this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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If it’s a code you don’t own it. If this slides you will never own a game going forward.
Even when it's a disc you still need to download a shit ton of data. It won't just play on its own without an internet connection. They can always just decline to let you download the necessary data. You don't own it either way.
Unless it's on GOG and you can download the Offline Installer. Then you actually own it and can use the 3-2-1 data archival rule. I rip my games onto M-Disc media that is said to last 1000 years.
All games should come with a tag that explicitly says if it supports offline play, which would require no updates if you don't want to.
This isn't the first game to do this, this has been happening for a while. Switch had a number of games where you only got a digital download code and PC games were doing that for years before they stopped having physical releases.
Exactly. They're effectively killing off the used market.
Would it be better if it was on a piece of cardboard with the code behind a scratch off section?