Clarification with the Games for Windows Live games: Older versions of GFWL games uses the legacy method where it is just a simple disk check, and the key can be reused multiple times. However, some use a SSA method, which binds the key to your account. This means some GFWL based games are resell-able, but will not work online as the key can't be deemed. --- Funny enough, Rockstar just released their own game launcher, so this video is now technically out of date.
" Clarification with the Games for Windows Live games: Older versions of GFWL games uses the legacy method where it is just a simple disk check, and the key can be reused multiple times. However, some use a SSA method, which binds the key to your account. This means some GFWL based games are resell-able, but will not work online as the key can't be deemed." I wish Steam hade policy I know it was fun to hate on Games for windows live but it at least had some ground rules
@@Zencijr Also some clarification 3 years after in the future, GFWL is dead... Servers aren't working even to activate your precious key or play online. Game still work offline tho, but the online features are completely done...
Not gonna lie, as someone who doesn't really care about physical pc games (I wouldn't mind owning a few now and then) just knowing that physical pc games have pretty much been murdered is quite depressing
Sometime, i feel tired of downloading digital games because my internet speed is slow, so i always wish they still make physical version for indie games on pc
Same here, I wanna buy some physical games on PC but it's to where the point it's hardly pointless cause newer games is scarce and it's a "One and Done" deal. So BS.
This is less of "Why PC Physical Copies Suck" and more "How DRM ruined physical media" The sad thing is PC games barely even get physical key codes anymore. Idc if they're just digital codes because I barely resell my games but FUCK companies that force you to buy their overpriced online copy that only goes on sale for what it should cost NOT on sale 3 years after it's release.
Once they fully make everything subscription based instead of ownership based thats when piracy will come into full force, im against piracy, but i can understand why people would start doing it once they fully remove our right to own these games.
I find it funny. Pirates manage to crack most games anyway, so all that DRM does is give paying customers a worse experience. But they keep doing the same thing over and over, expecting something to change.
Gamer Alex (AlexKVideos1) it wont happen on console cuz japanese markets wants physical copy than digital heck even porn in japan is still printing on dvds
PC gaming is still great but I wouldn't blame you if you got turned off the ideal of "Not really owning your games." The value of those 90's and 2000's PC games are special but not anymore cause it's just mostly a One and done deal, it's worse when you buy that games at $60 and the value is nothing second hand!
@@haaxxx9 Well I wasn't turned off by the idea really, since I own a ton of digital PC games, but I wish the physical copy was still a thing for PC. Such a shame companies drove them into the ground.
personally i think disks should have some kind of protective casing around them at all times like the PSP UMDs did, i mean yeah it would make disk readers slightly bigger having to fit the whole thing into the reader, but at least it would make it less likely to get destroyed with a single scratch, seems worth it to me, theres really no point in making reading technology super compact if it in turn makes the storage medium unreadable with one wrong move, thats just counter intuitive.
This explains why outside of second-hand shops that don't know any better, there are no retailers that sell second-hand PC games. In my country of Australia, out of the five major retailers that sell video games, two don't sell PC games at all, and the remaining three only sell new/unused physical pc games. The constant issues they would have to deal with of people trying to get refunds and being unable to, along with figuring out which games can be resold or not would not be worth the potential profit they could make from it. It's also worth noting that most laptops (I can't speak for desktop PCs) don't even have an optical drive anymore, so many people wouldn't even have a use for the physical copies that do exist. This is why in the retailers I just mentioned, you can find a pretty broad range of unused and still sealed old physical PC games like Painkiller Hell & Damnation, Split/Second Velocity, Batman Arkham Origins etc, because nobody outside of collectors even has a use for these things.
I still look for physical copies with the paper discs that have a code in them when I'm trying to buy an old game. It's always cheaper than buying it digital.
I 100% Agree!!!, Buying Physical PC games in this era, is absolutely "DISAPPOINTING" and that's why it's only great to buy older PC titles that legit doesn't force U to require an Online Account like Steam, Origin, UPLAY, etc, I will ALWAY'S be A Physical person, not just because of nostagia, but incase if your wi-fi network ever goes down for some reason, "Guess What" U can't install the game! if U have it digital, the biggest problem! with Disk PC Versions today is that, you're getting mostly half the Game files, U gotta install A "Patch" GTA V was A Great example! on PC after installing all 7 Disks!!! U also had to install A 5 GB update! to fully make the game work, which is ridiculous!!!
@@overcastskyline1747 agreed. I can just go lend my a friend a copy. I can't just rip the hard drive off and give that. Ownership is basically why physical copies exist.
I don't see physical copies coming back to PC anytime soon and I say this owning many physical copies on PC and console. I mean there are just very few disadvantages to buying a game on steam or GOG. The advantages are more numerous compared to the disadvantages. And in the rare event, we do see physical PC copies come back, I think they should ditch blue ray discs and go with something like an improved version of the Switch's cartridges.
Switch cartridges are extremely expensive compared too blue-ray and can only hold 32 gb wile a blue-Ray can hold up too 50 there is no real advantages to a cartridge based system except for size
@@tristanheaton2127 There are actually advantages, but it is pretty expensive. The reason flash cartridges were so expensive was due to their extremely fast read/write speeds compared to that a disc at the time, loading screens were sort of non-existent until the arrival of disc-based video games (floppy disks, zip drives, CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays). However, because discs were a lot cheaper and faster to manufacture (not to mention, desirable due to the high capacity, unlocking potential for more content to be stored), it became too much of a burden. Really hoping flash-based physical media does make a comeback of some sort, especially when I look at the music industry in Southeast Asia actually being somewhat innovative and distributing music and movies on flash drives (widely available, very cheap, fast, and convenient).
The only way steam will fall off is if studios decide to create their own subscription services kind of like Netflix started the trend, but then companies decided to remove their content and come out with their own streaming service.
I own hundreds of games across all of my digital platforms, like something between 300 - 350. If I had a disc for every one of them, I probably wouldn't have enough room and most of them would just gather dust in there as I don't play them anymore. But I really wish I had discs for my absolute favorites, the games that I really don't want to lose. There's like 50 of those. Many of them are old games from before Steam became mandatory, so I could probably still find some copies out there somewhere.
Don't trust these companies after paying money for a product. It's better to have it in your possession than to have it online. Will we buy toys for our kids on digital platforms as well? We should demand the possibility to use the physical copies, even if you are not online.
Actual, there are something like toys for your children there are digital, like a playing software, etc. Companies won’t magically take away your games because they feel like it
We did when simcity 2013 hit requiring us to be online to play in fucking single player mode & because the servers were DOA. They said it wasn't possible, but after community backlash online. They eventually made it happen, but by the time they did the game was dead. They haven't made another simcity since for pc & they shutdown maxis. Ea is fucking scum. It's sad because they used to make great games back in the day.
I think if they take more advantage of modern tech like blu rays discs instead of DVD's as well as making games DRM free because let's face facts that there are more ways to pirate it than buy it, then maybe and only maybe will PC physicals make a come back at some point. The fact that they still put DRM's on PC games and are as guilty of giving you the cursed "digital only physical games" like most modern consoles are doing, are what's killing the simplicity, and even the charm, of buying PC physical games.
Atleast there is still GOG, I'm planning on buying some games there, get it on a usb flash drive and get a cover for it. Too bad games like bayonetta and jet set radio are still stuck behind steam
Very informative video! I really did wish blu rays caught on in the PC market. Like they still sell blu ray optical drives online so it isn't like it would be impossible for someone to play a game on a bluray disc for PC. It's just no company ever tried to sell games on blu ray discs (not that im aware of atleast). PC games through digital code suck.
There's no reason PC games can't be released on 128GB BDXL Discs with the games ready to play on the disc with no install, and with some basic DRM so that you can't copy the Disc but are then free to resell it
ISO + Daemon Tools go brrr That and the windows API has a bug where it doesn't let you read raw sectors of discs larger than a 4.3GB DVD when reading raw sectors. This bug still exists .. to this day You have to use ioctl and send SCSI commands to the drive to do it. Or enable dashd io
Why pay the same to rent a game, when you can own it? Also, good luck when whoever you're renting a game from decides to make changes or remove content without your permission.
As a mmo player... it's borderline abuse to gamers. Our vision is you must do 400 dailies a day in order to barely progress. You must join 1 of 4 cults and if you choose to join a different cult you must jump through so many hoops and run laps because you should've known we were gonna nerf your cult of choice. Spend the entire expansion obtaining this awesome legendary only for us to nerf it next expansion and make it unusable from here on out. Spend the entire expansion chasing gear in weekly raids only for us to move the goal post again where your epic armor will be replaced by green lvl trash next expansion. You want this mount? It's only 5 million gold... No were not gonna ban bot farmers from nuking the in game economy so you can eventually scrape enough gold together to buy our limited time mount that is a major gold sink. World of Warcraft in a nutshell.
@@Poopfan101 PC has game pass and if you have one then it’s a no brainer to get game pass. Which that’s also a yearly/monthly payment on top of upgrading your pc every now and then when needed
They should try and fit a game’s files and so on in a flash drive that is large enough. If they do that then people can load it up no problem because flash drives don’t need a specific drive for modern pc’s and of course i like having boxes for my favorite games like Hellblade. But of course i am a pc gamer so unless i wanna waste extra money on a physical copy for console versions of a game that will have basically nothing on it except a nice pretty disc. I might as well just stick to downloading the game from steam epic games or whatever other launcher/platform i am getting the game from. Maybe they could do something slightly different. Like the code could be a steam key for a game stored on a flash drive with an automatic program that will always force the game to first on to the flash drive and if you ask it to it will also save it physically on your pc. Of course this is just a nice way to save space on your pc. The drives can store your progress on the flash drive so you just got a plug it in before you start or you have your progress and the game’s big files which are hard to move around can be stored via an account on your pc as it does today. And if you are super worried then you can do that double save thing and the flash drive could serve as a backup. And if you want you can also continue any game from anywhere as long as you have your account and that drive. Thing is you gotta keep it up to date which if you take the first option isn’t hard. Also there is the benefit of physical copies. Maybe it would be a good idea to keep a back up on the account and the main save files on you drive. Because losing that means losing your progress so yeah
This is something I thought of that seemed really cool. My Windows 10 installation comes on a flash drive so I could see that for games too. Though, we'll probably never see it as I'm assuming its way more expensive to produce and not a lot of people buy physical games for PC anymore.
A few indie games have utilized that flash drive method (I remember most if not all Indiebox collectors editions used customized USB drives for DRM-free copies of the games). Unfortunately, many modern games can't really do that due to the size limitations of flash drives.
I feel like if I buy a physical copy and they give us a digital code as well to redeem on a platform of our choice. Kind of like 4k movies they give us digital codes as well most of the time. They need to start doing that.
I remember once buying a physical copy of Sims 4 (base game), and then i couldn't redeem the game using the activation code because it was already used. Now it's here collecting dust. I was scammed. And even if the activation code worked, the game cannot be installed with a disc anymore as they are now using "EA app" and not "Origin" so now the discs are REALLY useless.
Personally I think physical PC games should come back but instead of being a CD or DVD rom, it should be a BD rom. Yes...blu ray discs. Its a natural evolution
I remember trying to run my physical copy of Lego Star Wars II on Windows 10. It wouldn't work because it didn't think my disc was genuine. I was never really into PC gaming that much and it looks like I never will be in to it.
The problem with digital game is that now, you don't have the game, just rent to play, even if you say that you “buy” a game. The best way is if we back on the time and start use Blu-ray instead of online store
I own a new unused disk's for GTA IV complete edition,how do I install it on my PC as I don't have a windows live account and would like to play the game without using the disk
bought a few used pc games from the local thrift store, beyond earth, skyrim, and thief deadly shadows, only thief is playable tho, smh luckily it was just a couple bucks
Yeah tbh a good rule of thumb is that if it came out in 2010 or after then you might as well not take the risk. Almost guaranteed to either need an account or download or activation key or something.
I've been saying this for years. While I understand companies trying to protect their rights as well. It's also anti-consumer. Same thing has been happening to consoles now. Which is why most consumers just subscribe to gamepass or buy a digital version since there are multiple editions of a video game now days.
@@problemletstalknoletschat2288 basically rather than burning the data into a heat sensitive dye on the surface of a disc like you would on a DVD-R or DVD+R, it is like the data is litterally molded into the disc like in the a factory this is known as "pressing" due to the fact the machine used to do this like litterally presses a mold down onto the disc during manufacturing. It's not something that can be done in your house and is generally reserved for large companys when you want to make a large amount of copies This is why DVD R have a purple back. And CD R have green. However commercial DVD/CD are always silver (unless it's a PS2 CD or PS1 game, but that's just for style ...)
Excellent video from 3 years ago, but also a point you didn't talk about and worth to mention now, not only you not own the physical game, but the platforms they used to support doesn't work anymore thanks to the same companies that sold these games... Want an example? Look at Steam for Windows XP and Vista, today only these 2 OSs don't work, but in the future Windows 7 and so on... Even if you say "the game can be played in modern hardware too, so no big of deal", this phrase is not completely true since some games are released exclusively to certain versions of Windows + some games are going to have glitches with graphics and even more refuses to work, so that's a problem you can find only with DRM games... In resume, never support physical or digital copies of games that come with nasty DRMs like Steam games and why not, go for solutions like GOG that offer 100% games without DRM + Installers, where you can store these in a big HDD of yours. And finally you talked about profit in not be able to sell games anymore, unless if you see them as profitable, I wouldn't worry about it too much...
One thing I want to mention is what makes PC so different from consoles. PC games NEVER ran off the disc or whatever format before that (Floppy Disks etc.). You always installed them. It's why the approach to combat piracy has been different in the past. You could not just install a console game and hand it to someone else. If a friend borrowed a game, you couldn't play it until they gave it back.
very interesting, if anyone can help new person to pc rom games as i want to experience the games i love in an unccompressed picture unlike console versions, can i buy a used copy of gta 4, install it on my computer and not be a one time code, hopefully so also out of interest is there any problems with far cry 2 being ubisoft, bioshock 1 and throwing one in there rayman 2 im sure will be fine but its interesting, what games work fine to install and ones that dont, dirt 1 kept crashing for me but hopefully thats just the disc or is that a known problem, many thanks who ever comments
Oh god star force. Yeah i forgot to apply a no CD crack one time and just tried to boot the game up. That was not fun had to delete some drivers from system32 to get my PC to boot again
@bender1300 That is ridiculous. In no way am I trying to convey that. Heck, I even talk about how they are taking away our game ownership at the end of the video!
And now physical pc ganes are dead, only thing on pc disc is the digital key telling the internet you own the game , and you have to download game anyways, defeating the purpose of physical 😢
I prefer PS6 500GB game cartridges. The problem is less the physical game but a decline in ownership as companies push from the customer having control, towards online only activation from disc, and then eventually tying you down to a digital service where you own nothing and can't resell. Steam more or less killed the physical format on pc. Next up of course is when every single major game is only available on streaming services. Only GOG is the decent route for digital as you can back your own games up to physical more easily
So anyway what happened was I was like how is that my fault so anyway to make it worse I delete everything on my storage even handheld games like laptop games but when I delete everything off it didn’t help with the full game I had for digital download so when I completely fixed it it still froze so I never messed with it again so the only thing that messed up my computer was that full download it sucks so I stop messing with my old computer laptop and I go to Windows 10 up to the upgrade monitor.
When I tried to load my game thing up on the PC a cup Wheatley froze the game dude I tried the second time but but I have to try to restart my computer and then load the game up it took five minutes for it to load back up and so did I tried to call the company who made the app and so they said it they told me they can’t do anything about the game war whatever date and also they told me to delete everything off my storage it was a stupid.
going all digital means devs are gonna be lazy wherein they release their unfinished games for people to test out the bugs and problems for them so they can patch it later with an update. Physical games back then didn't even need updates.
I hate this :/ I’m planning on switching from PS4 to PC but am kinda scared, that if I buy all the games through Steam and the company some day stops existing I fall lose all the games I paid for, which I don’t think is fair (and I would probably use the PC a my main game source) So now I can’t even sell the copies if I buy the physicals? :/
@@GamerAlexVideos ok thanks :) Regardless of wether they can be sold or not, is there at least a guarantee that I can still play the games offline if a manage to buy a copy with a disk?
@@Irapa7 That still depends on the type of DRM being used, like if they give you a Steam key in the physical copy, you are still going to have to use Steam to authenticate the game and such.
Basically if the physical PC games you are buying are from 2010 or more recent, then there's an extremely high chance they won't be resellable. Regardless though, no retailer I know of still sells second hand PC games anymore.
I bought Half Life 2, Battlefield 4, and Skyrim used at Goodwill and they are useless the code you get can’t be reuse because the previous owner already use it on their steam account. This been doing this since 2004?!!!! What a waste of my fucking money oh well at least I can hang a Skyrim Map on my wall. I stick to a digital for a late 2000s and later games from now on. DVD Art is beautiful but its bullshit that they don’t work when buy used.
Good video but you made one mistake. Xbox 360 used HD-DVD format, not standard DVD. Bluray eventually made HD-DVD irrelevant since it was superior, but Xbox didn't like it because Sony owns the patent for Bluray.
Physical version of GTA V barely even runs nowadays, all the updates to the launcher are designed for steam or epic. Just installed it today and I can't even play it
. I agree also I’m a PC player too when I first started but when I switched over to you old Jane consuls when I bought my first PC title that came with a disk game video it was an MMO Adventure game But what happened I entered my code on one of my games and I tried calling Game Store beaver her that place store and they said when I activated my code to the to the to the to the webpage dude I talk to GameStop about it and they said dude I bought the game brand new and they said I could bring it back it was a four part disc in Stolley it was 100 GB. I tried to install it on a laptop it was insane dude you 20. Days for me to even see if it worked on my computer PC laptop But when I first tried to build it up
I completely switched to digital on g all platforms. The main reason why I kept physical copies was the resell value after finishing the game. But nowadays they won't offer more than 5 bucks for brand new games at game stop I live in the Netherlands and our gamestop equivalent told me the best they could offer for a brand new Red dead redemption 2 was 5 dollars😂 I spend more on public transport haha
ah ! sigh ! another Gen Zer who can't Grasp the point of Physical Copies ! ok the only real issue AL may i call ya AL ? ok ! well AL the biggest good side and why Physical Copies Don't suck is that you actually OWN the game ! unless the online registry , the Activation keys or codes are no longer working ! in this case those phyical media is considered Lost ! due to no longer being able to play ! the Activation keys are just like why online games suck ! a reminder that the games still can be lost ! ...................... well too be fair Physical Copies of games are good ! however ! some are trash ! like again the online games ! they suck !! and come off as a digial scam or than enything ! ok have a nice day ! :)
Clarification with the Games for Windows Live games: Older versions of GFWL games uses the legacy method where it is just a simple disk check, and the key can be reused multiple times. However, some use a SSA method, which binds the key to your account. This means some GFWL based games are resell-able, but will not work online as the key can't be deemed.
---
Funny enough, Rockstar just released their own game launcher, so this video is now technically out of date.
" Clarification with the Games for Windows Live games: Older versions of GFWL games uses the legacy method where it is just a simple disk check, and the key can be reused multiple times. However, some use a SSA method, which binds the key to your account. This means some GFWL based games are resell-able, but will not work online as the key can't be deemed." I wish Steam hade policy I know it was fun to hate on Games for windows live but it at least had some ground rules
What format did PC's commonly use,when talking about DVD's?
I mean did the companies use DVD-R or DVD+R for ex. for FarCry2?
What do you think?
@@Zencijr Also some clarification 3 years after in the future, GFWL is dead... Servers aren't working even to activate your precious key or play online. Game still work offline tho, but the online features are completely done...
@@ShaknunicPT-BR I literally just played operation raccoon city over gfwl with my buddy
You shouldve also mentioned that it was Valve that started this whole SSA key bs
Not gonna lie, as someone who doesn't really care about physical pc games (I wouldn't mind owning a few now and then) just knowing that physical pc games have pretty much been murdered is quite depressing
If you lose the key, you now have useless plastic
Sometime, i feel tired of downloading digital games because my internet speed is slow, so i always wish they still make physical version for indie games on pc
No they should not
Same here, I wanna buy some physical games on PC but it's to where the point it's hardly pointless cause newer games is scarce and it's a "One and Done" deal. So BS.
@@LeRepulseBR why not? Consoles still do it and that’s great
@@user-op8fg3ny3j tf is that supposed to mean
@@Platinum199 he means that there are less games in physical.
This is less of "Why PC Physical Copies Suck" and more "How DRM ruined physical media"
The sad thing is PC games barely even get physical key codes anymore. Idc if they're just digital codes because I barely resell my games but FUCK companies that force you to buy their overpriced online copy that only goes on sale for what it should cost NOT on sale 3 years after it's release.
Once they fully make everything subscription based instead of ownership based thats when piracy will come into full force, im against piracy, but i can understand why people would start doing it once they fully remove our right to own these games.
This is why DRM-free storefronts on PC are more important than ever.
I find it funny. Pirates manage to crack most games anyway, so all that DRM does is give paying customers a worse experience. But they keep doing the same thing over and over, expecting something to change.
And this is the kinda turn off of pc gaming its all digital now
Yup, these bad PC physical copies are the reason why we see the digital market dominate on PC. I just hope that this doesn't happen with consoles...
Gamer Alex (AlexKVideos1) it wont happen on console cuz japanese markets wants physical copy than digital heck even porn in japan is still printing on dvds
PC gaming is still great but I wouldn't blame you if you got turned off the ideal of "Not really owning your games." The value of those 90's and 2000's PC games are special but not anymore cause it's just mostly a One and done deal, it's worse when you buy that games at $60 and the value is nothing second hand!
@@haaxxx9 Well I wasn't turned off by the idea really, since I own a ton of digital PC games, but I wish the physical copy was still a thing for PC. Such a shame companies drove them into the ground.
@@dxtremecaliber 😂😂😂
Imagine if RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 has Physical copy on PC , IT might have 10+ disc?
Still cool for a collection with the different artworks atleast
Could put it on 2 discs, 1 100gb m-disc and then one smaller disc
windows live, steam and activation keys all need to be abolished.
personally i think disks should have some kind of protective casing around them at all times like the PSP UMDs did, i mean yeah it would make disk readers slightly bigger having to fit the whole thing into the reader, but at least it would make it less likely to get destroyed with a single scratch, seems worth it to me, theres really no point in making reading technology super compact if it in turn makes the storage medium unreadable with one wrong move, thats just counter intuitive.
Blue rays have a protective coating on them. Essentially the psp umds plastic shell was to emulate that.
They already do
This explains why outside of second-hand shops that don't know any better, there are no retailers that sell second-hand PC games. In my country of Australia, out of the five major retailers that sell video games, two don't sell PC games at all, and the remaining three only sell new/unused physical pc games. The constant issues they would have to deal with of people trying to get refunds and being unable to, along with figuring out which games can be resold or not would not be worth the potential profit they could make from it. It's also worth noting that most laptops (I can't speak for desktop PCs) don't even have an optical drive anymore, so many people wouldn't even have a use for the physical copies that do exist. This is why in the retailers I just mentioned, you can find a pretty broad range of unused and still sealed old physical PC games like Painkiller Hell & Damnation, Split/Second Velocity, Batman Arkham Origins etc, because nobody outside of collectors even has a use for these things.
I still look for physical copies with the paper discs that have a code in them when I'm trying to buy an old game. It's always cheaper than buying it digital.
I 100% Agree!!!, Buying Physical PC games in this era, is absolutely "DISAPPOINTING" and that's why it's only great to buy older PC titles that legit doesn't force U to require an Online Account like Steam, Origin, UPLAY, etc, I will ALWAY'S be A Physical person, not just because of nostagia, but incase if your wi-fi network ever goes down for some reason, "Guess What" U can't install the game! if U have it digital, the biggest problem! with Disk PC Versions today is that, you're getting mostly half the Game files, U gotta install A "Patch" GTA V was A Great example! on PC after installing all 7 Disks!!! U also had to install A 5 GB update! to fully make the game work, which is ridiculous!!!
I mean, the whole "the full game is not on the disk, u also have to download part of it" is also a problem on consoles
You can just crack the game so you can play it without those crappy game clients.
Physical is good for slow internet but thank god starlink is coming so I don’t have to rely on discs that install 1% of the game/installing at 1 mb/s
Ok where is the starlink
The point is about ownership
@@overcastskyline1747 not really as it’s installed on your hard drive these days regardless
@@stanleybowman-hood6194 can you trade your pc game in? lend it to a friend?
@@overcastskyline1747 agreed. I can just go lend my a friend a copy. I can't just rip the hard drive off and give that. Ownership is basically why physical copies exist.
I don't see physical copies coming back to PC anytime soon and I say this owning many physical copies on PC and console. I mean there are just very few disadvantages to buying a game on steam or GOG. The advantages are more numerous compared to the disadvantages. And in the rare event, we do see physical PC copies come back, I think they should ditch blue ray discs and go with something like an improved version of the Switch's cartridges.
true
Switch cartridges are extremely expensive compared too blue-ray and can only hold 32 gb wile a blue-Ray can hold up too 50 there is no real advantages to a cartridge based system except for size
@@tristanheaton2127 There are actually advantages, but it is pretty expensive. The reason flash cartridges were so expensive was due to their extremely fast read/write speeds compared to that a disc at the time, loading screens were sort of non-existent until the arrival of disc-based video games (floppy disks, zip drives, CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays). However, because discs were a lot cheaper and faster to manufacture (not to mention, desirable due to the high capacity, unlocking potential for more content to be stored), it became too much of a burden. Really hoping flash-based physical media does make a comeback of some sort, especially when I look at the music industry in Southeast Asia actually being somewhat innovative and distributing music and movies on flash drives (widely available, very cheap, fast, and convenient).
Will steam, GOG and Epic servers be available up and running in 20 years time?
The only way steam will fall off is if studios decide to create their own subscription services kind of like Netflix started the trend, but then companies decided to remove their content and come out with their own streaming service.
Steam is never shutting down lmao,Its literally a multibillion dollar service
I own hundreds of games across all of my digital platforms, like something between 300 - 350. If I had a disc for every one of them, I probably wouldn't have enough room and most of them would just gather dust in there as I don't play them anymore. But I really wish I had discs for my absolute favorites, the games that I really don't want to lose. There's like 50 of those. Many of them are old games from before Steam became mandatory, so I could probably still find some copies out there somewhere.
Don't trust these companies after paying money for a product. It's better to have it in your possession than to have it online. Will we buy toys for our kids on digital platforms as well? We should demand the possibility to use the physical copies, even if you are not online.
Actual, there are something like toys for your children there are digital, like a playing software, etc. Companies won’t magically take away your games because they feel like it
We did when simcity 2013 hit requiring us to be online to play in fucking single player mode & because the servers were DOA. They said it wasn't possible, but after community backlash online. They eventually made it happen, but by the time they did the game was dead. They haven't made another simcity since for pc & they shutdown maxis. Ea is fucking scum. It's sad because they used to make great games back in the day.
the physical that has online DRM blows. but physical as a whole should not be hated on, once it's gone, you dont own anything at all.
I think if they take more advantage of modern tech like blu rays discs instead of DVD's as well as making games DRM free because let's face facts that there are more ways to pirate it than buy it, then maybe and only maybe will PC physicals make a come back at some point. The fact that they still put DRM's on PC games and are as guilty of giving you the cursed "digital only physical games" like most modern consoles are doing, are what's killing the simplicity, and even the charm, of buying PC physical games.
Atleast there is still GOG, I'm planning on buying some games there, get it on a usb flash drive and get a cover for it.
Too bad games like bayonetta and jet set radio are still stuck behind steam
Great video I learned something new
To make it short-
Its because of BS DRM policies and aging formats with discs
Very informative video! I really did wish blu rays caught on in the PC market. Like they still sell blu ray optical drives online so it isn't like it would be impossible for someone to play a game on a bluray disc for PC. It's just no company ever tried to sell games on blu ray discs (not that im aware of atleast). PC games through digital code suck.
There's no reason PC games can't be released on 128GB BDXL Discs with the games ready to play on the disc with no install, and with some basic DRM so that you can't copy the Disc but are then free to resell it
dvd 8gb disc was used on pc for instance command and conquer 3 which was harder to copy cause dvd 8gb disc were expensive.
ISO + Daemon Tools go brrr
That and the windows API has a bug where it doesn't let you read raw sectors of discs larger than a 4.3GB DVD when reading raw sectors.
This bug still exists .. to this day
You have to use ioctl and send SCSI commands to the drive to do it. Or enable dashd io
Why pay the same to rent a game, when you can own it? Also, good luck when whoever you're renting a game from decides to make changes or remove content without your permission.
As a mmo player... it's borderline abuse to gamers. Our vision is you must do 400 dailies a day in order to barely progress. You must join 1 of 4 cults and if you choose to join a different cult you must jump through so many hoops and run laps because you should've known we were gonna nerf your cult of choice. Spend the entire expansion obtaining this awesome legendary only for us to nerf it next expansion and make it unusable from here on out. Spend the entire expansion chasing gear in weekly raids only for us to move the goal post again where your epic armor will be replaced by green lvl trash next expansion. You want this mount? It's only 5 million gold... No were not gonna ban bot farmers from nuking the in game economy so you can eventually scrape enough gold together to buy our limited time mount that is a major gold sink.
World of Warcraft in a nutshell.
The one thing consoles have over PC
and price/value
@@Platinum199 tbh, consoles might cost more in the long term if you play multiplayer games a lot. since you literally got to pay 60$ a year.
@@Poopfan101 PC has game pass and if you have one then it’s a no brainer to get game pass. Which that’s also a yearly/monthly payment on top of upgrading your pc every now and then when needed
@@Poopfan101 also all the multiplayer games I play currently are free to play so haven’t bought ps plus in 4 months
@@Platinum199 um not really. I dont really like gamepass since after the subscription is over i cant keep games.
This is the kind of video that is fun to watch even if you already know everything that is being mentioned
They should try and fit a game’s files and so on in a flash drive that is large enough. If they do that then people can load it up no problem because flash drives don’t need a specific drive for modern pc’s and of course i like having boxes for my favorite games like Hellblade. But of course i am a pc gamer so unless i wanna waste extra money on a physical copy for console versions of a game that will have basically nothing on it except a nice pretty disc. I might as well just stick to downloading the game from steam epic games or whatever other launcher/platform i am getting the game from. Maybe they could do something slightly different. Like the code could be a steam key for a game stored on a flash drive with an automatic program that will always force the game to first on to the flash drive and if you ask it to it will also save it physically on your pc. Of course this is just a nice way to save space on your pc. The drives can store your progress on the flash drive so you just got a plug it in before you start or you have your progress and the game’s big files which are hard to move around can be stored via an account on your pc as it does today. And if you are super worried then you can do that double save thing and the flash drive could serve as a backup. And if you want you can also continue any game from anywhere as long as you have your account and that drive. Thing is you gotta keep it up to date which if you take the first option isn’t hard. Also there is the benefit of physical copies. Maybe it would be a good idea to keep a back up on the account and the main save files on you drive. Because losing that means losing your progress so yeah
This is something I thought of that seemed really cool. My Windows 10 installation comes on a flash drive so I could see that for games too. Though, we'll probably never see it as I'm assuming its way more expensive to produce and not a lot of people buy physical games for PC anymore.
I think you can burn the pen drives too
A few indie games have utilized that flash drive method (I remember most if not all Indiebox collectors editions used customized USB drives for DRM-free copies of the games). Unfortunately, many modern games can't really do that due to the size limitations of flash drives.
@@GamerAlexVideos yeah one advantage discs still kinda have is that their cheap as fuck to mass produce
I feel like if I buy a physical copy and they give us a digital code as well to redeem on a platform of our choice. Kind of like 4k movies they give us digital codes as well most of the time. They need to start doing that.
I remember once buying a physical copy of Sims 4 (base game), and then i couldn't redeem the game using the activation code because it was already used. Now it's here collecting dust. I was scammed. And even if the activation code worked, the game cannot be installed with a disc anymore as they are now using "EA app" and not "Origin" so now the discs are REALLY useless.
The only platform I still use physical copies is console but pc I have moved to digital download.
These are great to prevent digital store monopolies.
I like how you show the discs.
Personally I think physical PC games should come back but instead of being a CD or DVD rom, it should be a BD rom. Yes...blu ray discs. Its a natural evolution
Discs get damaged too easily. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten used xbox one discs for my series X only for them to be unusable.
@@8166PC1 the problem is not the disc, the problem is you.
@@dergenossemitderfloe4999 How is it him dumbass. He bought a used disk.
@@8166PC1no they don't just don't scratch the disk simple
Probably the one only thing that consoles do better in than PC, at least at the moment because physical copies are becoming distinct.
I remember trying to run my physical copy of Lego Star Wars II on Windows 10. It wouldn't work because it didn't think my disc was genuine. I was never really into PC gaming that much and it looks like I never will be in to it.
Some on console now.....The game installes about 10gb from the disc on my xbox and then download another 60gb from the internet...
What’s the point of making the disc have multiple copies when it has to waste your hardrive space anyway?
The problem with digital game is that now, you don't have the game, just rent to play, even if you say that you “buy” a game. The best way is if we back on the time and start use Blu-ray instead of online store
I own a new unused disk's for GTA IV complete edition,how do I install it on my PC as I don't have a windows live account and would like to play the game without using the disk
Man this video is masterpiece :)
fun fact those GTA V Discs are useless now because the Rockstar Launcher downloads the whole game anyway
bought a few used pc games from the local thrift store, beyond earth, skyrim, and thief deadly shadows, only thief is playable tho, smh
luckily it was just a couple bucks
Yeah tbh a good rule of thumb is that if it came out in 2010 or after then you might as well not take the risk. Almost guaranteed to either need an account or download or activation key or something.
really comprehensive, as a person that doesn't experience to play pc games which needs to install from cd, I am verry eknowledge by this. Thank you
I've been saying this for years. While I understand companies trying to protect their rights as well. It's also anti-consumer.
Same thing has been happening to consoles now. Which is why most consumers just subscribe to gamepass or buy a digital version since there are multiple editions of a video game now days.
What format did PC's commonly use,when talking about DVD's?
I mean did the companies use DVD-R or DVD+R for ex. for FarCry2?
Does anybody know?
Neither they used pressed DVD-ROMs.
@@LiEnby what's a "Pressed DVD-ROM" ?
@@problemletstalknoletschat2288 basically rather than burning the data into a heat sensitive dye on the surface of a disc like you would on a DVD-R or DVD+R, it is like the data is litterally molded into the disc like in the a factory this is known as "pressing" due to the fact the machine used to do this like litterally presses a mold down onto the disc during manufacturing.
It's not something that can be done in your house and is generally reserved for large companys when you want to make a large amount of copies
This is why DVD R have a purple back. And CD R have green. However commercial DVD/CD are always silver
(unless it's a PS2 CD or PS1 game, but that's just for style ...)
@@LiEnby Thanks for enlightening me on a such fact,have a wonderful day,hope to talk to you about it sometime later
DRM encourages piracy & reduces sales
the only downside of digital is sometimes they remove games from list and you cant play anymore
Excellent video from 3 years ago, but also a point you didn't talk about and worth to mention now, not only you not own the physical game, but the platforms they used to support doesn't work anymore thanks to the same companies that sold these games... Want an example? Look at Steam for Windows XP and Vista, today only these 2 OSs don't work, but in the future Windows 7 and so on... Even if you say "the game can be played in modern hardware too, so no big of deal", this phrase is not completely true since some games are released exclusively to certain versions of Windows + some games are going to have glitches with graphics and even more refuses to work, so that's a problem you can find only with DRM games...
In resume, never support physical or digital copies of games that come with nasty DRMs like Steam games and why not, go for solutions like GOG that offer 100% games without DRM + Installers, where you can store these in a big HDD of yours.
And finally you talked about profit in not be able to sell games anymore, unless if you see them as profitable, I wouldn't worry about it too much...
One thing I want to mention is what makes PC so different from consoles. PC games NEVER ran off the disc or whatever format before that (Floppy Disks etc.). You always installed them. It's why the approach to combat piracy has been different in the past. You could not just install a console game and hand it to someone else. If a friend borrowed a game, you couldn't play it until they gave it back.
Why they cant make a DVD/BD hybrid? PS2 had CD/DVD
BluRay drives can read CDs and DVDs
very interesting, if anyone can help new person to pc rom games as i want to experience the games i love in an unccompressed picture unlike console versions, can i buy a used copy of gta 4, install it on my computer and not be a one time code, hopefully so also out of interest is there any problems with far cry 2 being ubisoft, bioshock 1 and throwing one in there rayman 2 im sure will be fine but its interesting, what games work fine to install and ones that dont, dirt 1 kept crashing for me but hopefully thats just the disc or is that a known problem, many thanks who ever comments
Oh god star force.
Yeah i forgot to apply a no CD crack one time and just tried to boot the game up.
That was not fun had to delete some drivers from system32 to get my PC to boot again
I don't have a PC atm. But I'm guessing you can't lend a PC game to a friend because the CD key only works on 1 PC?
Depends on the game. If you have an older PC game that doesn't use an online activated key, then you'll be fine.
Sounds like an industry sponsored plug to me. 🙁
What?
@@GamerAlexVideos you convince us to get rid of our media and we are left with jack when everything goes digital. No thanks.
@bender1300 That is ridiculous. In no way am I trying to convey that. Heck, I even talk about how they are taking away our game ownership at the end of the video!
@@GamerAlexVideos make a video explaining why PC physical copies rule orits cap 👋
And now physical pc ganes are dead, only thing on pc disc is the digital key telling the internet you own the game , and you have to download game anyways, defeating the purpose of physical 😢
Starforce is an absolute nightmare
I prefer PS6 500GB game cartridges. The problem is less the physical game but a decline in ownership as companies push from the customer having control, towards online only activation from disc, and then eventually tying you down to a digital service where you own nothing and can't resell. Steam more or less killed the physical format on pc. Next up of course is when every single major game is only available on streaming services. Only GOG is the decent route for digital as you can back your own games up to physical more easily
We should have standardized bluray on pc
I really don't miss my shelf filling game tapes, cartridges,cds and dvds.
The thing is that digital games on PS3 and X360 took a lot of space on your HDD while physical took space on your shelf
Then you're a loser
Heh, when it comes to Steam games, it is yes funny how eccentially you only need once the physical discs. Waste of plastic! :D
As i know the pc games got really popular during the 1990's and 2000's, as its now 2023, its not popular anymore
When did games start needing an activation key?
Around the time Half-Life 2 came out.
@@iAmCodeMonkey So if I buy a pc game of ebay that came out before half life 2 I don't need to worry?
@@superwatto941 yeah
@@superwatto941 but be sure to check whether it has a key or not, just in case.
@@stewbanker ok thanks
So anyway what happened was I was like how is that my fault so anyway to make it worse I delete everything on my storage even handheld games like laptop games but when I delete everything off it didn’t help with the full game I had for digital download so when I completely fixed it it still froze so I never messed with it again so the only thing that messed up my computer was that full download it sucks so I stop messing with my old computer laptop and I go to Windows 10 up to the upgrade monitor.
why does that suck?
Console Chads stay winning
When I tried to load my game thing up on the PC a cup Wheatley froze the game dude I tried the second time but but I have to try to restart my computer and then load the game up it took five minutes for it to load back up and so did I tried to call the company who made the app and so they said it they told me they can’t do anything about the game war whatever date and also they told me to delete everything off my storage it was a stupid.
GOG is doing it right!
going all digital means devs are gonna be lazy wherein they release their unfinished games for people to test out the bugs and problems for them so they can patch it later with an update. Physical games back then didn't even need updates.
I hate this :/
I’m planning on switching from PS4 to PC but am kinda scared, that if I buy all the games through Steam and the company some day stops existing I fall lose all the games I paid for, which I don’t think is fair (and I would probably use the PC a my main game source)
So now I can’t even sell the copies if I buy the physicals? :/
It really depends on the physical copy, but like all modern PC physical copies are not sellable due to the key being linked to your account.
@@GamerAlexVideos ok thanks :)
Regardless of wether they can be sold or not, is there at least a guarantee that I can still play the games offline if a manage to buy a copy with a disk?
@@Irapa7 That still depends on the type of DRM being used, like if they give you a Steam key in the physical copy, you are still going to have to use Steam to authenticate the game and such.
@@GamerAlexVideos I understand 🤔 Thanks a lot for answering! :) 🙏
Basically if the physical PC games you are buying are from 2010 or more recent, then there's an extremely high chance they won't be resellable. Regardless though, no retailer I know of still sells second hand PC games anymore.
cracked games forever !
4 ever
Great video.. Thank you!
Awsomme informative video thanks
I bought Half Life 2, Battlefield 4, and Skyrim used at Goodwill and they are useless the code you get can’t be reuse because the previous owner already use it on their steam account. This been doing this since 2004?!!!! What a waste of my fucking money oh well at least I can hang a Skyrim Map on my wall. I stick to a digital for a late 2000s and later games from now on. DVD Art is beautiful but its bullshit that they don’t work when buy used.
oh my god GTA V, imagine Warzone
Good video but you made one mistake. Xbox 360 used HD-DVD format, not standard DVD. Bluray eventually made HD-DVD irrelevant since it was superior, but Xbox didn't like it because Sony owns the patent for Bluray.
The HD-DVD was only an addon to the Xbox 360. The disk drive in the Xbox 360 is DVD, not HD-DVD.
@@GamerAlexVideos You know what... You're right. I stand corrected.
this is why console disc games are better most don't need DRM
Where do you even find physical PC games? Other than $5 walmart games.
A lot of them I got off of eBay.
Physical version of GTA V barely even runs nowadays, all the updates to the launcher are designed for steam or epic. Just installed it today and I can't even play it
Skateboard park tycoon: Free Drm
Gta V: Drm Incluid
without physical ownership the purchase is useless
You should change the name of the video to Morden physical games sucks
but this is just about pc physical games, not physical games in general
Oh I meant modern physical pc games suck
. I agree also I’m a PC player too when I first started but when I switched over to you old Jane consuls when I bought my first PC title that came with a disk game video it was an MMO Adventure game But what happened I entered my code on one of my games and I tried calling Game Store beaver her that place store and they said when I activated my code to the to the to the to the webpage dude I talk to GameStop about it and they said dude I bought the game brand new and they said I could bring it back it was a four part disc in Stolley it was 100 GB. I tried to install it on a laptop it was insane dude you 20. Days for me to even see if it worked on my computer PC laptop But when I first tried to build it up
I completely switched to digital on g all platforms. The main reason why I kept physical copies was the resell value after finishing the game. But nowadays they won't offer more than 5 bucks for brand new games at game stop I live in the Netherlands and our gamestop equivalent told me the best they could offer for a brand new Red dead redemption 2 was 5 dollars😂 I spend more on public transport haha
you are supposed to sell publicly not to companies
Not everyone can afford broadband
If you can't afford broadband then, how can you afford a pc capable for gaming?
Digital Video Disc Discs
Ye
This is why I play on console
yes drm for PC games is always sucks....
cool!
Twisted metal!!!!
عراقي الinternet موصله للانتحار
Yeah, physical copies of games on pc are crap.
ah ! sigh ! another Gen Zer who can't Grasp the point of Physical Copies ! ok the only real issue AL may i call ya AL ? ok ! well AL the biggest good side and why Physical Copies Don't suck is that you actually OWN the game ! unless the online registry , the Activation keys or codes are no longer working ! in this case those phyical media is considered Lost ! due to no longer being able to play ! the Activation keys are just like why online games suck ! a reminder that the games still can be lost ! ...................... well too be fair Physical Copies of games are good ! however ! some are trash ! like again the online games ! they suck !! and come off as a digial scam or than enything ! ok have a nice day ! :)
If you watched the video, I literally covered those things you brought up...
@@GamerAlexVideos ah ok all good :)
Lol cd dvd is best
hey mofo steam locked me out for the second time
Disslike cus physical is better cus I can make real collection (sorry for bad english)
It is?
thats the reason physical games are the best
physical is bad since you run out of space in your house to put them. you can only have so much space.
@@Ralphunreal Consoles *cough*
This is why pc gaming is dead