What I'll Miss About Physical Video Games

With the recent Sony all digital announcement rocking the gaming world, I look back on what I will miss the most about physical games.

This isn’t going to be a typical article that you normally see from HeartAsArt. This will be more of a personal opinion and a look-back article, regarding the recent trend in eliminating physical games from distribution. I remember commenting to a friend in 2020 that the upcoming generation of consoles would be the last with discs. The way music, movies, television, and books have gone mostly digital, it only made sense that gaming would go there next. Sony and Microsoft had already announced digital-only versions of the Xbox Series X (the Series S) and PlayStation 5. It seemed like a when and not if. Now that the Switch 2 utilizes game cartridges, which require a download from the Nintendo Shop, and Sony is discontinuing discs, the digital-only gaming world will be here sooner rather than later.

As someone with a giant pile of CDs, vinyl records, DVDs, and VHS tapes (as well as games from many generations of systems), I was sad but not shocked to see Sony announce the discontinuation of physical media. I will still collect physical media of all sorts, but here are just a few things I will miss about physical games.

The End of Discs is Near - What I’ll Miss About Physical Games

The Box and Disc Art

To me, the box art, manual, and disc art were a continuation of the artwork in the game. I miss thumbing through the game manual while riding in the back of my parents’ car on the way home from the store to see what was waiting for me when I got home and popped the game in for the first time. I think back to games like Winback Covert Operations and Metal Gear Solid 2, where the manual contained some of the in-game characters explaining controls and story background. I remember cracking open Jak II for the first time and seeing a map of Haven City on the back of the cover art. The level of detail blew my mind as a kid. All of this was a great precursor to firing up the game.

I vividly remember reading the manual for Tekken Tag Tournament on the drive home from Gamestop at Arrowhead Towne Center in Glendale, Arizona. It may have only been a 25-minute drive home, but reading over the stats and character bios of all the starting characters made the ride feel endless with anticipation. I couldn’t wait to get home and put together a team (Paul Phoenix and Yoshimitsu) to enter the King of Iron Fist Tournament (tag edition).

Look, I know I am not that 10-year-old kid anymore and would likely bypass a manual these days anyway. But the thought of future generations not having that same feeling bums me out a bit. The box art, disc art, and manuals were an extension of the in-game universe and brought us into the universe of the game before even turning a game console on. This extension of the game art has already been missed by me and will continue to be missed as we go fully digital.

Special Editions

I can never be accused of packing light when it comes to my music/movie/gaming collection. I am the type of person who will buy a special edition of a new album from my favorite band or favorite game series. It is to the point where I am running out of room to display these pieces, and my credit card is yelling at me every time I buy a new one (I regret nothing)

To me, an art book, soundtrack, world map, lithograph, etc., is all the more reason to buy an expanded edition of a physical game. These are also some of my favorite things to get signed by voice actors at the various comic cons I go to.

Gaming has always been about logging into another world for me. Like how the box art and manuals add to the lore of the world, so do the collectibles that come with expanded physical editions of games. Sure, there are digital deluxe editions that include various in-game items like weapons, in-game currency, character skins, etc., but they don’t add to the excitement and lore of the worlds like the physical collector editions do. I guess one upside is I will have a little more display room in the game room and less on the credit card. Going to have to get those airline miles some other way.

Used Games and Trading

As mentioned earlier, I used to frequent GameStop (and the smaller regional Game Crazy that was connected to Hollywood Video). As a kid on a tight budget that extended all the way through high school and college, I always appreciated the used game options. It saved me some cash and allowed me to jump into more game series that I was unfamiliar with. As a kid on a budget, I was reluctant to pay $50-$60 on a new game or series that I might not like. Get a used copy for $25 after the game had been out for a year, and you had me. This is how I got into Assassin’s Creed, Batman: Arkham, Tomb Raider, Saints Row, and many other games that I know and love and replay to this day.

Being an adult (at least allegedly) now, the bigger crutch for me to game is time instead of money, but again, I am kind of bummed out for the next generation of kids that won’t be able to hit the used games section at a local Gamestop and find some gems while randomly searching on a Saturday afternoon.

More From Heart as Art

Obviously, a lot of the reasons I’ll miss digital games are nostalgia-driven and a longing for a simpler time in life. Digital isn’t all bad; services like Xbox Game Pass have made many games accessible to many people. I will, however, always be a physical media collector and will always miss cracking open a new game and popping a disc into a console for the first time.

Do you prefer physical games? Sound off in the comments below.

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