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.

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.

Yes we're pretty much saying the same thing.

If I may explain things better for what I meant by using palworld as an example is simply that wowing consumer with graphics does not mean anything anymore. back in the 2000s a game could be marketed and talked about for it's graphics that pushed boundaries. in the 2010s that was also the case but to a lesser extent and that mentality lead to an explosion in development cost. Meanwhile nowadays (and this have been true for quite some time) a game that doesn't try to push graphics in any way doesn't feel like it lacks anything compare to one with heavy focus for it. Graphics have just grown to be absolute garbage of a focus for the success of a title, gameplay and/or stories as again become what matter most. This coupled with the fact pushing for graphics is primarily what lead development time and budget going out of control and you can see the why the bubble finally popped.

to better illustrate what I'm saying is, add 2-3 years of development and 50-100m budget to palword to produce the same game but with way better graphics/animation and... it would not have done anything more or less for the title success in any way. A push for better graphics have simply become synonymous with lesser ROI. 

The way I see the gaming industry going forward and even on the AAA side of things is to start heavily reusing assets from previous entry while focusing on innovative gameplay and stories (TotK say hi). I also believe we will observe a trend towards consolidating engines, particularly towards a select few like Unreal Engine, while in-house engines become increasingly rare.

different

If Microsoft abandons Physical... The Series X will be my last Xbox console... I have over 1,000 Physical OG Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Xbox Series games, so I have a desire to bring them forwards with me.

Dropped the paid subscription once they canned Xbox live Gold after 20+ years.

I think I am more or less just transitioning purely to a PC+Nintendo platform holder going forwards if they drop the optical drive... Which I use for more than just games, but also 4k Blu-Rays, music CD's etc' to my home theatre system.

Rocksteady bout to drop one of the lowest scored games this year… what a waste of a studio.

If Microsoft abandons Physical... The Series X will be my last Xbox console... I have over 1,000 Physical OG Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Xbox Series games, so I have a desire to bring them forwards with me.

Dropped the paid subscription once they canned Xbox live Gold after 20+ years.

I think I am more or less just transitioning purely to a PC+Nintendo platform holder going forwards if they drop the optical drive... Which I use for more than just games, but also 4k Blu-Rays, music CD's etc' to my home theatre system.