

Except since in japan you can patent basically everything, the application is much stricter. See how nintendo has patents for “capturing a monster using a ball” and other general stuff.
IIRC, there was a japanese company (capcom, maybe?) that had a patent on showing shadows of the characters when they weren’t visible on screen due to a wall or tree covering them.
It’s even worse. All the people who defend the physical editions do it because when servers close, they can still play the game. A game key card is just a glorified digital release. When the servers close, you’ll have a piece of plastic.