Ryuu96 said:
I used to get discs but then Game Pass happened and around that time I stopped collecting discs entirely, I saw no point in buying Xbox 1st party when it was coming to Game Pass and that had a knock on effect on everything else, if I wasn't going to collect Xbox 1st Party then I would see my "collection" as incomplete and then I started seeing my physical copies as useless clutter, Lol. This then caused me to stop buying physical on Switch too, and then I started buying 3rd parties digitally on Xbox as well as I started to see digital as less hassle. I was never that huge into physical to begin with though, I may be naïve but I really don't give a fuck that I don't "own" it and they could take it away from me at any point, I have never been in a situation where that has happened to me, where I've wanted to replay a game but couldn't, but that is also because I rarely replay games to begin with, once I'm done with something I'm largely done with it and never return to it, Lol. But even if something did vanish from my library I would still have the memories, so again I don't fear it that much, Lol. I've dumped almost all my physical library, I had maybe 40+ Xbox One physical copies and sold them all and my smaller Switch collection, I still have some Xbox 360/Wii stuff but I've just not got around to dumping that, not like I'd get much for most of it, Lol. Though I will keep the "rarer" ones like Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn. But it's the market speaking Tbh. PC is already essentially 99.9% digital and nobody cares about physical there, Xbox is 91% digital, PlayStation is a majority as well, I would say I think it feels a bit forced by publishers with Switch 2 as I don't believe digital is a majority on Switch yet but it will eventually get there whether forced or not. Physical will become a niche thing kept alive by companies like Limited Run Games for those who still want a physical copy but the market is moving towards digital, I think older gamers are being replaced by gamers who frankly don't seem to care about physical at all or only play a few games a year, or are focused on F2P/GaaS titles and have grown up with stuff like Netflix so are used to it. |
Yeah, this definitely is the biggest contributing factor. When i got married, my brother in laws and their friends were only playing the F2P games, spending hundreds of dollars they somehow had on those games, watching Netflix, and that was the majority of their young adult life, and that's all that they were used to. They still remembered the 7th gen consoles, but they were primarily used to digital games on those consoles.
I remember when I showed them my collection of N64, PS1, OG Xbox, PC, and 360 games collection, it blew their minds 
And we're talking about more than a dozen guys lol. And they're all in their early to mid 20s now. I can't imagine how used to digital even younger people are now, and of course those older ones that have adapted to the new ways of enjoying gaming.
It was never a "ownership" thing for me either with physical games. It's always been more a nostalgia thing remembering the feeling of popping in a cartridge or inserting a disc, or checking out the box art and manuals that gives that old school childhood feeling.
Physical media is definitely going to die off one day as more and more younger people get into gaming that grew up in a digital only life.
Still, as long as the games are still good, I'll always be playing!
You called down the thunder, now reap the whirlwind
