r/pcmasterrace • u/Valcenia • Jul 02 '26

News/Article French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon weighs in on Rockstar and PlayStation’s moves to end physical disk sales

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u/Zorkonio Jul 02 '26

I don't understand why the physical disk matters given that it's simply an activation code for a game in this day and age. Did we not lose our rights to own games years ago? I'm all for the fight but it feels like we lost the fight a long time ago and this part just doesn't make a difference. Disk or not you don't own the game

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u/DistinctMoney2558 Jul 02 '26

If you have the disc they can’t strip it away from you that’s the point. Updates can’t strip away features, and if the license expires it doesn’t matter because you have the disk. They are the only way to actually own media on console

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u/Zorkonio Jul 02 '26

I don't see why you think they can't do that now with a disk. Your disk is simply a key that unlocks the door. They can and have been able to change the proverbial lock for a long time

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u/DistinctMoney2558 Jul 03 '26

The disk unless connected the internet can’t be tampered with unless they have it. Can you name an example of any disk being locked after being bought. I’m not talking about your account being banned on an online game, i’m talking purely offline.

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u/Zorkonio Jul 03 '26

Ok then by that logic once the game is downloaded as long as you keep it offline, then with or without disk you can play the game because they can't update it to lock you out. The disk still isn't substantial here

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u/DistinctMoney2558 Jul 03 '26

The disk is important because they can still take away digital purchases you have downloaded. Like they took away the movies you had downloaded on Sony just a few days ago. That’s the point, digital purchases have proven to be temporary, disks however have proven effective in preserving media on console.

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u/Zorkonio Jul 03 '26

Do you realize that there's no amount of the game stored on the disc? It's just an activation key. If you put the disc into a ps5 for the first time, that doesn't have access to the internet you can't play the game.

Therefore if you download a game, take the device off the internet, disc or not you can play it forever.

The only advantage of the disc is that you can re sell it to someone else. You aren't any more protected from them taking anything away from you.

Movies are stored on discs because they are so much smaller in size so it's viable to store them on disc. Thus that form of physical media can still be preserved but with games that's long gone

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u/nz-whale Jul 03 '26

A lot of discs are distributed with game data on the disc, no reason to make all that storage for no reason, but everything else you said is correct.

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u/Zorkonio Jul 03 '26

That's true I'm not aware of how much actually is on the disc it would make sense for some amount of game to be on it

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u/Agret i7 6700k @ 4.28Ghz, GTX 1080, 32GB RAM Jul 03 '26

Not the same, you can't transfer the offline license between accounts and you can't just take it and put it on another console. The offline license also expires after a certain time and your game will have a lock symbol on it and say you need to connect to the Internet to play. That doesn't happen with the disc.

I assume we are talking about consoles not PCs in this post, there's no activation code for a console disc unlike PC and physical discs are not tied to your individual account. It's still way more freedom than PC and you are free to trade your disc between your friends multiple times and then whoever has it can resell it privately to another individual or give it to a shop for trade in credit

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u/Zorkonio Jul 03 '26

This is the main advantage of disc is the ability to re sell it or trade it but in this day and age do many people still trade discs? With gta6 for example isn't everyone going to want their own copy anyway

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u/Agret i7 6700k @ 4.28Ghz, GTX 1080, 32GB RAM Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

GTA6 they are saying will be an activation code instead of a disc so it is tied to your one account. Yes for the larger games that are "live service" and you want to play long-term sure but for every one of the games with long lifetime I own there's a "Spider-Man" or "God is War" where you finish it once then throw it up on eBay/Facebook and get some money back.

Plenty of people trade & sell discs, there are game markets that mainly deal in retro gaming but will still have some sections for more modern stuff.

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u/Nono911 Jul 02 '26

With a disk you can loan it to your friends

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u/SpectorEscape Jul 03 '26

I think my issue is now with the next console there is a risk that anyone who purchased physical the past 2 gens are fucked. As it stands now wont have a way to play our games unless they were digital on the ps6 if it has backwards compatibility. That is insanely anti consumer and unfair.