In light of recent revelations and controversy, the topic of game conservation and the future of physical media is looking pretty bleak. Which begs the question: Are we now witnessing the complete death of physical media when it comes to video games?
I feel like it’s a topic that is discussed practically every week, but it feels like a conversation really worth discussing and debating, considering the multiple things that have been happening as of recent.
Take The Outer Worlds 2, for example, a big new game coming to Xbox this year that is an $80 digital-only game, seemingly pushing people to pay for an Xbox Game Pass subscription instead to get it cheaper. The price for a digital game by itself is laughable, but the fact that there is no physical media, at least on Xbox for now, means anyone without an internet connection who maybe enjoyed the first game will never be able to play it.
Then you have the introduction of Game Key Cards on Nintendo Switch 2, which allow developers to have a physical space for the game, but require players to download the full game online, which begs the question. What’s the point of these? Sure, you can still trade them in, but in the distant future, when the Switch 2 online services are offline, games released in this format might never be playable ever again.
Then you have the whole controversy with PirateSoftware and the Stop Killing Games movement, which I won’t even pretend to have a clue what is going on there or the context behind it.
It all feels like a bit of a mess, and while I feel like the vast majority of players are moving to digital games in the future, with physical media representing such a small amount of players nowadays. That choice, and freedom, for both owning games instead of licensing them and making sure that a game can be found and played years down the line when it becomes ‘retro’ is far more important, in my opinion, than what we are being shoehorned towards by publishers and developers.
But what do you think? Let me know in the comments below.
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