Forums / Media / Video Games

I'd like to start by saying that while the popularity of physical games hasn't decreased by a lot, the popularity of digital games is definitely much higher and i want to list some points as to why i think there won't be physical games anymore in the 10th generation of consoles.

• A massive decline in brick and mortar game shopping: people just don't like going out if there's more convenient ways to shop.

• Increasing internet speeds: rising internet download speeds make people more comfortable with the idea of downloading digital games.

• Increase in services providing easy access to digital games: services like Xbox Gamepass that provide cheap and simple access to games or cloud streaming offerings like PlayStation Now that let you play without the digital game downside of having to be download the games make consumers prefer digital goods.

• Incentives to buy digital: Both Microsoft and Nintendo offer 'points' for purchasing digital goods, with Nintendo giving them too for physical games but to a much lesser rate than digital. I doubt a lot of people actually purchase digitally because of this but its definitely there.

• Generous sales: Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo (when the galaxies align) tend to offer massive sales in digital games periodically and give extra discounts as part of their subscription services, making gamers consider buying the cheaper digital games.

• Digital exclusives: a small one here, aside from games that are simply only available digitally, i wanted to talk about games with physical releases and their tendency to have "Digital Deluxe editions", making some decide to purchase digitally in certain occasions.

• Attention from the overlords: Microsoft and Sony both saw the demand for cheaper consoles and the rise in consumption of digital products and decided to offer all-digital hardware on day one, and without counting scalpers, it shows that many people don't care about physical games based on how many people actually chose these consoles, because we can't really depend on sales numbers.

And those are my points as to why i'm doubtful physical games will survive, especially considering how console generations tend to last for around 7 years and how quickly technology evolves and people adapt to it.

Bonus 1 – PC doesn't have physical games (aside from [INSERT EXCEPTION HERE]) and PCMR is always right, right?.
Bonus 2 – Drinking game: take a shot everytime you see the words 'digital' or 'physical'.

Apologies if i repeated too many words, i don't have a thesaurus at hand

With streaming services becoming more and more popular, i'd say the digital market will become more important in the future. You get a huge library of games for a set price paid monthly. Fervent gamers will definitely get their money's worth out of it.

The big drawback of this is that you don't really "own" your games anymore, you get a license rented out to you to play that game. This part is what worries me a bit because companies can just say "yea you can't play this game on our platform anymore" and there would be nothing you could do about it.

With fysical releases you can do pretty much anything you want with your copy, you can rent it out to a friend, sell it when you are done with it…
I don't see that happen anytime soon with the games in my steam library.

This is why i don't really subscribe to such things and prefer to have the fysical version of a game.

Maybe it'll be like CD's and DVD's. The market for physical copies will shrink by a lot but will not disappear for good. But who knows, as you see that the cheapest versions of the last gen consoles from Xbox and Playstation don't even have a disc player anymore.

Without a shadow of a doubt I can bet at least Nintendo will continue going with physical releases for first-party titles; probably for two generations more at least. They're set in their ways when it comes to these things. With other game studios it will come down to how much people invest into various upcoming things.

If consumers show that they prefer the convenience of digital titles' cheapness and ease of distribution, game companies will tailor more to that. The two biggest measures of that right now are how much people buy the digital/physical editions of the PS5 and how much people buy into current game streaming services. Stadia hasn't proved itself to be a significant player and I have my doubts that Amazon or other newcomers will either.

Even if we do shift to a primarily digital games distribution model (which arguably you could say is right now with steam) I can still see physical releases being a thing. Special editions and re-releases seems to favor physical releases as a perk, so in a weird twist of fate you may see indies go heavy on the physical side of things. They took advantage of the digital storefront era heavily to cut costs but now it seems to be cheap enough for them to incentivize it as a backer reward.

I envision that physical releases will coexist with digital releases, primarily with consoles, even if digital releases do see an increase in purchases throughout the years. Physical releases ensure you'll always have the cartridge of a game – as one of the posters above said, there's no issue in say lending the copy over to someone else temporarily all while keeping your console. There's also the fact that you can permanently keep the game in person, as opposed to licensing it (SuperJumpman detailed this above). As for digital releases, they are more convenient when it comes down to shifting between games, and don't require any organization in terms of keeping the cartridges around. Strictly speaking in terms of the Nintendo Switch, there are Switch cases that come with cartridge holders attached so keeping games organized through there isn't necessarily a problem, or in their original cases if you organize them through that. Given the Switch is designed to be portable, most people – myself included – own a Switch case, so physical copies are portable as well. Even if digital releases dominate over physical releases, I imagine there will still be a market for physical releases as a sort of collector's item.

The status quo is that most modern console games require installation (outside of the Switch with it's fast cartridges) and patching in which case… the practical benefit of physical releases is greatly diminished and of course you have to put the disk in even if it's installed because DRM. You will no longer (legally) have access to a playable version of the game once Microsoft and Sony pull the plug on online services for your generation of consoles or ban your account (which they can do at any time for any reason) – even if you have a physical release. They look nice on a shelf I guess, but I'd rather not HAVE to have the shelf.

You already don't own your console games. If you did, you could copy them for personal use without jailbreaking your console. If you want to own your games, GOG/Itch.io and piracy are your options.

Yes.

So long as demand for physical exists, there will be supply to meet it. No other sector of the entertainment industry has flat-out abandoned physical media. Hollywood still puts movies & TV shows on Blu-ray and DVD. Music albums still get released on vinyl and CD. Print books are still thriving. There's no reason to think Sony, MS, and Nintendo will just up and say "Hey, we're not supporting discs/cartridges anymore. Either go all-digital or do without." It would be bad for business.

I used to be a physical copy person, but now I'm all for digital. As long as I can preserve it, why not?