What's the point of disc games when they require 20GB+ patches?

[Tom Bombadildo]

As to the thread title, what game has a 20GB update?

As mentioned before, the Halo Master Chief Collection had one (though it was reduced to 15GB later), because Microsoft couldn't fit all the Halo games on a single blu-ray disc and they didn't want to use a second for...some reason.

 

[JoostinOnline]

As mentioned before, the Halo Master Chief Collection had one (though it was reduced to 15GB later), because Microsoft couldn't fit all the Halo games on a single blu-ray disc and they didn't want to use a second for...some reason.

But aren't those actual games instead of updates?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

But aren't those actual games instead of updates?

The disc only contained the campaigns of Halo 1-4, the update added multiplayer and various other features that wouldn't fit. I guess if you count Multiplayer maps as separate games, sure

 

[Taleweaver]

The obvious answer is "none".But while these games are currently an exception, it's heading in that direction as far as AAA-titles are concerned. It used to be that patches just fixed gamebreaking bugs. Then it became about balancing things (just take a look at a random starcraft version history). But as games expand, patches seem to expand as well. Exponentially faster, I might add.

But more importantly is the shift toward online. I remember being in a store and seeing a collection bundle of all the command & conquer games up to that point. Except that it wasn't really a bundle: it was a box containing an origin code (or codes) so you could download these games over origin.

I could call it worrying, but truth be told steam isn't different at all. Except that it doesn't pretend to have one of these "disc" thingies.

(I watched a DVD the other day...it's probably one of the first times this year I've actually had to use the DVD-drive for something ).

 

[Lucifer666]

just to chip in my 2 cents, i think discs play a very very small role in games as described by OP and are basically just a physical form of DRM

 

[Sakitoshi]

That's indeed the drawback of digital, but flash sales are slowly but surely creeping into the ecosystems. If it works for Valve, I'm sure it'll work for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. Not having to deal with discs is a huge advantage to me, it's a shame that we don't have full installs on consoles yet, I think that's the way to go if people insist on buying physical copies, it's just a matter of creating a system that doesn't enable piracy while allowing users to install their games.

You don't know that PS4 games install automatically when you insert a disk and claim to have a PS4??
PS4 dump the entire disk to the internal harddrive and in the game screen(the screen with the game wallpaper where you can see the digital manual and all that stuff) you are given the option to buy it digital, if you do you wont need to download the game at all because is already installed.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

You don't know that PS4 games install automatically when you insert a disk and claim to have a PS4??
PS4 dump the entire disk to the internal harddrive and in the game screen(the screen with the game wallpaper where you can see the digital manual and all that stuff) you are given the option to buy it digital, if you do you wont need to download the game at all because is already installed.

You still have to insert the disc for it to play when it's "fully installed". Foxi is talking about fully installing the game's disc and then being able to remove the disk afterwards. Not "buying the digital version after you install!", simply buying the disc, installing the game, and being able to remove the disc without having to deal with swapping.

 

[Sakitoshi]

You still have to insert the disc for it to play when it's "fully installed". Foxi is talking about fully installing the game's disc and then being able to remove the disk afterwards. Not "buying the digital version after you install!", simply buying the disc, installing the game, and being able to remove the disc without having to deal with swapping.

yes I was referring to buy the game digitally afterwards to ditch the game disc.
the closest you have to that are Valve games that are available physically, like the Orange Box. latter Blizzard games like Diablo 3 also work like that.
Many other PC games that needed the CDVD to be inserted in order to start them released patches that removed such restriction. of course that happened after a year of so when developers had made their profit and didn't care anymore. I remember Quake 3 Arena, DooM 3 and Prey did that, of course you still needed the CD-Key to play online, but campaign was available even without CD-Key.

Still I need to do a little experiment involving booting the game and once is on, remove the disc and see if the PS4 complains. that worked in many PC games at least.

 

[sblast3]

 

[sarkwalvein]

Life is ephemeral, so are modern games.

PS: Oh, and be prepared to have your post removed because of rules.

 

[Hungry Friend]

It sure was nice when you could just pop a game in and play it, wasn't it? The install times don't bother me nearly as much as things like day 1 patches, DLC, microtransactions and WAY too much focus on online multiplayer, because if someone 20 years from now is nostalgic and wants to play a game that came out during this era, most of them(in original form) will be completely unplayable because the patches, DLC and multiplayer servers will be long gone. Atari 2600-PS2/GC/Xbox games are still playable so in many ways I'd say we've gone backwards. Consoles were created as a simple alternative to PCs, and while they're still very closed systems, console gamers now have to deal with patches, long installs and much of the other negative stuff associated with PC gaming without the massive number of benefits that come from playing on an open platform.

I know this is an old man rant, but I'm not wrong.