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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,

 

[Lather]

I think its a cheating on player?

 

[Marc_LFD]

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?

CD? What do you think this is, 1994? I wish.

PS5 and Xbox X use 4K Blu-ray Discs which can store at max 100GB, so Activision burning 70MB to a disc which can use 100GB is an absolute waste.

Post automatically merged: Oct 29, 2022

I think its a cheating on player?

I've been coming across stuff of MWII on the web and its customers don't seem to care about it.

 

[JuanMena]

CD? What do you think this is, 1994? I wish.

PS5 and Xbox X use 4K Blu-ray Discs which can store at max 100GB, so Activision burning 70MB to a disc which can use 100GB is an absolute waste.

CD... Compact Disc...
It's the same...
It's a disc after all.

 

[SylverReZ]

CD... Compact Disc...
It's the same...
It's a disc after all.

Compact Disc and Blu-ray are two different formats altogether. Although they are a disc-shaped form factor, their specifications differ to one another.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Brutal. Ridiculous.

 

[SylverReZ]

Brutal. Ridiculous.

They're Activision after all.

 

[NumberXIIIEdwin]

Geez, at least put SOME of the game on the disc. It’s an Ultra HD Blu-Ray no? At least the single player should be on there and then the multiplayer is downloaded in the day one patch or something. At this point it’s just a glorified download key.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Compact Disc and Blu-ray are two different formats altogether. Although they are a disc-shaped form factor, their specifications differ to one another.

This.

CDs can hold 700MB (sometimes more) while 4K BDs up to 100GB. They are both shaped like a disc, but not the same.

 

[SylverReZ]

CDs can hold 700MB (sometimes more).

Some CD burners actually support overburning CD-Rs of up to 800MB. The Premium series as well as a few Plextor drives have a feature built-in called 'GigaRec', allowing you to write nearly up to 1GB of data on a CD.

Post automatically merged: Oct 29, 2022

Good luck on trying to find one as they are both very rare and are used mostly by preservationists and video game collectors alike.

 

[HideoKojima]

So you can't really own games from now on huh???

 

[MizuhoChan]

One more reason I'm not getting it.

The main being I don't own a PS5, for obvious reasons.

 

[LeNoobio]

So you can't really own games from now on huh???

technically you've never ever owned a game (except you programmed one yourself)
you do possess a vast assortment of shiny plastic discs and cartridges though, I presume

 

[Marc_LFD]

Some CD burners actually support overburning CD-Rs of up to 800MB. The Premium series as well as a few Plextor drives have a feature built-in called 'GigaRec', allowing you to write nearly up to 1GB of data on a CD.

Post automatically merged: Oct 29, 2022

Good luck on trying to find one as they are both very rare and are used mostly by preservationists and video game collectors alike.

Dang. Wish I knew about that when I was burning DC games on 700MB.

So you can't really own games from now on huh???

You own nothing and you will be happy. (:

technically you've never ever owned a game (except you programmed one yourself)
you do possess a vast assortment of shiny plastic discs and cartridges though, I presume

Yes, what we physically buy is a license to a product, but we used to and still are able to play/watch/listen to that product on a disc/card/etc though that's definitely changing for the worse.

SNES: Insert the cartridge and play!
PS2: Insert the disc and play!
360: Insert the disc and play!
PS4: Insert the disc and.. wait for the update and install the game on the hard drive then you can play.
PS5: Insert the disc and.. download the full game of 150GB and then you can play.

Installing games was a thing PCs did way back, not consoles. Consoles were supposed to be plug and play!

 

[SylverReZ]

Dang. Wish I knew about that when I was burning DC games on 700MB.

Burning Dreamcast games with GigaRec will not work, as I have tried that beforehand.

 

[Hells Malice]

You mean the thing they (almost all devs but especially tripleA) have been doing since the xbox one/PS4?...

A little slow are we

Most disks are just keys now. The game would be installed anyway to load faster, but it WOULD be nice to have most of the data on the disk to make things faster.

Still though, no one should be surprised. The only reason it has taken people over half a decade to notice is because no one buys their games physically anymore lol, or they think the install process is doing it from the disk.

 

[coffinbirth]

I guess I'll be the only person to point out this is actually not true.
Modern Warfare 2 is 86GB.
Kotaku is bad, mmmkay.

 

[Marc_LFD]

I guess I'll be the only person to point out this is actually not true.
Modern Warfare 2 is 86GB.
Kotaku is bad, mmmkay.

Kotaku and their half-truths. I would have preferred a more respectable and reliable website.

Gaming journalists these days are like movie critics, better avoided.

 

[64bitmodels]

SNES: Insert the cartridge and play!
PS2: Insert the disc and play!
360: Insert the disc and play!
PS4: Insert the disc and.. wait for the update and install the game on the hard drive then you can play.
PS5: Insert the disc and.. download the full game of 150GB and then you can play.

360 was the start of that update shit but it wasn't very common on a lot of games luckily, same thing for PS3.
Honestly ive just embraced the full digital future at this point, steam is far more convenient even with the updates
i dont want that cloud shit though

 

[godreborn]

Unfortunately, either way the ps5 and series x versions are going to be installed to the ssd regardless. That's a sizeable chunk when the ssd that comes with the ps5 has less than 700gb to play with unless you buy an expansion for $200-$700 if not more. It's just getting ridiculous to game.

 

[bobmcjr]

The people who still think "physical is better" from an ownership/preservation perspective are absolutely naïve. That ship sailed a long time ago when pretty much everything now requires a day 1 update to be playable.

What people should actually care about is how easily the DRM can be bypassed and raw unencrypted game files can be accessed and backed up, including updates. The best games to buy for preservation are the ones on consoles that have been thoroughly defeated and the DRM-free ones on PC, followed by the various tiers of PC DRM after that.