hmm... How can an outage affect physical media?
I booted up my Xbox One and put in Mass Effect Andromeda. It has not been previously installed or patched. Curious what will happen.
EDIT:
tl;dr: I tested Xbox One and Series X. Xbox One continued to play my media, while Series X required I log in to select my profile in the game. Also, the capture software of the Series X required I log in to gather my screenshots.
I do not know if the Xbox One just had a cached session of my profile that the Series X did not, or if they authenticate differently. But regardless, I was unable to play Mass Effect Andromeda on Series X while this outage is ongoing.
Depends on a couple factors:
- Will the game play without a firmware update?
- Will the game play without a game update? (deliberate gate, or by presence of game-breaking bugs)
- Even if previously updated, does the game arbitrarily enforce a persistent connection?
The first one is usually the catch. On Xbox, you have to download the firmware update, it's not on disc like Nintendo and PlayStation. If you haven't updated your system in a while, you usually can't play newer games. (MS has/had a workaround for this, where you could download firmware from their website and install it via flashdrive. It's something, but still weak for needing Internet.)
Needing a game update happens semi-commonly too, but it's certainly the exception. Something like 80+% of games probably play fine without one, even on Xbox.
Single player games forcing you online all the time is pretty rare, but happens. Some especially spiteful, incompetent, or cloud-brained pubs will do it from time to time.
Hmm, I do not have an unpatched console to check and see if a firmware update is what is blocking gamers right this moment. But if that's the case, I would think just disabling internet would let you continue playing?
EDIT: I think the confusion is the title saying "any digital or physical media". I do know of games that require persistent internet and release with Day 1 patches. But this implies that putting a disc in right now just doesn't work.
Unplugging the network probably would not help, if you have a disc that needs a newer firmware than what's installed.
I don't connect my consoles online unless I get forced to, and I've run across it a couple times on Xbox One. Never bought into the Series line tho, so can't say if it's different these days.
And yeah, as far as current issue, I'd expect the headline is probably exaggerating.
Still unable to log in, but the game installed... even patched (so content servers seem online)
Seems like everything is functioning to me.
I thought maybe the disconnect of the authentication servers would have blocked the content servers and thus caused physical media to be blocked but no... I'm not having any issues playing right now.
To further this study I'm going to yank the CAT5e cable and delete the install. See if anything happens if I install without the network patch functionality.
Network patch is nonfunctional with the ethernet cable pulled. Obviously. Same 30 minute install.
I suspect no change, so after I verify I'm going to dig out the Series X to see if that's different somehow.
i can play my 30 year old link to the past cartridge.
@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Stop Killing Games:
The consumer movement to stop game publishers from intentionally destroying older games with kill switches.
The goal is to reach 1 million signatures in the EU so that the european parliament will respond to the initiative that then leads to regulation that requires end-of-life plans for games to stay playable.
go to feed...
@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Stop Killing Games:
The consumer movement to stop game publishers from intentionally destroying older games with kill switches.
The goal is to reach 1 million signatures in the EU so that the european parliament will respond to the initiative that then leads to regulation that requires end-of-life plans for games to stay playable.
go to feed...
It's outrageous that we came to this.
Everything else does not matter: if it's not a game that requires internet connection for a good reason (micro transactions and license check are NOT good reasons, it's a game), then the game should not require internet connection.
Additionally, for multi-player games, if they have a single player mode, same thing! I already cannot play multi-player, I don't have a working internet connection!
It's sad that enough people keep buying shit for these companies to keep getting away with this.
save