There’s been a lot of chatter about Game Key Cards on the Switch 2, but we’ll say two things in their favour: physical cartridges are expensive and at least manufacturer Nintendo has been upfront about the whole thing.
You can’t say the same about the latest round of Bethesda releases on the PS5, which are available physically but may as well be digital exclusive affairs. DOOM: The Dark Ages has an insulting 85MB of data included on its Blu-ray; Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t much better, with just 20GB on the disc. Neither game will play without a significant download.
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We all know and accept physical games are waning in popularity, with a recent UK study revealing just 4% of the country’s total industry spend was generated by boxed software. It is what it is.
But if a publisher chooses to release a physical copy, then it should at the very least include a playable build of its game on the Blu-ray itself.
To be clear here, we understand how modern game development operates; we know that developers will often continue working on their titles long after they’re sent to manufacturing, fixing bugs and adding in improvements. We’re not complaining about the existence of day one patches here.
But we are complaining about what Bethesda’s been up to, where its Blu-rays effectively act as physical download keys, which entitle you access to download the game in question. This type of activity is different from a patch or update – it’s outright hostility against the expectations consumers have of boxed games.
And there’s no excuse for it: Blu-rays cost pennies, and if a publisher has decided to ship a boxed version of its game, then it clearly sees value in having its product on store shelves.
As we alluded to earlier, at least Nintendo can make the argument that its cartridges are expensive to manufacture, and with publishers allegedly only offered 64GB options, we can somewhat understand the influx of Game Key Cards.
But these same rules don’t apply on the PS5, where a Blu-ray can store up to 100GB and costs peanuts to produce.
Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer, who oversees subsidiaries like Bethesda, predictably played to the crowd a few years ago, urging for “industry-wide game preservation”. We’re not sure how shipping blank discs is helping to realise that vision.
The reality is that if Sony ever switched off its servers in the near or far future, your copies of DOOM: The Dark Ages and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle would cease to install. That may not be a concern for you, and that’s fair enough, but this shouldn’t even be a quandary to begin with – these titles should be on the discs to begin with, like they’ve always been.
And just to return to those Game Key Cards on the Switch 2 again: at least it’s all clearly communicated. If you look at the box art for all of those games, it states that you’ll need to download the actual software if you purchase a physical cartridge.
Meanwhile, these latest titles from Bethesda have tiny little “Internet Required” disclaimers in the corner of them, but it’s not clear that you’re effectively buying a coaster in a case. How is that in any way acceptable?
And just to be clear here, PlayStation is culpable in all this. While it may not be embracing the practice with its own software, it should be putting pressure on third-party publishers like Bethesda to either include a fully playable build on a Blu-ray or at the very least outright explain what it’s actually offering. It’s simply not acceptable to sell paying customers a borderline blank disc and never clearly disclose it.