Marvel’s Wolverine Will Be Fully Playable from the PS5 Disc as Physical Games Face an Uncertain Future

Marvel’s Wolverine is bringing some genuinely welcome news for players who still care about physical games. Insomniac has confirmed that the upcoming PlayStation 5 title will be fully playable directly from the physical disc when it launches on September 15. 

That may sound like something that should not need to be announced, but with more modern games requiring large downloads and constant online connections, having the actual playable game on the disc has become increasingly important.

Senior project director Jess Reiner Reed confirmed that Wolverine will be released both digitally and physically. 

The physical edition will contain the game itself, rather than simply acting as a key that sends your PS5 looking for a massive download. There will still be a day-one update, since Insomniac is continuing to polish the game and fix bugs right up until launch. 

Insomniac's head of technology, Mike Fitzgerald, has explained that the team is made up of perfectionists who want to use every remaining moment before launch to make small improvements. That means players will still want to install the update, but the physical disc should contain a functional version of Wolverine that can be installed and played. 

The announcement also arrives at a significant time for physical PlayStation releases. Sony has announced plans to stop producing PlayStation game discs beginning in January 2028, a move that has already triggered criticism from physical collectors and game preservation advocates.

The debate has become larger than simply whether players prefer discs or downloads, because it also raises questions about what ownership means when access to an entire game library can depend on digital storefronts and online services.

Insomniac has avoided getting directly involved in that larger controversy, choosing instead to keep the focus on Wolverine. That is understandable, but the decision to put a fully playable version on the disc still makes the game notable. 

As the industry moves further toward digital distribution, major first-party releases that can be purchased in a store, inserted into a console, and played without depending entirely on a company's servers could become increasingly uncommon.

Meanwhile, PlayStation Plus is delivering a strong lineup of games this month, giving subscribers several major titles to choose from. 

August's additions include Helldivers 2, Ghost Recon Wildlands, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Hell Is Us, Metro Exodus, Dying Light 2, and Vampire Survivors. The exact release timing varies by region and subscription tier, but the overall lineup gives players a mix of multiplayer action, open-world adventures, RPGs, survival experiences, and smaller titles that can quickly consume far more time than expected.

Helldivers 2 is one of the biggest additions, and its arrival coincides with new content. Players can team up with friends and traverse the galaxy and keep on spreading managed democracy while dealing with the game’s always-on friendly fire. 

The game has changed considerably since its February 2024 launch, and the new content introduces additional threats connected to the Illuminate, including mutated enemies with different combat characteristics.

The game is also receiving additional battlefield support and a level-cap increase to 300, giving returning players another reason to jump back in. For anyone who somehow avoided Helldivers 2 until now, its addition to PlayStation Plus provides an effortless opportunity to experience one of the platform's biggest cooperative games without buying it separately.

Ghost Recon Wildlands is getting an unexpected boost as part of Ghost Recon's 25th anniversary celebrations. Ubisoft has updated the PS4 version so that it can run at 4K and 60 frames per second when played on PS5, which should make revisiting the open-world tactical shooter considerably more appealing. 

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is another major addition, following the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance's addition to PlayStation Plus the previous month. The sequel offers a large medieval RPG built around deliberate combat, exploration, and a story focused on betrayal and revenge. 

On August 25, Hell Is Us will also be available on PlayStation Plus Essential. 

The third-person action game takes place in a country devastated by civil war and a mysterious supernatural event, with players exploring a semi-open world while searching for missing parents. Its combat takes some inspiration from Soulslike games, but the experience places significant emphasis on exploration, atmosphere, mystery, and horror.

Metro Exodus is also joining the lineup on PS4 and PS5, giving players an opportunity to experience one of the strongest entries in the post-apocalyptic series. The game takes the Metro formula beyond its traditionally claustrophobic environments and sends players across a devastated Russia filled with mutated creatures, hostile factions, limited resources, weapon maintenance, stealth, and survival mechanics. 

Dying Light 2 and Vampire Survivors round out the selection, with the latter offering a much simpler premise that can become surprisingly addictive as players survive increasingly large waves of enemies and create ever more powerful weapon combinations.

While PlayStation is strengthening its subscription offering, Square Enix is also reporting a strong financial period. The company recorded an 88.6% year-over-year increase in operating income, while net sales rose 32.3%. 

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth expanded beyond PlayStation and PC with releases on Nintendo Switch 2 and XBOX Series X|S, and Square Enix said the game performed strongly on those additional platforms. That provides the company with further evidence that putting major games in front of more players can directly benefit its business. 

Square Enix has an enormous library that includes decades of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and other major franchises. Releasing those games on additional platforms gives the company another opportunity to generate revenue from titles that have already required years of development. 

The company’s mobile and browser business also did well, with titles including Dissidia Duellum, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest aiding sales and profits. 

Outside gaming, Square Enix reported growth across several other areas, including publishing, amusement, and merchandising. The results therefore suggest that the company's improvement is not being driven by one successful title alone but by several parts of the business moving in the right direction.

Crimson Desert is taking a different approach, with Pearl Abyss continuing to heavily update its single-player game months after launch. Since its release in March, the studio has repeatedly patched, adjusted, and expanded the game despite Crimson Desert having no co-op, online multiplayer, battle pass, or microtransaction store. 

The developers have added multiple difficulty settings, tweaked enemy behavior and combat, improved parry windows, and made boss encounters less frustrating. Bosses can now be rematched, and liberated blockades can eventually revert to their original state. 

Other improvements include fast travel, map organization, trader interfaces, horse controls, stamina consumption, font-size options, and cross-save functionality. 

Pearl Abyss added new saddles, mounts, pets, armor, customization options, housing decorations, and more. The trading system has even been completely redone, adding 133 trade posts, new goods, supply and demand mechanics, trade routes, better transportation, wagons, and wagon shops.

This latest patch is more aresolvingixing problems than adding major new features. It deals with problems with equipment effects, food consumption, companion healing, and other smaller bugs. Some performance and animation problems reportedly remain, particularly on the base PS5, showing that Pearl Abyss still has work to do.

Even so, the larger story is how much Crimson Desert has changed since launch. The game now has better difficulty options, expanded storage, improved travel and interfaces, more customization, additional content, cross-save support, and a significantly deeper trading system. With DLC also in development, the next major step could be a substantial expansion rather than another constant stream of small free updates.

Taken together, these developments show an industry moving in several directions at once. Wolverine is becoming an interesting example of the importance of physical ownership, PlayStation Plus is continuing to expand its value with major games, Square Enix is finding financial benefits in reaching more platforms, and Pearl Abyss is demonstrating how much a single-player game can evolve after launch.