alt Hacker NewsI pardon to disagree, it is a physical vs digital problem, and it is our fault.
Companies started pushing digital content and we accepted it, Xbox GamePass has been a cancer (I am Xbox player) with all the games destroyed because of it.
Nobody can disagree that digital games is convenient, turn your PC/Console on and that is it, load the game, start playing something else, etc, without leaving your sofa.
We never thought about the consequences of that, look what happened with DVD, Bluray had luck coz its post-peak era happened by the time people started going back to physical disks over streaming services and the downfall of such services.
This is also related to how everything nowadays is digital, requires subscription which removes features like BMW heated seats, firmware update and what not.
Companies made us addicted to everything digital, that gives them full control, higher price for less, Amazon Prime without ADs requires a higher tier, Sygic Offline mobile app now requires higher tier to have access to features that were once part of the lower tier.
Gaming studios until recently were focused on live services over single player games, it is digital, content is behind paywall, etc and etc.
Digital DLCs over releasing a new game coz that would force physical release.
This is our fault and we might have gone past the point of no return!!
The distinction is not physical vs (entirely) digital. If you buy games at GOG, you get entirely non-physical products, but you own and control those bits. You can download the game and keep playing it as long as you can provide it with a suitable runtime environment
The things you don't own are because they require an online service to work. No matter what you do, short of removing the dependency, aka "cracking", it will only work as long as the online service allows it to work.
Any feature of.a consoles with OTA software updates are in that category. Even if you own the hardware, you don't _control_ the software.