Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future • Hacker News Board

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#21

Post by ksymph » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 9:40 PM UTC

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #15

ksymph wrote: post #8

Not a great article, but a very real phenomenon. I recently picked up a banned Nintendo Switch Lite for cheap -- meaning it can't download games or updates off Nintendo's servers, but it can still play cartridge games. And while most games function, there are more often than not critical fixes or significant content updates missing. The console exists in a strange sort of limbo where everything is playable but not in…

What games? One thing I do appreciate about the Switch is that most first party games come fully playable on cartridge. I bought Splatoon Raiders the other day on the way to the train station for a long ride; I popped it in and started playing, never had any internet. It occurred to me later that I probably couldn't have done this for a third party title.

There's a spreadsheet [0] tracking Switch games where you can see which ones have 'complete' versions on carts. It's roughly 1/4 for both first party and third party titles, though first party games are more likely to have cartridges released in a later run with updates included, while third party games are more likely to just have no updates.

(Splatoon Raiders was released a week ago so I don't think that's a good example to use for games without updates. Even it has an update already, albeit a non-critical one)

[0] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1CEABCBrPv1tWf89h...

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#22

Post by aeturnum » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 9:46 PM UTC

wmf wrote: post #12

nonamee wrote: post #2

interesting article about doesitplay community and their observations, but it seems like a lost battle since majority of gamers simply do not care

Gamers know that piracy and emulation will rescue lost games.

The point the article is making is that people assume that a game having physical media means its fully functional - but that's often not the case. Most games made recently rely on access to centralized servers to make the game playable in a concrete way. Emulation will help - but unlike previous generations having physical media won't be enough.

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#23

Post by glaslong » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 9:50 PM UTC

Get a Mig Flash, rip your games, support the emulator communities, etc.

It's so easy for DRM'd games to become lost forever as the rights transfer around, and the hosting or support costs stop being worth it for publishers.

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#24

Post by sudobash1 » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 9:51 PM UTC

MBCook wrote: post #13

Discs don’t matter. The whole “bring back discs” thing is pointless. They’re gone. Period. Rights matter. If we had the same rights with digital purchases we had with old physical games the disc thing would be a much much smaller issue. Would many care outside true collectors? Don’t confuse the two. If you do, and you complain loudly enough, you’ll get the monkey’s paw version of discs. All the downsides of both, no…

Discs do matter in one way. I don't think I have ever seen a digital "purchase" of any significance which I could resell or gift at a later time. Some "in game" things are resellable, but only within the game's ecosystem. All digital games, music, movies, ebooks, audio books, etc are not (AFAIK).

So if I get tired of my DVD movie collection, I could sell it or give it to my kids. If I ever decide I'm too old for the retro game cartridges I have, they could go to future grandkids. But my GOG games or Bandcamp music is stuck with me forever (legally speaking). Nobody would know if I "gave" them to my kids, but there certainly is no way to resell them.

Now this is still a rights issue, but physical media makes this easy (outside of keys/DRM as you point out) You always have the right to hand on a physical object.

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#25

Post by Starlevel004 » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 9:51 PM UTC

ksymph wrote: post #8

Not a great article, but a very real phenomenon. I recently picked up a banned Nintendo Switch Lite for cheap -- meaning it can't download games or updates off Nintendo's servers, but it can still play cartridge games. And while most games function, there are more often than not critical fixes or significant content updates missing. The console exists in a strange sort of limbo where everything is playable but not in…

How did it get banned? Presumably it has a modchip inside which means that getting updates from alternative sources is still viable.

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#26

Post by kmeisthax » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 9:52 PM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #9

hollow-moe wrote: post #4

Got bitten by the deceptive nature of Nintendo "game key trash". Purchased a game online without reading carefully the description. Sent it back and bought a SteamDeck. I can't recall if the seller even put the correct visuals: game key trash have a banner telling that they are plastic waste and you should instead give all the money to nintendo by using eshop.

Nintendo is the worst. Another example: Wii virtual console purchases don't carry over. They're selling people the exact same Mario ROMs dozens of times in a display of absolute rent seeking. Playstation recently got caught remotely deleting people's "purchased" movies too. I too bought a Steam Deck and haven't looked back. It's still a normal computer even if Steam itself goes to shit, but all signs point to it stea…

The Switch has one particular feature that doesn't get enough talk: basically any game update can be sent to another Switch peer-to-peer. I'm pretty sure it even works with Game Key Cards, since they're just a rebrand of an annoyance that the Switch 1 had since launch.

You could, at least hypothetically, put every physical cartridge in a Switch or Switch 2 and download all the updates to those games, and just have an offline mirror of Nintendo's entire update CDN. More likely someone should make a homebrew app that archives update data by using this weird peer-to-peer update protocol, but I have no idea what encryption would need to be broken to make that work. But it would be a legitimate boon to game preservation to have something where someone with a bone-stock Switch and a game can just download the update they need and be done with it.

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#27

Post by tshaddox » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 10:02 PM UTC

sudobash1 wrote: post #24

MBCook wrote: post #13

Discs don’t matter. The whole “bring back discs” thing is pointless. They’re gone. Period. Rights matter. If we had the same rights with digital purchases we had with old physical games the disc thing would be a much much smaller issue. Would many care outside true collectors? Don’t confuse the two. If you do, and you complain loudly enough, you’ll get the monkey’s paw version of discs. All the downsides of both, no…

Discs do matter in one way. I don't think I have ever seen a digital "purchase" of any significance which I could resell or gift at a later time. Some "in game" things are resellable, but only within the game's ecosystem. All digital games, music, movies, ebooks, audio books, etc are not (AFAIK). So if I get tired of my DVD movie collection, I could sell it or give it to my kids. If I ever decide I'm too old for the…

It’s trivial to sell media or software on a disc such that the disc itself is not equivalent to a license to use the media or software on it. I don’t know of video games do this yet, but this was the case for a prominent PC operating system for decades.

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#28

Post by nradov » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 10:03 PM UTC

MBCook wrote: post #13

Discs don’t matter. The whole “bring back discs” thing is pointless. They’re gone. Period. Rights matter. If we had the same rights with digital purchases we had with old physical games the disc thing would be a much much smaller issue. Would many care outside true collectors? Don’t confuse the two. If you do, and you complain loudly enough, you’ll get the monkey’s paw version of discs. All the downsides of both, no…

Legal rights don't matter if the other party is ever liquidated, or otherwise unable to meet their obligations.

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#29

Post by saghm » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 10:05 PM UTC

sudobash1 wrote: post #24

MBCook wrote: post #13

Discs don’t matter. The whole “bring back discs” thing is pointless. They’re gone. Period. Rights matter. If we had the same rights with digital purchases we had with old physical games the disc thing would be a much much smaller issue. Would many care outside true collectors? Don’t confuse the two. If you do, and you complain loudly enough, you’ll get the monkey’s paw version of discs. All the downsides of both, no…

Discs do matter in one way. I don't think I have ever seen a digital "purchase" of any significance which I could resell or gift at a later time. Some "in game" things are resellable, but only within the game's ecosystem. All digital games, music, movies, ebooks, audio books, etc are not (AFAIK). So if I get tired of my DVD movie collection, I could sell it or give it to my kids. If I ever decide I'm too old for the…

Sure, but the context of the article is the recent kerfuffle over Sony deciding not to continue producing disc copies of games. It would not be difficult for them to keep producing disc games but still restrict them in the same way as digital games (e.g. requiring you to authenticate to the PlayStation servers with an account the first time you put the disc in, and then refusing to allow that copy of the game to work for any other account in the future). That might sound extremely, because it is, but let's keep in mind this is a company that made the CDs people bought install rootkits to try to avoid letting people burn copies.

The point that I read the parent commenter as making is that if the loud outcry in favor of discs go so loud that they were forced to spend effort with continued manufacturing of physical discs, it seems like a pretty reasonable assumption they might try to do something like what I described, because at least they get some of what they're trying to go for with the digital-only strategy even if it's not all of it. Focusing on the discs themselves is a distraction from the actual issue.

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#30

Post by Wowfunhappy » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 10:07 PM UTC

ksymph wrote: post #21

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What games? One thing I do appreciate about the Switch is that most first party games come fully playable on cartridge. I bought Splatoon Raiders the other day on the way to the train station for a long ride; I popped it in and started playing, never had any internet. It occurred to me later that I probably couldn't have done this for a third party title.

There's a spreadsheet [0] tracking Switch games where you can see which ones have 'complete' versions on carts. It's roughly 1/4 for both first party and third party titles, though first party games are more likely to have cartridges released in a later run with updates included, while third party games are more likely to just have no updates. (Splatoon Raiders was released a week ago so I don't think that's a good e…

> Splatoon Raiders was released a week ago so I don't think that's a good example to use for games without updates.

...I don't really see why. The question isn't whether a game has updates available, it's whether the un-updated version feels like a complete experience vs a compromised one.

I'm not sure how to read the spreadsheet in that context.