As painful as this comment thread is I have a few sales facts for the clearly unknowing in the thread

The Nintendo switch is a primary physical console, this accounts for up to 75% of ALL games sold on Nintendo switch.

For every switch game that switches to digital a equal game is sold physical so there is little to no decline.

Secondly indie titles make considerable more money digitally, this is why we should be happy with limited editions and print runs as it’s not necessary and is simply a thank you to the fans.

Square Enix has now a limited store selling physical media, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this game pop up in 6-8 months time after the day one digital dollar has subsided.

Now the overall video game market is seeing a digital shift and this is inevitable, however this process is nowhere near as clear as internet experts make out.

I’ve studied this and have spoken with numerous sales analysts, npd employees , Ive also spoken to console publishers and I myself have been in the industry in the form of sales for a decade.

Take ps4 for example, it is now 50% digital.

However over the last 5 years the physical drop has only been actually 9%.

What does this mean,

Well to put it simply every digital game sold does not mean one less physical copy sold. And more games are selling now than ever.

Do not confuse a growing digital number with hard sales.

Digital has seen exponential growth but In 2018 more physical games sold than previously.

Ps5 will be a physical system, switch 2 will also and most likely the ps6 and Nintendo follow up will also.

There are numerous factors including

Global internet infrastructure, isp prices , data caps , emerging markets , Middle East etc , Asian markets high presence for physical media, collectors and the fact that more physical games are selling than any previous generation.

These statistics can be backed up by numerous experts including the npd.

This market is not zero sum , it’s healthy

The best market is one that supports multiple consumers

That market is a mix of digital , physical and streaming.

Publisher know this, and as long as physical gaming is worth even a small fraction of its current value I guarantee it’s not going anywhere

And worst case we get 10 more years of physical games. Hardly dead

Vinyl , Blu ray and books are all tiny compared to physical game sales, and yet vinyl is continuing to grow, Blu Ray is shrinking daily and so much worse than games and yet still takes 200 million a year, and has a easy 10-15 years of being mainstream and then after that becoming a market like vinyl

The industry will shift more and more over the next gen.

Expect more limited editions to increase box cost to compensate for declines and also the gen after imagine this to continue further.

Do not believe click bait telling you physical is dead, Ive spent years studying this and it most certainly is not anything but a giant exaggeration