3 ms·

I skipped the ps3 and ps4, but recently bought a ps5, and as much as I wanted the digital only version, stores were either sold out or only had the optical driv

I skipped the ps3 and ps4, but recently bought a ps5, and as much as I wanted the digital only version, stores were either sold out or only had the optical drive version. 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...

add-sub-mul-div 3y ago
> What's the point of installing 100gb to the hard drive if you're just going to keep reading the disc anyways? 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.
sveiss 3y ago
The disc acts as a licence key. The game itself doesn't get read from the disc after installation--that would be far too slow. 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.
- nubinetwork 3y ago
  I could understand if it was just a key check, the drive could spin down after starting the game... except it doesn't. The laser stepper is pretty quiet compared to the motor, so I can't tell if it's actively seeking data.
  - extraduder_ire 3y ago
    Concern about people pulling the disc out after starting the game, maybe. Pulling out discs without the console realizing has a long history on playstations.

add-sub-mul-div 3y ago

> What's the point of installing 100gb to the hard drive if you're just going to keep reading the disc anyways? 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.

sveiss 3y ago

The disc acts as a licence key. The game itself doesn't get read from the disc after installation--that would be far too slow. 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.

nubinetwork 3y ago
I could understand if it was just a key check, the drive could spin down after starting the game... except it doesn't. The laser stepper is pretty quiet compared to the motor, so I can't tell if it's actively seeking data.
- extraduder_ire 3y ago
  Concern about people pulling the disc out after starting the game, maybe. Pulling out discs without the console realizing has a long history on playstations.