Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc • Hacker News Board

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#711

Post by altmanaltman » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 10:20 AM UTC

jerf wrote: post #260

altmanaltman wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the planned death of physical media for games, it will soon become impossible to do so. Like, Sony literally plans to stop making discs starting in 2028, and all games you buy will have to be digital only. GTA 6 is just giving a code in a box. It's really the end of times for physical media in a few years, maybe something can change if consumers push back but they likely will not if we are being realistic. https…

I don't think you're quite getting it. I'm saying, don't get in the box . "But the bait looks so nice!" Yes. Yes it does. Yes, you may have to sacrifice and not get some things you want in the moment. Our capitalistic overlords have demonstrated that they will absolutely abuse you to the maximum extent you permit. If you are willing to give everything to play GTA 6, then they will take it. The compensation is that th…

I don't even own a playstation. And yes, we are all slaves by that definition unless you live in the wilderness and do not rely on anyone or any state but the fact that you use a device and hackernews makes you as much a slave as someone who plays gta 6 by that definition. One should not engage with anything in the modern world lest they be a slave is a naive and impossible standard to hold, morally speaking.

I personally disagree that you must control your desires or get controlled by them. You can wish to change the world instead of being like "NO NOT THE BOX. MAMA DIDNT RAISE NO SLAVE" also.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#712

Post by inigyou » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 10:22 AM UTC

cogman10 wrote: post #533

jerf wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you're quite getting it. I'm saying, don't get in the box . "But the bait looks so nice!" Yes. Yes it does. Yes, you may have to sacrifice and not get some things you want in the moment. Our capitalistic overlords have demonstrated that they will absolutely abuse you to the maximum extent you permit. If you are willing to give everything to play GTA 6, then they will take it. The compensation is that th…

I generally agree, but I don't think it's wrong to mourn what is lost or to try and advocate politicians regulate and restore what was lost. Especially since the policy of "the customers own nothing" has been extending past video games in ways that are unavoidable. For example, John Deere locking down their tractors. Car manufacturers increasingly trying to turn everything into a subscription. I agree, the right acti…

The right action as a hacker is to liberate your products and open a service where you liberate other people's products.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#713

Post by altmanaltman » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 10:24 AM UTC

everdrive wrote: post #390

altmanaltman wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the planned death of physical media for games, it will soon become impossible to do so. Like, Sony literally plans to stop making discs starting in 2028, and all games you buy will have to be digital only. GTA 6 is just giving a code in a box. It's really the end of times for physical media in a few years, maybe something can change if consumers push back but they likely will not if we are being realistic. https…

How many games do you need in your life, though? I'd say the top 500 games on the GoG catalog would be more than a lifetime of gaming. That's not even including open source or rom sets.

How movies do you need in your life, how many books, how many paintings, how many plays? And yes it might be true for you that you never need to play more than top of 500 gog games but new games sell millions of copies which means millions of people do see the value in new games. You can disagree with that on principle but advocating people should only play top 500 gog because "that's all you need" is not a serious position.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#714

Post by altmanaltman » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 10:26 AM UTC

elzbardico wrote: post #437

altmanaltman wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the planned death of physical media for games, it will soon become impossible to do so. Like, Sony literally plans to stop making discs starting in 2028, and all games you buy will have to be digital only. GTA 6 is just giving a code in a box. It's really the end of times for physical media in a few years, maybe something can change if consumers push back but they likely will not if we are being realistic. https…

Read a book instead. It is not like you have to consume audiovisual media to survive.

No, you go play a video game instead. If we can just tell people what to do and expect them to follow, the world will be a dull place.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#715

Post by inigyou » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 10:28 AM UTC

egeozcan wrote: post #134

cautiouscat wrote: post #9

Gaming is heading in the same direction that TV, movies and music are. It’s a shame. I can invite my friends over, boot up my GameCube to play some Mario Kart Double Dash. As long as the console and disc are okay, I can (hopefully) do that until I pass away. These days? Not so much. I’ll never be able to be sure I can play GTA VI in twenty years. It just sucks not owning anything anymore. I know why they do it, it’s…

My son and we as his parents really love Bluey, but it's impossible to buy a DVD set here in Germany, with German dub, because Disney distributes it exclusively through their plus platform. There are many more examples like these. Very sad state of affairs.

You can download a DVD set, for free.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#716

Post by inigyou » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 10:29 AM UTC

horatioduke wrote: post #472

unfocso wrote: post #173

The absurdity is that back in gen-7 we had everything figured out: PS3 used the (free) servers only for matchmaking and all online games were hosted on the consoles themselves. The matchmaking servers are still up and working, and everybody plays with better latency thanks to the prominence of fast fiber. No internet? Games work offline and support LAN if you have a switch and a couple of consoles. In 2026 I can stil…

Seems like ps3 was kind of the sweet spot in terms of decent graphical capability, being allowed to actually own your games, patching, and online capabilities. Given the backlash we’re seeing towards the console giants and their desires to kill off physical media, I wonder if a console with the features mentioned above could be released today with any chance of being competitive? Does anybody know of any projects lik…

It doesn't matter because there wouldn't be any games released for that console. Large studios can make much more money by extorting the consumer.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#717

Post by inigyou » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 10:33 AM UTC

cyanregiment wrote: post #543

inigyou wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to be online to prove they currently will let you play it.

I should at least get equity on each login. After 1000 logins I get the source code. This is too much like rent, it's not fair.

It's jungle law. What are you going to do about it? You could pirate the game instead. If it isn't pirateable yet then you could be the first.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#718

Post by daemin » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 10:38 AM UTC

fryanyway_swe wrote: post #482

inigyou wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NT kernel was actually an IBM project, which got divorced from IBM because of contract stuff and Microsoft got to keep a copy. It grew out of VMS which was a heavyweight OS for DEC VAXen, which IBM acquired.

Well, somewhat. It has been a while since I read a book on NT kernel - "Showstopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft" NT kernel was "supposed" to run OS/2 apps and Windows apps. But the NT kernel is of MS making, NOT IBM. The connection to VAX/VMS is due to MS hiring Dave Cutler, who worked there before. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Cutler

If you want to read that book I would try and find a second hand copy of the original print. I bought a more recent print from Amazon and it seemed like it was a non-edited OCR'd scan of the original, plenty of words that should have been other similar words, paragraph/page breaks in the middle of pages, and other irregularities.

I enjoyed reading it but would burn this version of the book if I ever got a copy of an original print.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#719

Post by amarant » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 10:54 AM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #707

acaloiar wrote: post #581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If ever there was a case study in the complexity of "market forces", it's Microsoft's Windows' resilience to pressure from clearly superior options like MacOS. As a life long Linux user, I'd like to believe it's the year of desktop Linux, and Linux is a clear threat, but...maybe next year. Naively one would think that the single greatest market force on Windows would be its users making informed decisions and migrati…

Ignoring anticompetitive behavior, Windows is the only thing that works on most computers and is usable by most people. If you buy a computer, and it's not a MacBook, Windows is the only option.

I'm not convinced this is true in any sense at all anymore. Can you name a piece of hardware that isn't supported by Linux? I was gonna suggest maybe the surface tablets, but a quick googling suggest even they run it just fine.

20 years ago hardware support was a major concern for us Linux aficionados. 10 years ago it was a minor concern. Today I think you may have some issues with newer apple hardware, but it's not like you can install windows on that either, and there are projects with some progress towards running Linux on those too.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#720

Post by mrweasel » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 10:57 AM UTC

gertrunde wrote: post #701

f6v wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it’s surprising because how ubiquitous their products are. You’d expect them to be of better quality considering everyone is using MS software one way or another.

The ubiquity is the problem I suspect. If customers buy the product regardless of the quality, then the manufacturer has no incentive to improve the quality.

It cuts both way, because most of Microsoft customers aren't really exposed to anything better, they just believe that this is how it's suppose to be. It's just hard for someone to experience anything better, because Microsoft products are so ubiquitous.