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

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

#791

Post by masfoobar »

Maybe I'm an old fart - but I miss when you could purchase a game and play it. No need for internet or signing up. Insert, press power, and play.

I understand times have changed. You cannot just insert a cartridge or CD\DVD and run. Games are so large that running off a disc is not good enough anymore. They need to be installed on a hard drive. I wouldn't be surprised that some games are so large they require more than 1 bluray disc. However, they should still work "out of the box"

Well this should be the case for single player mode. For multiplayer then you may need to create an account, etc.

I don't know.

Just seems that even when you purchase a physical copy it does not contain the full game. You still have to access the internet to download additional content.

Truth is ownership. Do you really "own" your physical game? I mean you own the Disc it's on but the contents all go through the games console and their services. You essentially own the rights to play the game!

It's nothing new with Microsoft since Windows 95 (even 3.1) and their end user license. You never owned it. It's just times have changed, now. Microsoft are not just trying to control your computer via its operating system, but to control the whole computer itself.

Why is this any different for game consoles? Do you really "own" the console? I mean I am willing to put money down that one of the 3 Companies would lock you out if you tried to do something on Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo's latest systems that "you shouldn't be"

Let that sink in. You spend how much on a console... and it really is not yours. Oh, and how much do you spend on games... and it really is not yours. Yes.. physical or not!

None of this surprises me. However, I do not know what the solution is, either. Well, other than if you purchase it, it is your copy! If it isn't, then why should I spend over £/$40 for these games?

I believe this is a chunk of the reason why I am not a gamer anymore. There are some games I still play but I don't know if I will every play the latest and greatest of games including GTA6. Maybe one day.

If I made a game - I would still follow the old method. Maybe use Steam. If you buy it then you get the files. It's yours! You can play it! It would work without the need of the internet!

Could some people pirate it? Sure. However, I am confident that if the game is good or atleast enjoyable then I would have received a nice sum of money - or atleast allow people to buy me a coffee through my website if they enjoyed it.

The biggest power is consumers have is our wallets. Say no if you disagree and don't give them money. I am willing to do such a thing. Sadly, the majority don't care. They just want ease of use. This is not just about games, but many things.

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

#792

Post by JacobKfromIRC »

devil1432 wrote: post #540

People focus too much on discs and cartridges, but too little on licensing and drm. The disc is meaningless if you cannot run it after drm servers died. Also, very often the game on the disc is unplayable because of lack of day-1 patch. Meanwhile you can burn games you bought from GOG on a cd and play it 10 years later without internet connection. So the physical vs digital discussion is completely irrelevant to the…

Even on GOG, it's usually illegal to re-sell games you bought to other people, if I understand correctly. It's a minor point since there's no technical barrier to resale, but that's one difference between physical games and DRM-free digital games.

There's a small number (~100?) of commercial games that also allow resale through Creative Commons licenses on itch.io. you can use filters like "assets-cc4-by-sa" plus "code-gpl3" to find games like that, but there's a lot of possible license combinations so it's difficult to see all games like that at once. I've also seen a couple of digital commercial games that allow resale but had some other restrictions (e.g. forbidding reverse engineering), from Humble Bundle, if I remember correctly, but in those cases I didn't know that was allowed until after I bought the game, so searching for games like that seems pretty difficult.

Maybe there are games on GOG that allow this too, but I don't know how I'd search for them.

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

#793

Post by not_a9 »

not_a9 wrote: post #216
inigyou wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? You cracked Denuvo?

back.engineering folks seem to imply that Denuvo is another case of virtualization based obfuscator being vulnerable to a symbolic execution/optimization approach. > As AI assisted static deobfuscation continues to improve we will see more virtual machine based obfuscators fold away. In an upcoming article we will publish details on how we fully statically devirtualized Denuvo anti(tamper/cheat). One of the most atta…

To add to this, the obfuscation used for their anticheat seems to be… kinda bad? Worse than Epic’s virtualizer/Griffin probably

https://k0mkc.hatenablog.com/entry/2026/08/06/032440

Mind you, odds are their anti-tamper/DRM is a different case.

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

#794

Post by dmantis »

dwedge wrote: post #230
Retr0id wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're talking about those random malvertising-supported streaming sites then sure, but torrenting is not like this at all.

No, I'm talking about downloaded files. It happens maybe 2% of the time. You can't be sure the indexers are giving you the correct one.

I haven't encountered such a thing on private trackers for a very long time. Like, for years.

They usually have a very decent moderation and if they say that an entry has some particular resolution/subs/audio then it has it.

Sure, you have to stay as a seeder for some ratio/period in such trackers and can't hit-and-run, but it gives a warm feeling of contributions anyway.

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

#795

Post by seki285 »

inigyou wrote: post #619
seki285 wrote: post #608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't play multiplayer with friends... I think but I'm not sure. It seems to rely on Steam or Microsoft services for regular and modded play.

Nonsense. We used to have LAN parties by passing around a flash drive. Clearly the original game did not require an account.

I was talking about MCC on Steam.

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

#796

Post by frollogaston »

JacobKfromIRC wrote: post #792
devil1432 wrote: post #540

People focus too much on discs and cartridges, but too little on licensing and drm. The disc is meaningless if you cannot run it after drm servers died. Also, very often the game on the disc is unplayable because of lack of day-1 patch. Meanwhile you can burn games you bought from GOG on a cd and play it 10 years later without internet connection. So the physical vs digital discussion is completely irrelevant to the…

Even on GOG, it's usually illegal to re-sell games you bought to other people, if I understand correctly. It's a minor point since there's no technical barrier to resale, but that's one difference between physical games and DRM-free digital games. There's a small number (~100?) of commercial games that also allow resale through Creative Commons licenses on itch.io. you can use filters like "assets-cc4-by-sa" plus "co…

Exactly the type of reason some people want literal physical discs. You don't own the data on the disc, but you own the physical disc and can resell it, totally legally and practically allowed. And the disc has anti-copy measures so it's really a transfer, not a copy.

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

#798

Post by genewitch »

frollogaston wrote: post #774
genewitch wrote: post #750

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh no! amplifiers and VLC/Mplayer!

Yeah so now whatever setup you're running it on needs VLC, which is not a given and also has its own downsides, and you have to mess with the audio for it to still maybe sound bad if they screwed it up irreparably.

so it might need to be redownloaded. I can only say in my limited experience i've only had this happen one, maybe two times, a really long time ago. and usually with cam, which is why some people are patient and wait for TS or TC rips of movies still in theaters. I've never had TV audio messed up. More common is bad subtitles!

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

#800

Post by redwall_hp »

diseasedyak wrote: post #273
redwall_hp wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Baldur's Gate 3 is already there. It's over 120GB and IIRC PS5 games only use up to triple layer. There was no disc release. The current Gran Turismo is around 140GB. I think it has a disc, but it'll only have like half the game on it. Final Fantasy XIV is around 200GB now, and they're talking about dropping PS4 support because drive capacity is going to be too low during the patch cycle for the next expansion. Also,…

Hey just a correction, there was indeed a physical release of BG3 on PS5. It was released straight from Larian and came on 2 discs, dual-layer 100GB to be exact. Xbox Series as well, but it came on 4 discs due to capacity limits. Your point stands, though. Games have grown so huge that downloading them isn't a hassle for most, but disc definitely is or has maxed out. That's not to mention how long it takes to install…

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