Well.... we are halfway there. The other shoe is offline / local profile creation and offline console setup. Something Xbox still hasn’t done.
Of course they will not try to force it. The last time someone tried to force something like that (MS at the beginning of the gen) failed big time.
They have other ways to make it enticing enough for gamers to suck it up (like Gamepass for example) and even say "thank you" at the end.
The behind of the gen and the recently released Xbone SAD Edition show that MS is going to continue to push it until they can get it through to mass acceptance.
But you don’t. Disc is no different than digital except you can eventually sell the disc. Also, once you install the disc it’s treated like a digital title and instead of the internet, the disc is the DRM.
There are a few differences.
1.) the disc works unless the player breaks or the disc breaks.
2) Theoretically the disc could be backed up with only the disc and a sufficient copying device.
3.) digital can be removed if the store goes down, or the title goes down
4.) digital can be altered if the store changes it mind (censorship) or is forced (removing songs with expired license)
That's just it though, your disc is not the game they wanted to ship, hence the day one downloads.
I question if they're even usable without it.
Hell, I bet their is a YouTube/Reddit person that could tell me
You could rely on YouTube and or Reddit. I have a couple people I subscribe to just because they give the details of what is on the disc.
With the PS4 you can find out yourself by going offline and inserting a disc. After the install process is done you can see what is on the disc (I think with the option button)
Then you can connect to the internet and see all the patch notes the same way.
