Yeah but some studios got hit hard tho, especially non cod studios like Toys for bob that lost like 40% of their staff.

Making games like Crash 4 seems impossible to do now with a staff thats like less than 50 people...while people hoped the staff would grow and more projects could be worked on.

Toys for Bob has been working on Call of Duty since 2021

It's been pretty obvious that this would be the last generation of physical since before it released and that the Next Box/PS6 would be completely digital with the Switch 2 likely to be the last bastion of physical games unless Nintendo pulls something crazy and goes digitally only but I'm still expecting Switch 2 to have physical games.

We have other physical media like Vinyl's and blu-ray still going strong but they have open hardware that anyone can make opposed to when Microsoft and Sony pull the plug the option disappears and also that with gaming the end product is the same wether you install digital or from disc compared to blu-ray where the end product is still superior to the streaming/digital version by providing uncompressed video and audio.

As someone who buys as many games possible as physical it's disappointing but the writing has been on the well for a decade now with how quickly the PC market moved to digital and a digital only future basically doubles the cost buying games at launch instantly but all that means is I wait longer to buy and give publishes even less money than I do now by raiding the bargain bin because I never buy into hype trains or get fomo so I get to game on my own timeline.

I'll reiterate what I said the other day when we were discussing this, Xbox would be fools to not at least offer an external, optional disc drive next gen, without one back compat will suffer big time. Barely anyone bought digital games back in gen 7, so most people have at least 90% of their Xbox 360 library on disc. Even last gen, physical was still the dominant Xbox One software format for the first 3 years of the generation, digital only passed physical on Xbox around 2018. There will be quite alot of unhappy gamers if they are left with the option of either no Xbox Series trade-in on the next Xbox console (because they need too keep their Series X for BC purposes), or no BC for a huge chunk of their library.

If Xbox does go digital only next-gen, that would be a big reason for me to not buy it, and instead upgrade my PC for Xbox games and Gamepass, and keep my Series X just for playing my dozens of physical 360, XB1, and XSX games. 

For me personally physical isn't important. I think everyone will drop it eventually but whichever of the 3 drop it first, which is very likely to be Xbox, is going to have a PR nightmare. Just like e3 2013 where Sony took them to town over the no used games, online check-in xbo stuff that got dropped in the end. Being the first to drop physical media will do some damage.

You do not want to be the console manufacturer kicking that hornets nest.

I'm sure there is a group which will do everything to make it a PR nightmare but I still wouldn't care as MS. 90% of gamers wouldn't buy physical games next gen even if they could so that they won't care what people will say about Xbox. 

The always online thing was definitely a bigger problem for many and yet it still isn't the reason why Xbox wasn't so successful last gen. If other things would have been better, then this "PR disaster" would have been noting more than hot air. 

Something which is a much bigger problem is that Xbox doesn't have a straight strategy when they always try to consider everything because there could always be some people complaining. Sometimes you simply have to go your way instead of trying to go three different ways but none of them to full extend. 

You don't have to please every gamer. You just have to offer the best product for a part of gamers. If 100m people think Xbox is the shit then that's enough. That still can mean that 500m think a PC, PS, Switch or handheld is better for them. 

Losing 10% of your console purchasers is worth it?  I don't believe 90% of gamers are digital only.  There are certainly quite a few digital only gamers, but there are also quite a few gamers that buy both digital and physical games.  PC gamers wont shut up about Baldur's Gate 3, but we really don't hear that many PlayStation or Xbox gamers clamoring about it.  Why is that?, it's not on Gamepass or PS + and it's not currently available physically.

For me personally physical isn't important. I think everyone will drop it eventually but whichever of the 3 drop it first, which is very likely to be Xbox, is going to have a PR nightmare. Just like e3 2013 where Sony took them to town over the no used games, online check-in xbo stuff that got dropped in the end. Being the first to drop physical media will do some damage.

You do not want to be the console manufacturer kicking that hornets nest.