In a move that has once again sparked backlash within the gaming community, Sony now seems to be placing advisory stickers on PlayStation 5 consoles, warning players that physical games will soon be discontinued.
if i ever had any shred of interest remaining in buying a console, it’s gone now. do they think they’re going to be the netflix of video games? good luck trying to compete with steam…
You can jailbreak the console, but you have to be on system software at least couple of years old or so. And ofc do not connect it to the internet, then you can pirate all the games you want. Check out modded warfare channel on youtube, there are various exploits for ps3/4/5 and he explains how to do them well.
I was honestly rfully ready to be a sucker to buy a ps5 and gta6 on release day. Was ready for it. Money saved and set aside. All this anti consumer shit just made me not immediately.
I feel the same way you do. I’m okay with digital purchases on Steam because it’s basically a catalog of receipts I can point at if I eventually have to pirate something I bought, but I don’t have that option on a console. Well, I do, but it’s a huge hassle.
Yeah…that’s not how copyright works. Just because you bought the game, doesn’t mean pirating isn’t still illegal. If they’re going to catch you, that steam purchase means nothing.
That being said, I pirate all the time, because fuck 'em!
Unless it’s a super small indy team that would actually be hurt by my pirating. Them I’ll support. But Nintendo can fuck off with that anti-rom behavior. I don’t need to pay Nintendo continuously to play Super Mario World. I feel no pity or shame in pirating a game like that. That whole thing goes back to my whole previously mentioned policy on “fuck 'em!”.
I mean, I don’t think that Steam sells any physical media either.
Granted, Steam isn’t the only place to buy PC games, but I went looking in an earlier thread that was talking about the PS5 physical disc shutdown. I could think of one retailer, Matrix Games — they specialize in milsims — that still sold physical media. It looks like they shut that down last year, had a “last call” for orders for games on physical media.
Starting March 1st, 2025, Slitherine will no longer sell physical game manuals or physical copies of our games through our website. This marks the end of an era, and we understand how much these editions have meant to many of you over the years.
There is a trend away from Physical purchases to digital, and a decreasing number of new PC’s even have DVD drives and very few laptops meaning the potential market has been shrinking for years. This, combined with increasing delivery costs, environmental awareness, and more red tape on international deliveries, all combine to make it unviable.
For those who appreciate the tactile experience of a physical manual or a boxed edition, this is your final chance to secure a piece of wargaming history. You have until February 28th, 2025, to purchase from the remaining stock, after which these products will no longer be available.
Physical Editions Still Available
Here’s the full list of titles still available in physical format:
Combat Mission: Battle For Normandy
Combat Mission: Black Sea
Combat Mission: Cold War
Combat Mission: Final Blitzkrieg
Combat Mission: Fortress Italy
Combat Mission: Red Thunder
Combat Mission: Shock Force 2
Command: Modern Operations
Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa
Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm
Gary Grigsby’s War in the East 2
Gary Grigsby’s War in the West
Panzer Corps 2
Rule the Waves 3
Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe
Strategic Command WWII: World at War
Strategic Command: American Civil War
Strategic Command: World War I
The Operational Art of War IV
War in the Pacific: Admiral’s Edition
If you’ve been considering adding one of these titles to your collection, this is the time. Stocks are limited, and once they’re gone, they’re gone for good.
We thank you for your unwavering support and passion for wargaming. Together, we’ve kept the spirit of strategy alive, and we look forward to continuing this journey with you in the digital age.
And that wasn’t a large portion of their library — like, you couldn’t get physical-media versions of most of their games even then.
PC allows you to (mostly) own your games once you buy them, at least the offline functionality. Sure it’s legally still just a “license to play the game” but technically you can back up your Steam library, move it to a new PC, whatever. Steam can’t really “take the game back” from you (again, at least the offline functionality).
Meanwhile on console if Sony decides to remove some game from their store, well, that’s it. IIRC it will even become unplayable on your console if you have it downloaded.
Same difference as buying & downloading MP3/FLAC files vs subscribing to a streaming service.
Steam can’t really “take the game back” from you (again, at least the offline functionality).
I mean…sort of. Steam will only run in offline mode if you first run it in online mode and ask Steam to allow the machine to enter offline mode. I imagine that this is to keep people from simply installing games on many PCs and then taking them all offline.
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Yeah, sounds like a maximum of one host can be offline for an account, and I imagine that they fingerprint hosts.
Some games don’t require Steam to be running. Like, Steam just downloads them and launches them, and they still work even if you launch them without Steam running, don’t use Steamlib. For those, yes.
There are other PC game vendors who do explicitly support this mode of operation, like GOG.
They can be installed on multiple devices at once, yeah; but the only device a PS5 game can be installed to is a PS5. Which isn’t that different from not being able to install PC games to anything other than a PC.
And the cloud thing: Do you mean saving the game itself to reinstall it, in which the answer is “yes,” or game saves, which the answer would be “unfortunately, no. Storing saves on the cloud requires PS+?” I assume you mean the latter, but sometimes people on this site use weird definitions for what they mean, so forgive me for having to ask.
Which isn’t that different from not being able to install PC games to anything other than a PC
that’s true, except the difference being you connect the ps5 to a tv, right? or a monitor–either way the ps5 itself typically pretty much stays in one place. i buy a game once on steam, and install it on a desktop and a laptop. i start a game at home, the save game gets synced, and i pick up where i left off on my laptop whenever i get to where i’m going. without paying a subscription. a lot of people include a steam deck in that mix. that’s the advantage of all digital–buy it once, take it anywhere. or only on a ps5 you’re logged into
i don’t know what reason they gave for getting rid of discs, but the huge advantage of discs is that you can sell your games and/or buy used games. i’m doubting that sony will let you do that with digital copies–steam doesn’t even let you do that
all this to say it was a really dumb decision that absolutely shits on sony buyers–the more discs you’ve bought, the more you’ve just been shat on.
Their reasoning was that disk sales are only like, 6% iirc, of their game sales. It might cost more to produce them than it makes up for in sales.
And while you can’t install them to the device, since it’s just streaming them to my knowledge, there is the PS Portal device to play them on the go. It’s not a very well-liked device, tho; have no opinion myself as I’ve never even seen one IRL, let alone used one.
Barely anyone buys physical games on PlayStation though, that’s one of the reasons why they’re doing it. Physical games haven’t been a reason people have in large numbers have bought a PlayStation for for years.
if i ever had any shred of interest remaining in buying a console, it’s gone now. do they think they’re going to be the netflix of video games? good luck trying to compete with steam…
You can jailbreak the console, but you have to be on system software at least couple of years old or so. And ofc do not connect it to the internet, then you can pirate all the games you want. Check out modded warfare channel on youtube, there are various exploits for ps3/4/5 and he explains how to do them well.
I was honestly rfully ready to be a sucker to buy a ps5 and gta6 on release day. Was ready for it. Money saved and set aside. All this anti consumer shit just made me not immediately.
If anything became adamant in the last 1-2 decades: never play on release-day (or patch-day for multiplayer-titles) and never ever preorder.
Honestly really increased my interest a lot. Been shopping the local game stores. Thinking starting with a N64. But there a bunch of good options.
I’ve been on a DS/3DS binge lately myself. It’s so fun hunting hidden gems for good prices.
I love my Wii, it’s always immediately ready, has good haptics and some of the games are just awesome.
I feel the same way you do. I’m okay with digital purchases on Steam because it’s basically a catalog of receipts I can point at if I eventually have to pirate something I bought, but I don’t have that option on a console. Well, I do, but it’s a huge hassle.
Yeah…that’s not how copyright works. Just because you bought the game, doesn’t mean pirating isn’t still illegal. If they’re going to catch you, that steam purchase means nothing.
That being said, I pirate all the time, because fuck 'em!
Unless it’s a super small indy team that would actually be hurt by my pirating. Them I’ll support. But Nintendo can fuck off with that anti-rom behavior. I don’t need to pay Nintendo continuously to play Super Mario World. I feel no pity or shame in pirating a game like that. That whole thing goes back to my whole previously mentioned policy on “fuck 'em!”.
I mean, I don’t think that Steam sells any physical media either.
Granted, Steam isn’t the only place to buy PC games, but I went looking in an earlier thread that was talking about the PS5 physical disc shutdown. I could think of one retailer, Matrix Games — they specialize in milsims — that still sold physical media. It looks like they shut that down last year, had a “last call” for orders for games on physical media.
https://www.matrixgames.com/news/important-update-last-chance-to-purchase-physical-manuals-and-editions-before-march-1st
And that wasn’t a large portion of their library — like, you couldn’t get physical-media versions of most of their games even then.
PC allows you to (mostly) own your games once you buy them, at least the offline functionality. Sure it’s legally still just a “license to play the game” but technically you can back up your Steam library, move it to a new PC, whatever. Steam can’t really “take the game back” from you (again, at least the offline functionality).
Meanwhile on console if Sony decides to remove some game from their store, well, that’s it. IIRC it will even become unplayable on your console if you have it downloaded.
Same difference as buying & downloading MP3/FLAC files vs subscribing to a streaming service.
I mean…sort of. Steam will only run in offline mode if you first run it in online mode and ask Steam to allow the machine to enter offline mode. I imagine that this is to keep people from simply installing games on many PCs and then taking them all offline.
checks
Yeah, sounds like a maximum of one host can be offline for an account, and I imagine that they fingerprint hosts.
Some games don’t require Steam to be running. Like, Steam just downloads them and launches them, and they still work even if you launch them without Steam running, don’t use Steamlib. For those, yes.
There are other PC game vendors who do explicitly support this mode of operation, like GOG.
Huh, that’s fair. I mostly play non-DRM games (or I guess games which don’t check steamlib to start?) so never noticed this.
What do you mean the Netflix of video games? Because they’re going all digital? Like steam………?
exactly like steam. which has basically been the netflix of video games for many years. and now all of a sudden sony getting rid of discs.
does sony let you save games in the cloud for free? install games on multiple simultaneous different devices (even different OSs)?
They can be installed on multiple devices at once, yeah; but the only device a PS5 game can be installed to is a PS5. Which isn’t that different from not being able to install PC games to anything other than a PC.
And the cloud thing: Do you mean saving the game itself to reinstall it, in which the answer is “yes,” or game saves, which the answer would be “unfortunately, no. Storing saves on the cloud requires PS+?” I assume you mean the latter, but sometimes people on this site use weird definitions for what they mean, so forgive me for having to ask.
that’s true, except the difference being you connect the ps5 to a tv, right? or a monitor–either way the ps5 itself typically pretty much stays in one place. i buy a game once on steam, and install it on a desktop and a laptop. i start a game at home, the save game gets synced, and i pick up where i left off on my laptop whenever i get to where i’m going. without paying a subscription. a lot of people include a steam deck in that mix. that’s the advantage of all digital–buy it once, take it anywhere. or only on a ps5 you’re logged into
i don’t know what reason they gave for getting rid of discs, but the huge advantage of discs is that you can sell your games and/or buy used games. i’m doubting that sony will let you do that with digital copies–steam doesn’t even let you do that
all this to say it was a really dumb decision that absolutely shits on sony buyers–the more discs you’ve bought, the more you’ve just been shat on.
Their reasoning was that disk sales are only like, 6% iirc, of their game sales. It might cost more to produce them than it makes up for in sales.
And while you can’t install them to the device, since it’s just streaming them to my knowledge, there is the PS Portal device to play them on the go. It’s not a very well-liked device, tho; have no opinion myself as I’ve never even seen one IRL, let alone used one.
Steam is the Netflix of games? Huh?
maybe libby would be a better analogy? doesn’t matter. point is sony is doing nothing but removing reasons why someone should buy a ps5
Barely anyone buys physical games on PlayStation though, that’s one of the reasons why they’re doing it. Physical games haven’t been a reason people have in large numbers have bought a PlayStation for for years.