Here’s my perspective as a PC player. Even back in the early 2000s, discs were mostly just a form of DRM. When you install the game from a disc, 99% of the time, the installer copies the contents of the disk to your hard drive, then the disk just acts as a key in order to “unlock” your installed copy. No-cd patches just make the game think the disc is inserted when it’s not.

Today, the only difference is the delivery method, and it’s where things can get a little hazy. Steam is where I own most of my games, and I do like Steam and Valve, and consider them pretty trustworthy in terms of large tech companies. But, even so, because the only way I’m really able to get games from Steam is through their servers, there are situations that are out of my control where a game that was once available to me, no longer is.

This is why I’m starting to prefer GOG. They have a zero DRM policy, and offer offline installers for most of their games. Meaning, if I purchase a game, I download that installer, load it onto a thumb drive, and I effectively have that game forever, no matter what happens to GOG, the developer, the publisher, etc. I have a couple of games that have been lost to time officially, that I can install as easy as the day they came out because I have that offline installer. It’s as good as having any CD game.

So, bottom line is, CD, no CD, I really don’t care. Give me the installer, and guarantee I don’t be locked out of my game because of something I can’t control, and I’m happy.

I can log on to anybody’s computer in the world, install Steam, and have full access to my entire game library.

I can make almost anybody I know (with limits) a “family member” and share my library.

I can stream my games from my computer to my phone.

My steam deck lets me play my entire library anywhere.

I see no personal benefit to using physical media anymore.

I guess a disclaimer would be that I trust Valve but you truthfully, I don’t trust all game companies/vendors.

I like collecting physical copies of games I like and that I want to display on my shelves. For example, I have the entire Ace Combat franchise on disc, the collector’s edition of Ori and Crosscode, and a few artbooks for certain games that I love (Spyro, Plague Tale, Oddworld). I also bought the entire Resident Evil saga on xbox (Origins, R2make, R3make, R4master, R5master, R6master, R7 Gold, Code Veronica, Revelations 1 and 2) because I got most of them for cheap.

Digital storefronts are either for games that I didn’t care to have a physical copy of, or when a physical copy doesn’t exist. When I do buy digital, I usually buy on GoG when possible, as it’s the most future-proof option available. I do have a big digital collection on Xbox thanks to their generous Rewards program, but it got nerfed hard in the last few months, so I don’t think it will increase much in the future (I don’t plan on buying another Xbox console, and the MS Store on Windows sucks hard).

Digital only, cheapest price that isn’t Epic.

I prefer not to devote myself to any one storefront, and while Valve is very altruistic I think healthy competition is one of the things that keeps PC gaming storefronts at their best.

Even on consoles, I prefer to go digital; saves bookcase space.

I ended up playing my physical copies way less than digital ones because I can’t be arsed to juggle disks and cartridges.

I sold most of my physical collection when upgrading from PS4 to XSX and bought those games digital there since Microsoft has proven to be solid when it comes to backwards compatibility.

All of my portable consoles (Switch, Vita, DSi, N3DS, Analogue Pocket) are jailbroken and digital only because memory is so cheap that I can hold all noteworthy games on a single SD card. In time current systems will end up in a similar state so there’s little point getting attached to dust collecting boxes.

Honestly digital for me all the way, of course I object to some of the questionable delicious by some companies regarding taking away digital owned media, but as long as it’s not an issue digital.

I’m a very indicisive person and it’s so much better to just be able to switch the game without getting up and going halfway across the room, going through the process of putting it back in the case and taking a new one out until I figure out what I want to play.

PC? All digital.

Consoles? All physical

I do t play games on console all that often so I’d rather the option to pick up a cheap used copy. Plus I could play that game any number of years down the road when the servers are long shut down. But on PC I just want to click the button and the game installs and opens.