This was brought on by the Sony news that all disk based distribution will stop.
At what point do I have be concerned that a cart or disk I buy won’t work on my system without a mandatory download?
The ps3 seem pretty clear but I seem to recall a game or two that did require a download, or system update, to play.
How many ps4/ps5 games would I be able to play without a server connection?
What about switch 1 /2 games?
Is there a website that tracks this or a way to tell?
So sad for the news; most of ps4 and ps5 games can be played from disc without an internet connection.
I was hoping for that PS4 is in the spot where I want to collect the games even if I don’t have the console yet.
PS5 is also very valuable since it’s the only console with 9th gen 4k games on discs. The site doesitplay.org can tell you when a games is playable from disc without updates.
Theres a couple of steam games like the remake of final fantasy tactics that will not work without an internet connection. I think we should expect quite a few new AAA games to do that…
and for indies to continue doing their own thing. And getting the sales because of it.
It means the next 10 years are going to be hard for game preservation for non indies.
Oh no. I wanted the FFT remake to play offline. Thanks for the warning.
If you can, buy it from somewhere like GoG or (I believe) itch.io for DRM free games. Download your games and back them up. I have a server for other things homelab and it runs the GoG client to auto install games and back them up on my NAS. if they ever go away for some reason, the last update is still stored locally. You can do that for Steam as well, but not all Steam games can run offline… most can’t due to DRM.
I’m looking for console games. I’m not really into newer PC games.
Anecdotally, my Switch 1 copy of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy has a little warning on it that it requires a download (IIRC, only Spyro 1 was included on the cart). But I don’t know if these warnings are common or required.
I am thinking of my future retro collection. I enjoy my physical copies but the recent news has me thinking
Many Switch 2 carts include just the license, no game data. So, assume you can’t play Switch 2 without downloads.
any way to know ahead of time?
Game Key Cards are all labeled as such on the bottom of the box. If it doesn’t have a big infobox explaining this, then it’s a normal cart.






