Physical games require downloads far more often than the box implies, according to testing group DoesItPlay, which has checked thousands of console releases for whether they work offline from the disc or cartridge alone.
The group says 27 percent of the physical releases it has tested need some kind of download to repair game-breaking problems or add core content missing from the media. The rate is higher on newer consoles: DoesItPlay reports 34 percent for tested PlayStation 5 games and 50 percent for tested Xbox Series X games.
The findings land as Ars Technica reports that Sony plans to stop making physical PlayStation games in the near future, a move that has put fresh attention on what buyers actually get when they buy a disc. The answer, increasingly, is a plastic token that may still need a platform holder’s servers before it behaves like a complete game. Very collectible. Less useful when the server goes dark.
Do physical games require downloads to work?
Some do. A physical release can contain the full game, a broken version that needs a patch, or only a small launcher-like slice that fetches most of the game online. DoesItPlay tests releases without an internet connection to see whether the core experience survives when the download pipe is cut.
Clemens Itsel, DoesItPlay’s owner and head admin, told Ars Technica that large publishers increasingly treat physical releases carelessly. He argued that discs and cartridges are not dying by technical necessity, but because companies choose to weaken or abandon them.
DoesItPlay began in 2019 as a Twitter project run by Jon Doyle, who later founded the physical game publisher Lost in Cult. It has since grown into a searchable database, with a published testing method for judging how much a game depends on online downloads. The group also helped draw attention in 2021 to the PlayStation “CBOMB” issue, which threatened offline PS3 and PS4 systems when their internal CMOS clock batteries failed. Sony later patched the PS4 problem, while Ars Technica says the PS3 remains unpatched.
What is missing from the disc?
In some cases, the missing piece is a patch that makes the shipped game tolerable. Itsel pointed to the original console release of Cyberpunk 2077 as the standard example: one DoesItPlay tester managed to finish it from disc, but the unpatched version was in such poor condition that future players without access to updates may face a near-unplayable copy.
Other failures are less famous. Itsel said that in DoesItPlay’s test of Atomfall, returning to the main village caused characters to become hostile, breaking side quests and derailing a peaceful run. The game could still be finished, he said, but only by fighting through a scenario the combat system made difficult.
DoesItPlay also flags discs that contain only a small part of the product. It cites recent physical releases including Doom: The Dark Ages, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and The Outer Worlds 2 as examples where the disc does not carry the full game and relies on a large download.
Itsel said another pattern is the mandatory early update prompt, where a game may have enough data on the disc but blocks progress until it phones home. He named Hogwarts Legacy, Jedi Survivor, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, 007 First Light, Crimson Desert, Gothic Remake, and many modern Ubisoft AAA games as examples.
Which console physical releases hold up best?
Itsel told Ars Technica that Microsoft is the weakest of the major console companies for complete physical releases, saying Xbox games too often require downloads or a Microsoft account. He said PlayStation discs are generally more playable offline, but have declined in recent years.
Switch and Switch 2 cartridges often perform better offline, according to Itsel, although he criticized the rise of Nintendo Switch 2 Game Key Cards. Those products are sold physically but contain no offline game data, functioning instead as download keys.
The preservation concern is straightforward: downloads work only while the relevant servers and licensing arrangements remain in place. Nintendo has said older purchases and updates will remain downloadable “for the foreseeable future,” but Itsel told Ars Technica that server shutdowns are eventually expected. Boutique physical publishers give him some optimism, he said, because they serve players and developers who want games preserved as durable objects rather than temporary account entitlements.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.
