There are already more games released than one can ever dream of playing in a lifetime. Indie developers also release groundbreaking new stuff left and right that will run on ancient PCs, Steam Decks, and older Switch models.

• Hang on to your older consoles and check Gamestop for the titles you missed the last gen, you might find them cheap.
• Get a cheap emulation handheld or jailbreak your old PSP or DS to unlock thousands of genre-defining titles for games coming out today.
• Affordable adapters let you use your fancy 8Bitdo controllers and whatnot on your PS4 with stick drift or otherwise dead controllers.

I literally cannot get FOMO for the new stuff because there are so many options. Battlefield 6 comes with a rootkit? No problem, I just won’t play it. New Capcom game is too expensive? I’m sure I can get a similar fix elsewhere or wait 6 years for a steep discount.

Every time a game company/dev does something questionable like price-gouging aging hardware, introduce digital download-only games on cartridges, make a racist tweet, or revoke games from digital libraries, it helps me strike a bunch of stuff off of my backlog. That gives me more time to play what is left on the list and maybe even to touch grass.

Probably referring to the ecosystem. Most game-launchers and stores on PC (except GOG) constantly do the same kind of license checks we’re currently dragging Sony for before letting us launch games, we kinda just don’t feel it because our PCs are online most of the time.

The current story they’re talking about is a 30 day temporary license from point of purchase of a digital game. Supposedly after the refund window has lapsed, the license renews to a permanent license. If the temporary license expires whilst the console is offline or PSN is offline the game won’t run. Supposedly it’s to prevent people from buying games, taking the console offline, and refunding. In theory it should work like before after the 14 to 30 days.

My scenario is a bit different. None of my digital games will run after dusting off my PS4 and hooking it up. The Internet says it’s because it’s not my primary console, but I can’t make it primary without updating it. That would burn a perfectly good, exploitable firmware that’s currently running. I believe there is a homebrew hack for making it primary again without updating, but I’ll have to look into it once it’s jailbroken.

Looks like I’ll have to jailbreak my PS4 and keep it offline to keep access to the stuff I bought and paid for.