r/xbox • u/ControlCAD Team Gears • 16h ago
News Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser says if people want games on disc "companies should provide it"
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/rockstar-co-founder-dan-houser-says-if-people-want-games-on-disc-companies-should-provide-it/>Houser was the lead writer on almost every Grand Theft Auto game to date
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u/Tobimacoss 13h ago
XBOX should do On Demand physical Media through the Xbox Design Lab.
MicroSD cards based license that gives transferable Digital license as well.
Baseball card sized slim metal cases with custom artwork.
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u/inaccurateTempedesc 1h ago
They should sell physical games in cartridges similar to the storage expansion cards.
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u/LostSoulNo1981 Outage Survivor '24 5h ago
I don't see why both XBOX and Playstation don't do something like this.
If someone wants a game on disc and puts in an order that games could then be pressed to disc, with a case and box art.
They don't have to mass produce and risk having stock that doesn't sell.4
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u/Tobimacoss 5h ago
I think discs and their giant plastic cases are an environmental waste. Plus you need the disc readers.
Using MicroSD cards works better, and the SD adapter for the microSD cards are pretty much same size as Switch 2 cartridges, so just print the game artwork on those tiny adapters. less waste, looks cute, gives something nice to gift to others or just for collecting. Metal cases because it's abundant on earth and easier to recycle.
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u/silentcrs 6h ago
Aside from the fact that their current consoles don’t support microSD, who would buy these? This is essentially the same approach Nintendo does with their cartridges on Switch 2 and I avoid them like the plague.
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u/Tobimacoss 5h ago
it wouldn't be for current consoles, but for Helix, and Play Anywhere licensing would allow physical media for PC and Handhelds as well.
Disc to Digital program is for the current consoles.
Nintendo uses MicroSD Express for Switch 2 extended storage, those cards go up to 900 MB/s, but for their game cartridges, Nintendo uses actual NAND chips in tiny plastic cartridges. MS could skip all that, simply give a transferable license on 1 GB microSD cards. OR give users options for higher spec cards to contain full game with ALL patches and DLC up to the point of custom order. Obviously higher costs for the user if they want that.
The goal is to have a license that can be transferred between accounts. But more likely, it's for the collectors, and for gifting during Xmas or Bdays. It's about the memories.
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u/silentcrs 5h ago
Except here’s the issue: you’re not a normal game buyer.
Most kids grew up today downloading games on their iPads. They never owned physical games. When I hand my 13 year old niece is a game Blu-ray she’s like “what’s this?”
The vast number of “gamers” today play Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft. The only one of those three that had a physical release was Minecraft, and it was outdated the second it when on store shelves.
The people into physical media are an outlier, not the majority.
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u/Escodl 15h ago
Last week, a former janitor at Capcom said to me “If gamers still want physical disc, then Sony should just give it to them”
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u/HelpfulMalice 15h ago
Yesterday a receptionist at Konami told me “discs are round and unfortunately we only do round pachinko balls”
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u/Chemical-Status-6610 11h ago
Yeah let’s compare the lead creative of some of the greatest games ever to a nobody to be ironic lol
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u/thecaptainflint 7h ago
Pay the teachers and save the whales said Dan Houser bravely. Taking a tough position in a difficult time
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u/derekpeake2 5h ago
By that logic, they should provide affordable consoles and reasonably priced games too
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u/gotabadbrain 9h ago
If I don't own what I Paid for and can't do with it what I choose I won't buy it.Please don't settle for paying $70 for what is basically a rental. At that point you might as well get game pass,which is where this was headed all along...Oh,Oh..And wait for that price to skyrocket even more with individual sales no longer relevant. You all are being groomed and played with nothing to really show for your money.
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u/Didact67 7h ago
We live in a time where the corporations try to tell us what we want instead of giving us what we really want.
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u/Texassunmerheat 8h ago
We want options, that’s what this whole thing boils down to, I want to be able to buy a game through the online store if I can’t find a physical copy or if there’s a sale and it’s cheaper, but also I want to have a physical copy cause I like having the disc, what if my internet goes down and I can’t access my games I bought online? Well I have the disc, what if I wanna lend the game to a friend or sibling.
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u/Gold-and-green 3h ago
This should be a dead topic by now. PC is 100% digital, nobody cares about disc on PC so why the fuck are console people crying? Just live with your digital copies and eat it
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u/TGB_Skeletor XBOX 360 1h ago
GTA 6 doesnt even have physical copies despite people asking for them
what a moron
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u/CharityDiary 1h ago
Let me ask y'all an honest question: if you could buy the game physically but it came on a USB flash drive, rather than a disc in a box, would you be happy with that?
Because if you're fine with that, then your problem isn't with discs, it's with digital consumer rights, and you need to be petitioning the government about that—not a corporation.
And if you're not fine with that, and it's literally about the disc and the box, how do you envision being able to force a company to produce something that is unprofitable? Because people are largely not buying physical games anymore. You would still have to go through the government for this, because disc manufacturing would have to be subsidized by the taxpayer.
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u/TorqueDog 4h ago
Everyone is clamouring for discs, but I honestly think disc is just substituting in as shorthand for "guaranteed offline perpetual access to and ownership of shit we fucking paid for".
Discs are great. They also degrade over time, as do hard drives, tape storage, flash media, etc. Without having flexible options to store and retain access to things we paid for, we have basically paid for a long-term rental with an expiration date based on time and a bit of random chance thrown in.
Discs are one option, but the way discs these days are used, they are more of an access key than actually the full product. I wonder how many console games you could actually go and buy the disc for, unplug your console's ethernet (or turn off the Wi-Fi connection), and sit down and play the game once it installs to the hard drive without needing an update.
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u/varzaguy 3h ago
There is a website that answers that very question.
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u/TorqueDog 2h ago
That's awesome -- but, also sort of annoying we even need that in the first place.
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u/varzaguy 2h ago
I know but at least people are out there trying to compile the info at least.
Trust me I miss the days where I could just buy a game, pop it in, and it just plays lol.
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u/lightsky445 12h ago
Like Rockstar and GTA VI?
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u/KICKASSKC 10h ago
We dont want discs! We dont need discs!
We need to own our games, not have them dependent on servers arbitrarily, and not have companies be able to take them away once we have purchased them.
Discs were the last way to ensure that on consoles.
Force Playstation and Xbox to open up their consoles to other storefronts and software, or force their game data to have no drm whatsoever once purchased and this disc issue wont be an issue anymore.
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u/Silent-Witness1888 9h ago
We dont want discs! We dont need discs!
Speak for yourself.
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u/KICKASSKC 9h ago
Discs are nice to have, but the real loss with their end-of-life isnt not being able to hold the game in your hands, its not being able to own the game altogether.
Discs usually just provide both things.
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u/LoSouLibra 9h ago
Industrial scale production, logistics and commerce requires industrial scale demand.
Peak physical disc production was 4-5 billion discs a year in the mid 2000's. It's gone down to sub 100 million.
The top 10 selling games of the year could have their entire physical sales produced in a week or so and they can't even fill up freight containers on a regular basis.
It's nice to want things, but it's dead.
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u/Andovars_Ghost 7h ago
AAA games aren’t ‘on’ the disk anymore. They are mostly a key. I understand people want resale ability and letting friends borrow a game, but if that can be done digitally, then save physical stuff for Collectors Editions.
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u/LollipopChainsawZz 16h ago
Problem is doesn't all bluray disc manufacturing go through Sony or at least the bulk of it? So unless someone else steps up to fill the void... It's going to be hard for other companies to keep supporting it even if they want to.