Would you still buy the next generation of Xbox consoles if they're digital only?

Once we go all-digital, I don't think I'd even bother with consoles anymore to be honest. I'll just start moving over to PC at that point. Why even deal with the limitations of console, if you don't own the game anyway, lol. I knew this was coming. I'd be shocked if we finished out the generation with physical media. It'll die before this gen ends.

When it's all digital, I'll finally have a chance to get to my backlog. I literally pay no attention to a game not offered on a disc.

If the next gen is gonna be digital only, I might consider going back to PC as my main platform. Digital games on PC are generally much cheaper than on console and I can throw in as much storage as I need.

“Adorably all digital” 🤢 I hate that

I've been collecting games for almost 20 years. I just picked up a steam deck, and I'm blown away. If the console's go diskless, I'm going back to PC. I got a great collection I can enjoy for years to come. Bring on the future :)

My biggest problem, which Pete briefly mentioned, is that you won't be able to find anything ACTUALLY cheap anymore. Digital storefronts don't need to get rid of inventory so they won't ever list anything at prices that are intended to sell quickly. Even "sales" aren't nearly as cheap as walking into a game store and buying physically for more common titles. Quick example: I bought Dark Souls 3 (the Fire Fades edition with all the DLC) used for PS4 last year at Game Stop for $13. Very nice copy too. I'm not a member. I didn't have credit. It wasn't a sale. That was the price. Now get this: if I go on PlayStation Store or Steam right now, the digital deluxe edition (the same thing) is still $85 like it's 2016. That is insane. The sale price is never more than 50% off for it either. They know it's not worth that, but why should they make less money when they know you have no other options? Digital storefronts are a monopoly. They sell for whatever amount they want and make sure it's only tied to one account so a copy can only be played by one user. It's not the end of the world but giving large companies complete control over distribution is a not ideal either. They will push as far as they can whenever they can if there's no competition left.

Might as well go full PC since Steam and backward compatibility will always be consistent unlike consoles and their ever changing storefronts and architecture. There is no point in going digital with a console.

Honestly, there is absolutely nothing appealing about modern physical games to me. The times of manuals and cool packaging for standard releases are long gone. Being able to buy used games cheap is about the only thing that would push me in the physical direction. Now I have an extensive retro game collection, and I love physical media where they actually make an effort to make the item special. But for modern stuff, I could care less. Cases are flimsy, manuals don't exist, what's the appeal about modern physical games? Cartridges, beautiful packaging, thick manuals, they don't do that anymore.

The fact that you don't own digital media and companies will be able to take away something you bought at any time will see resurgence of physical media after a period of time. look at what happened to the vinyl record. More recently streaming companies have seen a decline in subscriptions. Physical media will make a comeback down the line. Cds and DVDs will become popular again when people realise the raw deal a digital future will offer people. If physical games go away, the will be back.

This generation is defenetly be my last... its been a long journey since my Nes days.

I'm thankful my instincts told me to start ignoring Micro$oft consoles with the Xbox One's horrible release. I ignored them since the 360 was done. I could be wrong, but I highly doubt Sony will follow suit (this gen, I mean). I do know that if it *does* happen, I am done. I won't support a digital future ... but I'm not worried about it, either, because my backlog could/would last me more than 15 + years alone, & at my age (mid-50's), I'm definitely not worried 'bout it. + I have new spares for almost all past consoles.

It's surprising it's taken this long really. Obviously if you think about it the companies will want to go all digital ASAP because it kills the second hand market and cuts huge amount of distro costs. But they've known that they have to go slow because many buyers aren't so keen to not have physical.

If the next generation is going to be digital only. This will be when I'll go 100% on PC. There would be no point to buy console at that point.

PEOPLE, the power is in us to wholly REJECT these digital only consoles! The current digital consoles were a failure, especially the Xbox version, and now they want to FORCE it! The chip shortage helped them sell more digital units than they would have otherwise as well. Hard drives aren't anywhere near large enough to hold a reasonable amount of games and the problem only gets worse as we increase game size. This is a strategy to control DRM forever and to NEVER let you own your games. You can hold about a half a dozen full sized games on a console and be prepared to continue to rebuy all the rest of the games for every console generation! Sound great for the big corporations and horrible for the small, individual consumer.

I bought a Series X and PS5 specifically because I didn’t take it for granted that options with optical drives would be available in the future. I expect I’ll live long enough to see a digital only landscape, and it would definitely reduce the number of games I buy without the element of collectibility.

Companies will learn the hard way that gamers love the physical and want to own their games. Let them try in 2024. :)

Honestly we all saw this coming. I think most of us have more than enough games to play to last the rest of our lives. It sucks when a beloved era comes to an end, but honestly with the excessive monetization and the fact that publishers havent made games for me for several years now means I haven't played modern games in quite a while.

im scared for the future

Thats exactly why I bought all my collection. I saw this coming back in the 360 days and bought up all the games I might want to play in the future.

More reason to ignore modern games for me. It'll give me a better excuse to go back and start playing all the games I have on backlog.

these companies have a history of taken down servers for various reasons as well as purchase shops etc. so basically when all is said and done you are purchasing hardware to rent games that can be taken away at any point that the providers deem. welcome to the re rental era.

Thank goodness Nintendo will extend physical games for one more generation, but you’re right. The writing is on the wall. I am curious if catering to countries with slower internet keeps them around longer though.

I agree with your last sentiment about the preservation of the physical media. I think that the digital only era will cause scarcity of physical media as time progresses, which will potentially drive the value of the older physical media upwards. Since a great component of retro game collecting is based on nostalgia, from this perspective, as collectors, we can expect a sure win here.

I think one of the reasons why there is more digital video games being, but online versus physical is because all companies are pushing that narrative and forcing and shutting down sectors, which are physical media people that play those games out of that section. And when they do that, they have no choice, but to go with the digital.

I hate seeing physical media go away, but I get it. Can’t tell you the last time I inserted a game (except a switch)

Nintendo is on its own independent track. Series s though is only that popular because it was the only thing available for a while and it was cheaper

the day Nintendo is going digital its going to be the actual end of Game Collecting

With this revelation from Xbox, I'm even firmer in my decision to stick to retro consoles, physical games, and GOG for PC gaming

Well said, this is conditioning or programming it wouldn't fly back then. But now most people are conditioned into streaming and digital purchases. These companies like to use data to prove their points and will use the low physical games buyers as that point to push forward all digital.

there really is no point in owning physical if the game isnt even on the disc anymore.

I think everything turning subscription based is way more scary. At least if I buy my digital game I can be pretty sure about it being accessable to me in the next 10 years. I can play it when I want at my own convience. But I don't want to see games leaving the subscription services just when I feel like playing them. I don't want to feel rushed to play something that leaves. I don't want to keep paying every month even if I don't play games that month. And for me good number of new quality games that push the limit a bit in terms of graphics or new feautures is way better than access to 10000 games that are old, or mediocre shells of their former selves that I don't even have the time to play. And once the subscriptions are the norm, they can make them more expensive with fewer options to turn to if you want to opt out.

Digital only?! I said, hold up, wait a minute, something ain't right.

The signs of this have been here for a couple of years now. I heard a number that in the UK physical game sales only account for about 10% of total game sales last year. Physical games were the main thing I still stayed on console for, so I'm selling my game collection and starting over on PC. Digital only and walled garden ecosystems are a very bad combination. Just look at how terrible game prices are on playstation store compared to physical games for example. On PC games are normally much cheaper and go on sale much more often, and on top of that there are multiple competing platforms (Steam, GOG, Epic etc.) so they always compete on price AND there are third party key resellers that also compete with eachother on price. I have been shocked at some of the game deals I've had in only roughly 1 month of playing on PC

The ps2/xbox/gamecube era whas the golden age of gaming...last great era of gaming.

This is a hard topic I think. Here in Sweden there are not many stores left that sells video games. When buying digital games it does not feel like I own them, more like that I rent them! Its a shame that video games goes all digital….

A wish a company would come out that would take over in the physical game marketplace and make games for collectors once all the companies go only digital something like Limited Run but they would sell the console aswell.

In better news, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth was confirmed to have a physical release just last night.

I felt like this was the case when physical Xbox games started being mixed in with one games and not hardly changing the packaging.

It's better to have a hard copy on a disk. Of your game?

Shrinked die size efficiency usually means rhat the gpu/cpu/apu production process used a smaller nanometre technology and means usually that it takes less wattage to produce the same acrual performance. Cheers

I'll definitely be going for the older model of the XSX if the new one doesn't have some kind of disc drive addon. Seems like (at least one of) the Playstation models will also have an optional disc drive. Though it remains to be seen if a Playstation 5 "pro" will be that same design. Either way, it's looking grim.

I think the move right after digital only releases will be to stop making consoles and turn into storefronts similar to steam with exclusives…maybe a few controllers/VR headsets/smart tv… What’s the point of r&d new consoles when an account is enough? Login the Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo store and play their exclusives. Sad times, but at least retro collecting is still possible (prices will skyrocket even more for a bit, then slowly fall down as old gen gamers start to move on/pass away)

I had a Series S but sold it to buy a Series X as I wanted to play Forza Horizon 2 (I’d played all the others except 2) - the only way to play it is to buy a second hand disc as it’s not on the store due to licences expiring. I buy discs but I’m also a Game Pass subscriber - which is changing everything IMO. Great video Pete - good to have you back regularly.

Some people have said the price is okay since its double the storage but I disagree. Console slim revisions warrant a price decrease since they’re supposed to cut down on manufacturing. This is coming out 4 years after the gen started too.

Digital is fine, we already have moved passed physical for music, movies, and tv shows. Almost everyone Streams or download for offline use. You have a lot of options for Xbox. You can go cheap, all digital, get the Series X with a drive or the new leaked all digital Series X. Kinda cool.

NO Pete u wrong about that one part. The disc drive costs them probaly only $10 for mannufacture. BUt the extra 2 GB of SD is much more significant ofg a cost. Their bulk cost is probably 30 to 40 bucks for the extra TB po of Storage.

As long as physical games are available, I'll buy physical copies. If/when a time comes where digital is the only source for new games, I guess we'll adapt. I think one of the biggest problems for gaming is that, sadly, most console sales are not from "hardcore" gamers ot enthusiasts. They're from regular people who want to olY the new FIFA or CoD, or even Fortnite. They don't care. They just want the cheapest option (like the series S or the digital only PS5) or the most accessible.. I'm not saying they are wrong, it's just that, because the corporative/financial side of the ganing industry makes decisions based on sales and nunbers, those of us who love gaming and appreciate it as an art form are continuously suffering the consequences. This is the reason why game preservation is so difficult. Because for the vaat majority of people, they're just games. It's in the name, "videogames". Nothing profound about them, nothing relevant abiut them, just games. And thats why you Americans are able to find great games on garage sales or flea markets. Thats where people get rid of the stuff with no value (in their eyes) The human collective still doesn't appreciate games as an art form. We gamers do, but our numbers are not as big.

I did get a digital only Xbox this generation. I'm kinda started to wonder if I should regret that, or be okay with it since I will need to get used to it anyway.

This is just a sad day for gamers

I am a physical game collector/player. I understand that it is more convienient to buy digitally. I just don't buy games digitally because I have been buying physical games since Nintendo. I have a huge backlog. I only buy physical games because I don't want to miss out on a game I want to play. So I buy the physical game and when I have time, I will play it. If it is all digital, I don't feel like I want to buy anything at this point because I have so many games already. It would have to be super convienient and super cheap for me to buy games digitally. I love buying physical games because I feel like I have it forever.

They need to make one with a disk drive.

I strongly believe they will be selling an accessory disc drive which plug into the usb c port (with power delivery) in front of the console.

Follow the leader but Xbox is in third place lol

Its really anti consumer. The unfortuate reality is most of the younger gen don't care about physical media. I'm 22 and even friends of mine dont care anymore.

I bought a few digital games from Indie developers/small companies. Usually I look at the gameplay to see how it is before buying. Afterward, i buy them to help them out. Usually, they will put out a physical which I will buy again if the game is good. They (indie companies) don't have a great budget like larger companies. Presently, i don't buy at retail value anymore. I wait for reviews, bug patches fix and lower prices to justify the buy.

When it comes to Digital Games I only purchase those indies titles at £15 or below or the massively discounted 1st Party Games. I would never pay £50 or £60 for a Digital Code that can be erased at the drop off a hat. If PlayStation decides to make PS6 all Digital I personally think I'll tap out at that point. I've been gaming since the ZX81 days & can remember the game that started this journey for me, THE WARLOCK OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN. Picking up that Cassette & reading the inlay gave me a gaming buzz that I still have to this day so to loss a Games Physical presence would be a very dark day. Cheers Peter

Digital storefront creates a monopoly where you can only purchase from a single location online. Actually, you don’t really purchase it, you only rent permission to use the game digitally. I view consumers slowly and insidiously loosing their options with all digital big-tech totally controlling everything like they are trying to do. I’ll continue to support systems that release physical media. All digital is about greed and control. Micro transactions, in game adds, editing games to fit politics, removing media, ect. When you own physical you own the game. The only way they can take the physical game away from you is breaking and entering.

Physical games a still a billion dollar industry globally. Hopefully physical games will become a niche mainstay like Vinyl and Blu Rays. If the PS6 takes out the drive, I'd be surprised due to BC and it's also a chance for Sony to have goodwill moving forward.

I double dip like some people and buy both physical and digital and if Xbox goes digital only permanently I know I'm done with the consoles for the foreseeable future. If I end up getting their digital only it'll be bought used just so I can make sure they don't get revenue from my purchase but I find that unlikely. They lost me as a console consumer and I'm going PC gaming primarily with Steam/Gog and other consoles that still allow me to have both options. It's really unfortunate they've taken this route, they only got me back as a customer because of the discontinued backwards compatibility project. Which for the record there are a notable amount of incompatible games still from previous generations from 360 and OG era. 1st party games like the original Halos and Blinx 2 are still incompatible to this day which it's absolutely disgraceful they don't have those compatible. Old Halos not being compatible is slightly less egregious because of MCC but it does play a hair different than the original because of the FPS and other enhancements probably. I haven't even gotten Halo Infinite because Microsoft decided to make the physical an incomplete copy if I remember correctly. I think we can get Microsoft to reverse their decision on digital only (for now) if we vote with our dollars, it's happened before. But they've been trying to boil the frog in the kettle since the Xbox One's failure and I think this mid gen refresh is exactly what they've done with this generation baiting others and myself in with promises of backwards compatibility only to shutdown the compatibility project and make plans for the digital only mid gen refresh. I also heard Microsoft leaked their own documents, which if true means they wanted to gauge our reactions to this and leads more credence to my thought we can still get them to reverse this decision but as you pointed feels like we're just kicking the can down the road but I think it's still worth it at least for me to try.

This is why i always play older generation games, you can actually own them

Personally, I'm fine with going all digital. I've stopped collecting games years ago, I don't sell or trade games and I rarely go back and replay a game once finished, so I've gone almost completely digital with the PS5 and Xbox. That said, I don't like the idea of removing the option of playing physical media. This locks you into buying from one digital storefront when other options (like Prime Day) could provide a better price for the physical version. Anything that limits consumer options is never good, IMO.

This is why I have backed up all of my games on a drive. This way, I can play a game any time I want. Version 1.0 on the disc may not solve the problem for games that require you to have a later version to play the game at all. Killzone: Shadowfall did this.

pc gaming stopped physical production years ago around ps4 launch surprised it took this long.

please do updated collection videos of PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox 360! Would be great to see after 15 years

Not a fan of the all digital future as it keeps getting closer and closer. It’s also going to be a real loss of no longer being able to load your physical original xbox and xbox 360 games in the consoles for backwards compatibility

I understand removing disk drive is big deal but there isn't a media format that can hold modern games with a readspeed that are good

If digital is the only option then I'll just stop playing modern games and never go past the 9th generation of consoles. There are enough older games to last me to the day I die. I've never had much desire for any digital media.

I think I'm done with modern games after this gen. I might buy the Nintendo system, since they never have a PC port. But I trust Steam more than Sony and MS when it comes to download only.

I was postponing getting the Series X since I want to play my Xbox games that I bought over the years. I think I’ll try go get it sooner before they discontinue it in favour of the all digital version.

We all knew this was coming. It's pretty wild that for xbox it's happening this generation though.

I love buying physical games because I feel like I have it forever and no one can take it away. Unless they steal it. It's just so simple to put in a game and play. I don't like it when you buy somethingthing then you have to wait to download it, it could get deleted or corrupted, lost because it is not a material item or tangible item.

This is a misstep comparable to the xbox one initially being marketed as needing a constant internet connection. I hope they reconsider.

I love the look of the system. However, the price makes no sense.

When I get the new Xbox my series c will be used as my travel Xbox and any remaining games I have as digital Xbox hopefully those carry over at least

I have a feeling they still will be selling the disc xbox series x version. This is just a refresh of the xbox series x. Honestly most people play digitally on the xbox systems.

But its confirmed the leaks are from 2022 and phil tweeted a lot has changed and plans to release the actual final product Im still surprised people are assuming the all digital could have changed in nearly 2 years of development

I understand wanting physical discs for the collecting aspect, but one of the benefits of all digital is less plastic use and is better for the environment 🤷🏻‍♂️. Digital games you also don’t have to worry about “breaking”. Discs are all fun and games until a dog chews on it or you scratch it.

I buy digital new games only most people do now but we can always collect retro

I feel like everything is digital already. Even when you buy a physical game it needs patches half the time, and in 20 years, i doubt they'll work

With modern games usually not having a full game on the disc anyways and you having to download a lot of updates just to get the best build of the game makes the disc useless to me.

Then the current Series X is probably my last console. If they won't at least offer something like a Switch cart for physical releases then I might as well just stick to PC games exclusively

It's B's that they are doing this ! An not to mention physical gaming is a older thing these younger kids get them all digitally . Not having the game physically gives me the same feeling as emulating a game

Valve gets away with all digital because the prices are low and you have the option to buy codes elsewhere or even receive them as gifts Microsoft and Sony only give you one place to buy their digital games so prices will always be high and you can't gift digital games to my knowledge

I mean the next gen will be all digital, because 2020 face little pushback to an all digital future unlike the last generation. In two gens I can see them transition to cloud gaming

gog does digital the right way. with gog you download the game and can back the installer up anywhere you want and as many times as you want.

i youse cable not wifi wireles emisions give me headaches

Does that mean the series x with disc drive value has gone up ?

im getting the ps5 not into x box anymore im going to sel my x box and get the ps5 i like the controler much more i like the position of the sticks

The only thing that sucks is that they are closing down the 360 store and now they wanna do a digital only generation... kinda makes no sense

This sucks. I guess I’ll hold out hope that the Switch 2 at least uses carts for another generation. Digital games are fine but losing the option of physical feels, idk? to be a bit dramatic - unjust? Some of us are screwed over by the majority of the consumer base only buying digital. Having physical games, and most importantly having a secondary market, helps control the price of games. If all current Gen gaming and beyond is digital, gamers and the market lose the autonomy to determine what a game is worth. The only direction for the cost of gaming subscriptions is up. What’s stopping the price of GamePass in 10 years to be the price of a new AAA game every month apart from the market shrinking dramatically? I’d also predict that at some point Microsoft and Sony completely replace GameStop in the sense that they’ll let you buy digital games and even let you “trade them back” for partial credit.

Personally, if next gen is digital only, I'm out. Even with a PS5 currently, all I buy is PS4 games still since I hate the dualsense controller haha.

The company that gets my money next generation will be the one that has a disc drive and the game actually on the disc. I usually get Sony & Microsoft’s console each generation but that won’t happen in the future if Microsoft decide to get rid of the disc drive, I’ll just play any Microsoft game I’m interested in on my PC.

I think Microsoft needs to be worried on how many of us will not buy these digital only consoles

Aren’t disc games susceptible to disc rot? Are cartridges going to be the only survivors in this digital future? Lol

If a PC game gets delisted at least there's fitgirl if the key is sold out or ultra expensive

This is going to end Xbox. Consumers are smart enough to see through this scam.

My retro collection keeps on growing to the point I have to sleep on the couch. I gladly stick to digital for PS5 and only have a few PS4 physical. Still it makes me gag listening to their bullet points for the new Xbox. Trendy but fake ecology narrative when they only care about $$$.

I loved the first two Xbox consoles even the Xbox one was pretty good but now I think I’ll just be a PlayStation gamer strictly they just seem to push digital over physical

If gaming is going to go all digital? Why should I pay for PSN or Xbox Live when I can play for free on PC instead? Also Steam has better sales then Xbox or Playstation. I'm not a PC gamer but I just bought a steam deck to play around with. I'm testing the waters for sailing the high seas. If I can't hold it I don't own it. If I can't own it I can't pay for it.