I also hate that "feature", but as far as I know, only Xbox has that. But true, physical isn't what it used to be unfortunately. Hence GOG is the best platform imo.

Digital was doing decent upon a time. Far from CD levels of revenue but the growth of streaming later on (even as faster internet became more widely available) shows it was  a matter of the mass market being priced out of buying music.

I think once statistical and deep learning methods of latency reduction really kick off and streaming games feel indistinguishable from playing locally, the same will probably happen to the video game industry.

Then all this talk of physical and digital will be moot because most people won't even have the software locally installed in their hardware, though the option will still be there for us old-timers.

Imo, despite sales being overwhelmingly digital, it'll just be nice to have physical copies of games as an option for those who want it. Most major game companies are making more money than ever before, especially since they're needing retail less and less as a cost-efficient way to keep more money from every sale. Even if it means not mass-producing physical copies of every game, at least have the option there for the now minority of players that still purchase only physical. It's not like the technology to physically make games is going away.

Larian Studios for Baldur's Gate 3 is a great example. The overwhelming majority of the games sales are digital and will continue to be primarily digital, but the studio still managed to offer their game entirely on discs with an awesome number of additional goodies for those want it. They're not mass-producing physical copies of Baldur's Gate 3. They're just making copies for those who are actually placing an order for one. Which I feel is a great middle ground.

I have similar views of always online consoles/games when they're not PvP-only. The technological capabilities of being able to be 100% offline from 2+ console generations ago isn't going away. If I don't want to use a Sony/Microsoft account to login to my PS5/Xbox, then I shouldn't have to. Just let me play on a local account. If I'm not interested in cloud saves, achievements, etc. then I shouldn't have to use them. Just let me keep save backups on an external hard drive or flash drive. Nintendo still operates this way for the most part, as well as Sony to an extent. On the Switch, you start off with a local account when you boot up the console for the very first time. Then once you're in, that's when you have the option to sign in to your Nintendo account.

So much of the digital only future is being forced on us even though it's not necessary and has primarily shown to be more for penny pinching and bigger numbers to show off to shareholders. It's never proven to be necessary to have a good gaming experience.

It also isn't very expensive to create a glass master of a disc and have the dies cast for pressing and the equipment in house to continue physical media.  

I would mostly quit (I would play a title here and there, no doubt), but not gaming as a whole, as there are all those retro consoles to play and carts to collect. For me, the games released between the 2600 and PS2 never seem to get old. I could easily enjoy just those until the day I was dead... even if I lived to be ninety.

Yeah... once you recognize this simple fact and consciously read through threads about physical video games, it becomes apparent how few of the people online actually do have friends.

I don't think those benefits are true.  Digital is tied to the hardware you buy it for.  If it's on a computer, software breaks when the OS updates.  On non-computers, when that hardware dies and/or the servers are switched off, it's lost.

At least with Physical, you can buy replacement hardware and software from eBay.

Not only that but when you consider PC gaming is practically 100% digital, Sony's recent financial results showed PlayStation sales were 80% digital, Nintendo's recent financial results showed Switch sales have long passed 50% digital, and Xbox sales are around 90% digital, you start to wonder if you have friends, how many of them even bother with physical at all?

It's no longer 20 years ago when all games were physical and sharing games amongst friends was so common because if you had a console, you had to buy games physically. You're statistically more likely to let your friends borrow the whole damn console than borrow your games lol.

I have never lost a game. All my stuff still works.

I love physical, if consoles went all digital I would abandon console gaming as a whole. With PC gaming it's been all digital for a long time (save for a physical release here and there) so I don't care at all there and I'll gladly make PC my main and only platform in the future (this assumes everyone including Nintendo went all digital).