Physical Video Games Have Become Mere Paperweights. It’s a Disaster for Video Games as an Art Form

Video games have undergone a significant transition in recent years, similar to the changes seen in the music and film industries: the shift to digital formats. Many game releases are now available digitally, and streaming video game platforms have made a substantial impact in the industry. For instance, Xbox has positioned itself prominently with this strategy. While physical copies are still available, there’s an important caveat: the disc you purchase may contain little to no actual game data.

A recent example of this trend is DOOM: The Dark Ages.

The Doom controversy. Games are taking up an increasing amount of storage space. As a result, the current physical format, Blu-ray, has adopted double and triple-layer discs with capacities of 66 GB and 100 GB, respectively. Although these discs can hold a lot of data, the recent release of DOOM: The Dark Ages shows that the physical disc itself contains only a tiny amount of data. This is about 85 MB on PlayStation 5 and around 320 MB on Xbox Series X. That’s merely a drop in the bucket.

What does this mean? When you insert the disc into a PS5 or an Xbox Series X, the data you need to play the game isn’t stored on the disc itself. Instead, those 85 MB act as a trigger, instructing the console to download the actual game data from the company’s servers. In other words, the disc for the new DOOM serves as a launcher, a concept not new to the industry.

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Ubisoft leads the trend. Before Bethesda’s latest release, every Ubisoft game seemed to come with its own share of controversies. The French company has produced some of the biggest titles in the industry in recent years, including Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Star Wars Outlaws, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Although not all of these games have performed well, they share one common requirement. An internet connection is needed to install them.

Physical copy? It’s not just that some games, like Gran Turismo 7, require a constant connection to Sony’s servers to access most of the content. Now, even purchasing a physical copy means you still have to download the game, leaving the box as little more than an object that takes up space on your shelf.

Other companies face similar issues. Titles such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl also follow this trend. While games like GTA: The Trilogy can be played with the content already on the disc, they’re often so buggy that playing them without a patch isn’t worth the effort. Additionally, games like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Hogwarts Legacy include only the beginning of the game on the disc, with the rest requiring a download.

One possible solution is to provide two discs, as seen with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but this approach also increases production costs for companies.

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Activism. This controversy has sparked a strong reaction from users. It’s not about opposing digital formats. Rather, it’s concerning physical discs that often come with minimal content, as the future of server availability is uncertain. This is a new challenge for the industry, exemplified by instances like Ubisoft shutting down the servers for The Crew. This rendered the game unplayable despite users having paid for it, either in physical or digital form.

To address this issue, initiatives such as Stop Destroying Videogames have emerged, urging authorities to implement laws that prevent companies from remotely deactivating games. Additionally, users have launched projects to help identify which games are fully playable from the disc and determine the extent to which downloads are necessary.

One example is the Does It Play? website, where users report on the status of physical versions of video games.

The big question. Amid the recent controversy surrounding the release of DOOM: The Dark Ages, a pressing question remains: What will happen to physical video games in the future? Owning an Xbox 360 title provides assurance that, as long as you have the console, you can play it now or even 20 years down the line. However, there’s no guarantee that Microsoft’s servers will still be operational in two decades to store your copy of DOOM.

This isn’t just true for nearly empty Blu-Ray discs. You should also consider Nintendo Switch 2 Game Key Cards, given that they function similarly.

Some hope. Platforms like Good Old Games allow gamers to purchase digital games. Users then receive an installer that enables them to install the game offline as many times as they want, without relying on servers. Even when games are withdrawn due to licensing issues, they remain yours forever if you’ve already bought them.

Additionally, companies have typically provided advance notice before closing servers for systems such as the Nintendo DS, Wii, and Xbox 360. This allows gamers to make necessary purchases before the games become unavailable and download them to the system’s storage or hard drive for future play.

However, Ubisoft and Steam have made it clear that digital games don’t truly belong to users. In contrast, physical games should be yours. If servers close in the future, time will tell what happens to disks that contain only a launcher.

In the end, this issue isn’t about being able to play your physical game in 20 years. It poses a threat to the preservation of video games as an art form, potentially causing many to disappear forever.

Image | Denise Jans

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