Xbox gives Gamer Social Club an exclusive statement regarding their policy on “minimum print“ limits for Xbox physical games
GL: "Staff writer Shaz reflects on his small library of physical games he's kept throughout the decades, and how a recent move made him nostalgic."
I lost my drive for collecting physical games due to many discs lacking the whole complete game. Instead, of collecting games I started collected figurines.
I am a collector have a room dedicated with a couple original arcade cabinets, physical game library, old and new consoles and controllers backlit with LED lighting. It’s very cool to have but with emulation being so strong and prevalent, I sometimes feel foolish because the hobby is expensive and like another said, the full game is not always on the disc. Could probably spend more wisely but I enjoy it.
Most games are usually on disc still. Of course you got you publishers that are hit and miss, Activision, ubisoft, ea, Microsoft, where the rest of the game needs downloaded.
While we were so hoping to not have to update owners of the console physical Deluxe Edition with any further news of delay, we’ve now run into more production issues which means that players who pre-ordered their PS5 North America copy that was expected to ship later this month, will now have to wait until July before they can get their hands on them.
Got that email like 2 weeks ago. Tbh I'm not tripping. I understand sht happens. I'm just glad they changed their minds on the physical release
I with you. I got the email is well. Happy to eventually own a physical copy and glad it’s not digital only.
Physical gaming media needs to continue to be Part of the conversation imo
Physical games are the foundation of the argument. Every time, a digital game dies, physical gaming is brought up.
I will go digital if I have to if there is no physical port. I believe in a sense of owner ship and in the picture the collection collectors like to show and brag about their collections. Unlike digital which if a studio loses the license the game gets pulled from all digital formats like when Activision lost the license to the Transformers games. I own Transformers Fall and War for Cybertron physical. meaning I can still play them any time I want. I know they can still be accessed digitally on the account if a person bought them. But new players can't do that and if the account gets hacked or banned then a person is screwed on those digital games. Also I have found that the physical cousins tend to go cheaper then digital which rarely goes dirt cheap. I bought KH3 new physically at Best Buy for $10 I think it still full price on Playstation. Stores want to get rid of those games whether thrift stores, box stores, even pawnshops. I hate digital there is no sense of owner ship all I am doing is buying a license and if the game is crap then I am screwed out of that money. If I get the physical port and the game is crap I can trade it in towards another games. Can't do that with digital games. And there are countries if a certain game only comes out in Asia or Australia and doesn't hit North America whether digital or physical I can still import the game. I imported Summer Lesson from Asia so I can play it because Namco did not release it to North America. Hence why physical is better yet again. And physical was also great because I could by certain Xbox games cheap to play them on my XB1. But games going strictly digital only will only hurt the game. I would buy Alane Wake 2 but no disc no sale. As for Hellblade 2 again no disc no sale in my books. If games ever go strictly to digital only I am done with gaming I will only stick to older consoles.
Agreed. I just don't see why physical games need to go anywhere. If I have to be charged a little extra for what I want I don't mind I'm willing to as I know there's cost involved. Physical is better in every way except having to get up to switch a disc(which is just a bs reason if I ever heard one). There's room for both formats stop trying to kill physical.
While physical games are a tangible item with resale value, often what you are paying for now, is the license to play the software, which can be rescinded by the publisher. Furthermore, since the 7th generation of consoles, there has been a culture of releasing games with bugs and glitches, with the mentality of, we can patch it later, sometimes to the point of games having day 1 patches larger than the game itself. Hell, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 only had the tutorial on the disc, Truth is, once you lose access to the digital updates to a lot of modern games, dating back to when the whole launch now patch later stuff started, you could be left with an incomplete game with game breaking glitches and bugs.
6th gen gaming and back are golden though.
Just out curiosity. If I'm offline and I install one of my many disc based ps5 games and begin to play it OFFLINE. Can the publisher still take away the license to play? 🤓
I guess not but without going online and getting the game's updates, you could be playing a version that you can't complete due to game breaking bugs or something.
I wonder how many people set their PS5s offline, when Sony was deleting people's Stellar Blade demos they accidentally released early, so they wouldn't lose it.
Ye, I know how it goes smh. Still have PT on my PS4 lol. But ye, that's why I don't purchase digitally. Makes it even easier for them to do those types of things.
Yes, physical games are unfinished products and the developers decided it’s better for them. We can’t fight it. I embrace digital now and decided physical isn’t worth it anymore as they are incomplete. It’s the digital age, it’s how things are. We have fun for the moment and then move forward. There is no future for which any moment could accommodate the digitals of the past. The OS changes, and we all have to move with the times. The best way to see it is to pay for the moment, and leave it at that. Look at video games as a movie. You pay for enjoyment at that time. Which can also save us money from hoarding games on the cheap if we decide we won’t use the software. I feel the backlog is a bigger issue than game preservation. If u r worried about preservation, they will play on you to own backlogs at your expense, and I will bet most of us won’t even play a fraction of our library.
Speaking of, there's this little movement happening for "The Crew". If any of y'all own the game then i suggest you take a look at Ross Scott's video and pitch in on getting the ball rolling.
The least they could have done is release a patch to enable offline play but it's obvious they're just trying to push people to buy the sequels.
XB may no longer impose a minimum print order... but that doesnt mean the publisher / distributor cant. Given the choice of platforms that a physical game could sell through on, XB has to be somewhere at the bottom. Im not saying all XB owners no longer buy physical, but if the game is out for GP, chances are it gets played there by users who choose to just play instead of buy. And if they do like it enough to buy, they may still buy it on another platform where physical releases are much more prominent. Most likely switch and PS.
D) Microsoft is lying to you.
E) They don't have an official policy, they just deny requests on other grounds for predicted small sellers.
And who even cares? Xbox accounts for single digit percents physical of sales even in the best of cases. Heck, their total sales across all formats often is single digit.
There can't be any significant amount of indie developers even looking to publish physically across all devices in 2025 much less Xbox. Even things like Limited Run Games almost universally has skipped Xbow citing lack of sales potential.
There is zero you or Microsoft can say that will convince me that their goal for the future isn't completely devoid of physical and ownership.
IMO: Taking Microsoft at the face value of their words seems like a huge mistake, they are going to tell you whatever they want the public to hear regardless of the truth.
i absolutely believe the indie devs, they have more to lose than bigger ones. so why would they even lie.
theres a reason why most games on xbox are digital only.