this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2024
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Did any company ever used DRM to disable physical media remotely? Is this even technically possible?
Not exactly what you're asking about, but this comes to mind
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexplay
DIVX kinda worked like that. You'd rent a disc and it'd work for a few days and then stop. You could pay for a few more days, or pay more to make it permanent.
It sucked and was one facet in Circuit City's slow motion collapse (good riddance).
I'd argue that that's still better that that shutting-down-digital-purchases deal, because with DIVX (and Flexplay, which was mentioned in another reply) you'd at least know in advance, before you buy, exactly how long you have to watch the DVD. Much better than buying things to add to your backlog and having them taken off the digital library before you get to consume them.
that was the big problem with “online only” games that people fought against when it first started. Now people just accept that their physical media is just a rental
Xbox one is an example of this, the server is still up so if you get a new one then you can still update it into a usable state, but once that server goes down then any not updated to their no longer always online patch it is junk