Game News 2.0

There is no point in releasing discs if it's just a couple of files that need a hefty download to work. See this story... https://www.eurogamer.net/modern-warfare-2s-disc-has-a-whopping-70mb-of-data

That is hugely wasteful and unnecessary, with the only possible benefit being that it means some price competition between retailers.

But physical media is still essential for archiving and accessibility purposes, and the EA / Activision carry-on is very much not the norm as most games do ship in complete form (albeit unpatched, obviously). It'd be an ominous sign if all physical versions were phased out. But equally, it wouldn't be the end of the world if it shifted to a more niche market like we see with Blu-Ray these days - where there's a focus on collector audiences and high-quality releases from boutique labels.

I do agree - I'm not anti-digital by any stretch, and fully appreciate that emulators or fan-made patches are the best way to play many classic games these days. Pirates / digital archivists (depending on your preferred phraseology :P) often fill the role gaming companies themselves should be filling. And also worth noting that older consoles can give a sub-optimal experience on modern TVs without significant modding - if they work at all given many display through now-obsolete connection types.

But equally for anyone with a decent game library having a disc or cartridge to hand is often the easiest way to simply boot up a game in its original form, to use old peripherals or unique hardware, or even just to back-up a copy for future use. And even the excellent efforts Microsoft has done with regards backwards compatibility mean the best way to experience many original Xbox / 360 games is simply to pop your old disc into an Xbox One or XBSX. And given the unfortunate examples of prominent games being unceremoniously pulled from digital storefronts, disc or pirate copies are often the only enduring copies of any given game.