There are more and more physical videogames that are pisapapeles. It is a tremendous problem for the video game as art

Video games have been traveling the same path as music and cinema for a few years: change towards digital. The releases are now digital and Streaming video game platforms They have been a great jump in the industry. Some -xbox- are so clear that much of their strategy revolves around this technology. If you want the physical format, it is also there, but with an important small print: the album you buy may be empty.

AND ‘Doom The Dark Ages‘It has been the last example of this new reality.

The controversy of ‘Doom’. The games each time they occupy more and more space. That is why the current physical format, the Blu-ray, has long opted for the double and triple layer of 66 and 100 GB respectively. A lot of information enters an album with that capacity, but the problem is that the recent release of ‘Doom The Dark Ages’ shows that, on the album, barely There are 85 MB in PS5about 320 mb in Xbox Series x. It is a motorcycle of dust in an ocean.

What does this imply? Well, when we introduce the album in a PS5 or an Xbox Series X, the data that is installed are not on the disc: it is the files of those 85 MB that give the order to the machine to download the data of the servers of the corresponding companies. That is to say: The new ‘doom’ album is a launcherbut it’s nothing new.

Ubisoft has taken the taste. Before the last Bethesda game, the controversy in this regard came with each Ubisoft launch. The French company has had some of the largest games in the industry in recent years (such as’Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora‘,’Star Wars Outlaws‘ and ‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘) And, although not everyone has gone well, they do share something: you need the Internet to install them.

Physical format, but not much. It is no longer that you need the Internet to play (‘Gran Turismo 7‘, among others, they require constant connection to Sony servers or we will not be able to play most of the content), but the game must be downloaded even if you bought it in physical format, relegating the box to something that simply occupies space on the shelf.

But there are more examples of other companies, such as’Indiana Jones and the big circle‘ either ‘Stalker2‘. Others like ‘GTA Trilogy‘They can be played with disk content, but they are so broken that without patch it is not worth it. And cases like ‘Star Wars Jedi Survivor‘ either ‘Hogwarts Legacy‘They bring the beginning of the game on the album and the rest under download. The alternative? Two albums, as does’Final Fantasy VII Rebirth‘, but that also increases costs for companies.

Activism. All this has caused a reaction in users. It is not about being against the digital format, but about the albums that come practically empty because nobody knows what will happen when the servers close. It is a new situation in the industry and we have already seen cases (Ubisoft closing servers of ‘The Crew’ and making it impossible to play something you have paid in physical or digital format) of inaccessible games when the company closes the tap.

That is why initiatives such as Stop Killing Games To be the authorities who promulgate laws that prevent our remote games from deactivating, but there are also initiatives by users that allow us to know which games are complete on the disc and, if they need download, to what extent it is mandatory.

This is the case of the web Does it play? in which users report the status of physical versions in video games.

And the big question. As we say, the most recent mess has formed around the launch of ‘Doom The Dark Ages’, and the question is what will happen to my physical video games in the future. Title Xbox 360 It guarantees me, whenever I have a console, to be able to play it now or within 20 years, but nothing assures me that in 20 years the active Microsoft servers are keeping my copy of ‘doom’.

And we focus on the case of almost empty Blu-ray, but we could put the Game Key Card of Nintendo Switch 2 In the bag, since they work in the same way.

Green outbreaks. On the one hand, platforms such as Good Old Games They allow us to buy a digital game, but when we get with it, we have an installer to be able to install it offline as many times as we want without depending on servers. Even when they remove games for licenses, recently The case of ‘Warcraft 1 + 2‘, If you had already bought them, they are yours forever.

On the other hand, when we have attended Nintendo DS servers closures, Wii or Xbox 360, companies have warned in advance so we can make the necessary purchases Before video games disappear forever, being able to download them in the storage of the system or hard drive to play them in the future. Because Ubisoft or Steam have made it clear that Digital games do not belong to usbut physicists should be ours and, if the servers close in the future, we will have to see what happens with all those albums that only have a launcher inside.

Because, in the end, this goes beyond being able to play my physical game within 20 years: it is that it is a practice that Play against the preservation of the video game as art, one that can make many They disappear forever.

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