They offer flexibility, ease of management, and the ability to simulate different storage environments without needing physical hardware.
Doing so helps in resolving the problem of the short life span of CDs and DVDs and takes advantage of the faster data transfer rate of hard disk drives.
However, virtual optical drives are also used for software piracy: early computer games used disc existence verification to ensure licensed use, which can be circumvented using virtual optical drives.
As a countermeasure, the StarForce copy protection scheme attempts to thwart disc virtualization.
Modern video games have migrated to online product activation as part of their distribution process.