I’m in this strange place where as a former game collector... I have a love hate relationship with physical media. I get “owning” the game. But with optical media, you’re installing anyway... so hard drive space becomes an issue. Switch games often have significant downloads too.

DLC and updates suck too. I don’t want to install things anymore. I don’t want to download. I don’t want disks that will rot... boxes with download codes, or cartridges that only contain part of the game.

I want Cloud gaming, no downloads, and no shelf space required.

If games were still plug and play, and no installs, I would feel differently, but I think physical game media has become mostly a half assed appeasement to collectors. You don’t even get an instruction book anymore usually.

I’ve been playing on Stadia lately, and claiming games. So I uninstalled all my Tomb Raider games, Pubg, Metro... I can still play these games now on Stadia (and really, still own them on the other consoles at this point)... and I can free up space for other games on consoles.

It is changing how I feel about playing and owning games in the future.