Indiana Jones And The Great Circle is set to launch on the PlayStation 5 this week, on April 17, 2025. It will be the first time the game will be available in physical format, only, as it turns out, that isn’t entirely true.
As reported by PushSquare, a YouTuber in Europe got a copy of the game a few days early. The PlayStation 5 amaray case itself indicated on the label that it requires an online connection.
When the YouTuber entered the disc on their console, they found that it indicated that only 20 GB of the game was installed from the disc onto their PlayStation 5 SSD.
On the PlayStation Store, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle is a 125 GB download. As you can imagine, the disc did not have the full game. But it didn’t even have enough for you to start playing some of the game.
Instead, you have to go online to download the rest of the game and be able to play. Of course, this YouTuber couldn’t go further with their test, because their copy of the game is not street legal.
It’s worth remembering why most disc games on both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S install the games onto their respective consoles. The innovation of SSD technology and their fast read/write speeds was a double edged sword. Because they can perform at faster speeds than a laser reading a disc can, they have pushed the industry forward in making games with better visuals and performance.
But that means that compact discs are already an obsolete media for holding current generation video games. While many fans tout that some games, even AAAs like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, have the full game on disc, even published on multiple discs, that’s ignoring the reality that’s staring them in the face.
While Sony innovated in helping invent the compact disc, and was part of the consortiums and associations for both Blu-Ray and 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray formats, they haven’t shown and interest in making a new disc format. So if it’s possible to make a physical disc that can run as fast or better than SSDs, we wouldn’t know.
Now, the recent launch of the Switch 2 offers an intriguing possibility as well. Is it possible to hold a 125 GB game like Indiana Jones And The Great Circle fully installed on a single Switch 2 cartridge? And if so, can they match or exceed the performance of SSDs? And will they cost more than the $ 80 bar that Nintendo has set for their games like Mario Kart Tour?
As you may know, Nintendo has not announced that they are making any Switch 2 carts that can fit in 125 GB games. Instead, they’re introducing Game Key Cards, which will function as a physical key component to downloaded games on the console.
If Indiana Jones And The Great Circle will be ported to the Switch 2, it will likely come as a Game Key Card, if it releases in physical form at all. Unfortunately, because of technologies and the cost of doing business, it’s become increasingly unfeasible to make physical games that can preserve said games in any practical way.
As we’re sure many fans will be unhappy and dissatisfied with this news, it is important to recognize why this has happened to console games. There’s more to it than game companies being ‘greedy.’ New innovations will need to arrive, new physical media formats that can match up or exceed what current technology like SSDs do now, before modern physical games can be a real platform for game preservation.
Until Sony or some other tech companies step up to bring the industry what it needs, we can expect modern games to transition into a digital, non-physical future.
