Can't use the word "buy" if you can't actually buy the thing.
this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2026
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I would at least take a thumb drive or something ๐
$80 should at least get me a thumb drive !
Why? You having a physical thing doesn't make you own the product any more or less.
Not saying you should buy the game. I'm not going to. But not because of physical media, it's going to be the same old rubbish they've been peddling for over a decade, except even more focused on GTA Online.
Well I don't see Sony breaking down my door to take my physical copy of Sackboy: A Big Adventure.
If they want to screw you over they will, they still control the full software stack. If you make a backup of the game you downloaded that might also simply not be allowed back on the machine, at least in theory.
What makes you think Sony/publishers will take away your games in some way that they don't already without physical media?
A transferable licence on a hard copy definitely beats a non-transferable digital license for sure, but for any online game being able to play is obviously not only related to your local hardware and copy. We're definitely going down a shitty road, but it's not like we're not already on it.
Except it does. Because owning a digital copy legally speaking means you own a licence to a software, but not the software. Physical discs / flash drive / cartridges are owned, licenses can be revoked and are not owned in the same sense.
In most jurisdictions you are always just buying a license, physical media or not. Except now you have a physical thing that you need to protect from damage/loss because it's tied to your license. Depending on where you are you might not even be legally allowed to create a backup, especially if there's DRM involved.
The only advantage I see with physical media is the used market. Digital kills that, and I'm sure that that's the big reason Sony is doing it. They don't want to take your games, they want to stop you from buying someone else's.
The data on that is worthless with online DRM, and I'd bet that GTA 6 would require online activation regardless. The real enemy is DRM, disks being gone is just a symptom.
Games have also always been tied to licenses, the details are what matters really. A license to use a program that can no longer launch because a server is down isn't any more useful if you have the program on a disk.
It would be pretty simple to require an online account or some kind of activation key to use the software on that disc or drive, making the software on the drive essentially useless or even unreadable without the license. Congrats, you own a $0.10 piece of shiny plastic with some art on it.
Most game discs these days don't contain the latest version of your games anyways, they are usually a base package that immediately gets a huge update to work. Not 100% sure in the technicalities, but I would not be surprised if discs these days come with just a bunch of assets for the game and the actual game is downloaded as a "day 0 patch".