Discussion Physical Discs and Game ownership (PC)
With the ongoing controversy of not truly owning the games you purchase + playstation being in the hot seat recently with their announcement of getting rid of physical discs, there’s been a lot of clowning on consoles as a whole but this is all garbage that PC has victim to for years already.
I see so many PC players making comments about the topic trashing on sony and others as if any of them could remember the last time they purchased a physical game. Not to mention the whole concept of just purchasing a license has been a standard for steam for years yet all I see is people meat riding how pro consumer Valve is. I have over at least $2000 worth of games on my steam account that have been accumulating over the past decade that I haven’t touched in forever and there’s absolutely nothing I can do with them. Meanwhile I’d wager that 99% of games that have come out on console over the same past decade, consumers had the option to be able to purchase and resell them if that’s what they wanted to do.
This crap has been such a standard for pc users that most of them have forgot that we’re all the original suckers and will continue to be. Valve has great customer service for issues beyond game ownership but let’s not pretend they’re any better than these console companies when it comes to what you’re allowed to do with your game. It’s time to throw Valve into the list of companies to hold accountable rather than mindlessly meat ride them.
6
u/based_birdo 9h ago edited 8h ago
"let’s not pretend they’re any better than these console companies"
Why are you pretending Valve isnt better?
- Valve is privately owned
- Valve doesnt enforce DRM
- Valve doesnt have a history of fucking over customers
- Valve doesnt charge you online fees to play your own games
1
u/LennethW 8h ago
Shhh sh sh sh. It's alright. No worst deaf than the one that doesn't want to listen.
2
5
u/HankWankford 8h ago
If you don't login frequently enough in PSN they can and have taken games out of people's libraries. If I don't login to Steam for years my games will all still be there.
Digital only on PSN leaves Sony with a monopoly (mostly). Digital ap only on PC still has multiple main stores and plenty of legit 3rd party suppliers selling legit keys.
Sony are getting it even worse for digital only because they've been caught out lying to their customers when they said that getting games to work backwards compatible would be too much work. Instead they've been selling people remasters. When the PS5 jailbreak for up to system version 13.60 was released it was discovered that the hardware is quite capable of running PS2/3/4 games natively from the disc so they've been milking their customers. Also, the PS5 will work just fine with ANY disc drive, not just the official one like they said. Finally, they've been throttling the performance to keep the fans from spinning so the PS5 didn't get the "wind turbine" reputation the PS4 was well known for. All round scumbaggery from Sony so they deserve everything they're getting.
3
u/weirdthingsarecool91 9h ago
I think the biggest difference is that if I buy a game on steam, even if they delist it (such as for licensing reasons), I can still download and play it.
0
u/akbarock 8h ago
Thats how it works on Playstation too, if you buy a game and it gets delisted you can still download and play it.
There isnt really any difference, both are digital and both are licenses you dont legally own
1
u/weirdthingsarecool91 8h ago edited 8h ago
Well then I don't see what the big deal is honestly. I've had a steam account for 20 years. I can't say I've cared once about "owning" the games I play.
Edit: I was actually curious about when I got my steam account, it's actually been 17 years.
1
u/flavionm 8h ago
The difference is that if Sony or any other company tries to screw you while on a PlayStation, it's a lot harder to do anything about it.
On PC, I can download any game I want at any time, for free, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. You pay for games for the convenience or to support them, not because it's actually necessary. Valve is smart enough to understand this.
2
u/LennethW 9h ago
They don't pull the rug from under your butt. If you bought a game that gets retired for whatever reason, you can still download it.
1
u/akbarock 8h ago
You can still download delisted games you bought on Playstation too
2
2
2
u/Scorpion1869 9h ago
The last disc i bought was Battlefield 2 in 2005. I didn't mind the switch to digital as i no longer had to go around looking for no-cd cracks.
1
u/GameDealsRadar 7h ago
The big difference on PC is that DRM-free is a real option. GOG gives you offline installers you can back up to a drive forever, and many indie devs do the same on itch. It's not a disc, but it's about as close to owning it as digital gets. Steam licenses are a different story, fair point there.
1
1
u/RealGodModeRN 9h ago
I'm a massive XBOX gamer. Absolutely love XBOX.
When I first heard about Sony moving toward digital-only gaming, I wanted to jump right in with the XBOX crowd and bash them. 😂
Then I realized something : I have a PC gaming library probably two or three times the size of yours, and nearly all of it is digital. I'd be a freaking hypocrite to criticize Sony for something I've willingly accepted on PC for years.
And you know what? I realized I don't particularly care whether my games are physical or digital.
What I DO care about is ownership. If I purchase a game, I should have meaningful, lasting rights to that game, regardless of whether I bought it from Microsoft, Sony, Valve, or anyone else.
That's where I think the gaming industry deserves criticism. Not because games are going digital, but because consumers are increasingly paying ownership-level prices without receiving ownership-level rights.
1
u/flavionm 8h ago
On PC, in practice, you already have full ownership. No company can really stop you from playing any game which you have the files stored on your PC, and it's not like it's hard to get those files in the first place.
Would still be nice to have it officialized, though.
1
u/RealGodModeRN 4h ago
Having the files stored on your PC doesn't mean you own the game or even have a guaranteed right to play it indefinitely. DRM, online authentication, and server shutdowns can still prevent access.
And if you can't legally resell or transfer your purchased game, how is that full ownership?
There's a massive difference between being technically capable of doing something and actually having the legal right to do it. If any of this sounds like an attack/combative, it' s not my intention lol
0
u/TwentyHourPharmacy 9h ago
Something I never understood either, I switched off PC back to console for the sole purpose of always having my games, I tried to avoid any that require additional downloads or at the very least, get something that has offline play.
While I trust steam and their owner, they aren’t immune to delisting with games such as OG the crew and I certainly don’t like having all my purchases tied to an account.
I think people are just so lost, they have no idea how to form their own opinions
1
u/LennethW 8h ago
Console games nowadays literally won't work without downloading an update right away, unless they are a redeemable code in a box. You own nothing the same. Except on PC, you can easily backup your game files and/or crack it at will effortlessly and factually owning them.
1
u/TwentyHourPharmacy 8h ago
Yes they will, the website Doesitplay.org documents all this, roughly 75% of games will play fine right out the box with an additional 14% that may have some bugs.
1
u/flavionm 8h ago
On PC, not only you can backup your games instead of relying on a physical disc, as long as you have the files you can find a way to play it. Plenty of games are DRM free, and DRM isn't unbreakable either.
Plus, you own the rest of the system, unlike with a console that is controlled by the company more than by you.
When it comes to ownership, PC is unbeatable, and it's not even close.
0
u/TwentyHourPharmacy 7h ago
There's a handful of DRM games but this covers maybe 2% of my library if that. Relying on piracy or mysterious individuals to crack a DRM is not what I would consider a safe form of long term ownership. 90% of the time, these games will break with windows updates just like they always have.
Older consoles require 0 internet, 0 updates and the game will never break unless it's broken physically. Newer ones it's a bit more complicated but 75% to this day are still playable right off the disc with 0 connection and all these discs are compatible with millions of the same exact hardware so if something breaks, its not hard to replace.
I'm sure there will come a time when extorting billion dollar corporations will be the only option and I'll always support that but this time isn't here yet. The only thing stopping me from playing is a power connection and 1 of several million console units available on the market.
0
u/76zzz29 8h ago
Last time I purchased a DVD game for my PC was last month.
All my GOG games are burned on DVD/blueray.
And no. I didn't spend over 2K€ on steam. Even if counting the stupid xmas cupon from work I used to buy steam money cards. But even then, steam could shut down that my steam games would mostely still work unlike paystation that will make the game stop working if offline.
0
13
u/Halio344 9h ago
While you do have a point ish, digital on PC and digital on console are 2 very different things.
We have DRM free games (even on Steam) where you can backup the game files and run them offline from any PC.
We have competitive stores and pricing (even if you only buy games on Steam, you can find alternate legit stores selling keys for cheap).
On console you have none of that. Instead you have the godawful pricing of PS Store and 0 options other than whatever Sony gives you.