For decades, being a gamer meant accumulating stuff. Consoles, controllers, weird VR gloves that never worked, and stacks of games in plastic cases. That era is ending.
Sony plans to end production of PlayStation discs. Microsoft is pushing hard on digitizing its game library. Both companies are looking for anything that makes financial sense, and physical media doesn’t make the cut anymore.
On a recent episode of The Vergecast, David Pierce and Nilay Patel talked through what this means. The economics are straightforward: discs cost money to manufacture, ship, and stock. Digital distribution is nearly pure profit after platform fees. But the shift changes how you buy, share, and own games.
You can’t trade a digital game. You can’t lend it to a friend. You can’t buy it used. You can’t display it on a shelf. When a storefront goes offline, your library might not survive. That’s already happened with older platforms.
The hosts also covered OpenAI’s upcoming hardware launch, iPhone 18 Pro leaks, and whether anyone is actually going to replace your keyboard. But the headline is clear: physical games are going the way of CDs and DVDs. It makes business sense. It’s just less fun.
