I might be unique in this but I'll never "buy" a digital game. They're impossible to resell and I can't lend it to friends or my kids, they'd need my account or console. Plus I'll have the physical game forever, digital games are only good as long as the servers are up.

I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this, so if companies stop offering physical games then I'm not going to buy them. (I'll just pirate). I've preordered Zelda from GameStop. I support the content I want more of, like Zelda games, and I'll continue to buy each one. If I don't, then they might not make more.

[–] Sgagvefey@lemmynsfw.com 5 points 1 month ago

I have no interest in physical games. I'm not willing to carry around 300 cartridges or only have access to a small portion of my library. But Nintendo has to know that physical game collectors are a big portion of their audience (with probably more than any other platform in either raw number or proportion). They can't abandon physical.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

Is saving the game from an early leak worth getting rid of physical games? I hope not.

As a PC gamer who has been basically digital only since the late 00s/early 10s? Probably?

But the thing to remember is that, like with DRM, the studios have this data. There are orgs dedicated to analyzing (and selling...) sales data that can detect the impact that Mass Effect PC being "unplayable" for pirates because of securom for the first week or so had on sales (anecdotal but... probably real positive). Because this kind of stuff costs money (well, less so for removing a disc drive...) and they aren't going to do that if they think it will hurt revenue.