Since people keep bringing this up: I collect physical games. The data problem is the same since they have to be installed to the hard drive before they can be played.
Every generation of consoles has its limits, and I'm starting to run into the biggest one of the eighth gen: system storage, specifically on the PS4.
The Xbox One has the best storage options since it allows for multiple external drives and AFAIK you can still delete data individually (DLC/install/etc). The only storage problem with the console is the inability to change the internal drive but the external drive support mitigates that.
The Wii U system storage has always been a complete goddamn joke but again, you can hook up externals to it so it's not insurmountable.
The PS4 is the fucking worst with this. You can change the internal HDD but only to another 2.5" drive, maxing out at 2tb. You can't separate update data from DLC from install data, meaning that you have to delete the game's entire data package to remove anything. There's no support for externals of any kind. You could use the
Nyko Data Bank for a higher capacity 3.5" drive but OOPS the PS4 firmware will only work reliably with 2tb or less, making the product a complete waste of time. I have to
constantly delete and redownload games since there's no goddamn way to keep the install data separate from the other game data and no external drive support.
The thing is, even with external support you have to keep feeding the systems external drives if you don't want to constantly redownload/reinstall everything all the time. In my experience most modern retail games average out at 40-50gb per title after you've downloaded all of the extra patches/etc with it. Unless you want to spend a shitload of money and make a 3.5" self-powered external you're stuck with buying 2tb slim drives, which can fit 40-50 retail games each. That may sound like a lot, but for a collector it becomes a huge added cost. I have 200+ retail Xbox 360 games...if I end up that way with the PS4, providing Sony adds external support, that's an automatic added cost of at least three additional external drives plus a 2tb internal,
if I don't download anything other than retail games. I'll probably end up needing another 2-4tb of date for the various download-only games and applications and whatever. Plus it will look ugly as shit to have a bunch of external drives plus a hub hanging around the system on my entertainment center, meaning more time and money spent trying to make the giant spider web of externals invisible.
This wasn't really a problem for me with seventh gen consoles since I mained the 360, where disc installs were optional, and stuck to exclusives for the PS3, which had smallish installs that were mostly manageable in the XMB.
I realize that this isn't really a problem for most people since they'll just delete older stuff for the new but as a collector it's a total goddamn nightmare.