Why do you have to keep inserting Discs after game installs

[hellsing006]

I'm asking this for a friend because I'm not 100% certain of the answer. Why do you have to keep inserting the games disc after you've done the install? Is it just to prevent people from stealing the game? Is there a code or something to use instead and what about if you lend it to a friend?

 

[jardantuan]

It's pretty much as verification that you actually own the game, and didn't borrow it. Imagine if you didn't have to have the disc in - people would buy and share games in large groups, meaning you'd have perhaps 10% of the sales that you should actually have. It sounds like a good idea to consumers, but it'd be terrible for the industry (in that it would collapse completely).

PC games adopt the verification code approach, but the platform lends itself to it a little more. Granted, this is less prevalent these days with digital distribution (Steam, Origin, etc.) taking over, but they still run on the same principle. Since people tend to share console games, and given that the pre-owned game market is huge, it doesn't make sense to effectively render a disc useless once it's been installed.

 

[Frantic]

Its either that or online checks to make sure its not pirated.

 

[BlackSolaris]

Yeah, pretty much the whole verification thing. Otherwise everyone would chip in to buy a copy of a multiplayer game, everyone installs it and everyone would be able to play the same copy as the same time. So they make the game so it needs the disk to read some data to prevent that.

 

[Striker--7]

If you don't know, when you install a game via disk vs digital, the digital version takes a MUCH longer time. There are some basic game data stores on the disk so it doesn't take quite as long, but when you download the digital version completely, it is painfully long because you don't have have that data already there. The disk is a great way to verify, but also is a digital version.

 

[HydraForce]

Did I really just see EVERYONE say that it's for verification and piracy checks? My goodness the lack of knowledge really hurts my brain. The reason you have to still use the game disc isn't because of "piracy" or to check that someone owns the game. It's because with the next-gen systems, and the new HD Textures/Content, it needs to be installed to the Hard Drive, while the actual game itself runs off the Disc. Just like PC Games, if I purchase Battlefield 4 or any game on a physical disc, I have to INSTALL the game, but I still need the CD to actually PLAY IT. My goodness, it's not a hard concept to understand. x_x

 

[Dmadman72]

Did I really just see EVERYONE say that it's for verification and piracy checks? My goodness the lack of knowledge really hurts my brain. The reason you have to still use the game disc isn't because of "piracy" or to check that someone owns the game. It's because with the next-gen systems, and the new HD Textures/Content, it needs to be installed to the Hard Drive, while the actual game itself runs off the Disc. Just like PC Games, if I purchase Battlefield 4 or any game on a physical disc, I have to INSTALL the game, but I still need the CD to actually PLAY IT. My goodness, it's not a hard concept to understand. x_x

Is that so? Care to explain why it was the same on the PS3 or the 360(optional)? Better yet if it is HD textures why do you need the PS3 version of the disk if you upgrade? Are you saying that the PS3 version has the same textures as the PS4? I think I will believe BlackSolaris.