I’m not anti physical media; I buy Blu Ray discs because they offer a much higher bitrate than streaming. However with three people using my PS5, the convenience of not needing to swap discs outweighs the advantage of having a physical copy that I am highly unlikely to sell or lend.
Or the consoles could have a writable drive and the game disc could have a rewritable section for recording if the license is currently checked out. You could have the systems be able to install and play from the disc, while also recording that the license is checked out to that system. Then the disc wouldn’t have a playable license until you unmount the license from the system and it records back to the disc partition that the license is available again. That way you wouldn’t have to mess around with the disc’s after initial install, but you can transfer the license back to the disc for resale when you’re done with it.
It isn’t hard to imagine a system that has the best of both disc and server attributes, but clearly the console companies have motivations to keep physical media constrained and inconvenient.
I’m not anti physical media; I buy Blu Ray discs because they offer a much higher bitrate than streaming. However with three people using my PS5, the convenience of not needing to swap discs outweighs the advantage of having a physical copy that I am highly unlikely to sell or lend.
Maybe consoles should have one of those CD switcher things inside so you can have a few discs in ready to go at all times.
Not optical media, but I’ve seen an accessory for the Switch that’s like that, holds four cards and switches which is active with a press
Or the consoles could have a writable drive and the game disc could have a rewritable section for recording if the license is currently checked out. You could have the systems be able to install and play from the disc, while also recording that the license is checked out to that system. Then the disc wouldn’t have a playable license until you unmount the license from the system and it records back to the disc partition that the license is available again. That way you wouldn’t have to mess around with the disc’s after initial install, but you can transfer the license back to the disc for resale when you’re done with it.
It isn’t hard to imagine a system that has the best of both disc and server attributes, but clearly the console companies have motivations to keep physical media constrained and inconvenient.