Physical media has been dying for years. If you look at the sales statistics between physical and digital, it makes for grim reading if you care about physical media.
75% of game sales in Europe in 2024 were digital. In 2022, 90% of game sales in the UK were digital. It’s a similar story pretty much everywhere. And whilst there’s a lot of noise on the internet about how bad a digital-only future would be, the average consumer doesn’t care.
I realized a while ago that it’s not actually the physical media I care about; it’s the unfettered access. Physical media is just the easiest way to achieve that. I still buy from steam and pay for streaming, but I recognize that those could be taken away at any time. I want to feel like I actually own something. I buy digital music because I get a DRM-free file. I buy from GOG because I get an installer that I can store locally for as long as I want to.
When it comes to movies? I have to buy the disc because (almost?) no one offers a DRM-free video file that I can store locally and play whenever or however I want.
I think the author missed the mark here by talking about game preservation, as many are already pointing out in these comments.
The real benefit of buying a physical disc/cartridge copy of a game nowadays is the ability to resell it when you’re done playing. That’s actually a huge boon if you buy a lot of newly released games at full price, and play on consoles where sales are less common than PC. Reselling games can save you a LOT of money over time.
Yup. Waiting on those Skywind and Skyblivion mods to finish up, then I’m gonna put them into the base game and sell you a Tamriel Through the Ages bundle of joy.
Nope. When was your last time bought physical game disk for your PC? In fact, do your PC still have an ODD? Physical disk must not be the reason why PC gaming is growing and consoles are strinking. That’s a wrong attribution.
I do have an optical drive in my PC, for Blu Rays and music CDs. The thing I was calling out was, “they want to have you buy it over and over again until the end of time,” which isn’t really a thing on PC. Sure, there are remasters and such, but the copy you bought 20 years ago largely still works on your new PC.
While it’s (probably) not the case for Valve, I think it’s pretty clear that Microsoft’s end goal is endless subscription fees and you owning nothing. And there’s a good chance of them succeeding at that as long as the primary OS for PC gaming is Windows.
Game Pass is already plateauing in subscriptions. I’m sure that while it’s far fewer subscribers than they thought they’d have, they’ll be happy to keep making money this way for some time, but it’s not going to turn in to the primary way people play games.
Great to hear you still have an ODD installed, but that game disc you bought 20 years ago won’t contribute to today’s growing PC market. Even then, I don’t think the “it” in the line refers to remasters but “new” or “first party” in the eyes of the publishers.
I would understand that original as, “But the publishers don’t want you to resell games. They want to have you buy games from their first party sales channel over and over again until the end of time.”
I’m struggling with your English a bit, but basically yes.
“But the publishers don’t want you to resell games. They want to have you buy games from their first party sales channel over and over again until the end of time.”
This is a problem that doesn’t really exist on PC due to forward compatibility and competing marketplaces. That forward compatibility has now been easily observed for decades by people who’ve been slowly losing the advantages that consoles used to offer.
I disagree. DRM breaks “forward compatibility” especially with online auth, and Steam dominates PC game sales. Not to mention some publishers avoid releasing on Steam but on their own platforms. PC gamers lost the ability to resell games long before the console gamers did. Still, I digress.
None of your poins help nor prove PC gaming market grows and cause console’s to shrink.
“Game preservationists have long argued that a move to a digital-only future will cause games to be lost forever if proper preservation measures aren’t put in place.”
Unfortunately, even physical game discs so often don’t contain the full game files and requires access to servers in order to download and access the game. No longer is buying physical the answer to the game preservation problem.
Game preservationists have long argued that a move to a digital-only future will cause games to be lost forever if proper preservation measures aren’t put in place.
There are already scores of online-only titles that can no longer be played either due to their delisting or servers being shut down. In some cases, game discs serve only as physical entitlement keys to be able to play the digital version of the game, meaning if the digital store itself shuts down in the future the disc will become useless.
Once again, the key to preservation is DRM-free, not physical media. We were already headed toward a future with no physical media for games, and these tariffs will only accelerate that. They may be a similar accelerant in the death of consoles.
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Physical media has been dying for years. If you look at the sales statistics between physical and digital, it makes for grim reading if you care about physical media.
75% of game sales in Europe in 2024 were digital. In 2022, 90% of game sales in the UK were digital. It’s a similar story pretty much everywhere. And whilst there’s a lot of noise on the internet about how bad a digital-only future would be, the average consumer doesn’t care.
I realized a while ago that it’s not actually the physical media I care about; it’s the unfettered access. Physical media is just the easiest way to achieve that. I still buy from steam and pay for streaming, but I recognize that those could be taken away at any time. I want to feel like I actually own something. I buy digital music because I get a DRM-free file. I buy from GOG because I get an installer that I can store locally for as long as I want to.
When it comes to movies? I have to buy the disc because (almost?) no one offers a DRM-free video file that I can store locally and play whenever or however I want.
It pisses me off that there’s no GOG for movies and TV. I don’t want to have Blu Rays, but it’s the only way to actually own that stuff.
I think the author missed the mark here by talking about game preservation, as many are already pointing out in these comments.
The real benefit of buying a physical disc/cartridge copy of a game nowadays is the ability to resell it when you’re done playing. That’s actually a huge boon if you buy a lot of newly released games at full price, and play on consoles where sales are less common than PC. Reselling games can save you a LOT of money over time.
But the companies don’t want you to resell it. They want to have you buy it over and over again until the end of time.
Todd, are you trying to sell us another version of Skyrim ?
Yup. Waiting on those Skywind and Skyblivion mods to finish up, then I’m gonna put them into the base game and sell you a Tamriel Through the Ages bundle of joy.
Perhaps one of many reasons that the console market is shrinking and PC is growing.
Nope. When was your last time bought physical game disk for your PC? In fact, do your PC still have an ODD? Physical disk must not be the reason why PC gaming is growing and consoles are strinking. That’s a wrong attribution.
They could sell usb drives…
I do have an optical drive in my PC, for Blu Rays and music CDs. The thing I was calling out was, “they want to have you buy it over and over again until the end of time,” which isn’t really a thing on PC. Sure, there are remasters and such, but the copy you bought 20 years ago largely still works on your new PC.
While it’s (probably) not the case for Valve, I think it’s pretty clear that Microsoft’s end goal is endless subscription fees and you owning nothing. And there’s a good chance of them succeeding at that as long as the primary OS for PC gaming is Windows.
Game Pass is already plateauing in subscriptions. I’m sure that while it’s far fewer subscribers than they thought they’d have, they’ll be happy to keep making money this way for some time, but it’s not going to turn in to the primary way people play games.
Great to hear you still have an ODD installed, but that game disc you bought 20 years ago won’t contribute to today’s growing PC market. Even then, I don’t think the “it” in the line refers to remasters but “new” or “first party” in the eyes of the publishers.
I would understand that original as, “But the publishers don’t want you to resell games. They want to have you buy games from their first party sales channel over and over again until the end of time.”
Maybe I misinterpret?
I’m struggling with your English a bit, but basically yes.
This is a problem that doesn’t really exist on PC due to forward compatibility and competing marketplaces. That forward compatibility has now been easily observed for decades by people who’ve been slowly losing the advantages that consoles used to offer.
I disagree. DRM breaks “forward compatibility” especially with online auth, and Steam dominates PC game sales. Not to mention some publishers avoid releasing on Steam but on their own platforms. PC gamers lost the ability to resell games long before the console gamers did. Still, I digress.
None of your poins help nor prove PC gaming market grows and cause console’s to shrink.
How about an external hard drive for my GOG games, does it count?
“Game preservationists have long argued that a move to a digital-only future will cause games to be lost forever if proper preservation measures aren’t put in place.”
Unfortunately, even physical game discs so often don’t contain the full game files and requires access to servers in order to download and access the game. No longer is buying physical the answer to the game preservation problem.
Once again, the key to preservation is DRM-free, not physical media. We were already headed toward a future with no physical media for games, and these tariffs will only accelerate that. They may be a similar accelerant in the death of consoles.
True, many games sold physically are still faced with the risk of disappearing, due to DRM…
Once again gamers are the true oppressed class.
PC Master Race
They targeted gamers.