Physical copy is a scam

Games Halo Infinite
21

Physical copies nowadays seem to mainly exist for collectors? Seems like this has been a trend for years

22

“The campaign is on the disk and installs to your hard drive my guy.”

Untrue. When I put my disk in, it immediately prompted a download of 18GB. Not an update. The disk drive did nothing the whole time. I tried disconnecting from the internet to install, and it refused. The disk contains little/nothing of the campaign. It’s just a prompt to download it. In my case, my internet is a toaster, and I prefer to actually own my games tangibly. Halo Infinites disk is more or less worthless.

(Edit: After watching the video linked in post, I’m convinced then, that it’s just a busted install. Mine would not do what his did not matter what)

3 Likes
23

Backwards compatibility was implemented to give consumers perceived value by allowing them to play older games they still have. It has nothing to do with preservation.

MCC was introduced/turned into a title to let players continue playing older games when the servers for these backwards compatible titles go offline in January.

I post about 3-4 links a day dude, in fact there’s a link in my response to OP right above my response to you.

If you don’t have permissions to post regular links, you can post links using the ‘blockquote’ button or the ‘preformatted text’ button on the toolbar.

‘ “ ‘ and </> buttons respectively
24

Did you contradict yourself on purpose?

I’m skeptical of your claim when there’s a video in the response you’re responding to showing a reputable member of the Halo datamining community installing 14.6gb of data from the disk to the SSD while being disconnected from the internet prior to putting the disk in his console.

Not calling you a liar, just suggesting that you need more than words to convince me when there’s video evidence that contradicts your claim.

25

I didn’t contradict myself. Also, finishing his video, it showed that it may install the game, but it still unplayable. So the fact remains that the physical copy doesn’t do much. If mine forced an 18GB download just to run it, and his required a 14 disk install and still wouldn’t run, it’s effectively the same result.

As I stated in my edit, it might install from the disk, but the install must be busted, because my console straight up refused to do anything, not matter what I did. You can be skeptical, but I had to wait hours just to download the thing. The disk did 0 of what I bought it for.

  • I couldn’t install it without an Internet connection.
  • I can’t play the game without it being connected if I attempt to play it after discontinued support.
1 Like
26

Maybe you should bury them in the desert where the rest of them will end up!

27

Listing positives or personal experiences doesnt mean I’m trying to sell anything. I simply stated to the OP that it’s why I get GP for a year as it’s the cost of 1 game saving me money and if a game is a disappointment or not what I expected I havent spent anything extra.

I could use the same argument for what you’re saying. You’re legit saying how bad discs are and they arent worth buying so that’s encouraging and selling digital games to me.

You and everyone else is welcome to buy or not buy what they want, but just because someone has a positive experience doesnt mean they’re selling it to you. I could list advantages to being a certain gender dont mean I’m selling you to change yours.

OP was upset about disc copy, I explained why I no longer buy discs and choose gamepass. But everyone should do their own research into stuff before investing money, no matter the product or service. If you didnt then you cant be upset about it tbh.

I knew before release what halo was launching with and how long stuff like forge will take (august roughly encase you’re wondering) but like most people have stated discs have changed. You cant be mad at it and keep buying it and expect a different outcome I’m afraid.

Everyone can buy and not buy what they like, but people should really look into stuff first and do what’s best for them

28

Not the point.
The point is when people buy Physical Copies, it’s because they want to collect a game and save it for the future where games are discontinued or no longer supported.

A Physical Copy has value because of this. If you sell people a Phys Copy, and it’s a useless gamedisc, it’s natural that people will get really mad because they can’t have a software original to play with when Infinite ever gets discontinued from live service.

AAA games as a service is a sin and it’s absolutely screwing modern gaming.
Games really need to go back to :

  • Being actually complete on launch
  • Having a playable physical copy
  • No DLCs for core game content
3 Likes
29

It’s their product and they are allowed to do with it what they want. You dont have to buy a disc, no one forced you. Most online features are disabled even if you do or dont own the disc.

Times change and sadly discs arent what they use to be. Games was far smaller and simple back then. But if you do your research you know what you’re getting. If you didnt do research then that’s partly on you.

30

Or they could just stop screwing with people and selling phys copies if they don’t do what they used to do.
Or they can sell Limited edition thumbdrives with the game on it, which will make the phys copy even more valuable and they can charge higher for it.

“Times change” is not an excuse to lock everything behind internet access. Can’t wait for the day where internet absolutely goes down for a week or two and the entire world and their garbage services grind to a halt.

1 Like
31

You mean the company should do what’s just best for you?
I’m not being funny but a company can do what it likes with it’s own product and what they think is best. Like I said I used to buy discs and have them but I dont see the point anymore… I’ll go for what I find the better option, I wouldn’t stick to something that isnt any good just because I used to do it before.

As for the not releasing a full game, they listed what was there and what was coming when. Many gaming news feeds also said so. All you had to do was google it. The game plays, BTB has an issue for some reason but thatd get fixed as it use to work.

I wouldn’t pay £60 for a single campaign anyway, disc or digital. You’re only to blame for how you spend the money unless the company has straight out lied or massively mislead audiences. Fallout 76 did this and they had to give refunds because of it.

343 has been open about the delays and the things that would be missing, dont like it dont buy discs, dont like infinite return the disc and move on

32

Wrong, the Company should be doing what’s correct.
As the thread title states : Physical Copy is a scam.

Physical Copies have always carried the full base game. 343 didn’t do any PSAs or anything to tell people the truth of how Infinite’s phys copy will work. Turns out the Phys Copy was NOT the product people paid for and they are angry.

This is not the first time this has happened in gaming history. Fallout 76 was the same exact problem. Markets a Phys copy which just has a paper disc with a download link on it.

Bottomline: If you aren’t making your game playable out of the box for phys copy without needing to patch it, don’t sell a phys copy.

EDIT:
And file size ISN’T EVEN AN ISSUE. OTHER GAMES MS HAVE RELEASED FIT PERFECTLY ON A DISC, WITH AN INSTALL DISC AND A PLAY DISC, YOU KNOW, LIKE OLD TIMES. THERE WAS LITERALLY NO REASON TO FORCE PHYS COPY TO NEED A PATCH TO EVEN PLAY.

3 Likes
33

Scam by definition is to deceive someone for money.

They did not deceive you, they stated what was there before the release. If you did not read or look into that’s on you. By definition and legally.

Edit: pretty sure if you look on the case or website you brought it from it states that xbox live and connection is required. And I mentioned fallout 76, they issued refunds because they did deceive people. Halo did not.

34

Yeh I miss that. I also miss buying the 2nd disc for the dlc so I could install them via disc and felt like I own something. Now I feel like with Infinite in 10 years the game will probably end up dead and a large chunk of the game might become unplayable.

1 Like
35

It’s pointless to put full games on a disc anymore.

  1. The disc laser is too slow to read data from the disc. That’s why it copies everything to a HD.

  2. The update a month later renders the disc game obsolete so you’ll need the internet to play it anyway.

  3. A large portion of games in thier vanilla state is too large for a disc, see halo 5. No one wants to hot swap discs like old school Playstation anymore.

  4. Too many people pirate on the pc. By with holding part of the data it’s easier to prove a copyright case.

  5. There are more reasons but I’ve mentioned enough

1 Like
36

For real I stopped doing Hard copies, the game industry is changing. Ots pretty much turning into the most bare bones, fix it as we go style. Lots of games are trimming everything down and slowly re releasing past gamemodes and call it new content.

It’s kinda sad but I think COD is the only franchise that starts you off with the same playlist and gamemodes each game. You get your basic multiplayer list of like 7 modes and black ops always gives you Zombies.

Everyone else … Halo… Seems to be stripping away existing playlist and slowly drip feeding then back into the newer game.

37

Can you explain to us why you bought it? The MP is free and campaign is free with game pass. Sounds to me like you got baited and are mad about it.

38

This is exactly why you don’t pre-order. If you waited then you would have known what you were getting.

Companies who give pre-release access to their game often have those reviewers under a NDA that lifts when the game releases. Even if they publish reviews you may need to wait until the actual release of the game to hear the whole story. Sometimes the company only lets them play one part of the game.

343i worked on Halo: Infinite until the last minute. I don’t know what data is actually on the disc (I wish we did) but the time difference between getting the disc certified, printed, and distributed is roughly over 1 month. That’s 1 more month of work 343i put in the game.

This news leaked early when some people who bought physical copies got them early and still couldn’t play the game. That’s a very slim margin though.

It’s a terrible shame that this happened and I agree with you that it’s not acceptable, but it has happened before. The best you can do is to learn from it and make a wiser choice next time.

39

at least with the physical disc you can play the game offline should any existing framework not exist down the line. The digital download has a 24 hour drm in place and simply cannot be played indefinitely offline because you have to validate your purchase. With disc it validates that way but what down the line if disc rot sets in or your disc breaks. It’s basically goodbye game potentially both ways but most people are oblivious to this outcome and unfortunately not speaking against it

Some folk are in for a shock in the future if their favourite games aren’t accessible. Too late by then

40

Can anybody explain this conclusion because I see it alot and it still comes off as lack of self control.