Gothic 1 Remake Will Require Download To Play Offline For Physical Copies

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It won’t be long now before we can finally dive back into the world of Gothic. The Gothic 1 Remake is coming soon, and I couldn’t be more excited. It has been a long time since I’ve played, and I’m ready to see if the remake involves the same feelings the original did. I’m also quite excited to see if the game will be playable on the Steam Deck, but we can at least say it will be playable offline.

Over on Twitter/X, the official account for the remake quoted a post from @DoesItPlay1 confirming that the game will be playable offline after an initial download for the game. While this would be nice on its own, this was only discussed after someone was sent a physical PS5 copy of the game early from the THQ Nordic official store and learned that they couldn’t play the game.

Now, I understand developers blocking access to the game for those who may have gotten it early. It makes sense to avoid spoilers and leaks. However, the bigger issue comes from the fact that this is a physical copy of the game, and it requires an online connection to download something just to play it offline. For those who are getting the game on a physical disc, this feels counterintuitive to what it means to get a physical copy. It’s good that you can play it offline after the download, but the fact that it needs a download to get to this point is disappointing.

Based on their post, they decided to implement this so they could send out copies of the game early to make sure everyone was able to enjoy it as soon as it was released. It’s a nice thought, but this isn’t the way to do it. Theoretically, this means trying to play the game in the future, with a physical copy, will still require that download, which defeats the purpose of having a fully playable game on physical media that needs no connection to start.

For those of us who are playing Gothic 1 Remake on the Steam Deck, this won’t be much of a problem. If anything, it’s actually a positive thing that they confirmed it will be playable offline. I didn’t really think that it would need an Internet connection, based on the kind of game it is, but in this day and age, I wouldn’t be surprised if it did happen. However, this is a major blow to physical preservation, and that’s a real shame.

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