Sorry I thought you were talking about PC games. It annoys me how hard software preservation will be thanks to this modern landscape. I don't envy anyone willing to undertake that task now or in the future.
There's basically going to be nothing mainstream to play with from this era of computing in future computer museums.
I'd include PC games among things that can just be copy/pasted, depending on the format. Some PC games are just exe files, for example. Meanwhile, some discs mostly just serve as an access code for online servers and playing can still be locked behind internet access. I don't think digital vs physical format is the relevant question. Its whether the actual game/content is on the local device and can be accessed without pinging an external server for permission.
Sorry I thought you were talking about PC games. It annoys me how hard software preservation will be thanks to this modern landscape. I don't envy anyone willing to undertake that task now or in the future.
There's basically going to be nothing mainstream to play with from this era of computing in future computer museums.
I'd include PC games among things that can just be copy/pasted, depending on the format. Some PC games are just exe files, for example. Meanwhile, some discs mostly just serve as an access code for online servers and playing can still be locked behind internet access. I don't think digital vs physical format is the relevant question. Its whether the actual game/content is on the local device and can be accessed without pinging an external server for permission.