You think physical games are dead?

I can definitely see that! I agree, it seems like more companies are moving towards digital, which worries me. When you buy digital, the publisher still holds all the ownership rights and can basically take your access to the game away despite you paying money for it just because it's a digital copy. Whereas with physical, you actually physically own that piece of media.

I can see arguments being made for why digital is better (less materials used to distribute, etc), but I genuinely think that we should be bringing back physical media. That way the people paying money still have ownership over the things they've spent their money on. And it's also great for archival purposes. I hope we don't go 100% digital but it looks like companies are pushing for a digital majority:( 

most likely which sucks because you don't really own digital downloads

i got the ps5 with the disk drive just because i cant stand the idea that one day i wont be able to play the game because of whatever reason and then im out 60+ dollars lol

im prob less skeptical of digital games than i should be but im not gonna act like i dont get way more satisfaction from physically owning smth. while i dont think physical is fully dead its blatant that companies are pushing towards it and tryna leave physical in the past, w/ a lot of physical copies nowadays just being glorified download codes (or occasionally literal ones). they also arent as appealing anymore given a lot of them are just the case and disc/cart now w/ out any kind of manual or additional info. i still think ppl worry too much abt having their ownership taken away as unless theres a clear reason for doing so publishers dont usually try to actively purge a game from ppls libraries, but ik that isnt necessarily gonna be true for the future as theres nothing really stopping them from doing so

i do miss the little details in the copies of older games like putting artwork on the disc or having a different image on the inside but most ppl nowadays will just open their case and put the game straight into their console, so its a waste of effort that couldve been put into the actual game for a lot of publishers. also, digital copies are easier to install patches on as u can instantly update it if its constantly on ur console, whereas if u dont have the disc inside already ur gonna have to search for it first

i dont necessarily think physical is dead but its definitely declining in popularity and fast. as it stands rn its more of a personal choice from the publisher or devs cause its not a necessity like it was even just 10 years ago, and w/ the trend of live service games the financial risk that physical manufacture poses might not be worth it if the game flops and stops recieving updates

I don't think physical games are dead. I believe there's always going to be companies that will take advantage of physical media as a way to draw consumers to their product. Sure, maybe not every game will have the nice manual or small goodies, but the art cover itself is needed to draw people in. For example, physical copies is much advertised in the kpop industries with limited editions and random pulls for photo cards which makes many consumers want to purchase more than one of the same copy. It's like real life gacha and there's only so much digital media can do that can bring that level of satisfaction of getting something you wished for of a physical game. (I hope that made sense.)

As well, we see it in the secondhand listings of retro games like DS games and such, those prices can still skyrocket because people are still interested in buying physical copies of their childhood games.

I personally did get a ps5 with a disc drive simply because I know buying digital copies of games isn't really "owning" them. Sure, some games still cost like full price even used ones but it's alright that just means I'll dedicate more of my time into the game when I purchase it which makes it more fun, in my opinion.