*Nintendo Switch 2 Breaks Records*

I can see it being a deal breaker for many people

Though to me I'm fully digital across Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo and PC.

I find it easier - less clutter and I have 5 GB Fiber with no data cap so its not a issue for me.

As long as I can play a game, dont care what format it comes as.

It feels like we're at an evolutionary time in gaming history where we're seeing the newer generation gamers becoming the majority, so the industry is adjusting to accommodate the new generation.

Nothing ever stays the same in any business unfortunately. 

I would think it's mainly the older peeps that are being alienated in the move to digital.  There are a ton of them, and are likely doing a majority of the spending.  Many of the older gamers are doing the purchasing for the below 18 years old crowd.  I predict a major contraction in the gaming industry will be occurring for Next Gen. 

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.

I'm playing video games for 35-40 years now using all sorts of physical media and I had absolutely no problem to stop using physical media from one to the next "day". I guess I'm part of the new generation lol

Accidentally labelled myself as an "older" gamer, whoops, I had to correct that mistake, I don't consider myself an older gamer, I'm the young age of 28! Fuck all you oldies! I'd put myself somewhere in the middle I only started seriously gaming with Xbox 360 even if I did play GameCube and stuff, but I was really too young to care that much about gaming with those devices.

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!

60% are still below 34 years old and not to be morbid but the older crowd won't last forever, so it would be understandable to look at the spending habits of the younger audience, as they are the future market. The "older crowd" may do the purchasing for the below 18 crowd but the below 18 crowd still decide what they want and how they want it, a lot of teens will just say "Hey I want this" and their parents will pay for it without a second thought, Lol.

But this graph really needs a breakdown too, what is PC's % in this graph? PC Gaming is the biggest and fastest growing market, bigger and faster than all the consoles, but physical essentially does not exist on PC, it's like 99.9% digital on PC. Therefore a contraction as a result of digital vs physical would only apply to Console Gaming but I'm not really sure that would be the cause of a contraction, consoles as a whole have stagnated for multiple generations now, once the older gamers are out of the way, it will be more about how you convince younger gamers to go with console over mobile/pc/laptops/tablets, etc.

Yeah, none of my nieces or nephews own a physical copy of a videogame either, across Xbox, Switch and PlayStation, Lol. But then again, they don't play much aside from Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite, etc. If they do want me to buy them a game, they will never ask for a physical copy, they will simply say "Can you buy me this?!" and show me the digital store page, and I go and gift it to them, Lol. It's a lot easier, and they don't want to wait for a physical copy to arrive, Lmao.

I'd break it down as, I think those who started gaming in the 7th generation are likely 50/50 on the issue, a lot won't care but some will, but the 7th generation was the start of the digital push and online, I think most who started gaming in the 8th generation likely won't care that much and most who started gaming in the 6th generation will likely care more than most. Add on a whole new generation who have been brought up on Netflix and the likes and they're already conditioned to not caring about physical ownership.

It definitely does suck for those who care about physical, I feel sympathy for them, and Microsoft should stop with this vague bullshit but I do think it's also inevitable and fighting it feels futile, I can't imagine quitting gaming entirely because I can't get a physical copy of a game, I mean, I'd miss out on so many amazing experiences and memories if I did that and only I would suffer, while everyone else would continue enjoying gaming, Lol.

I wonder why I never had that nostalgia, I just grabbed my discs and slammed them into the console, Lol. I never even really read manuals, now when I see bare empty cases with just a disc (that doesn't even have the full download) I just see it as a waste of plastic, I even used to look at my Switch physical copies and think "This could be at least half the size" Lol.