That's kinda sad because I prefer the physical copies to the digital

For the environment.

It's also a bit ironic to pull the "more options" card when talking about consoles, the epitome of artificially reduced options.

Well, I've said this many times. The day gaming becomes all digital is the day I become a retro only gamer.
I just will never wrap my head around spending so much money on something that isn't tangible... I mean, I understand the convenience, but it just isn't for me.

Which is why there are multiple console options.
It would suck to only have one console option, just like it would suck to only have one format option for games.

My digital purchasing has certainly gone up this gen. Around a 50/50 split this gen with the Vita and PS4. The balance may have even tilted in favor of digital in terms of pure game count. However, there's no doubt I've spent way more money on physical. Literally all of my digital purchases are games on sale, and said games are sometimes smaller, digital-only games as well.

If this does end up as the last physical gen, so be it. I don't care about physical copies nearly as much as I did at the beginning of last gen. Between the realities of storing a large, growing physical collection, and the undeniable convenience of digital gaming, the change in attitude was perhaps inevitable. Impulse buys are soooo much easier on digital too. Just bought Super Blood Hockey 2 days ago at midnight while smoking a joint. You can't do that at EB Games. Then again, I don't meet any EB angels with digital...EB Games truly is the best pickup spot on Earth. Will still be buying physical for the PS5 though. Both games and movies. 👉👌💦

I don't have a preference to digital vs disc on PlayStation, on the Switch I would rather have the games digitally at least the multiplayer games. While I don't have a preference which format I buy them, since I rarely buy games at launch I will pick it up months later wherever its cheapest. The concern of course is if all games are digital, you can only wait until the games go on sale on PSN, Xbox etc as opposed to waiting for them to go on sale at multiple stores as well as PSN Xbox, Switch online.

I certainly hope it’s not the last generation of physical, at least in Australia, our internet infrastructure is from the ‘50s and by the time the PS6 and the 4th Xbox comes out it will still be in the ‘50s because that’s how incompetent our politicians are, also thanks dearRupert Murdoch thé American!

Hardly the last generation

Physical albums still selling and their downward trend started 20 years ago

Physicals game sales will decrease but will end this gen just fine unless 9th gen somewhat last over 10 years

The late days of 10th gen is probably the moment when we will watch the biggest ""death"" of physical market, but big AAA games will still selling forever because of fandoms and collectors

It's a bit ironic to talk about the environment when game consoles, tvs, servers, broadband internet soak up power continuously. Leave it all always on, in standby mode, to get automatic patches. Plus all those extra external hdds to store those digital games!
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-07-02/Global-e-waste-surges-to-record-high-recycling-rate-remains-low--RLRlccFAMo/index.html

Without the plastic game cases the environment would be saved!

Anyway, I've never thrown a game or movie in the trash. That's not what collectors do.

Sure as long as there is a demand it will exist in some amount,but i guess the future demand will get miniscule as time goes on.

Same as how people consume movies and series.