PS5 Slim's new external disc drive requires online "pairing" before use
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
I appreciate that they still make consoles that can be used without having an internet connection, even for setup.
One thing I did notice, is that if I install a game from disc, I still need the disc to run the game. What's the point of installing 100gb to the hard drive if you're just going to keep reading the disc anyways?
That said, I wonder how many of these drives they are going to sell, unless they're the only available option like in my case...
The disc versions of the consoles are popular for people who like to buy games second hand and/or trade in after they've finished playing; it's frequently much, much cheaper than digital purchases, even when the digital versions are on sale. There are disc rental services like GameFly, too.
Of course, the manufacturers would prefer to kill this secondary market, so sooner or later I expect the disc drives to go away completely. That was Xbox's plan around a year ago, per some recent leaks, and if one does it the other certainly will as well.
It's proof that you own the disc and didn't loan it to all your friends to install so they didn't have to buy it.
This way, you can sell the game when you're done and recoup some of the cost. Not that there's as big of a second hand market anymore. Ownership used to be primarily physical, until Steam came along and normalized digital "ownership" where your privacy and resale rights are lost.
On the other hand, give Sony enough rope and every bloody time they'll convince me not to buy something that I actually kinda want.
Don't worry, the marketing department will pretend that the products aren't shit.
It's a little different from a device whose primary purpose is digital communications at a distance.