- A Steam user has found a way to store games on SSDs with an auto-navigation and auto-start script
- These are effectively physical ‘game cartridges’ complete with key art
- However, costly SSDs means this is a pricey endeavor (the Steam gamer was lucky enough to pick up used drives on the cheap)
Physical copies of PlayStation games are coming to an end from January 2028, and as the backlash around that continues, a restoration of physical media on PC has been discovered — and it’s novel to say the least.
A Steam user on Reddit has managed to store games on ‘cheap 2.5-inch’ SATA SSDs, effectively acting as old-school ‘game cartridges’ with key art, and a script that auto-navigates Steam to each game’s page. The user also notes that automatically starting games from each drive is possible.
This comes amid a significant uproar from gamers following the revelation of Sony’s plan to eradicate physical game discs, supposedly by the time its next PlayStation console arrives. It’s a very controversial move that has united gamers across all platforms to fight to retain discs and to ensure game ownership remains intact.
With that said, physical media for PC has been dead for a long while, since a modern desktop PC doesn’t come with a disc drive, and there are hardly any publishers selling physical copies for the platform.
With most games only accessible digitally on PC, in theory those titles can be taken away from buyers at any time. The trouble is that consumer-friendly figures like Gabe Newell, who leads Valve, the owner of Steam, won’t be in charge forever.
So in the future, under new leadership, it’s possible more anti-consumer measures might be introduced, or other aspects of PC gaming that consumers dislike, such as DRM (like Denuvo).
Imagine if this ‘game cartridge’ system was adopted by PC game publishers? It’s a smart idea, and a nice thought, but clearly not a realistic one. For starters, it’d be a prohibitively expensive method of reintroducing physical PC game copies.
Of course, platforms like Epic Games and Steam require users to be logged in and have their app installed to play games, so it’s still a long way off true game copy ownership, anyway.
However, this concept would be paired perfectly with GOG, a platform that is DRM-free and doesn’t require the launcher to play purchased games — in other words, you fully own purchased games on GOG.
Admittedly, publishers releasing PC game cartridges in the form of SSDs is a pipe dream, especially with the current state of the hardware market, and the RAM crisis, complete with skyrocketing SSD prices.
The idea comes at the wrong time, then, but if the RAM crisis ever settles down, then maybe this is something we’ll see more PC hobbyists doing — and perhaps even the odd publisher.
