Hellblade II and Alan Wake 2 Are Signs of A Worrying Trend

Moving forward, there’s no guarantee that the next big console game will get a physical release.

[-Foxtrot]

Don't support it, be patient, wait for a physical version and then there won't be a trend.

[Nyxus]

That what I'll do. If there's no physical version I'll just skip it, plenty of other games to buy.

[Cacabunga]

Boycott it, let them fail miserably..
i didn’t buy AW and i will never do unless it’s on disc.

[Eonjay]

In another article someone posted that Starfield is being dropped to 3 cents at Walmart to clear stock. Whatever your opinion on this, you have to see the value of physical media. If physical goes away we are at the mercy of digital storefronts. So in this case having physical as an option creates a situation where it's cheaper to play Starfield physical than even paying $10 for GP.

[EvertonFC]

Why NOT just play it on GP then buy it later when it's on physical.

[Nyxus]

@ Everton: I don't have a Gamepass subscription.

[DarXyde]

You're absolutely right, but we're unfortunately dominated by a culture of convenience.

[dveio]

That's the truth.

[EvertonFC]

Most.gamers will be playing this game on GP or PC so no disk needed.
Why would they make a physical version to cater for about 200,000 who wants a disk.
*It's not worth it.
Didn't disk owners see this coming a million miles away with GP and other subs.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Hopefully enough people are willing to be patient, but I think that might be asking too much.

[EvertonFC]

90% of HB2 gamers will buy PC or GP. The sales for the 1st game were not great and mainly digital.
I don't see many Xbox gamers liking the 2nd game either.
Not even sure why they did a HB2 tbh as nobody seemed to like the 1st game.

[Popsicle]

I have never agreed with pirating, but with the way things are going in the gaming industry I am starting to understand it.

If purchasing doesn’t allow me to own the content, then how would pirating said content make it an act of theft?

[Unknown_Gamer5794]

You could also do both. Pay for the official release in whatever form it’s in, then the morality police can F off if you choose to have and play the game in whatever form you wish. Sure, pirating is also digital, but ROMs are not subject to being tied to an account, and whatever consequences that entails.

[EvertonFC]

Most of the game isn't even on the disk either though so what's the difference? Stick disk in then wait for half the game to be downloaded.
So you don't really own the physical game either just the option of trading the game in at retail and have some extra pennies to put twds a new game.

[dumahim]

Phil said last year: "We are full speed ahead in our mission to bring players more ways to play their favorite games." Guess he left out the part about removing even more ways to play them.

[neutralgamer1992]

alan wake 2 sold so badly that it will do physical but HB2 will see most of it's player base on GP so not sure if they will do one

[EvertonFC]

Was anybody actually wanting to buy a physical version ? PC gamers wont be, GP gamers won't be so that leaves a small number of series X owners who probably want to buy physical.
It's not worth it for them to make 200,000 copies.

[monkey602]

I skipped Alan Wake 2 and Baldurs Gate 3 because there was no physical release.
Baldurs Gate 3 is coming now! So hopefully it's a matter of time.
As for Hellblade 2 I'm not sure the length of the game warrants an expensive print unfortunately. In terms of value there it might actually be gamepass. Shame they went for such a short play.

[porkChop]

If you're concerned about the lack of physical copies then don't buy it. It's that simple. Wait for a physical release. Any game that's being published by a major publisher should have a physical release.

[EvertonFC]

Or just play it on GP and buy it later down the road on physical.
Why is everyone on here having such a fanny attack? Play it in GP then buy it physical later, simples ffs

[monkey602]

That doesn't really support the message that not buying it is supposed to send in the first place though.

[Ethereal]

No physical, no buy. Give us this generation at least.

[shinoff2183]

I think by the time consoles go digital only, say next xbox next ps, I think they will be surprised by sales. I'll be in no rush to buy a new console that doesnt support physical releases. I think Sony and Nintendo will continue support. I only think this due to their support for smaller releases from lrg, red dart, and numerous other small publishers.

[KyRo]

That's where console gaming would die for me. It's not just the lack of having physical media which I don't like. I like having a choice where to buy my games from and shopping for deals. I ain't paying £70 for any new release from a locked MS or Sony store when physical is almost always cheaper and drops in price quicker.

I'm no PC gamer but they have a number of ways to buy games so pricing is still competitive

[mkis007]

If Sony wanted to go digital only so soon, they wouldn't have designed the ps5 slim the way they did where every version can be upgraded.

[shinoff2183]

To clarify I'm not saying next Gen will be digital only I meant it as an example like IF

[Cockney]

I think for Sony its a given, bluray is their baby and with them now topping 200gb and no whispers of a media replacement they'd be silly not to offer physical next gen, I don't think there's a downside for them

[shinoff2183]

I don't buy games unless they get a physical release. I have bought digital games and I'd be quicker to give an indie game a pass over a aaa game, my Rule for digital games is no more the 15 20 dollars if I really wanna play it. Aaa devs though have no excuses so I won't buy their games if there's no physical. Even indie devs are finding ways to get their games published physically so there's no excuse on these. Especially one coming from the consoles 1st party.

[EvertonFC]

Most will be playing HB2 on GP or PC so no disk needed. The 1st game didn't sell well on Xbox so I'm guessing about 100,000 physical copies would be needed, it's just not worth it and a logistical nightmare.

[Terry_B]

Just as I said it 2 years ago and was downvoted to hell for it.

The days of physical media are counted. Its a matter of the next 5 years that music, movies,video games will all be digital only..just like it is already on PC.

[DarXyde]

With an attitude of acceptance and complacency, sure. Very possible and even likely.

Microsoft is feeling emboldened and this was always a concern of mine: that they, with their insane capital, could (and likely would) reshape the industry to their liking. They were allowed to make two purchases that got them nearly every mainstream FPS title, World of Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Candy Crush. This was always going to go off the rails because this passionless company has taken a kingmaker position, simply by using regulatory system that has been broken for decades and allowed them to amass so much capital that they could afford to spend nearly TWELVE FIGURES on company acquisitions. Really, can we pause for a moment and process the insanity behind that?

Anyway... We can't be surprised when Microsoft has their fans cheering them on so they can have more Game Pass content, only to have prices raised and be told you're not getting a physical release because you'll give them what they want in the end. It's like voting against one's own interests, and we know that is not uncommon.

Can't even blame Microsoft at this point. They're pretty much just swinging d*** now because at the end of the day people aren't that principled.

Some are, and I commend anyone who is seriously saying you're not going to stand for this. But ultimately, I think you're outnumbered by flaky people.

Oh, and in case it isn't clear, I would not at all be surprised to see Sony and Nintendo to do something similar. My point is that Microsoft is reshaping the industry to their liking and I'm sure Sony and Nintendo would gladly accept the precedent this sets.

[Terry_B]

The acceptance is already there..just look how the sales of physical media shrinks and shrinks since years, no matter if it is console games, music or movies.

[DarXyde]

Terry_B,

But this article exists BECAUSE there is no outright acceptance of this approach. Sony, wisely, revised the PS5 DE to allow for physical media via drive attachment. That is excellent and I think they're reading the room with that one.

In terms of overall acceptance, I would say we need to interpret in layers:

We have physical game sales declining, but we also have most people passing on sub services as digital sales are a much higher proportion of sales than in previous years. It's difficult to say sales of games broadly are better or worse, but as a proportion of sales, to me, this trend is at least a sign that owning games matters.

The way I see it, digital sales are only high because people are under the impression they own it and they've yet to come up against the issues with that belief. Let there be a big, highly anticipated game where the ability to play a digital version gets revoked (like GTA VI). I'm willing to bet there would be a massive shift back to physical.

People don't seem to be interested in renting their games generally and that's probably why the game rental industry is in a bit of a rut: you don't hear about Gamefly anymore and Game Pass/PS Plus more or less have their current uptake for online service access above all else.

So to put a neat little ribbon on this comment: acceptance, I contend, is extremely volatile. The moment there is sizeable awareness of how licensing games is not the same as owning full games, physical is back in full swing. It's very conditional and has not hit people in a way that is truly substantive yet. That very likely changes if a major company goes out of business and you lose access to their digital gaming content.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

PC games have already done away with physical discs, it's rare to come across such a thing, and even if you do, it's practically guaranteed to be just an activation key (I found that out when I first got back into PC gaming). Unfortunately, I can see that eventually happening to console gaming, and I'd rather it didn't happen.

I think music is already more or less there, but with movie streaming, people are slowly going back to discs when they realise their favourite movie or series leaves streaming services.

[andy85]

Worldwide infrastructure is nowhere near good enough for it yet. Jesus some people are even still on data caps

[Terry_B]

exactly. some people.

[shinoff2183]

Exactly. There's data caps, there's sh internet. I'm sure it's not across the whole u.s. but alot of the rural area surrounding my city don't even have cable speed internet. Why the u s. Is so behind on internet speeds never mind I don't even wanna get into that

[ExplosivePlastic]

Physical media is almost irrelevant for games. It's a fake trade-off. There are hundreds of games that sold physical copies, and still rely on a central server or DRM. In two months, one of Ubisoft's top ten selling games, The Crew, will be going offline forever, and all those discs everyone has for PC and console will be useless. That's what we need to be discussing, not whether or not you have a box on your shelf.

[Nyxus]

That is indeed the case for some game, but for the vast majority that isn't true and they work perfectly fine without DRM or anything like that. There is actually a convenient website that you can use to check this: https://www.doesitplay.org/ You can search for the game title and it will show you if it'll work without internet and/or a download. You can see that only 3% of the games they tested don't work without internet, and 11% require a download, so the vast majority still works fine from the disc.

[Chocoburger]

1) Don't buy online-only games.
2) Don't buy Ubijunk games.

Problem solved. Wow, that was simple!

[Nyxus]

To be fair Ubisoft is easily one of the worst publishers when it comes to this stuff. For example their Avatar game required an internet connection to play. But yeah, luckily most other publishers are doing better.

[shinoff2183]

Not true, the one game you mentioned. Is for a game used for multiplayer online. Most games are single player. Then there's the argument about full games not being on disc which is also bs. True some are and it's some games from ea ubisoft Activision but the truth is most games on disc can be played without connecting to the internet. Instead of just throwing hands up and saying well what can you do. We need to actually do something. As darxyde mentioned were probably outnumbered but it won't stop me from voting with my wallet.

I see alot of the younger Gen not seeming to give a fk, and I'm sure some of us older gamers don't care either but I think. All those times I've played an snes game in present time it brought back memories, and fun games. The younger crowd may not have that when they get to 35 40 and they will be disappointed. Watch

[Hofstaderman]

Still have not bought Alan Awake and will not buy till/if they release a physical edition.

[TheEnigma313]

Easy, just don't buy. They go as the consumer goes.

[Crows90]

What is baffling to me is that hellblade 2 is from a Microsoft studio...like what the hell?

Isn't hellblade 2 supposed to be a huge AAA release for Xbox?

It's the most.bizarre thing this generation

[Unknown_Gamer5794]

You mean that MS, the company trying to push for an all-digital future, and whose system Walmart of all retailers is going to phase out selling physical games for, is releasing one of its exclusives only digitally? I don’t think it’s that bizarre.

[Crows90]

It's still bizarre. Why didn't they do the same with Starfield? They didn't be sure they knew it would sell by name.

They have zero actual faith in hellblade 2 that is why it won't have a physical release.

[badz149]

They care more about GP subs numbers. If Hellblade 2 is gonna suffer for it sales-wise, they don't care. Why do they even care for a studio they just bought on a whim for a couple millions? They bought ABK for $70B for god sake. That budget for Hellblade 2 is pocket change to them and they are willing to exploit it to push more people towards GP!

[Crows90]

Exploitation does go along with Microsoft

[TwoPicklesGood]

As much as people hate to admit it, physical games are on the way out. I prefer digital so it doesn’t bother me but it would be nice if physical was always an option.

[shinoff2183]

That's my point of my biggest issue with ms is them pushing the all digital agenda. It's became pretty apparent they want monthly fees not one and done sales. Wanted to add I'm not against digital but I'm against not having options.

[Astrokis]

I like that that this community pushes so hard for physical releases when they’re not offered. I’ve only bougt digital games since early half of PS3 era through ps4 and ps5 because I share with my brother and well split the cost of games we both want, But that is what works for me and him , what’s important is having an option for what works for both types of people (physical and digital).

My sister is in the military and when overseas it’s often impossible for an internet connection so most of the people stationed over there with her relies on disk games only. And then there’s still the people in rural and small cities that only has DSL available with no high-speeds options still. Not to mention I’m sure many counties in the world.

It’s not hard to publish on disk for most publishers, especially ones that are established. Besides them wanting the higher digital prices and not allow reselling. Aka just greed from the higher ups. I wish they cared more about all of the gamers that either don’t want or literally cannot play digital.

Only thing we can do, and what this community is passionate about is vocalizing and speaking with our wallets. Corps only understand money loss and backlash.

[anast]

How about the media stop reviewing games without a physical release? This would be a step in the right direction.

[z2g]

This is nothing new. Physical sales are down year over year. Distribution of physical media is more expensive but no extra money is made and users in general are starting to trend in favoring digital sales. This is why video game stores are starting to struggle. This isn’t new, but the purists just refuse to accept it. I’m just a messenger here.

[shinoff2183]

It's the option dude think for yourself not what the green machine wants you to think.

[hiawa23]

If you don't like it don't support it. I am fine with digital and by the look of my recent trip to Walmart, Target, and Best Buys videogames and movie sections, which are a fraction size of previous years, digital is clearly happening whether that be next or the gen after that. Many movies now go directly from the theater to streaming services, with little physical copies made.

It seems at some point games will be all digital. I tend to look at games like I do my music and cd collection, where hundreds of cds, thousands of songs are stored on my phone, digitally.

Games went from carts to cd to DVD to blu-ray, and digital is clearly coming, so I expect gamers will adapt like we have always, as some of us have been gamers since the late 70s.

[shinoff2183]

Movies and games are two different animals.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Alan Wake II is by far the best game I played last year. I don't give a damn if it released as a hologram.

[darklaw]

Sure they make it all digital but we dont get a price break from it. It should be cheaper due to the fact that they don't have to pay any manufacturing and shipping fees.

[gold_drake]

well, Alan wake 2 didnt quite sell as well as a direct consequence of it. imo.

[fan_of_gaming]

If a game I'm interested in gets a physical version, I pre-order it.
If a game I'm interested in only gets a digital version, then I wait a couple years in case it gets a delayed physical version. If it doesn't, then I'll buy the digital version once it's at least 50% off of the initial price.

So I haven't bought Spider-Man remastered for PS5
So I haven't bought Hi-Fi Rush for Series X
So I won't buy Hellblade II for Series X
So I haven't bought Monster Hunter: Rise for PS5
So I haven't bought Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name for PS5
etc

I didn't buy Alan Wake II either, but that's because I don't play horror games. But even if I did, I wouldn't have. And I realize I'm only one consumer, but hopefully other people that say physical copies and/or collecting matter to them have their own way of showing it.

[I_am_Batman]

I do pretty much the same thing minus the pre-ordering. If a physical release relies on patches to fix critical issues and/or add vital features, I consider it a digital-only game.

I also make exceptions for indies, since it's more understandable that a physical release might not be feasible on a tight budget. For digital only games I usually go for the PC version.

[frostypants]

Wouldn't be so bad if it came with guarantee that they had to make a copy available to you in perpetuity. But it's effectively a long term rental agreement, at the same price of owning a copy.

[jznrpg]

MS doing this doesn’t surprise me at all because they have an agenda to attended to with GamePass as they want you to rent everything and pay monthly. But Alan Wake 2 should have had a physical release. Sure it may be a good game but until there’s a physical release I’m not buying it.

[Barlos]

Stick to your guns. If enough people refuse to buy the game digitally, they'll end up releasing physical. Don't let them force us into a future we don't want.

[TheEroica]

All these people are dieing on the physical media hill... I don't get it....

[purple101]

It’s cheaper
There you go
Understand not everyone wants to pay full price for stuff and only goes on sale at temporary times through the year yes

But competition between shops means I can always get a disk for less than rrp, sometimes a little sometimes a lot
Even on new unreleased games

In the uk:

365games.com
Simplygames.com
Base.com
Shopto.net

Not everyone has extra cash to throw away on those ‘convienient’ downloads and no chance of ever re-selling

[TheEroica]

I can empathize with your situation, but digital games sell for peanuts if you wait a bit.... I buy almost every game I play for 19.99 or less....

[BlackCountryBob]

Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered also doing the same, shame as looked a fun chance to relive them but not bothering without a physical disk and I will not budge on this (said by someone who waited for Cuphead to get a physical switch release)

[-Foxtrot]

There's a small chance that someone like Limited Run Games will do a physical for it, like I said its small but it's a game release that's right up their alley.

[contra157]

Young people being conditioned to owning nothing from video games ,tv shows and movies .

[Markdn]

Never bought physical media on any platform since resistance 2 on PS3. And I never will.

[purple101]

I have sold on each generation, with a massive collection of games and 2 controllers on eBay to fund purchase of next console

In the process I have always made a mum:kids happy with a cheap new system with 15 games on disk.

As when your 5years old, you don’t need the latest system and can be a few years behind the “bleeding edge” of being a day one adopter.

This is how we keep profit from large companies and make it cheaper for both buyer/seller in the long run

If I buy something, I should have the right to sell it, like a bike, a car, hell a toaster if I want
This idea we are buying a licence is going to kill gaming + a lot of other sectors if we’re not careful

[Silber]

Physical copies are simply no longer worthwhile. They cost extra money, have to be produced first, and you can't work on them until release without then releasing a day-one patch.

Sony said that 70% of game sales worldwide are digital. When Horizon Zero West came out, the number even shot up to 80% at one point.

There was a study (in Germany) where sales of physical copies were analyzed.

65% of people over 60 still buy physical copies, while those under 30 only buy just under 28%.

Overall, Germany is still a country of physical media. On average, 2 out of 3 game purchases in this country are still physical. (As of 2023). In the USA it's probably the other way around?

Unfortunately, no distinction was made here between systems. I strongly assume that Nintendo has the main share. I worked in a video game store last year and for every 10 Switch games sold there were 3 PS 4/5 games and 1 Xbox game. Well the store is now closed and selling games is simply no longer worth it :D

[Youngindy21]

Gotta admit that this is quite concerning. With digital only releases on console, you're forced to pay the digital storefront price or pay ever increasing subscription prices. This will also put local mom and pop game stores out of business. Not to mention you won't actually own the game.

[purple101]

Gets detective hat out: Ahh see here
You got a downvote from someone subscribed to go