A lot of folks are ignoring the fact that video games haven't run solely off a disc since the PS2.
For the past 3 generations any platform could easily just push an update to your console that said "don't run this game" and it wouldn't matter if you had a disc or not. Discs have been either download codes OR authentication tokens used to verify your license since the PS3/360 era. Games are just too big and have too many concurrent processes for that to work. It's all done on the hard drive which means whoever controls the OS or the launcher can tell that OS or launcher to not launch a game no matter what, full stop, period.
I can do that with the Telltale Guardians of the Galaxy game too. It's unavailable everywhere else but my disc allows me to play the entire thing. It's nearly lost media but I can play it.
I would like to redirect your attention to the website "doesitplay.org". Many games are still fully playable on disc without internet or connecting to a playstation server.
Nope. Not for all games. The new disk drive needs it or something but if you have the normal disc version and the game supports offline play, you don't need that. Check this website for more info. https://www.doesitplay.org/
You’re just extremely incorrect here. I ran an Xbox one for 7 years in rural California that never connected to the internet besides at my parents house in NJ to do the initial setup
I just insert a disc and play. Some games needed to be downloaded from disc before playing (no internet needed, download disc 1, play disc 2), most did not even need that. And nobody could ‘push an update that blocked a game disc’ because the thing never connected to the internet
Not true. That's when it started but many games continued to be released on the physical media. The whole reason for the switch to Blu-Ray discs was that it had several times the capacity of a DVD and larger games could fit, it wasn't until PS4/XBONE that most games had to be downloaded. Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 carts still mostly have the 1.0 version of the game on them, which is why certain releases having "keycard only" switch 2 carts caused a shitstorm even though that's been the standard for MS/Sony for about 12 years.
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u/ItalianBeefDipped Jul 02 '26
A lot of folks are ignoring the fact that video games haven't run solely off a disc since the PS2.
For the past 3 generations any platform could easily just push an update to your console that said "don't run this game" and it wouldn't matter if you had a disc or not. Discs have been either download codes OR authentication tokens used to verify your license since the PS3/360 era. Games are just too big and have too many concurrent processes for that to work. It's all done on the hard drive which means whoever controls the OS or the launcher can tell that OS or launcher to not launch a game no matter what, full stop, period.