This is slightly going off topic, but kind of ties in, and could branch off into another thread really.
Something else that actually has to be taken into account is backwards compatibility when it comes to optical discs or carts next gen. This would complicate the second digital only based, optical discless sku.
What if you have 50 BD game discs for this gen, and you buy a next gen optical discless console, for whatever reason you have, then what? How does your online account know if you still own the game, if it can't be read on the optical drive you don't have, to allow you to download the game to your mass storage?
Do you have to pay $25 to $50 for an add on optical drive just for BC? Do you require the old optical disc always be in the drive to authenticate or do you allow users to download the game to their mass storage and forget the authentication afterwards? With one time authentication the add on optical drive would seem like such a waste, but if not, would also still leave the hassle of having to deal with physical media, which defeats the purpose of buying a digital only console. How long does this go on for with BC? At some point an option needs to be in place to actually fully transfer old physical games into digital, once and for all.
Maybe you could connect your last gen console with the next gen console and use the last gen consoles optical drive to authenticate the game disc, just so you can direct transfer/download the game to the next gen console? Do you charge $5 to $20 per game for the physical to digital transfer knowing those users can now sell/share that physical game afterwards?
If your PS/XB do you include some type and size of mass storage in the next gen console or do you leave it to these customers to purchase their own separate mass storage device if they wish? They wouldn't necessarily require a huge storage device if their net connection was sufficient enough to purchase the digital only sku in the first place. Data caps for some people though. However you may need a HUGE storage device if your aloud to download your 50 physical games during a single authentication process.
There's a little more to it than first meets the eye here.
