Remember back in early November when reports indicated that iPhone 12 cameras don’t work properly when switched around? The same looks to be the case with the PS5 and Xbox Series X. With the new current generation consoles, it’s their disc drives that are tied to their motherboards.
In a guest article on Wired, iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens says that after swapping disc drives between the company’s two PS5 consoles, their physical copy of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales “isn’t supported by the PS5”. This suggests that each disc drive is tied by software to each individual console’s motherboard. In turn, this does make replacing or repairing the disc drive a lot harder than its teardown suggests.
In addition to that, copyright law in the US makes it so that undoing the software pairing is illegal. The argument here is that enabling third party repairs opens the floodgates to piracy and cheating.
The article does go on about the way this contributes to environmental problems, with legal repair costs being higher in price than outright buying a new console. It’s an interesting insight into why some things are the way they are. But unfortunately, because it’s happening Stateside, there’s not much we can do about it.
(Source: Wired)
