Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

This is why I don't really understand the outrage with Sony getting rid of physical discs. I guess the argument is you can sell you disc later, but at the end of the day, owning a the disc isn't the same as owning an NES cartridge. Once the servers are down, that's it.

Every modern media disk since DVD has had revocable DRM . That means you have never owned the disks. (Only Audio CDs and laser disks were owned digital media). With games, a synchronous right’s check is made every time you insert the disk, and if you haven’t played recently, the entire game installation is downloaded. The disk is only used for rights, not for playback. With movies, thankfully the rights check is done offline on your player, but a background online check can revoke your player’s keys, and revoke your entire collection. What’s more, a revocation can ship via another disk. So you can unplug your Blu-ray player for 2 years, insert a new disk, and lose your entire collection.

Own? You don’t own someone else’s work. Even when it goes into public domain, you don’t own their creation. At that point, nobody does.

Nag your representatives ad nauseam to make laws against this.

Don't buy golden cage BS products, which you don't really own.

Consoles, Apple, Google, etc.

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Our kids are going to be so fucked..

Part of the overall trend to eliminate in-person shopping and physical product ownership.

In the end, 1 guy owns everything and we’re all batteries.

I never got into gaming. Never bought a console. Seems like I wasn't missing too much.

Recently got a big fancy TV with 4k + Dolby Vision

It’s a lot of work figuring out what movies support the format. And all the premium upgrades to Netflix, etc get them to stream premium formats. Then it doesn’t work and you’re spending 30 minutes debugging your TV, wondering why you’re not getting the amazing new restoration of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I totally understand why people just buy physical media.

Games may be harder given software updates. But I’d pay a premium for a physical copy of mature games I love (like Halo Master Chief collection)

> "But owning a game on a disc today isn't really the same thing. It's still just a license..."

Here's the crux of the problem in their own sentence and they don't even realize it.

Owning and Licensing are not the same thing. If I own something, I own it outright. If I license something, I am leasing it.

It does get fuzzy with media, I will admit. But we need the same protections as physical books and game cartidges. If I buy it, it is mine to use as I please and even resell or transfer. If that's not what the transaction is, then don't call it buying or purchasing, call it leasing or licensing.

Require stores and publishers to use language that reflects the nature of the transaction.

I keep seeing article like this, that look like they have been written by these companies to push the opinion. People saying "who cares because you cannot play it anyway" instead of "discs should be less dependant on network to gain another advantage".

But the case for physical disk is not (only) about playability, it's mostly about ownership and the fact that you can actually lend it to someone or resell it. It's also about retail, and it's about collectors. About people with a slow or limited connection having access with that much less to download.

Another thing is also that if I have a physical copy, I have the right to a digital copy. So a non-working disc might not always be the end. But if I have a digital copy and they take it off the table, I do not have this right and it is gone forever.