PlayStation made the first move, and Xbox is expected to follow suit. In January 2028, Sony will stop producing physical discs for games on its consoles.…
The difference is that even the first game I downloaded via Steam (HL2) even before Steam was a store is still available for me to download more than 20 years later. Good luck downloading and running console games from 2 or 3 console generations ago. Console owners have been slowly manipulated to accept whatever console makers have thrown at them.
Zero day 100gb update? Sure. Always online to play offline campaign? No problem. No game disk (= no used market)? Why not. Re-selling you the game you own it every console generation? Makes sense. €600+ console? Worth it. €80, €90 games that almost never drop in price, no secondhand market? Yes.
Good luck downloading and running console games from 2 or 3 console generations ago.
You can still purchase and download Xbox 360 games. The PS3 store is about to be shut down but already-owned games will still be downloadable. This is already the case for the Wii and the 3DS.
The only console store to ever shut down without the ability to download purchases is the original Xbox, which offered DLC only.
The difference is that even the first game I downloaded via Steam (HL2) even before Steam was a store is still available for me to download more than 20 years later. Good luck downloading and running console games from 2 or 3 console generations ago. Console owners have been slowly manipulated to accept whatever console makers have thrown at them.
Zero day 100gb update? Sure. Always online to play offline campaign? No problem. No game disk (= no used market)? Why not. Re-selling you the game you own it every console generation? Makes sense. €600+ console? Worth it. €80, €90 games that almost never drop in price, no secondhand market? Yes.
Consoles just do not make sense any more, they are a bad investment. It just sucks that PC components now cost an arm and a leg.
You can still purchase and download Xbox 360 games. The PS3 store is about to be shut down but already-owned games will still be downloadable. This is already the case for the Wii and the 3DS.
The only console store to ever shut down without the ability to download purchases is the original Xbox, which offered DLC only.