VanceIX said:
Hint: You don't own your physical media either. Ever read your EULA?
EULAs are not legally binding unless it's something you actually assent to (i.e., clicking "I Agree" when you install a computer program). In any case, when's the last time you had to sign/click on an EULA to play a video game, watch a DVD, or listen to a record?
In U.S. jurisprudence, physical copies for everything except computer programs (console games are not classified as "computer programs" under the relevant law regarding first-sale) are treated as "sold, not licensed" and are subject to the First-sale doctrine. Console games, audio recordings (CDs, vinyl records, cassettes), books and other literature, and video recordings (VHS tapes, DVDs, Blu-ray discs) are also covered by the First-sale doctrine. For all legal purposes, you own that copy, whether it be a book, CD, DVD, Blu-ray, or console game disc or cartridge. The only thing you cannot legally do is produce and sell new copies ("copyright" literally does mean "right to make copies").
No one is coming to take away your digital content, period, just like how they aren't taking away your ability to play the discs
There are some very worrying concerns about the permanence of digital content. What guarantee is there that this digital content will still be accessible to me once the servers are finally shut down? Say someone's digital library of PS5 games gets lost because their hard drive crashes, but this is long after the PS5 is supported. They can't re-download their games again. Meanwhile, a disc is permanent barring its physical destruction and is not dependent on bits stored on a hard drive and downloaded or streamed from some server, and even if the disc does get destroyed, another copy can be obtained because there are many others like it. The physical copy is not hindered by hard drive crashes or server shut downs; the data still exists on the physical copy.
And there is precedent for companies removing digital content from people's machines after they had purchased it, for games and other media. See here, here, and here.
(which they can, per the EULA).
No they can't. See earlier.
It's fine that you like physical, but don't completely discount digital. Steam alone has shown that digital is very much a viable option. People said that Steam was evil for taking away physical content on PC, now 97% of PC sales are digital and revenue has never been higher.
PCs and consoles are apples and oranges. An all-digital market works for PC because PC is an open platform with various competing services. Consoles have always operated by different rules than PCs, and the very nature of consoles precludes them from ever going all-digital. It would require dismantling everything console gamers have taken for granted.
PC is an open platform. There is competition between many different digital storefronts. Just because almost everybody wants to use Steam doesn't necessarily everybody has to use Steam. Somebody could come along with an even better or at least equally good service to Steam, which could draw customers away from Steam.
However, consoles are a closed platform. On Xbox you have to buy from the XBL Marketplace, on PlayStation you have to buy from the PS Store, and on Nintendo you have to buy from their eShop. There is no choice. And with no competing digital storefronts, there won't be any incentive to offer deals like Steam does. You are locked into that ecosystem and you have a nominally fixed piece of hardware. Not only will $60 still be the norm, but there won't be support for mods or user-generated content. You lose the ability to lend, sell, gift, traded, or otherwise dispose of your games in a manner of your choosing as non-physical copies are not covered by the First-sale doctrine, at least in U.S. jurisprudence. In addition, consoles gamers are not as "connected" as PC gamers. An all-digital system would of course require an internet connection. By most accounts, upwards of a third of all console gamers aren't connected to the internet, and that's just in the U.S. An all-digital console would cut literally tens of millions of potential customers out of the loop altogether. An all-digital console is quite simply the worst of both worlds, lacking both the benefits that PC gamers got when they traded away their First-sale rights to buy from Steam, et al., and the benefits that come with owning a game console.
One only has to look at the fallout over the Xbox One last year to get a clue on how an all-digital console would function. Granted, MS's original DRM plans affected physical copies, which probably exacerbated the situation (and it would probably have been subject to legal challenges), but it's clear that console gamers by and large want to maintain the status quo in regards to connectivity and the media they buy. Most of us are not paying $60 for Halo or Mario or Uncharted or Final Fantasy just to get a digital copy that we don't even own. Consoles are nominally supposed to be machines where you own the software you buy and don't necessarily need to have an internet connection. You just stick the game into the system and start playing.
The only way all-digital will ever work in the console space is if digital copies are treated the same as physical in regards to the First-sale doctrine, and if affordable and sufficiently fast internet is available to all households, which with the way things are going right now isn't going to happen anytime soon. Otherwise, if the console market attempts to go all-digital, it will collapse. It'll be 1983 all over again. Too many customers will be unable to use the product, and many, many more will simply revolt.
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