Why can’t PS5/Xbox discs be copied and shared? Like they have some special discs but can’t they be manufactured as fakes and still work?

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Why can’t PS5/Xbox discs be copied and shared? Like they have some special discs but can’t they be manufactured as fakes and still work?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

For a disc to be mass manufactured, a physical impression of the data on the disc must be created, it works like a stamp to press the content onto the disc.

For Xbox discs, the stamp is created with certain physical features in the data track that CANNOT be manufactured identically twice even by original manufacturers. For example the manufacturer burns over the same area twice with different track pitch, creating an overlapping destroyed tracks. Due to limited precision, NOBODY can create identical overlapping patterns twice.

Then the stamp is analyzed and the overlapping feature scanned, described and the description data is signed by MS and also written onto the stamp. The stamp can be molded to create child stamps to send to the factory to press actual discs.

When verifying the disc, the console reads the description data, verify its signature, go check the overlapping pattern to see if the patterns have readable/unreadable spots exactly as described, if so, the disc is genuine.

As long as MS make sure their stamps are not stolen, nobody can create another stamp to press Xbox discs of their own.

Not sure how Sony does the anti copying, but the tight control of stamps is also an important part for them.

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