Some people collect stamps. Others collect disc cases with pretty artwork and 1,32 GB of data on them. The Outer Worlds 2 This is no exception. Anyone who thought the PS5 disc of the RPG would be a tangible piece of gaming history will instead get a nostalgic reminder of what "physical media" used to feel like.
Because the disc itself contains… well, almost nothing. To be precise, 1,32 GB – that's less than a medium-sized indie patch, like… a user X The rest, a whopping 71,6 GB, has to be downloaded from the internet before anything will work. Without this download, the disc remains a shiny coaster with the Microsoft logo.
When Microsoft says "retail", they actually mean "streaming".
This is no longer a slip-up, but a new form of humor. Indiana Jones and the Great CircleDownload required. DOOM: The Dark AgesLikewise. Now The Outer Worlds 2Microsoft seems to be releasing physical products to remind us how pointless physical releases have become.
And the best part: After the 71GB download marathon, you can then play the game offline. Provided, of course, that you were online beforehand. Sounds absurd? Welcome to modern game distribution, where the word "disc" is nothing more than marketing nostalgia.
The truly ironic thing is that the disc itself isn't the problem; it could contain everything. Publishers just don't. Why? Because patches, day-one updates, and version 1.002 have simply become too convenient. Or, to put it more bluntly: because they can.
Premium edition? Yes, please – for $100 of nostalgia!
Those who want the full experience will have to dig deeper into their pockets. The Outer Worlds 2 The premium edition costs around $100, the normal version The price was previously reduced.Not this one. Instead, you get four days of early access and the satisfying feeling of personally co-financing Microsoft's data privacy policy.
Of course, the game will probably be good in the end. But anyone buying a disc expects more than a 1GB sticker with license text. Perhaps this is the point where we should finally be honest: Physical games today are just digital downloads in packaging.
I used to like discs. I liked inserting them without wondering if the game was actually on there. Today, every box is a little puzzle, or rather: a QR code on shiny plastic.
Perhaps we should simply accept it: Microsoft's new collector strategy is to sell us "digital experiences" on analog discs. Or, as modern marketing terms would probably call it: “Sustainable Content Distribution Experience”.
Disc will always be the best format for me… that way you can lend out a game or even resell/give it away if you don't like it anymore.
Microsoft/Xbox, with its underhanded attitude, is unfortunately superfluous.
They're simply ripping off the customers. Just like with Indiana Jones.
No data on the disc = no purchase. I did the same with other Microsoft titles. I have so many games that I won't miss them. Microsoft is dead to me.
''Publishers simply don't do it. Why? Because patches, day-one updates, and version 1.002 have become too convenient. Or, to put it more clearly: because they can.
No. Honestly, I think they're doing it because they want a digital-only future, and in my eyes, that's tantamount to sabotaging retail. The same thing happened with Nintendo and their game key cards…
It seems like a ploy to give customers something physical while clearly conveying that digital and online channels are still essential. It's an intermediate step towards going completely digital… they know perfectly well that plenty of people wouldn't buy their stuff if it were ONLY available digitally… by releasing these fake retail versions, they're essentially appeasing their critics, because many will cave in and buy it after all… the next step will be no retail at all.This should be boycotted
Consoles are dead anyway… so…
Consoles are dead…what moon are you living on?
Okay, I see it differently... Consoles are still selling, but consoles in the traditional sense are dead.
Today's consoles are company-owned mini PCs that don't even come close to being a real console.
Download everything, games only as downloads, day 1 patches, discs that only contain part of the data, etc.
Consoles are obsolete… Anyone who continues to buy consoles is supporting Sony or Microsoft, but they essentially have a limited, lite PC at home that can't even begin to do what a real PC can, and has many disadvantages.
Many people don't want to believe it, but that's how it is.
Hammer exclusive games, custom architecture, plug and play, optimized games, retail versions that actually deserve the name… all of that is gone now.
Now they're even selling consoles without a disc drive; Sony started this €80 nonsense, and every PS3 controller is laughing at the battery life of a PS5 controller xD
Backwards compatibility is always a gamble (with new generations), and even then, things don't always run smoothly.
Playing online also costs money, and if we only have digital games, thousands of euros will be stuck on a generation that will be outdated after a few years, and where you don't even know if you can take your games with you to the next console…
There are no more advantages, since the few exclusive games are all released for PC and are always cheaper there, and run better on a good PC... even on a mid-range PC, because you can always adjust the settings to your liking and "tweak" the games to suit your needs.
I hope that was less moon-like.
But even if I buy a full-price game every few weeks for €80, I'll never reach the cost of a PC within a single console generation. Tower, desk, monitor, input devices… that can easily cost €3-4 if I want something decent. And the €75/year I pay for online gaming doesn't even get me close to the cost of a PC. And as for backward compatibility, I can't play every old game on my PC under Windows 11. There are limitations there too. The PC is often touted as the holy grail. But the fact that there are also hurdles and frustrating processes to overcome is conveniently forgotten.
The argument that a console "can't even come close" to what a PC can is, in my opinion, dubious if you're only talking about gaming. I don't want to do anything else with my console except that. What exactly can't the console do? Ray tracing? Any other fancy graphics features that are only visible/activatable with limitations? If someone thinks seeing reflections in puddles is worth thousands of euros, that's fine by me. To each their own.
At the end of the day, you can discuss it however you like. It's ultimately a matter of taste. I switched from PC to console back then because many things bothered me. PCs are more expensive, there's more fiddling around, Windows is the biggest piece of malware in the world, you need extra space for the computer, and so on. A console doesn't have any of that. On the other hand, there are no mods (with a few exceptions), less power... but that's okay with me.
But saying consoles are dead is wrong. Sales figures are enormous. And Microsoft, with its defunct retail CDs, is a prime example of what not to do. Hundreds of games are released with standard data pre-loaded. Consoles without a disc drive are available as an option, not the only one. Consoles will always remain relevant as less powerful mini-PCs because the target audience is far too large. Not everyone wants to spend a lot of time figuring out the device they want to play on. Sure, the console market is changing, but it's not going to die anytime soon.
By the way: you're always supporting some greedy corporation or other. It doesn't matter whether you buy Xbox, PS, or PC. We all live in a capitalist system. We all consume, so we're also lining someone else's pockets. This isn't something only console gamers do.
I understand that people who only or primarily play on consoles won't be able to handle such a statement and will have to somehow "justify" consoles for themselves. I used to be like that too, and I'm quite self-aware...
A PC can do so much more than a console; I could write a novel about it, referring to your statement that it simply can't do more when it comes to pure gaming.
Let's start by saying that it feels like 90% of games run on the Unreal Engine 5 and perform really badly, with flickering in the lights and shadows everywhere, and the image sometimes being grainy, etc.
Then you have to choose between performance, quality, etc. on the console. Sometimes there are more presets, sometimes not.
You have very little freedom to customize things yourself, and games are terribly optimized these days.
Everything can be customized on the PC.
You can play in full HD, but you have to crank up the shadows and lighting to maximum. You can adjust the draw distance, customize the entire control scheme, and disable or mod things like chronological aberration, blur, filters, etc. All this post-processing nonsense ruins entire games because it's used excessively, especially in UE5, to mask problems, and hardly anyone wants that in their game. On consoles, you're usually forced to have it.
A lot of things usually don't work, and there are a LOT of games that are practically unplayable with the pre-made setup.
You can use any controller; if you play a lot of games and not just the latest one, it saves a lot of power on your PC in the long run.
Your argument about the monitor and the table is nonsense… You also need a TV, a table/cabinet, etc. for the console. You could also say it costs almost €1000 for the console, €80 per controller, over €100 a year for PS+, €800-€2000 for a TV, €1000 for a TV stand/cabinet, etc… that's how you make everything seem expensive in that list 😉
You can continue using your PC desk or desktop for the next 50 years, keep using your monitor, or simply connect your PC to your TV. You can play online for free, you can use any controller, new or old, you'll save a lot of money on games, and you won't have to pay for upgrades or next-gen versions.
By the way, you can also get a PC for €1500-2000 that can easily keep up with a PS5 Pro and will even deliver stable performance when the PS6 is released.
A PS5 Pro will hardly be relevant in a maximum of 3 years (more likely 1-2 years) and is already pointless now with its problematic PSSSR.
Back then, I had a very powerful gaming PC until the PS3 came out, when I realized I'd spent way too much money on the hardware components. Sure, a PC can do more than a console, and that's a good thing, but your comparison is flawed from beginning to end.
Firstly, you can't compare consoles to PCs; that would be like saying pizza is better than doner kebab. Some people simply prefer the doner kebab to the pizza. Technically, you could also say that you could put the doner kebab on top of a pizza and still have a pizza. Does the doner kebab pizza taste better then? Certainly for some, but not for others.
A console is for gaming, which makes the argument that you can do more on a PC obsolete. Yes, you can mod games and shape them to your liking, but as a console gamer, do I even want to do that?
Okay, you can connect any controller to your PC, but you can also do that easily with a console these days, thanks to USB dongles. For example, I use my DualSense with the Switch 2 thanks to the 8BitDo USB dongle because I didn't want to spend €90 on a "Pro" controller.
Generally, I'm fed up with messing around with anything in Windows or a Linux distribution, as the time and effort involved are far too high. Just the fact that when a game doesn't run properly, you first have to troubleshoot the problem and then find a solution to why something isn't working as expected is incredibly frustrating. Not to mention that most AAA games on PC are just carelessly thrown together.
I understand wanting to delve into PC gaming, but you also have to accept that there are console gamers like me who have housework after work and then the kids need to go to bed. At that point, I simply don't feel like spending two hours on the PC, fiddling with its configuration instead of just playing.
I can understand the point that consoles aren't consoles in the traditional sense. The last console I really used was the PS3 with its peculiar Cell architecture.
Incidentally, PCs are now also digital-only devices. Without Steam and Epic, you'd be lost these days. Sure, you could install a drive, but that costs extra. At the same time, there are no retail versions of games available for PC.
The claim that games are cheaper on PC is only partially true. As soon as you buy games through a key reseller, you're entering a gray area. There have been numerous reports in the past of key resellers buying credit card information and using that information to purchase game keys.
I'll stick with my consoles and you're welcome to stick with your PC, to each their own. But I can't let anyone write nonsense trying to make me feel stupid for being a console gamer.
Honestly, I find such news on a tabloid level more superfluous than any disc. Especially since discs can increase in value, which digital media, and especially such news, cannot.
True, discs can have collector's value, but the PS5 version of The Outer Worlds 2 is more like a fancy coaster containing 1,32 GB of game. Our article isn't about the value of physical discs for collectors, but rather the practical uselessness of discs as a medium when almost everything has to be downloaded.
Reading the title of the article, one gets the impression that you support this rather than critically examining it.
Discs are obsolete, why? Just because you see it that way?! I see it differently; I'm for more discs, more retail.
Perhaps one should also explain the advantages of retail to the discerning leather goods consumer and draw the attention of the younger target group to how important it is not only to buy things digitally, etc.
Absolutely right, it really sounds like someone would support it and want to make it more widely known.