Is it the end of physical games as we know it?

[Grant]

With the recent news that the new Xbox Series consoles will not come with a disc drive, it made me concerned for those who like to buy physical games. This isn't a new thing from Microsoft. They've already released two consoles without the disc drive, that being the Xbox One S and Xbox Series S. While the Series X was the one to originally have a disc drive, the new model won't come with one.

Is this the beginning of the end for physical games? I feel like we're getting to a point where video games are going to go exclusively digital and skip the physical release. How much longer will physical releases be a thing?

 

[Ravenfreak]

I really hope it isn't the end of physical discs, I prefer to own physical copies for collecting purposes. Plus in the future once these stores go offline, you better hope you own a physical copy of the game if you want to play it on real hardware and not emulation. I wonder if Microsoft will go down the route that Sony is with their upcoming revision of the PS5, it won't have a disc drive but you have the option to purchase it separately. I really hope that's the case, I want to eventually upgrade to a Series X and I have a few physical games I'd like to play.

 

[Riberet19]

I am a retro gamer and I like games in physical format, and I fear that the end of physical games is not far away, video game companies are favored by this type of market without physical games for many reasons, so the trend is going there, it would be a shame and it would lose some interest if they did not release physical formats for video games, since the aspect of collecting and nostalgia would be lost a bit.

 

[MrDawn]

I never buy physical discs any more. I've found that it's always faster to download and play the game. I got locked into the habit of downloading just because of the Covid pandemic and not being able to go buy the physical copes of the games that I wanted. Another issue I faced with buying physical copies of games is that they are not always available at stores when I want to buy them, but they're readily available on Microsoft's online store for me to download. So again, we're back to convenience. I don't want the games used because I've bought copies that someone before me destroyed. So again, we're back to convenience. Which is why I strictly do downloads.

 

[Nomad]

I think physical game discs will die soon, just like what is happening with the movie industry. Well, it is easier to download and start playing the game instead of ordering online and waiting for the game to arrive or going to a physical store to buy the game.