Nah… I would guess a remaster or something at some point. The skull&bones game has been dead for a long time…they will release it as they legally have to…but they will not give a crap after.
I hope I am wrong but I see the next generation as completely discless specially if this current generation discless versions sold good enough. The only exception could be Nintendo.
Of course they might require some deals with stores or just sell themselves the consoles online… Because the stores want to sell games, they might still sell peripherals and redeemable cards for money or maybe CD keys… No idea tough, but if the benefits fall they might say “Nah I am not selling your console if games aren’t sold here”.
But how long will this last? I am not so sure that the next generation they could not get away with just digital versions not taking discs (or equivalent). The no discs versions of this generation, not just are for having a cheaper version is also a test to see how feasible could be in the future.
I mean that already is a thing on PC, although there are other reasons for it like the low adoption of bluray / DRMs / etc. Physical is non-existent except some really rare case. Even when some games are sold DRM free on GoG they aren’t sold in discs or USBs or similar.
That happens in Skyrim? But I remember videos of people suing fast travel after shooting from really far a way, like crazy away and then the arrow arriving where they fast traveled. Which fascinated me as I didn’t expect the game to track it.
I mean is Bethesda and for what is seen there will main quest and so on… Yes there will be random generation for random planets or sections not designed for those quests, and for random quests like Skyrim random quests… But I wouldn’t say like No Man’s Sky, it should be rpg (at Bethesda way, not like Baldurs Gate of course) with a more defined story and so on, characters, etc. Of course I haven’t touched No Man’s Sky on years… So maybe they have something for that now?
I mean the only reason to get the SS is and was the much cheaper price, being digital only was part of it but not the only thing or main thing as at the end is less powerful.
A digital version like the PS5 would have been much more expensive, like removing the disc reader it’s not like much saving. So at the end I doubt a lot of people that got the SS would have got it if this model was a thing tbh.
I see where you are going with this… But let’s be clear this is not an attempt by them to make you fail at fixing it, but an attempt to avoid manipulations for jailbreaking/bypassing it’s security and block piracy attempts. That said yes, that has consequences for the repairability. And that maybe, I am not expert, there might be better ways to handle this.