I know many on here will have a far larger PS3 collection that I, but I downloaded all the patches for my nearly 80 physical games..... and it came to a grand total of 11.5 GB. Not bad, to be honest, and there are a lot of AAA releases in that library (but GOTY editions where possible, so in addition to DLC said editions also tend to have all patches on disc as well).
In case anyone hasn’t booted up their PS3 in a while, the instant you pop in a disc, the system looks for all the updates to download and install.... even before installing the game. So it’s a pretty easy process to get all the game patches without having to fill up your disc with all the games themselves.
That's why I'm so quick to stand by the PS3, because of how many games progress and patches can fit onto a single PS3, unlike most modern consoles, where one game can take the equivalent of 80 game patches and the games. one game on a PS4 or Xbox one needs to be downloaded and installed AND patched in order to play it. All the while requiring 20GB or more sometimes 100GB in call of duty's case.
I am well aware of claims to say storage capacity is cheaper these days. But that don't stop the fact that this stuff takes resources to build, limited resources, that the planet has. and slave labor. hard drives and most other electronics are made from a type of crystal
Just like PCs. At the end of the day consoles with the exception of the Switch are PCs without the functionalities of a traditional computers. What PS4 and Xbox One are doing is no different than what PC games are doing with patches and games being installed unto the hard drive except there is no physical media attached to it(at least anymore). Plus as sworddude said, free up space for games you arent using it and leave it for those you want. Not the end of the world.
Modern console don't seem useful to me, I could buy a new PS4 now or PS5 still in the Box, but, I would only be able to use it temporary probably. no point, but unlike a lot of people I don't just buy any game to sell it later when I'm done with it, If anyone of you only play a game a few times and never go back to it ever again then buy a modern console., there is so much to life in these games
but developers are still working there asses off to make new games for these things, but in a few years their project will just get trashed. all that work will be lost unless the developers keep them in a safe backup place. without a working console their project is just a waste of time, not to mention each time a new console comes out developers need to re-learn how to design games for the newer hardware.
Digital is fine but not when it take up so much space on a hard drive. I just won't quit on this.
As for PC? there is billions of free legal custom content for games on PC for free. and, as of right now there is a somewhat easy way to put digital steam downloads to a hard drive to use them in the future, as for the PS3? well it would take some hacking just to get all the patches working on most PS3 games. when you can't download them anymore. SONY even wrote in the PS3 fine print that
when you use the PS3 backup utility it will only backup some of a lot of the games data, not all the patch will ever write to your backup drive without additional hackingalso with the PS3 you can not just swap out hard drives I tried that, and I needed to reformat my entire hard drive, and re-install the PS3 operating system. You can not just take a hard dirve off a failed PS3 and put it into another without first having a copy of that base PS3 operating system.