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Hopefully more retailers will enter this space if it's going digital only. AAA publishers get ripped off by Microsoft and Sony relentlessly now so if comparable sites to the likes of Humble Bundle, Greenmangaming, Fantatical, WinGameStore, Gamesplanet, 2Game etc... enter the fray and buy keys/licences at a wholesale level then maybe there will be more competition in this space and gamers will get a better deal. I've picked up so many £50 games elsewhere for way less than £15 which were still £20+ discounted on Steam. Console needs to create non-premium alternatives where they can sell in volume and bypass the ludicrous PS and Microsoft Stores. If Sony and MS along with Nintendo continue to rule this space then every game going forward will cost £60-100 with very little reduction opportunities. On PC, I can literally get a brand new release for 20-33% off just through one of these alternative sites who are happy to sell in volume with lower margins and the publishers who distribute the keys don't have to worry about paying store premiums for every copy sold. I fear that because console gamers have been conditioned to the central stores and digital-only, this wont change though.

That's not accurate I don't believe is it? Quite a lot of games still contain a full game albeit without day 1 patches. You generally install the game from it and play from your hard drive admittedly and I think live service games also skew the figures. For example Ratchet and Clank Rift apart, Astro Bot, God of war ragnorok, Spiderman 2 could all be installed and played with just your console and the physical game from start to finish without ever needing an internet connection. The games that do generally follow the practice of a disc being just a download key are typically your Fifa's and Call of Duty's, companies that you would not really be surprised by this. The majority of game 'sales' now are also likely to be live service games which are generally only bought digitally, your fortnites, your Warzones and such which are also notably free and what I think is a big thing is they are not showing what their breakdown is, I suspect DLC's, micro transactions and such may also figure into their figures. Single player titles are much closer to 50% physical and 50% digital sales. 15% of all new game sales are still bought brand new and physical, that is quite a chunk of your fan base to alienate. It also does not include second hand sales so that percentage could be skewed the wrong way. All this is targeting is maximising profit and nothing today with improving things generally. Oh look at us we are doing this because we are following sales trends when in reality it's losing second hand game sales, it's the cost of manufacturing the disc, the case and paying someone to create art for it or layout the casing, the cost of transporting etc etc, all that will now go into the profit that they are making, it's not suddenly going to see a price drop of £5 on each game say because they are all now digital. I get that the trend is currently towards digital only however I don't think you will see the same moral compass from Sony as we have with say Valve, only this week have they also said that many user's won't be able to watch a number of digital films that they have bought and paid for on their consoles. With that in mind if they can do that with any digital content (which their T's & C's allow) there is also the preservation argument whereby we could see games literally disappear and become inaccessible by anyone at some point in the future. Your digital library with Sony won't be as secure as say your steam library, there is every likelihood that in the future you paying £70 for a game is so you can use it for up to 2 years and then you lose access or some other crap. Even following the TV / film industry with how prevalent subscriptions have been with Netflix, Disney etc they have all opted to retain physical copies for people to purchase, I could still go in HMV (surprisingly still exists) and buy a physical blu-ray film, similarly we still get physical cd's. For me and a few people I know now, we buy more games digitally yes however the plus of owning consoles is having the option of physical titles as well. If I am only going to be buying digital games moving forwards it will more likely be on PC. I can get mainly the same games, I can generally buy them cheaper, I have the options of what type of device I want 'Lots of power with a desktop, a portable hand held or something in the middle'. A lot of people own consoles for physical titles or exclusives in addition to their PC and such. What I also find mad is the number of people who just accept this saying ah it doesn't bother me or in some instances I have seen online where people are getting irrate or arsey with those who aren't keen on going digital only. Neither do starving children in parts of the world but it should because it affects other people unnecessarily (appreciate that this is a bit more of a blunt way to say it 😄 ) It's classic case of 'I'm alright Jeff'. If people want to play and enjoy a game they way they do why should it be ok to take that away just to give more profit to the shareholders and such?

The main issue is pricing. With physical copies there was competition between them and digital games. Now if it's all digital then publishers can price games however they want and there's nothing the consumer can do about it.

I'm not going to pre-order and instead will wait for reviews. Lots of staple content locked behind the £100 ultimate edition paywall and it looks like the online component may be sold separately down the line. So many big names from the series have departed in recent years so I'm not sure they will be able to replicate the spirit of previous games. If anyone has played the latest GTA Online seasons, they will see how utterly shambolic and cringeworthy the writing and characters have become. If the whole of GTA 6 is of this standard then it will be unbearable to play no matter how good the city is.

Modern gaming is so garbage that there really isn't any title which I want to own the physical version of now. Also digital prices drop so much on PC that it is way cheaper than what the pre-owned market used to be. Most physical games these days typically require day one updates and some even contain blank discs where the game needs to be downloaded from scratch anyway. Digital libraries just feel more convenient now especially when it comes to managing hundreds of games and I don't really mind not having the opportunity to sell used titles because many games just feel like consumables now. I actually think console gaming has much greater concerns with value and sustainability now. I could sell my first gen PS5 second hand for practically the same price I paid for it during the pandemic new. The price rises are utterly insane especially on such dated and inferior hardware. The next gen is inching towards the £1000 mark which puts it slightly behind mid-range PC's that could comfortably play a lot of titles in 4K 100fps+. There's also the subscription models, online premiums and top-end digital pricing. The future does look bleak especially with the amount of AI and UE5 slop.

Controversial opinion. I don’t care. Physical version of AAA games have been gone for years. The disc you get may as well be a drinks coaster. It’s nothing more than a token to say “download the game”. Nothing runs from disc, and the version you play is a patched version that doesn’t mirror the disc data. the payoff for Sony is you can’t sell digital. If you want to play the game, you must buy a copy. moving physical units costs money, so it’s no surprise in this climate they are shying away from it. the move towards games as a service will probably move towards the subscription model, even owning digital versions will become less common. It’s following tv/dvd habits. The real question is, do we need a PlayStation 6? For the first time, graphics aren’t holding us back. we should prioritise gameplay. You can even buy brand new mega drive games.

https://kotaku.com/sony-ending-discs-for-all-playstation-games-starting-2028-2000711927 They've decided to stop producing physical discs for games starting in 2028. Because fuck your customers, right? This means that they will kill of 2nd hand game sales and lending games to your friends or family. Which means themselves and publishers will get a shitload more money. Microsoft could well follow suit with their next console. If they're smart then they should keep the disc drive and it'll pull some customer away from Sony. Also, if the rumours are true that the next Xbox will basically be a PC with access to game stores like Steam or Epic, then that will be the console to get. At least that way you'll be able to get games at decent prices.

Doom: The Dark Ages - much better than I was expecting. Not worth £70 but brilliant purchase at a deep discount.

Take Two are charging £80 for this game AND if you buy a physical copy then it doesn't even contain a disc, just a download code. Proving what complete and utter greedy cunts they are. I wasn't even that bothered about this game anyway but they've made my mind up for me. I only ever rent single player games or get them on disc so I can sell them when I'm done. If I can't do that then I'm just not buying the game. I'm not paying £80 for a game that I'm then stuck with when I finish it.

I totally get the frustration with intellectual property hurdles and lost codes for classic games. It's kinda similar to how denuvo can impact the gaming experience. It might not be the exact same, but I've found knowing which games use it can help decide what to buy, especially if performance is a concern. Let’s hope we see some of those classics revived soon!

Was about to say upload everything to the cloud then to check the connection.

I second this. 🙂

I’ve not been playing games as much recently. Maybe I’m getting old. I just don’t seem to enjoy shooty games any more. I *do* however still enjoy motorsports. I’ve never really done proper sims before. GT7 is good too a point, but I’ve driven fast cars on real tracks, and it’s always felt like driving with boxing gloves on. I decided to book a session at my local sim racing place and had a blast. The feel of proper kit and real software really sells the immersion. I’ve been watching loads of sim racing YouTubers, and really enjoy watching the endurance racing. so my idea….. we get current members and recruit new members to do regular racing sessions in whatever game (but will have to at least be pc), and at some point, we do a real 24/12 hour endurance race. Who’s in?

I think you removed it but I appreciated the "Home" feature for viewing new messages. However, if it contributes to the forum's smooth operation without this feature, I can do without it.

Normally I am against Al and only use ChatGPT for stuff like cooking recipes or correcting how write emails etc but as a one-off, I asked asked ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Al Art to make me pictures of bedrooms with mid to late 1990s and early 2000s nostalgia. Obviously these pictures are flawed with the deformations but for someone who is into retro gaming, which of one of these bedrooms is the best one?

False alarm everyone, I managed to fix it, it turned out it was just my really bad internet connection 😂 I moved my WiFi router from my bedroom to my living room so everything is fixed now! 👍🏼

Okay, so I have a PS5 console which I have owned since 2022 or 2023 and it’s the original PS5 not the slim or the pro and so far I have had no issues with it until today. Today when I went to click on my account, it was stuck for a good 10 minutes on the "Please wait…" loading screen and when I tried to click on the Paramount+ app, it was taking too long to load that too and there was this black little box at the bottom that had white writing says "Please wait…" and the blue screen in the background with the Paramount+ logo. I don’t know what is wrong with it, I tried doing the hard reset where turn the console off, press and hold the power button until it beeps twice and goes into safe mode and then cleared the system cache as well as rebuild the database but nothing seems to work! I would take it to my local tech store to have it repaired but I am scared they will wipe everything off and I’ll lose all of my screenshots and videos because they told me that they always do a factory reset when repairing consoles. Can anybody please help me?

Some new footage. Looks pretty good but £50 for a remaster of a remaster of a remaster is a big ask. Some good mission customisation but no MP. Let's not forget that the MCC for the same price got you the entire collection and every MP component on top.

Well, that's a bit of a bugger! 😞 https://www.itfc.co.uk/news/2026/june/10/kieran-mckenna-to-step-down-as-ipswich-town-manager/

Have yall been paying attention to the World Cup news from over here? Fuck me, its a total shit show. Between not allowing the Iranian team to stay in the country, so they have to go back out to Mexico after every game There's a Somali Referee that isn't allowed in the country, and no one knows why, even though Somalia gave him diplomatic passport The England Team was practicing and a gunman showed up, and 12 people (not on the team) were injured The Japanese Team has had to move facilities twice because of flooding...

I've disabled all plugins and stuff to speed it up a bit whilst @GazzaGarrattand I migrate us to a new host. During this process I'm also gonna trim back some of the unused guff, so if you're missing any features please let us know. Any that aren't reported missing for a month will remain in hibernation until needed. Also, all settings and profile stuff is saved, so don't worry about anything being lost, when we reinstate the plugins and mods they'll be there nice and fresh.

Slower than molasses in january

Looking forward to this and it's on console also

Finally!

Yes, its being depressing me for some time, and I can only apologise for the issues we have had for a while. The big news is that I've pressed a button behind the scenes that starts the ball rolling on a big change to the future of moving FG forward. I don't want to jump in on it too much right now as we'll need quite abit of work but I'm prepared to make it happen and hopefully we'll have some more hands on support from other FGers to make it so. This place is here for all and I want it to remain that way forever.