PS5 Slim Requires an Internet Connection For Its Detachable Disc Drive

So there's a very good chance that a few generations from now this will just be an expensive paperweight? Like I've accepted that most games need online connections these days, and so do the consoles, but now we even need it for the add-ons?

The article says it's for the initial pairing.
It's still worth paying attention to in terms of repairability when the drive dies, but it shouldn't actually affect my usability if I buy one, personally. I'm guessing they're worried that without signing the drive, it will be a huge piracy/hacked game vector.
Why have you accepted this? Why would anybody accept this?!

Suddenly not interested in the article itself when it detect my ad-blocker.

Here’s an alternative article that won’t do that: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/10/ps5-slims-new-external-disc-drive-requires-online-pairing-before-use/
If you click the small button below turn off your ad blocker that says "I turned off my ad blocker" it should work. Tell me if it doesn't and I'll keep that in mind in the future.
Do you have the right ublock origin filters enabled? It didn't trigger on my end.
- I didn't mess around with settings etc. Basically anytime I saw the full page detector thing I just close the tab. I do exactly this for any site I visit basically, there are too many other things to do, if they don't want me there I don't have to stay.

🤷‍♂️ I rent games and save thousands of thousands of dollars a year. You can also sell discs back for like 75% MSRP very easy on Amazon. Computers are way way more expensive. Digital only is dumb as all fuck.
- Wut

Just buy a damned computer already, people.

Consoles are nice for TV setups, unless you use steamOS, which is also nice for TV setups.....
- You can pretty easily boot to steam big picture regardless of OS.
- It's nice, but it's not perfect. My gaming pc currently uses big picture but I still have recurrent issues at times. Like the inability to fully disable the guide button for certain "games" when that would be a super useful extra button for emulators like retroarch.
  Couch gaming is just not that great on PC sadly. I'll deal with it because it's the only way I get close to exactly what I want, especially with the emulators. But it sure as hell doesn't replace an actual console experience that I find myself using way more than my PC that I have probably spent more on over the years than my PS5 cost, which is also more powerful since my pc setup is pretty old (still on a 1050Ti).
- I've got a PC plugged straight into my living room TV. There are solutions to consoles becoming unnecessarily locked down.
Consoles are easier. I just want to open the box, plug it in, and play.
- Just need to download new firmware for a few hours. Load the game you wanna play, then download that update. And then download the new season.
I did, still gonna buy consoles because i can
- If only GPUs were affordable. Right now buying a decent GPU would set you back as much as the price of PS5. Plus PS5 is great for the living room.
  I also don't use or have a CD/DVD/Blueray drive on my PC but I do have the PS5 with a disc, just because I want to be able to buy and sell second hand games, and that's not possible on Steam. I bought the Witcher 3 complete edition for 5 bucks, a pretty sweet deal.
- I've been a pc gamer for almost 30 years but I can also recognise consoles have their place. Some people wanna sit in the sofa and play on their 70" TV with a gamepad with as little care as possible. Sometimes with a friend or with family (even if it's not as common as with previous gen consoles). Price don't bother them much. Playing Smash or other co-op games with 4 people on an emulator is not as user friendly as you might think. Controllers sometimes connect weirdly etc.
- It's not about the physical media. It's about the restrictions.
- "Get with the times" he says without realizing that console players far exceed PC gamers, nor acknowledging all the scalping that has gone on with GPUs for a half a decade or more. If your PC costs 3x the price of a console to build, you're not saving any money just because Steam has some games on sale.
- In some places it's still just straight up cheaper to buy something physical due to sales and competition. Plus if it's the same price both physical and digital, I'd rather buy the thing that actually gives me something I can actually touch.
  Plus with things like game pass and ps+ it's harder to swallow digital purchases when they are likely to eventually be wholesale replaced by a "free" version, without any compensation to me for having bought the game earlier. I don't need to buy a game day one so I can wait. And when I eventually buy a game it's likely way cheaper physically by standard but if there's a big sale on digital then I don't mind. You won't find me buying anything over £25 digitally unless it's significantly reduced from whatever the full price is.
- Lolol over priced games. I played every single game I wanted by renting them. Probably paid $250 to play well over $1000 USD worth of games. All for less cost than a shit tier GPU.
  Having a sub is far far cheaper than purchasing shit on steam.
  Massive pcmr projection going on.

Oh no! Anyway....