Ps4/5 disk clarification

[Trinopoty]

If I buy a game disk for PS4 or 5, does it work the same way as Steam on PC where you get a key and can install it all digitally.

Can I activate and play it without ever putting the disk into the console?

[Fasauceome]

Typically you do need the disk to be physically inserted to play the game. It acts as your "key"

[Trinopoty]

Just now, Fasauceome said:

Typically you do need the disk to be physically inserted to play the game. It acts as your "key"

Ah I see. That's kind of inconvenient.

[Fasauceome]

1 minute ago, Trinopoty said:

Ah I see. That's kind of inconvenient.

Imagine:

You buy a $60 game, download and install it, and return the disk for full price and continue to play the game. Wouldn't really make sense unless you were required to keep the disk that you bought.

[Master Disaster]

4 minutes ago, Trinopoty said:

If I buy a game disk for PS4 or 5, does it work the same way as Steam on PC where you get a key and can install it all digitally.

Can I activate and play it without ever putting the disk into the console?

Yeah, you buy a game and when you first insert it it will "install" itself to the HDD and show as an installed App on the dashboard however the disc must be in the drive for it to run otherwise you'll get an error.

[Trinopoty]

Just now, Fasauceome said:

Imagine:

You buy a $60 game, download and install it, and return the disk for full price and continue to play the game. Wouldn't really make sense unless you were required to keep the disk that you bought.

Can't they adopt the solution that the publishers use on PC? Although I am not familiar with how refunds work at Gamestop or other places for PC games since I use Amazon and have never returned any games.

Is there a way to convert it to a digital copy that doesn't need the disk other than paying the full price again?

[Fasauceome]

4 minutes ago, Trinopoty said:

Can't they adopt the solution that the publishers use on PC

Publishers on PC don't use physical media.

 

On top of that, you can already buy a digital game for the PS4, no disk needed in the first place.

4 minutes ago, Trinopoty said:

Although I am not familiar with how refunds work at Gamestop or other places for PC games since I use Amazon and have never returned any games.

You take your receipt and your product and you get all your money back, same as when you get a refund from anywhere else. Therefore, if you can install the game and run it without the disk, you can get any game you want for free. You would also be able to distribute this game, by installing it on any friend's console for no extra charge, and if the game runs without the disk, they didn't have to pay.

 

4 minutes ago, Trinopoty said:

Is there a way to convert it to a digital copy that doesn't need the disk other than paying the full price again?

A select few games have had a way of doing this, but there is not a standard way that Sony allows all games to be converted to digital copies, so you just have to stick with what you got.

[Trinopoty]

1 minute ago, Fasauceome said:

Publishers on PC don't use physical media.

That's objectively incorrect. Almost all of the bigger publishers support physical media on PC. The smaller ones don't because physical media is expensive to produce.

I'm not aware how they handle me buying a PC game disk, activating the key and then returning the disk.

 

3 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

On top of that, you can already buy a digital game for the PS4, no disk needed in the first place.

That is true but I happen to like storing, organizing and looking at my disks even if I don't even have an optical drive on my PC.

 

Ah well. Seems like there's no use getting the optical edition of the PS5.

[Kilrah]

8 minutes ago, Trinopoty said:

I'm not aware how they handle me buying a PC game disk, activating the key and then returning the disk.

Simple, no returns allowed unless it's still sealed.

[Trinopoty]

2 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Simple, no returns allowed unless it's still sealed.

Doesn't this work for PS too? I get that sharing would be an issue this way if the disk gets locked into one person's account.

[Kilrah]

It could, but console manufacturers haven't chosen to do it.

 

The plus side is that this the 2nd hand console game market can continue to exist, which would not be the case if they were doing it like the PC distributors.

 

  

23 minutes ago, Trinopoty said:

That's objectively incorrect. Almost all of the bigger publishers support physical media on PC

I haven't seen a 25-DVD distribution of Modern Warfare yet

[Trinopoty]

5 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

I haven't seen a 25-DVD distribution of Modern Warfare yet

Note the 'almost'. And going digital seems to be the new fad as less games have been released physically over the years.

Publishers love them money. And making and distributing physical disks costs more money than digital distributions meaning less money in their pockets.

[PlayStation 2]

9 hours ago, Trinopoty said:

Note the 'almost'. And going digital seems to be the new fad as less games have been released physically over the years.

Publishers love them money. And making and distributing physical disks costs more money than digital distributions meaning less money in their pockets.

Well, let's be completely honest, when games have ballooned in size with DVDs still being the de facto installation media (which can really only hold up to ~8.5GB of data), it starts to become impractical to offer physical installation discs. 

Grand Theft Auto V's physical release has something like 7 DVDs to install? It's pretty hilarious.

[Ertman]

Seems like the OP would be best off buying from the digital store of their particular console.

 

unless this whole discussion is about getting games for free

[Trinopoty]

7 hours ago, Ertman said:

Seems like the OP would be best off buying from the digital store of their particular console.

 

unless this whole discussion is about getting games for free

I like collecting physical disks but having to put them in when I need to play is kind of a deterrent.

[Master Disaster]

52 minutes ago, Trinopoty said:

I like collecting physical disks but having to put them in when I need to play is kind of a deterrent.

There's no legal alternative to this though, in any situation. You want to collect physical copies of games you have to actually use them to play the game.

[tenchi71]

I think OP's concern is more to do with the backward compatibility of the PS5 Digital Edition.
My assumption right now is that if you have a large physical collection of PS4 games, and you REALLY want to play them on the PS5, then PS5 DE is not for you.

[Kilrah]

OP's concern was clearly defined 2 posts up and that's not it...

[tenchi71]

21 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

OP's concern was clearly defined 2 posts up and that's not it...

Ok... true enough.
I'll say it was MY first thought the moment I saw the PS5 DE.

[Warin]

If you need to have something physical, you could buy bulk DVD cases and print the game sleeves out, making your own game case. Put it on a shelf and boom, game collection. Because that is really how things would be if you buy the digital edition of the console.

[Ertman]

Basically if you want a physical collection, you have to deal with the limitations of of it.

 

MS tried to introduce what you wanted to do here with the Xbox One originally, people really didn’t want it.