A Computer GuyBasically Sony can't be trusted with handling your digital purchases. I got some DLC for a game years ago and then later they yeeted it out of the store. I if I ever have to reinstall the game I loose the DLC.

I just recently recovered my PSN account after not having used it for years. Lots of DLC games won't play right now on my PS4. Waiting to see what happens when I plug it into the internet. First I am cataloging what I had installed before attempting to access the net with it.

Bonus if your account is idle for 3 years, they can disable it and delete all purchases...
www.playstation.com/en-dk/legal/terms-of-service/

- "21.2. If you have not used your Account for at least 36 months we may take steps to close it. In that case, we will contact you via the email address registered to your Account and give you 6 months to either log in to your Account or contact us and tell us to keep your Account open."

- "21.3. After your Account is closed, you will not be able to access the PlayStation Online Services or use the Digital Products purchased with that Account. Account closure is irreversible."

What people say on an internet poll and what they actually do are very different things. We're six years into this console generation and you still can't build a PC that will beat a PS5 for the same price. When the PS6 comes out, the disparity will probably be even worse. I know PC has advantages, but if an equivalent PC is double the price, it's difficult to argue against the PlayStation if all you want to do is play games.

freeagentOrange box was the last disk set that I bought.. once it installed Steam the disks were useless lol. I was pretty choked because in those days I did not support Steam, did not want it, nothing. It was literally forced on me if I wanted to play that game lol.. now I have hundreds of games and no disk.

I can see the appeal for disks and cartridges foe legacy platforms, but not really sure if its needed these days of games that are hundreds of GB in size.

As far as I know, Valve hasn't removed people's accounts which have their games. Nintendo and Sony have done this. As already pointed out, if you haven't logged into your Sony account then it's gone.

cfentonWe're six years into this console generation and you still can't build a PC that will beat a PS5 for the same price.

PS5 has gone up in price and we're also in the middle of a DRAM crisis which is effecting PC's more so than consoles. That being said it's still possible to build a PC that's superior to that of a PS5, for $100 more or $50 more if you get the disc drive PS5.
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Memory: Patriot Signature Line 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL19 Memory ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Silicon Power A55 512 GB M.2-2280 SATA Solid State Drive ($69.97 @ Silicon Power)
Video Card: Gigabyte WINDFORCE OC GeForce RTX 5050 8 GB Video Card ($289.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart 600 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($42.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $700.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2026-07-10 19:19 EDT-0400

When the PS6 comes out, the disparity will probably be even worse.

Depends if the AI bubble has popped by then. If it happens then Nvidia will go back to being a gaming GPU company.

I know PC has advantages, but if an equivalent PC is double the price, it's difficult to argue against the PlayStation if all you want to do is play games.

Even if that were true, you most likely still need a PC. Why have two devices that does something badly when you can have one device that does it better? You could argue a tablet or phone is all everyone needs, but if that were true then why is Apple selling a $600 $700 laptop Neo? This is why it's called PC Master Race, and not console or Apple Master Race. You buy one machine that's over powered at everything.

OnasiProtesting PS dropping physical media by going to PC, a platform that dropped physical media more than a decade ago, is… a choice, I suppose?

Welllll, for some, it could just be that physical media was the only thing keeping them tethered to consoles. If they're losing even that, and prices are on the rise-- why not take the plunge, right?

FouquinIt's deeper than just physical media. Sony has already shown they will outright delete your purchases without warning. That can be avoided on PC, on top of physical media backwards compatibility being a bigger deal on PC. I can boot up a game from 1998 on my PC right now and play it just the same as I did when it came out, nobody has the power to take that away.

Also smaller studios absolutely still release physical media. Baldur's Gate 3 has a physical disc release.

100. There are "ways" to preserve games downloaded on a PC via Steam since you have direct access to the entire set of game files (whether drm'd or not), and there are also DRM-free games (a much smaller number tbh) via platforms like GOG or direct download. PlayStation is a lot more locked down. PlayStation also announced recently that a lot of their big-name single-player games will be PS only in the future - any Death Stranding 3 Horizon Zero D 3 God of Something or Other 57 or similar - will not come to PC, therefore will not be playable on fast PC hardware or in ultra-wide. If you don't love what PS is doing, what that dumb b. at Xbox is doing, the account page where you cancel your subscription is not that hard to find.

A Computer GuyWell it seems like everything is still there at least on the PS4. Still have to check the PS3. I must have dodged a bullet because I hadn't logged in since 2021.

PS3 was a little more tricky. It forced the creation of a device password but I was able to recover my account from the PS4 to create the device password for the PS3.

DukenukemxAs far as I know, Valve hasn't removed people's accounts which have their games. Nintendo and Sony have done this. As already pointed out, if you haven't logged into your Sony account then it's gone.

I must have gotten real lucky then since I hadn't logged in since 2021 until today. At the moment all my DLC appears to be intact although I haven't tried running all the games yet to be sure.

A Computer GuyI must have gotten real lucky then since I hadn't logged in since 2021 until today. At the moment all my DLC appears to be intact although I haven't tried running all the games yet to be sure.

This is more of a thing in Europe than in other parts of the world. I'm not sure why the EU has this law, but Sony just recently made it clear they will close your account after 3 years, but probably starting today. Also, they do send you a warning in your email and then wait 6 months to close it. I don't think there's anything stopping Sony from doing the same thing in other parts of the world. The law was meant to prevent companies from keeping your data, but apparently it applies to ownership of digital goods? Either the EU law has a strange interpretation of "keeping your data", or companies are abusing this new law in their favor.

DukenukemxAs far as I know, Valve hasn't removed people's accounts which have their games. Nintendo and Sony have done this. As already pointed out, if you haven't logged into your Sony account then it's gone.


PS5 has gone up in price and we're also in the middle of a DRAM crisis which is effecting PC's more so than consoles. That being said it's still possible to build a PC that's superior to that of a PS5, for $100 more or $50 more if you get the disc drive PS5.
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Memory: Patriot Signature Line 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL19 Memory ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Silicon Power A55 512 GB M.2-2280 SATA Solid State Drive ($69.97 @ Silicon Power)
Video Card: Gigabyte WINDFORCE OC GeForce RTX 5050 8 GB Video Card ($289.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart 600 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($42.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $700.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2026-07-10 19:19 EDT-0400

Depends if the AI bubble has popped by then. If it happens then Nvidia will go back to being a gaming GPU company.

Even if that were true, you most likely still need a PC. Why have two devices that does something badly when you can have one device that does it better? You could argue a tablet or phone is all everyone needs, but if that were true then why is Apple selling a $600 $700 laptop Neo? This is why it's called PC Master Race, and not console or Apple Master Race. You buy one machine that's over powered at everything.

Hmm.. its been about 5 years I think.. but I think my kids use my PSN for minecraft, or something.. well damn.

Well, now I dont want to plug my PS4 in to find out.. dammit.

F U Sony lol.

Whatever, I used to be a clepto and I snagged a ton of their finest Monster Cable from their Sony stores back when they were around.. so I guess we are even dammit.

Those Console Gamers always advertise how better the gaming experience is. I doubt the claims are valid. We have less discs and big first day patches already over several years on those gaming consoles.

The classic buy a disc and play it offline are long gone.

-- I really doubt it. a 399€ gaming console user can for sure afford 3 or 4 times of 399€ for a gaming pc without a screen and human input devices? I highly doubt so many console gamers with their sony "Paystation" will invest 2000€ for a gaming pc and most likely loose than also their sony Paystation gaming library.

AthenaSteam and Epic have some titles that are DRM free, but most of them require DRM, and when Steam or Epic dies, then all those back catalogs of games that have DRM are pretty much useless

I'm on a metered internet connection.

EPIC Games make it worse every year to offline play and to download, move the files and indicate the games. now it wants to download 30mb average per game which i move over

Some game run offline in w11 pro from epic game store. Some games should never be updated, as they get DRM patched in.

I have not yet figured out what else to move over when i download games on my w11 pro leonovo notebook to my desktop box. Both boxes uses C:\EPIC but on my desktop i need to download 30MB or more for each initialisation.

STEAM is also a clusterfuck in that that regard.

Turmoil for example asks for a internet connection + epic game launcher running, else it will crash in w11 pro from the epic game store. Subnautica 1 demands internet connection.

Deux EX Human Revolution will lock up at a certain point in the story when there is no active internet connection, although from epic game store, mostly runs offline, and all online content is gone. Kinda nasty hidden in the quest line when talking to a npc in a shop.

FierceRedI can't wait for them to argue over which Linux distro is better.

that topic is very old. I am ashamed i also participated in that field years ago.

-- VALVE

my steam account is very old and contains paid games from hardware purchases etc. Becasue I never spend 5 US DOLLA, 5 PESOS, 5 Something currency I am not even allowed to preorder a STEAM MAchine gambling box hardware. LOLZ

VALVE is as evil as the other companies mentioned above in this topic.

_roman_-- VALVE

my steam account is very old and contains paid games from hardware purchases etc. Becasue I never spend 5 US DOLLA, 5 PESOS, 5 Something currency I am not even allowed to preorder a STEAM MAchine gambling box hardware. LOLZ

VALVE is as evil as the other companies mentioned above in this topic.

Valve in general gets an absurd amount of unwarranted praise. But that's off topic.

I remember having to buy Mafia 1 again cause 1 of the 3 CDs needed to install died and then some time later one of the CDs of the new copy also died so I had to mix them to be able to install and play the game. I remember it was a relief that I could simply download and play the games and not mess around with the CDs.

Why does no one in here think this is a better move for our environment.
Digital is the way!!!! (it has to be)
Billion Dollar companies / people that just want more of our money is the real problem.

Valve should be commended for the amount of trash that they have kept out of landfill, plus all the manufacturing expenses they have saved with Steam.
When i purchased HL2, I didnt think it would work lol

DVD will survive two generations HDD dies faster.

Patriot- "21.2. If you have not used your Account for at least 36 months we may take steps to close it. In that case, we will contact you via the email address registered to your Account and give you 6 months to either log in to your Account or contact us and tell us to keep your Account open."

- "21.3. After your Account is closed, you will not be able to access the PlayStation Online Services or use the Digital Products purchased with that Account. Account closure is irreversible."

This basically demonstrates, that you really do not own any Game on PS that you ever paid for!
You rent a service, if you stop renting it, you get canceled and lose all your stuff.
Is this how people want to be treated? I think this is unacceptable!

FR3D1I would argue the opposite and even give a specific example: "Colin McRae: DiRT";
here you go!

Of course, the list of games that are either completely unplayable or only playable with modifications on a newer system is longer. It gets even longer if we include certain nonsense like DRM.


Source?

Regards,
Fred.

You actually answered your own question that it is still possible. Tell me can you play DiRT on the PS5?
I can still play games from god knows how long ago. PS3 store is being closed down. still disappear from the Playstation store all the time. Yet if you bought something on GoG or Steam 20 years ago you can still download it today.
Sure there are enough titles you can't buy anymore but if it's in your account you can still download it.
Heck people have DiRT working on the Steam Deck. Sure some work might be needed but like I said before try getting DiRT to work on your PS5.

ReadlightDVD will survive two generations HDD dies faster.

I heard the same thing mentioned 10 years ago already. Yet HDD's are so common it will make your eyes water while DVD is hardly sold. Even big places stop selling physical media like games and movies.
Heck HDD's are so dead that neither Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital can keep up with the demand. Mostly due to AI but consumers as well. homelabbing is becoming more and more common because people understand that streaming means it can just go away.

OnasiProtesting PS dropping physical media by going to PC, a platform that dropped physical media more than a decade ago, is… a choice, I suppose?

Yeah, this is the internet at its finest right here.

Fuck logic, we're against! Raaaaaah And then proceed to keep buying digital games; because lets face it, that's what they have been doing for the last decade as well. Physical media are already yesteryears reality. The disc is more often than not barely functional as the game needs a day one patch. As many games connect MTX to their content as well, 'the account' with its 'ownership of digital goods' is not transferable even if you had a disc.

Meanwhile the PC offers a non-walled garden where you can freely mow the lawn, probably even visit the neighbours' lawn while you're at it, go have a BBQ there and play numerous games wherever you like, however you like, at a price you like. Its been like that for the better part of two-three decades already, I guess the console peasants are finally getting their reality check, its long overdue.

freeagenthundreds of GB in size.

That too, I loathe the days where I was running into 'please insert disc 4' and then having that last disc scratched or something. Can't say I care about that being gone, good riddance.

As for this perceived ownership of digital goods: its digital, just copy it and make it portable, GG. You don't need to resell your games either. You just share. AFAIK there are barely any relevant games that haven't been somehow unlocked for everyone once they stopped getting sold, or even while getting sold.

ReadlightDVD will survive two generations HDD dies faster.

A rewriteable DVD has a much shorter lifespan, and is limited in number of rewrites. An HDD can be used for any data you want at any time. If you always have a redundant HDD, you're set for life, for any given amount of data capacity you want, and never at risk of losing any of it. There is no world in this or the next where physical media locked to a disc are ever better, were ever better, or will ever become better than just freely usable storage.

It kinda just follows logically from the creation of 'digital' goods. Of course its a disadvantage to have them tied to one disc. No one does that for any crucial data, ever, and its not feasible to have everything on disc 'twice' so you've got redundancy, either.

Vayra86Yeah, this is the internet at its finest right here.

Fuck logic, we're against! Raaaaaah And then proceed to keep buying digital games; because lets face it, that's what they have been doing for the last decade as well. Physical media are already yesteryears reality. The disc is more often than not barely functional as the game needs a day one patch. As many games connect MTX to their content as well, 'the account' with its 'ownership of digital goods' is not transferable even if you had a disc.

Meanwhile the PC offers a non-walled garden where you can freely mow the lawn, probably even visit the neighbours' lawn while you're at it, go have a BBQ there and play numerous games wherever you like, however you like, at a price you like. Its been like that for the better part of two-three decades already, I guess the console peasants are finally getting their reality check, its long overdue.

It isn't only about the disc itself, Sony decided to kill off discs right after deleting movies that people paid for. Sony has shown they can take away content whenever they want without any notification.
Without any physical disc on consoles you're stuck with what Sony charges in their store, no option for used games, no way to share games with friends. With no disc you're essentially renting a game until Sony decides to take it away. Physical discs were the last straw IMO, the next gen consoles are going to be $1,000+ and as a platform aren't going to be any cheaper than a PC.
But I doubt most console owners will vote with their wallets and move to PC, not if paid online subscriptions, rising console cost, and microtransactions didn't cause a massive switch over to PC.

RetroGabeWhy does no one in here think this is a better move for our environment.

Not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing with you but better in what way?

OnasiProtesting PS dropping physical media by going to PC, a platform that dropped physical media more than a decade ago, is… a choice, I suppose?

Well, if you are goign to be force into an all digital enviroment, would you rather that be a walled garden, closed off box that is limited to a signle store that engages in digital pricing shenanigans, sells you software for full price 99% of the time, and can (and will) take away your purchases at any time, or the open garden box that has multiple competitive storefronts, one of which is the golden standard for customer service, literal decades of backlog available to purchase, DEEP discounts regularly, mod support, the ability to backup and crack your own game files, altOS support, the list goes on and on?

Seems to be a pretty simple argument to me. The question is not "why would you buy on PC", it's "Why WOULDNT I buy on PC"?

RetroGabeWhy does no one in here think this is a better move for our environment.
Digital is the way!!!! (it has to be)
Billion Dollar companies / people that just want more of our money is the real problem.

Valve should be commended for the amount of trash that they have kept out of landfill, plus all the manufacturing expenses they have saved with Steam.
When i purchased HL2, I didnt think it would work lol

Because nobody cares.

If you REALLY want to help your environment, go live with the Amish (after ensuring you have been snipped so you can never have kids) instead of wasting resources to play your bing bing wahoo. Dont virtue signal, make a REAL change.

freeagentHmm.. its been about 5 years I think.. but I think my kids use my PSN for minecraft, or something.. well damn.

Well, now I dont want to plug my PS4 in to find out.. dammit.

F U Sony lol.

Whatever, I used to be a clepto and I snagged a ton of their finest Monster Cable from their Sony stores back when they were around.. so I guess we are even dammit.

Good news is that the PS4 is extremely easy to jailbreak, assuming you have a Blu-Ray burner. You do have a Blu-Ray burner... don't you?

RetroGabeake it portable, GG. You don't need to resell your games either. You just share. AFAIK there are barely any relevant games that haven't been somehow unlocked for everyone once they stopped getting sold, or even while getting sold.

Why not resell them?

A rewriteable DVD has a much shorter lifespan, and is limited in number of rewrites. An HDD can be used for any data you want at any time. If you always have a redundant HDD, you're set for life, for any given amount of data capacity you want, and never at risk of losing any of it. There is no world in this or the next where physical media locked to a disc are ever better, were ever better, or will ever become better than just freely usable storage.

No media will last forever. You can backup discs and use the backups instead. It's all about preserving the license.

OnasiProtesting PS dropping physical media by going to PC, a platform that dropped physical media more than a decade ago, is… a choice, I suppose?

With PC you have multiple game store fronts, such as GoG, Epic, Steam, EA games, Uplay, etc.

Plus, you can typically backup your games to physical media and you can much easily find cracks for your games as well.

With any console, the digital storefront is the only storefront for that respective console, which means there is only one way to get the game which means no competition on price, plus there is a history with the only storefront for a console going offline, on top of that there is a history from Sony in other forms of media, such as movies, where someone buys the digital product and then Sony deletes your purchase forever.

DukenukemxYou do have a Blu-Ray burner... don't you?

Of course I do!

No not really.. :fear:

Since the internet bill started coming in my name, I just stay top side and be a good citizen for the most part.

OnasiProtesting PS dropping physical media by going to PC, a platform that dropped physical media more than a decade ago, is… a choice, I suppose?

There's a big difference here. Sony has already shown that they are ready to remove whatever they see fit from your account. On PC you have GOG, which lets you download everything you own and store it on your own terms, and there's Steam, which kept alive all kinds of crap I've purchased over the past ~20 years, and there's also piracy, which surprisingly is still a thing.

FR3D1I would argue the opposite and even give a specific example: "Colin McRae: DiRT";

Fallout 3 is a better example - it outright does not work on anything newer than Win7.
That's one of those things that's 50% microsoft's fault, and 50% DRM.
Though, there is a glimpse of hope : DXVK/Proton works miracles on older games, and there are already reports of old titles working better in linux than on windows.

I like how I got like a dozen messages in this thread about my tongue in cheek post when I already noted that I don’t really accept the “open platform” and “multiple storefronts” and “cheaper games” copes because THATS WHAT WE PC GAMERS HAVE TOLD THE CONSOLE PLEBS FOR A DECADE+ ALREADY. Like, yes, I am aware of potential benefits of moving to PC. I AM a PC user. What I found funny is that, apparently, for a lot of console players this, the “muh physical games are going away” drama, served as a moment of dissatisfaction. Because, realistically, consoles stopped having any benefits as a gaming ecosystem over PC (exclusives aside, natch) the moment we transitioned to “it’s just a mid custom PC” back in 2013. Since then, the console players have, quite honestly, only themselves to blame for all this - you act like an abused wife defending the husband, well, you get treated accordingly.

OnasiProtesting PS dropping physical media by going to PC, a platform that dropped physical media more than a decade ago, is… a choice, I suppose?

Well it does kinda make sense if you look at it from more than a surface level. Its not, for everybody, necessarily about the loss of disks, but the loss of choice. PC has lots of choice, lots of avenues for getting games. And even avenues to get games that have been bought but later taken away from you. If a console is going to cost $1000, why live in that walled garden.... when for 30-50% more you can do whatever the f you want with your machine? Including a backlog of titles (including from emulation) no console could ever match? If you like your games so much, you can even make your own physical copies... assuming there's no denuvo, and even if there is, there wont always be, that shit is expensive.