I hope to never buy physical media ever again.

Same. Looking back on it, avoiding physical compies of games would have saved me a LOT of money. Buy something once, and have the ability to download it anywhere and have it safely available...

Buy physical, and the disk is only good until it gets scratched, lost, broken, etc...

I can't see how I'd have been able to save a single red cent by going digital. Of course, I take good care of my stuff, and all my games (and CDs and DVDs) are still in perfect working order.

Same. I have never sold a used game back to a game store, and though I have regretted some purchases (Buying two copies of Crysis 2, for example), ultimately, it's nice to be able to go back and play those games if I feel like it.

I've benefited from the First-sale Doctrine on many occasions. I've sold off movies I didn't like before (though only a couple of games), I've sold others off to upgrade to Blu-ray, and I've bought plenty of second-hand product from GameStop, Second & Charles, Play & Trade, and Amazon. One of the many good things about physical is that you can still obtain a copy after it goes out of print. You can't do that with digital. If digital content gets pulled for any reason, it's completely and indefinitely unavailable.

Also, lending games is much EASIER with Digital, assuming you trust whoever you're lending games to.

And they don't have to let you do that. They may allow you — yes, "allow," as if you're the child and they're the parent who controls your TV privileges — to do so as a courtesy, but that's it. With physical copies I am guaranteed by law the right to lend my games, books, records, etc., because I actually own the copy (it's also why MS's original vision for the Xbox One was technically illegal).

The whole backwards-minded DEMAND that things always have physical versions around because people are so paranoid about the concept of ownership baffles me. But as technology marches on, those people will become like those who DEMANDED that VHS tapes still be around, because they didn't want to upgrade...

"Backwards," huh? I get sick of all the tech-savvy hipsters out there who throw meaningless slurs like "backwards" or "Luddites" or comparing us to the Amish at anyone who isn't hip to all the newest cool gadgets and technologies. Yes. Laugh at us primitive cavemen with our barbaric discs. How very droll. And by droll I mean condescending and snooty. Does the phrase "Appeal to novelty" mean anything to you? Newer is not necessarily better.

Comparing a transition to digital with the transition from VHS to DVD is apples & oranges. The transition to DVD carried with it significant benefits. DVD was qualitatively better than VHS, including far better picture quality (I was blown away by DVD when I first saw it) and prices that (once DVD became ubiquitous) were far lower than your typical VHS cassette. There wasn't a single way VHS was better. I can't think of any real ways besides some trivial level of convenience that digital is better than physical. Music CDs still have price parity with digital albums and usually sound better. A Blu-ray disc looks amazing on my 1080p plasma screen, far better than any stream I've seen and without hogging any bandwidth. AAA games still cost $60 digital. And nothing beats the feel, the smell, and the experience of thumbing through a paper-and-ink book.

But the main reason why comparing the VHS-DVD and physical-digital transitions are apples and oranges is because the leap to DVD did not fundamentally change the relationship between the consumer and what he/she spends their money on. DVD was still product, with the copies owned by the purchaser. If all you do is stream from Netflix or buy mp3s from iTunes, well, simply apply everything from my previous posts about ownership and the nature of digital.

So you like digital and find it more convenient and secure. Fine. Good for you. You have that option. But the key word here is "option." The advent of the Kindle did not result in the printing presses getting shut down, nor did iTunes and Netflix did not result in the disc manufacturing plants getting shut down. I still have the option to buy CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, and print books. If console manufacturers decide to drop discs next generation or the generation after that, I won't have the option to buy physical. It will have been taken away. That fundamental relationship between consumer and what is being consumed that I spoke of will have irrevocably changed. And it will be a future I want no part of. If that makes me "backwards," well so be it, and to the game industry and anyone who continues to support it I would say "kiss my ass."

The experience, the memories, the time you spent, the joy, the pain, the frustration, the elation, the sense of challenge, the skills you gained, the friends you made, all while playing games - no one can ever, ever take those away from you. Those are the things with real value.

Yes, those memories have value, but they fade over time. There's lots of things I remember enjoying from my youth, but I can't even begin to tell you why, or what happened in the show I watched or the game I rented. When you have something that's yours that you can keep forever, you can keep making new memories with it, just like I can with my old consoles.

Tickets to the cinema, to sports fixtures, concert tickets, TV subscriptions etc. When those end - under your way of thinking - people walk away with 'nothing' as well. Obviously that's not true. Obviously those experiences still have value in and of themselves.

I'm not much of a sports person, and I've only been to a single concert (Aerosmith, Oct. 1, 1993). With movies and most scripted TV shows, those can be bought on a physical format. TV on DVD has been a thing for a good while. I have that option available to me. If console gaming ditches discs and goes the Steam route, I won't have that option.

That said, you just need to re-assess the value proposition from a Games-As-A-Service or Subscription-Based or Reliant-On-3rd-Party-Services games: "Will I get an experience of sufficient quality and length to justify the asking price before it is no longer accessible to me?"

In a lot of cases, I think the answer to that question is still going to be yes.

My answer will still be "no." The idea of spending a non-trivial amount of money on something that doesn't belong to me and can be taken away at a moment's notice does not jibe well with me, especially with consoles since they're so transient. They're released in intervals of 4-6 years and are rarely supported for more than ten years. Would I have been satisfied with my older consoles being rendered unplayable after Nintendo, Sega, or Sony dropped support? Not a chance.

If I could buy a physical copy with a digital one thrown in for convenience (at an added cost if nevessary) I'd go for that. But as it stands the only way to satisfy my hoarders tendecies is to buy physical.

Tickets to the cinema, to sports fixtures, concert tickets, TV subscriptions etc. When those end - under your way of thinking - people walk away with 'nothing' as well. Obviously that's not true. Obviously those experiences still have value in and of themselves.

So when it comes to games you need not freak out about other business models that are not product-based.

Now, I like products. I like having things I can look it in the real world. Thinks I can touch. Smell. Even taste if I'm so inclined. I hope Games-As-A-Product never goes away. And I really, really, wish someone would revive the lost art of The Game Manual.

That said, you just need to re-assess the value proposition from a Games-As-A-Service or Subscription-Based or Reliant-On-3rd-Party-Services games: "Will I get an experience of sufficient quality and length to justify the asking price before it is no longer accessible to me?"

In a lot of cases, I think the answer to that question is still going to be yes.

I hope to never buy physical media ever again.

Same. Looking back on it, avoiding physical compies of games would have saved me a LOT of money. Buy something once, and have the ability to download it anywhere and have it safely available...

Buy physical, and the disk is only good until it gets scratched, lost, broken, etc...

I don't care about selling any of my games.

Same. I have never sold a used game back to a game store, and though I have regretted some purchases (Buying two copies of Crysis 2, for example), ultimately, it's nice to be able to go back and play those games if I feel like it.

In fact, because of how the PS4 works, games pretty much now cost HALF of what they used to, since we get two copies of every digital game we purchase. Sammy has every single game that I have and PS+, and she's never paid a cent.

I do really enjoy having whatever games I want no matter where I am, what country I'm in. It's also been awesome having digital music and movies.

This generation, we've only bought one physical copy of a game (Battlefield 4), and I somewhat regret not having gotten it digital. It's never removed from the console, since it's our only physical, but it still would have been nice to not have to worry about it...

Also, lending games is much EASIER with Digital, assuming you trust whoever you're lending games to.

The whole backwards-minded DEMAND that things always have physical versions around because people are so paranoid about the concept of ownership baffles me. But as technology marches on, those people will become like those who DEMANDED that VHS tapes still be around, because they didn't want to upgrade...

It's conceivable that in the future if the average internet connectivity and latency are good enough that hardware consoles will be a thing of the past.

For action, racing games and anything VR, this will never happen on a meaningful scale.

Physics and economics says so.

This is an incredibly bold proclamation. Accurately estimating what we will be able to do 10 years from now is incredibly difficult.

I don't mean you buy x game and it gets better over time. I mean you buy x game and it's Xbone quality and in a few years when y game comes out it's xbone 2 quality because the back-end infrastructure improved over that course of time which allowed greater fidelity. If this were to happen, then buying new consoles every so many years would be a thing of the past.

This is correct in theory, but the idea of 'games as a service' is ultimately detrimental to the quality of games.

I don't think you have the data to back this up.

I don't care about selling any of my games.

I do really enjoy having whatever games I want no matter where I am, what country I'm in. It's also been awesome having digital music and movies.