While I agree with the overwhelming sentiment that online-only games are pointless to get in physical editions (unless you want some CE extras like posters, trinkets etc), I feel like most games in general this generation are becoming pointless to get in physical.
Most are being rushed out the door broken and incomplete. Last Christmas I bought a PS4 and XB1 for my family. 2 weeks before Christmas I took them out of their boxes and installed the console and game updates so it they would be ready to go Christmas day.
It took 4 days (actual days, some updates took all night) to get everything up to date. Out of 20 games (some just released), only 1 did not require any updates (Lego Jurassic World).
These games may or may not play 20 years from now on a replacement console. Maybe I won't be able to install the right OS version for the replacement console. Or maybe the game will be broken or be missing major features without it's DLC and day 1 patches.
By removing manuals and largely finishing their games after release the industry has succeeded in making physical editions mostly pointless in my opinion.
There are a few games that will be just fine. But in my personal collection I can count those games on one hand.
Ironically the XB1X which I am a huge fan of makes this problem worse. Even games that say right on their shrink wrapped packaging (Xbox One X Enhanced) don't necessarily mean all the content is actually on the disk (ReCore: Definitive Edition I am looking at you).
Rather than simply piss and moan about the state of things I am attempting to adapt. Microsoft is talking quite a bit about backward and forward compatibility and I am taking them at their word (time will tell if this is a smart move). In a way their approach has opened my eyes. PC, Console whatever. Old games don't become incompatible. They are abandoned. Microsoft is being very clear they are done (for now) abandoning your previous investments. They want you to take them with you each jump and they are enabling it in a way that enhances them where possible to sweeten the deal.
I took advantage of this weekends sale to re-purchase a lot of games I already owned on PS3/PS4 in physical/digital form simply because Xbox One provides backward compatibility for those titles and is claiming that going forward their systems for the foreseeable future will be designed to be forward compatible (they want you to be able to take your existing games with you into each console cycle).
The movie industry learned a long time ago (betamax, VHS, HDDVD, Blu Ray) that if you abandon the customers previous stuff eventually it burns you. DVD technology is over 20 years old now. But you can still pop in any of your DVD movies into any blu ray player and watch it. This is why you can still find DVDs for under $5 at Wal-Mart in spite of the fact that you may not be able to find DVD only players (it's mostly all Blu Ray now). Technology moved forward but our existing movie investment wasn't abandoned.
It's completely ridiculous to me that franchises continue to crank out sequels and complain about lower than expected sales when the initial entries can no longer be acquired or played properly because their format and platform has been completely abandoned.
If the publisher is capable and committed to keeping the servers up and If I can get the patches, updates, entire game download 30 years from now, or if I can make reliable backups and restore them to a replacement machine (you can do this with Xbox One) I am totally cool with going digital and reaping the benefits of games continuing to work and getting higher resolutions, better frame rates, bug fixes, etc.
It's a pretty cool thought that the games I buy now will not be abandoned.
