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Players who received early physical copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 report that the disc doesn't actually contain the game. It contains around 70MB of data, while the other ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY GIGABYTES, the actual game, have to be downloaded and installed via teh interwebz. The disc is basically just proof of purchase.

The officially releases tomorrow, and until that time those with physical copies can just twiddle their thumbs and fume. Since the game isn't officially out yet, and download isn't available, the disc is really just a piece of shiny plastic.

What does this mean in terms of copyright, intellectual property, software as a license VS as a product VS as a service?
What does this mean for resales of physical copies?
What does this mean for game preservation?


Activision has yet to comment.

Source,

 

[Mayo1990]

PC players: You guys are getting physical copies????

 

[KingVamp]

bruh this bs should be illegal

Yeah, as said, both misleading and wasteful. Which isn't farfetched that will be the case, since EU main issue with Apple's cords was waste.


This feels like either spite for people not accepting cloud only gaming or for the lawsuit.

 

[Deleted member 586536]

Do launch wiis have such a function? The thing is, i have a Launch Wii. Not that i'd use it, but it's nice to know to have it.

The disc drives have proper capability to read it as long as it's near launch. You just need some homebrew to utilize it.

 

[Asia81]

I think the worst part is knowing that people are still going to buy this game and this practice is going to be encouraged as a result

same with the shit pokemon games every year

 

[Marc_LFD]

the answer is licensing/royalties. Similar to how the (early) wii had DVD support, but Nintendo didn't want to deal with royalties, so the feature got axed.

And the Wii U used BD discs (25GB) although they were proprietary.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_optical_discs#Wii_U_Optical_Disc

The good thing about BD discs is that they're more resistant to scratches (handy for those that buy used games).

 

[such]

Seen that coming back in 2004 when it was already too late.

Also, not the first time this has happened. MGS5 was the same thing.

 

[Marc_LFD]

I hate the direction that modern gaming is taking, I hate badly. Even so, I still recommend the physical edition just because you still can sell the thing (for some years at least).

I mean, the disc is 99,99% blank, but still can be used by another player, console or account in the near future.

I just remembered Activision did this with CoD4:MW Remastered where you'd load up the disc, and then download the game.

But the difference is that this is a new game and it's much more mainstream.

Physical Media, it was nice knowing you.

 

[Payne]

Makes me happy I haven't cared about COD game since black ops 2

 

[HellGhast]

Exactly the sort of thing I hate. They could easily fit the game on 2 or 3 discs or better yet just the single player campaign on one disc, and let the multiplayer part be download only since you need internet to play it anyway.

Agreed, makes sense to just have the single player campaign on the disc coz lots of folks don't have decent internet and play off-line.

Good thing I don't like CoD games, only liked Black-Ops 1 and 2, rest are linear wannabe action movies filled with Hollywood style clichés.

Greedy Activi$ion and Micro$oft's way of curtailing second-hand disc sales.

Post automatically merged: Oct 29, 2022

PC players: You guys are getting physical copies????

Probably not, Steam and EPIC store, coz I can't remember seeing PC games on disc since Valve launched Steam and forgot all about HL2 Episode-3 and HL3.

BTW love your signature, brings back nostalgic memories of Samurai Jack and Haku!

 

[Goku1992A]

Not a shock considering it's Activision, but still, jesus christ. At this point, the only reason to get a physical copy of a game is if you somehow don't have a credit card still.

And good lord, what is up with that file-size? Are people just incapable of compressing their assets nowadays or something? Phew.

Games are normally bigger I think in RDD2 and LOU2 there are 2 disks one of them was the install disk and the other was the game disk. A Blu-Ray is 25gb and a Dual Layer Blu-Ray is 50gb.

I prefer them give me the option of giving me the disks and installing the game without relying on internet but nowadays you need an internet connection for your game/console to work. I don't think this is an Activision issue because as long as I had my PS4 I can't "jump in play" I have to wait for a game update and etc..etc.. to finish

Seems for todays games 60% of the game (if you consider patches and updates + DLC) is on the server.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Blu-ray is 25gb and a Dual Layer Blu-ray is 50gb.

PS5/Xbox Series X use 4K Blu-ray Discs so that allows 100GB per disc.

Even 100GB isn't enough anymore.

 

[Gronbar]

Almost every Call of Duty game is selling great, so no shock for me. People will buy it anyway.

 

[subcon959]

I can't remember seeing PC games on disc since Valve launched Steam

They are very rare but still exist. Company of Heroes 3 is getting a disc release for PC in February 2023!

Edit: Actually, it's not clear if it will be on disc or just a code. This listing states there's a game disc but it might be wrong. The game's own website says there's a physical edition but doesn't make it clear about the media.

 

[such]

Almost every Call of Duty game is selling great, so no shock for me. People will buy it anyway.

They're also fairly disposable - short campaign and limited shelf life on the multiplayer end. You pay through the nose, play it for a bit, and there's a new one to get next season. Doesn't really align with boxed as a product.

Me? I'd love to see every game boxed after it's stopped being worked on, so not only can you play the gimped, unfinished version - you can play the finished version. But that's very 1979 of me.

 

[Kitocco]

So indie games can’t do things like intentionally crash the game like they do on PC to upkeep “quality assurance” lest the customer suddenly want a refund they can’t even GET on console, but this GUARANTEED E-WASTE is ok? Awesome, cool, great.

 

[BaamAlex]

I really miss the old times. Like my childhood, for example. You put the game in the console and started playing. Installing was a PC thing. And today? Even the crappy consoles install any garbage. I also think that in the future, physical media won't work anymore. Nowadays it's already part of the "everyday life" to provide Day 1 patches right on the release day. And these patches are often not on the physical games (cartridges, discs and so on). And what good is the physical form of the game if you can no longer download updates because the game needs them because the console has an internet connection to a "service" which doesn't work anymore? Right, then the physical version is no longer of any use. I really only buy physical versions when there are fancy limited editions. I also like games more in physical form. Then you at least have something "tangible", but still...

 

[Panzerfaust]

"update"

Yeah, right

 

[guisadop]

well, CoD target audience is probably mostly 15 y.o. kids at this point so they'll gobble all up

 

[JuanMena]

Now I have a question:

Can a 150+GB game be stored in a single CD?
Are we really expecting to get such data cramped in one or two CD's?

 

[ZeroT21]

Almost every Call of Duty game is selling great, so no shock for me. People will buy it anyway.

Yes and no, to me they're all the same game, simply re-skins in the end