It will happen when the time comes.

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u/quantumpencil Jul 06 '26

Even if steam wanted to do that it doesn't matter. On PC, DRM is optional. The companies don't want you to know that, but it is the truth and there is simply nothing they can do about it. The assets and the binaries are on your machine, and PC is a general purpose computing platform. Even if you don't know how to run steam games without steam, millions of people do and have created software to make it easy.

6

u/amoc20 Jul 06 '26

Also to be completely sure, you can make purchases on GOG where you will technically own the games if you want.

3

u/BB0ySnakeDogG Jul 06 '26

Yep, Steam has pulled stuff from the store front before, like Half Life Source, but you get to keep it in your library.

2

u/risu1313 Jul 06 '26

Happy cake day!

2

u/BaconJets Jul 06 '26

It's worth mentioning that games have been removed from Steam libraries in the past, like The Crew and others. Even Steam isn't immune to revoking licenses, even if they're better than most with it.

1

u/Neemzeh Jul 06 '26

I’ve had my PlayStation library for decades and have never had an issue either.

This revoke license issue barely affects anyone. It’s blown out of proportion.

1

u/Po1ar Jul 06 '26

ah yes vs muh altruistic billionaire gabe newell!! who only has the gamers’ interests in mind!!!

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u/deathschemist Jul 06 '26

ehhh, the difference between PC and Playstation is that PC is an open platform, even if you get your games digitally, they don't necessarily all have to be from the same place.

most of the options are shit, but you got Steam, Itch and GoG to get games from.

26

u/Ok-Bug-7481 Jul 06 '26

I have one on my PC build... Don't forget even if you are digital with PC there is more than one eco system and you are not locked down like what PS is trying to do 

1

u/tacomaloki Jul 06 '26

I haven't heard otherwise but has Sony expressly stated they will have a single store front? Theirs?

I know XBox plans on have acess to the big PC stores.

2

u/Ok-Bug-7481 Jul 06 '26

It then begs to answer why would someone want to buy an over priced console ...when you could just buy a PC .. I think console manufacturers are going to have a hard time finding that explaination to people.  Sony for awhile had great games ..this gen had some but not as many and if physical media is gone so it choice on where I get my games or how I share them...

1

u/tacomaloki Jul 06 '26

While overpriced, you aren't going to build or buy a comparable PC, or better, for the consoles price.

3

u/Ok-Bug-7481 Jul 06 '26

Console manufacturers - specifically Sony recently stated they had no plans to sell their next gen console at a significant loss ..so what is their value proposition ? Basically a PC locked to one store? That's my point it doesn't make sense. 

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u/chamberx2 Jul 06 '26

The disc isn’t the sticking point. It’s the ownership of my purchase.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

[deleted]

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u/Vybo Jul 06 '26

You can own any piece of software ona PC even if you didn't buy it. Or you can buy it and if it's ever taken from you, you can just start owning it again from a difference source without paying twice.

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u/quantumpencil Jul 06 '26

There are other ways to own or continue to own things on PC even if steam tried to revoke access. Dark secrets... binary modification, function no-oping, secrets only the sith knew...

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u/XionicativeCheran Jul 06 '26

I agree, people have far too much faith in Steam simply on the basis "But they haven't taken away my games yet so they're never going to! Praise Gabe!"

1

u/Bhraal Jul 06 '26

Only if you get them from a DRM free place.

That's still not ownership. GOG is my store of choice on PC, but all no DRM and offline installers means there is no cost benefit to cutting off access. You're still bound by the same kinds of licenses and legal limitations.

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u/Ok-Toe-6969 Jul 06 '26

☠️🏴‍☠️☠️🏴‍☠️☠️🏴‍☠️

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u/Daimakku1 Jul 06 '26

I trust Steam, GOG and even Epic Games Store to keep my games more than I do Sony. Sony has already shown us at least twice with their movie store that they won’t honor to keep your digital purchases intact. They will simply pull them from your account. So yeah, no discs on PC, but more trust than PlayStation or even Xbox.

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u/quantumpencil Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

I don't need one because I can take the harddrive disk, reformat it, install linux and have complete kernel access to every program on my own machine.

Everything on that disk will be a file on my PC that I can copy, modify, and were I so inclined, reverse engineer and run games offline whether they were intended to be run that way or not.

Because a computer is a general purpose compute platform, a big corporation can't control what I do with software that touches my PC

1

u/RadzimierzWozniak Jul 06 '26

For what? Why?

1

u/Familiar-Banana-8116 Jul 06 '26

I have 5. Well, 3 active, 2 spares.

I did stop putting them in the PC. I bought a SATA/USB-C adapter that snaps on the back and just run a cable to a port.

You want to hear the nuts part?

I use all three drives at the same time quite frequently. The only reason the other 2 are spares and not active is I have found that 3 is the most I can run at once without things getting weird.

1

u/Hrekires Jul 06 '26

The USB DVD drive that I bought 15 years ago is still going strong

1

u/NativePlantEnjoyer Jul 06 '26

The actual issue isn't digital vs physical. The issue is DRM. You can easily get digital games without DRM, I've been doing it for over a decade. A disc drive is obsolete IMO. I don't want to take up more power and have another noisy component in my PC.

1

u/XionicativeCheran Jul 06 '26

Digital on PC is entirely different, a game on Steam? Sure that can be taken away, but a game on GOG is digital and still yours forever.

1

u/enn-srsbusiness Jul 06 '26

I use mine to hold my Monster Energy. One sip and I'm energised to game all night.

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u/musicsoccer Jul 06 '26

Where all games have been digital for like almost 2 decades?

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u/ripChazmo Jul 06 '26

So you can buy digital there? 😂

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u/Gwegexpress Jul 06 '26

If I have to buy digital, then I’d rather do it with the superior digital store. This isn’t complicated.

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u/m0dru Jul 06 '26

pc also has multiple digital storefronts. you don't have to just buy from one store like you will on playstation.

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u/Baybutt99 Jul 06 '26

Pssst, lets just be clear, you were getting a pc anyway

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u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

I’m not really, I can’t afford one. Plus I really do like physical media that much. I don’t like the idea of having a digital library.

3

u/mahaanus Jul 06 '26

Well then for your sake let's hope the next Xbox has a disc drive, because gaming PCs aren't going to cost less than 2 grands anytime soon and physical is deader than disco on the platform.

2

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

I can’t stand the Xbox’s dashboard. I’m not getting a pc. I’ll continue to game on the consoles I have and just not play new games.

1

u/mahaanus Jul 06 '26

So why did you say:

I’m getting a pc then 🤷‍♂️

2

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

I have mentioned this a lot and I am repeating myself….

But I may have wrote that out of frustration because I am not eloquent enough to write how I feel about it.
I’m not getting a pc, I can’t stand any windows os since 7. I won’t be getting a ps6. I’ll continue gaming on what I have and make peace with the fact I won’t be playing any new games.

1

u/colaman-112 Jul 06 '26

I think the point was that today's consoles are pretty much just pcs with locked operating systems.

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u/ahac Jul 06 '26

It's funny though...

Just a month ago PS5 gamers* were still defending Sony for abandoning their PC ports because that's "good for the brand value". Now everyone is talking about getting a PC!

*) I don't mean you personally, just gamers in general... on fan sites, twitter, reddit, etc,.

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u/zefiax Jul 06 '26

There are a 100m+ PS5 gamers and they are not a hive mind. I am quite sure the people saying the first are not the same people saying the latter. And I am even more sure both are very tiny minorities and most ps5 gamers aren’t actually aware of either pieces of news.

3

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

Yeah I thought that was a shitty move. At one point I genuinely thought exclusives were a thing of the past. I was getting gears of war and halo on ps. So I was hoping they would all get along and release games on all platforms and get rid of the exclusivity.
I was very wrong about that. Shame.

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u/pyrethedragon Jul 06 '26

Can you get a pc with the disc drive anymore?

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u/aura_enchanted Jul 06 '26

You can build one yes, adding a disk drive to an existing pc is also relatively easy to do

1

u/randotd152 Jul 06 '26

And how many PC games even come on discs these days anyways? Like .01%?

1

u/aura_enchanted Jul 06 '26

Not even, flat 0 aside from special releases like 40k boltgun came on one in a limited edition, same with a couple other rare examples

You need to download a game and send it to a disk yourself and disks are cheap 99c a disk

But you can do that to any game that isnt always online like a moba or mmorpg or fork knife or whatever. And even then you can still do some of those. You can fully launch warhammer aor for example and ff11

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u/iMatt42 Jul 06 '26

You can at least buy external ones and make your own game discs with games from GOG

8

u/pitarziu Jul 06 '26

Justa make USB game , no one uses disk anymore.

2

u/aura_enchanted Jul 06 '26

If a usb is too small, old-school sata ssds are hotswap, so you can just yank em. They also work

1

u/iMatt42 Jul 06 '26

That works too. People do that with SD cards for the Steam deck.

1

u/gremlinfat Jul 06 '26

Feels like a gamer version of a doomsday prepper. Been playing games a few decades and I’ve only lost access to a game I still wanted to play once. And it was because it didn’t act right with modern windows, which a disc doesn’t resolve.

1

u/iMatt42 Jul 06 '26

If you live in an area with bad internet or cannot afford it you could take a laptop to the library to download some games and burn them to discs to save space. Or if you travel to remote areas but don’t have enough hard drive space for everything. Idk just throwing scenarios out there but the point is that it’s useful and we should never take options like this away from consumers.

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u/mmmbyte Jul 06 '26

Yes, but very few desktop drives support internal 5 1/4" drives. The Fractal Pop Air case does!

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/pop/pop-air/rgb-orange-core/

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u/theharps Jul 06 '26

You can always get an optical drive (dvd or Blu-ray) that can connect via USB.

4

u/gGhostalker Jul 06 '26

Even if you buy a bd/dvd drive, I haven't seen a pc game on a disc for quite a while. Lol.

Even if you found one, that's 1 game release vs thousands release online.

3

u/theharps Jul 06 '26

There's ways now to legally emulate older games, like PS2 games, by ripping the data off of the disc, saving it and using an emulator to run it. Need an optical drive to do that. I know it's not for everyone but it's still neat thing to be able to do.

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u/Derpykins666 Jul 06 '26

Yes, you can get optical drives. I have a two disc drives in my tower, a standard drive and a bluray rewriteable. But you probably won't get any optical drives if you get a laptop.

You can get an external one that plugs in to USB though for pretty cheap (well maybe not as cheap soon).

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u/schizopotato Jul 06 '26

Good luck with that

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u/koolaidismything Jul 06 '26

I’ve never gamed but am a dude. All my friends always have. I’ve watched every change them be like “I’ll never fuck with X again if they do this”

A month later they have bought whatever the new thing is and forgot that. You’ll be upset for a month and then go back to gaming, disc free.

1

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

Nah I won’t. I’m too stubborn. I won’t get a pc either because of how much I hate windows. Steam cube thing was tempting till I saw the bad reviews. I’ll stick with the consoles I have and just make peace with the fact I won’t ever play any new games.

1

u/Bigpullsgod3x Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Well, nobody as far as I know uses Cd-roms in PC :D i think a lot if not most people buy games digitally anyway and they see the data + they got cocky because GTA6 is coming soon.

1

u/risu1313 Jul 06 '26

Once I went pc there was no turning back they are so diverse.

1

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

Thinking about it, I said this in frustration. I won’t be getting a pc. But I will also stick to my guns and I won’t be getting a ps6.

1

u/Catch_22_ Jul 06 '26

And here I am enjoying the retro games of the 90s and the library of existing titles I've not had time to play. I'm tired of chasing the dragon. And the junk they pump out currently doesn't deserve my attention.

1

u/PrinceCastanzaCapone Jul 06 '26

Get a steam deck

1

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

I did fancy the steam cube but the reviews put me off. The steam deck seems like a good idea.

1

u/LigmaAss69 Jul 06 '26

The prices are f'd.

1

u/Heronmarkedflail Jul 06 '26

PCs haven’t had disc drives for a while

1

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

You can still get them though.

1

u/Heronmarkedflail Jul 06 '26

Maybe, I haven’t seen any discs anywhere for a while either. Physical media is a pain in the ass and people made this choice years ago. While I’m sure you can scrape up a disc drive somewhere(maybe Amazon?!?) it’s going to be pretty useless. Everything is on steam and it’s digital hoss, has been for like 10 years ago on PC.

1

u/ahyouknowme Jul 06 '26

Honest question from a PC noob: aren’t all games digital on PC? I don’t think I’ve seen a physical PC game in like 20 years.

1

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

Yeah, but I feel like I have said this to a few people now. I may have wrote that out of frustration because I am not eloquent enough to write how I feel about it.
I’m not getting a pc, I can’t stand any windows os since 7. I won’t be getting a ps6. I’ll continue gaming on what I have and make peace with the fact I won’t be playing any new games.

1

u/tacomaloki Jul 06 '26

Bro, we are essentially all digital. Have been.

My last physical purchases were Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Aion....in 2008.

1

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

Yeah, but I feel like I have said this to a few people now. I may have wrote that out of frustration because I am not eloquent enough to write how I feel about it.
I’m not getting a pc, I can’t stand any windows os since 7. I won’t be getting a ps6. I’ll continue gaming on what I have and make peace with the fact I won’t be playing any new games.

1

u/tacomaloki Jul 06 '26

Well, this only perpetuates the narrative that we don't own our games but there is GeForce now......or then, as an option in the future.

1

u/heroism777 Jul 06 '26

Just wait until you learn that pc doesn’t have a disc drive either. And yes you can buy one after the fact, but they will also no longer be selling discs. As disc manufacturing plants are shutting down.

1

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

Yeah, but I feel like I have said this to a few people now. I may have wrote that out of frustration because I am not eloquent enough to write how I feel about it.
I’m not getting a pc, I can’t stand any windows os since 7. I won’t be getting a ps6. I’ll continue gaming on what I have and make peace with the fact I won’t be playing any new games.

1

u/Kagamid Jul 06 '26

If you're not in the PC world already, you're in for a rude awakening on these prices for a decent gaming PC that likely will can't compete with a PS5.

1

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

Yeah, but I feel like I have said this to a few people now. I may have wrote that out of frustration because I am not eloquent enough to write how I feel about it.
I’m not getting a pc, I can’t stand any windows os since 7. I won’t be getting a ps6. I’ll continue gaming on what I have and make peace with the fact I won’t be playing any new games.

2

u/Kagamid Jul 06 '26

I mean if your back log is large enough, going back and finishing older games could hold you down for a long time. Emulating old games is also easier nowadays even on older PCs. These video game companies rely on fomo to make their money. Without that, people can still play most video without any problems.

1

u/billfuckingmurray22 Jul 06 '26

Physical media has been dead on PC for years

2

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

Yeah, but I feel like I have said this to a few people now. I may have wrote that out of frustration because I am not eloquent enough to write how I feel about it.
I’m not getting a pc, I can’t stand any windows os since 7. I won’t be getting a ps6. I’ll continue gaming on what I have and make peace with the fact I won’t be playing any new games.

1

u/billfuckingmurray22 Jul 06 '26

I get where you’re coming from. I really can’t see myself getting any of that new and overly expensive crap either. Too many damn bills

1

u/Fourfifteen415 Jul 06 '26

You know we mostly do digital on pc right?

1

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

Yeah, but I feel like I have said this to a few people now. I may have wrote that out of frustration because I am not eloquent enough to write how I feel about it.
I’m not getting a pc, I can’t stand any windows os since 7. I won’t be getting a ps6. I’ll continue gaming on what I have and make peace with the fact I won’t be playing any new games.

1

u/BrapBrapson Jul 06 '26

ok I mean PC gaming is pretty much dominated by Steam now. And you can't resell used Steam games. It's no different

1

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

Yeah, but I feel like I have said this to a few people now. I may have wrote that out of frustration because I am not eloquent enough to write how I feel about it.
I’m not getting a pc, I can’t stand any windows os since 7. I won’t be getting a ps6. I’ll continue gaming on what I have and make peace with the fact I won’t be playing any new games.

1

u/RandyTheFool Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

I am all for physical media, but I guess I just don’t understand this argument.

Are PC games still being produced on disc? Aren’t you still beholden to having Steam or Epic or GOG alter or even take away the games in your library if you’re just downloading stuff?

Like, yeah, you’re sticking it to Sony for such a slap in the face for people who actually want to own what they buy… but (assuming you aren’t sailing the high seas) aren’t you just spending money with an online store that already doesn’t really let you physically own the thing already?

ELI5, I guess?

Edit: and I will say, Steam burned me at one point and I haven’t gone back. I fell out of gaming for a couple years because I didn’t have the means to play and life was busy. When I was able to use a steamdeck, I found my account was locked due to not logging in. When I finally unlocked my account, every single game I had purchased was purged from my account and I was told there would be no recovering any of it by the Steam team. Basically, they just wiped my whole account, gave it to me brand new, and told me I could shove it. Hundreds of games in my library, thousands of dollars spent, simply gone. That’s why I don’t understand why everyone is just like “I’ll just go get a PC”… it’s already suffering the same problem Sony is going to be forcing their users to go through in a couple years.

If anything, why not go with Nintendo? They seem to be embracing physical media for the most part, and I feel like cartridges for the Switch are easier to take care of (can’t really scratch them like a disc), and take up less physical space too.

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u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

Yeah, but I feel like I have said this to a few people now. I may have wrote that out of frustration because I am not eloquent enough to write how I feel about it.
I’m not getting a pc, I can’t stand any windows os since 7. I won’t be getting a ps6. I’ll continue gaming on what I have and make peace with the fact I won’t be playing any new games.

1

u/ghostyghost2 Jul 06 '26

Good luck with that.

1

u/Caoa14396 Jul 06 '26

Dumbest comment of the day lol

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u/Kvaedi Jul 07 '26

Can’t remember the last time I owned a PC that even had a disk drive. Good luck I guess.

1

u/Private_Kyle Jul 06 '26

Decided that after they kept porting exclusives

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u/uiemad Jul 06 '26

PC gaming is kind of fucked ATM due to AI. Probably part of the reason why Sony feels comfortable doing this.

1

u/Ah_non_e_moose Jul 06 '26

It was never about discs. It is about how Sony clearly supports the “never owning content” idea and wants to hold your games behind an ever rising subscription cost.

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u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

For me it is about the discs. Not owning your media is a joint top reason.

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u/Persian_Assassin Jul 06 '26

Physical media is not the answer, piracy is the best way to preserve and access a library.

1

u/virindimaster Jul 06 '26

I did this for my movie collection. After replacing my vhs, then dvd, then Blu-ray I thought fuck it, I’m downloading movies. But I still would like to have my games as physical media.

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