Either pirate or quit engaging in the "everything".
I can't actively condone illegal activity on a public forum, but I can advocate for actually owning the things you buy. [...]
There's a saying going around that's something along the lines of "if buying isn't owning, than pirating isn't stealing". I can't say I outwardly agree with that, however it's certainly food for thought.
[...] but I have to admit it's pretty convenient not having to deal with disc swaps whenever I feel like playing it.
Well, you could say that convenience has been there ever since emulation, but I obviously get what you mean. At least this instance helps your understanding of why some people prefer that format over the other, so it's nice you went through it even if it's just once solely for that, especially given how you would snoot at digital games in the past.
I think that even if most of the industry goes mostly digital in the future, as long as companies sell consoles that take some sort of physical media, collectors will continue buying physical games.
As long as those "physical" games don't end up being full-blown glorified coasters, then sure; otherwise, why bother? We'll see...
I think one aspect people tend to overlook is the sheer amount of indie games only released for PC at a marginal price or even free. For many of these games, in my opinion, their quality outperforms games published by major studios, although that's an effect caused by publishers rushing developers to meet deadlines. I'd be playing more indie games, for sure.
Oh, definitely, without a doubt and 100%: most indie games, I'm of the same opinion as you, have no problem kicking 'AAA' games to the curb; it's a universal truth at this point, I feel. This, I think, can be particularly likened to Pokémon, where fan games, especially ROM hacks, often tend to be of far superior quality, offering a better experience than the main games in the series have in the past decade; in fact, some of the people behind those projects went on to create and develop games of their own, with
Monster Crow,
Anode Heart, and
CountryBalls Heroes being some recent examples.
My original post was geared mainly toward the "mainstream" side of the industry, given that their reason for pushing digital so fervently is insincere; they see it as a casino of sorts, and it's therefore driven not only by greed but also by the corporate side of it, which worsens it. In truth, I don't have a problem getting games digitally; the majority of indie games, after all, began and often continue to be distributed that way. But the difference between the two sides is, to use a simple analogy, like me choosing water over soda to quench my thirst, so I can't in good conscience go with the least healthy, less satiable option when what they're offering me boils down to renting a license key at a premium that they can in turn revoke anytime they want due to licensing issues or what-have-yous. If the main point of their argument for pushing digital-only distribution by 20XX is cutting costs, then the least that they should do is pass those savings on to their customers since there literally won't be anything tangible in exchange. They want the maximum amount of profit by exerting the least amount of effort, which is irrefutable at this point, I believe.
Truthfully, I've always been of the opinion that modern gaming as we know it began its slow descent into mediocrity ever since the 7th generation, going further downhill as the years passed, so to put it bluntly, whatever these companies end up doing has no immediate impact on me—I'm a shameless cheapskate anyway, if you catch my
drift.
One last thought: never give up your freedom for the sake of convenience.
https://www.purexbox.com/news/2024/01/xboxs-physical-games-departments-reportedly-affected-by-microsoft-layoffs
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/several-european-retailers-are-reportedly-no-longer-stocking-physical-xbox-games/
Slowly but surely, the transition continues.
Let's wait a bit and see if the few rumors that purport that Nintendo's next console is digital-only are true, and then I guess we can sit here to ponder this far more critically. After all, as I said, we tasted the waters already with Sony and Microsoft releasing consoles without disc drives, so my way of thinking is if the third dog in the race, who's stubbornness knows no bounds and has often shown to be staunchly stuck in the past, does end up following the same approach as its competitors, then that would change things, for sure. If, in the next generation, the three biggest names in the industry release digital-only consoles, then I guess we could begin to fully embrace the digital era...maybe. We can count on there being opposition if that were to happen because, as I said, even if it's a "minority", people who prefer physical media still make up a big piece of the pie. But we'll see, I guess. Full disclosure, though: given Nintendo's "always late to the party" way of doing things, I don't see them going all-digital yet, mainly because I don't think Japan cares as much as the West does for digital media.
[...] I do want to address the issue of many modern physical games, particularly on the PS5 and Series X/S, being little more than beefed up CD keys. I say this because the discs are definitely more than CD keys, however without downloading the rest of the game which 90% of them require, the game will either not work at all or be in an unplayable state. I've seen this with various PS4 games as well, although it is less egregious than on consoles from the current gen. What this essentially means is the longevity of collecting for the PS5, Series X/S, and even PS4 and XBONE is severely in question. [...]
Overall, in most cases, for modern physical releases, the game is included on the disc, especially when it comes to single-player titles. It's when developers push day-one patches to account for an unfinished game, cut corners because the game files were too big, or implement always-on DRM that factors in the idea of the discs being "glorified license keys", or rather "glorified coasters", for a far better-sounding descriptor. A game that would require a day-one patch to add missing content or essentially the full game due to being released unfinished will be nothing but utter trash in the future once the servers hosting those files go under—I'm looking at you, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5. This is what separates Nintendo from the other two: Nintendo Switch releases have the full game on the cartridge and, barring a patch or two, are playable straight from the package. A recent example is Star Ocean: The Second Story R, which I posted derisively about given that it happens to state on the cover that a download is required only for it to be just for a language pack, the game being fully playable offline.
My backlog is huge. I intend to play and enjoy it. 
