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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Microsoft Was Right, Video Game Discs Are Stupid

walterbates said:

1 - Microsoft was planning to make discs practically irrelevant. The idea was to make the Xbox One almost entirely reliant on digital downloads, and if discs were used, they would essentially just be vessels to install the game, and they would prove you had the “rights” to it.

2 - Now, the process of getting a game on a disc is not simply “pop and play.” Rather, you have to go through a lengthy installation/patching process that can often take nearly as long as it would if you were doing a digital download. But with a digital download, most games allow you to pre-load titles ahead of release, so you don’t have to muck through that on launch day. Not so with discs you acquire on launch day, and you will go through that process regardless.

Most of these games will still take up a huge chunk of your hard drive, even if you’re playing them “from the disc.” And most of the time, despite leaving a load of GBs on your console after an install, you will still have to pop in the disc when you want to play.

3 - With how online-connected most games are now, in the future, you may not be able to play them at all with no servers. I’m not saying that’s right, but that’s reality, and it’s a separate sort of problem that has nothing to do with discs vs. digital. Both versions of the game will be affected the same way.

1 - What pissed people off was the always online requirements and DRM. It's not like people are overly attached to discs, but to get rid of them we would have to deal with DRM.

2 - I bought Arkham Knight some weeks ago. It's a 45 GB game and I was playing it in 5 minutes. It wasn't a day 1 purchase, so no preloading would have helped here. Of course, there was a sizeable patch, but I was already playing it before it finished downloading, so you got a decent advantage here. I also had to delete some installs of older games to get an extra space (yes, I really need a 2 TB HDD here, working on it) and I won't have to download them again to play.

3 - Don't think so. Recently, we had games like Destiny and The Crew that require an always online connection even if it's clearly not necessary to play every part of the game. This is an anti consumer practice and we have to fight against it. I have some hope that people really avoid some of this cases. There are a lot of games that can be played perfectly offline. In my collection: Arkham Knight, Killzone SF, InFamous SS, Metal Gear Solid V, Bloodborne, Driveclub, Knack, Fifa 14 and many others. Only Battlefront wouldn't be very usefull without internet connection (you could still play local survival co-op).



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Never had to wait more than 5min to start a game on PS4 on the disc... maybe your X1 is very bad on installing.



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Leadified said:
Cloudman said:
What the heck?! How long has it been that way? If it takes a long time to install the game even with the CD, it seems to defeat the purpose of even buying it physical. If it was like that with say, the Wii U, I would have gone digi long ago...

On the collection arguement thing though, I do keep whatever games I buy. I don't sell them back.

Unfortunately it has been an issue with the XBO since launch. You can speed it up by disconnecting from the internet I believe but it's still pretty slow.

I see. That's pretty ridiculous if it takes a long time to install. I find it weirder you still have to install it in the 1st place. What happened to poppin' in games and playing them??



 

              

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Bandorr said:
The more I read the article, the stranger it seems.

There is no way I could download a game that fast in under 3 hours. By the same point, there is no way it would ever take me 3 hours to install that game.

Isn't there a bug when "installing" a game, and "downloading" a patch at the same time that makes it take exponentially longer? I remember several people suggest you go "offline" to install something THEN download the patch for a game.

probably should have done that when i got the Destiny bundle it took forever to DL everything



Cloudman said:
Leadified said:

Unfortunately it has been an issue with the XBO since launch. You can speed it up by disconnecting from the internet I believe but it's still pretty slow.

I see. That's pretty ridiculous if it takes a long time to install. I find it weirder you still have to install it in the 1st place. What happened to poppin' in games and playing them??

I think it's due to faster transfer rates on the HDD compared to the disc so load times can be decreased. PS4 games install really fast so I'm not really sure why install times are so slow on the XBO in comparsion. I do know that it was something that Phil Spencer wanted to address but for now XBO owners have to just live with it.

I think the days of pop in and play, regardless if install times are fast or not, are limited mostly because launch patches have become so accepted and games are being released and then content is later added through patches.



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*Looks at my game disc collection*

Stupid? Hahaha, nope. Ownership is still king.



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WoodenPints said:
£37.11 vs £54.99, Digital is stupid and will remain so until they start selling digital copies at £29.99 but I doubt that will ever happen

How can Digital be more $$$ then retail? or was your example just a retail special happening? Digital is same price as retail in North America.



OdinHades said:
I only have internet with a data cap. Just 5 GB a month. If I used up all of that, I can get another 5 GB - for 20 €. So downloading a 50 GB game? That would be 200 €. Thanks, but no thanks.

Sound like your using your Cell phone plan? The division day 1 patch was 2GB. Time for you to get a better internet connection for console gaming. 



Da fuck it does? 1Gb fibre in here and still I frangsternate on the whole idea.



Ex Graphics Whore.

Ka-pi96 said:
yvanjean said:

How can Digital be more $$$ then retail? or was your example just a retail special happening? Digital is same price as retail in North America.

Notice he's using pounds not dollars. Digital have always been a complete rip off in the UK compared to physical prices.

£37.11 sounds like a retail special. Compare MSRP to digital price.