In the wake of the news that Sony will end PlayStation disc production by 2028, a lot of folks are expressing their disgust at the idea of a digital-only game library. But players aren't the only ones sharing their frustration--today, GOG.com joined the conversation with a short tutorial showing players how to physically preserve their digital games.

"Download the offline installer of any of your games on GOG, save it to a disc, and it's yours forever," the digital gaming storefront shared in an X post. "You don't need a storefront's permission to play what you bought."

Of course, this doesn't perfectly solve the problem. Not every game is available on PC, not every game is available for purchase on GOG (like Ubisoft's game catalogue, for example), and some games--though they may be technically preservable on a disc--won't necessarily be playable.

"Unless it's an always-online game and they shut down the servers," one X user replied to GOG's post. "You own it, you have it, but you can't play it."

But that was already the case long before Sony began manifesting its vision of a discless future. Always-online games have always been beholden to the whims of whatever entity pays their server costs. The issue GOG is hoping to address here is the disappearance of online storefronts. When they go offline--as the PlayStation Store on PS3 and Vita will next summer--any digital games that players have purchased but don't have installed on the console will become inaccessible for them to download. (Although Microsoft, at least, seems to be toying with a disc-to-digital plan that would allow players to retain access to the games they've bought.)

GOG's do-it-yourself solution is a Band-Aid for a much bigger problem--one that might require lawmakers to intervene if players ever hope to truly own their digital games. But it's certainly better than nothing.

With MagicCon Amsterdam right around the corner, Wizards of the Coast has begun spoiler season for their next crossover set in Magic: The Gathering: Star Trek. While the legendary science-fiction franchise may seem like an odd fit for a trading card game that’s ultimately about wizards flinging spells at each other, space (aka the final frontier) is no stranger to the game. Just last year Magic went to space with the excellent Edge of Eternities set, and the gameplay design was so good it ended up being my favorite set of the year.

What’s odd about Star Trek spoiler season though is a particular card that’s being printed on its bonus sheet. As revealed earlier today, the set features a reprint of Sheoldred, The Apocalypse reskinned as Kahn from the 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness. One of the main selling points of Magic’s Star Trek set is that Wizards of the Coast has obtained the rights to use the likeness of every actor they depict on the card, which means that Sheoldred--instead of being a female phyrexian nightmare being--is now just… Benedict Cumberbatch?

Outside of being a bit bummed that a reprint for a $80+ card is being sullied with art from a J.J. Abrams film, it got me thinking. There’s a lot of Benedict Cumberbatch in Magic: The Gathering this year for some reason. Not the actor himself, per se, but characters he’s depicted on screen. For example, the Marvel Super Heroes set just released a Doctor Strange card that has art very clearly influenced by his on screen depiction played by Cumberbatch.

Weird that it happened not once but twice, but what if I told you it’s actually happening three times? Following Star Trek, the next MTG crossover set is based on The Hobbit, and while a return to Middle-Earth is always welcome, it allows yet another character that Cumberbatch has portrayed to be depicted in Magic: The Gathering. The card this time is Smaug the Magnificent, and it actually features a chase printing that is the headliner card of the entire Hobbit set.

Theoretically, this means that if you build a Mardu (red, white, and black for non-players) deck, you can have every Benedict Cumberbatch card be playable in your gameplan if you so desire.

What other universes can Magic: The Gathering depict to add even more Benedict Cumberbatch? Is this secretly their way of testing the water for casting him in the announced Magic: The Gathering streaming adaptation? Who knows really. I just know that I’m tired.