I tried Microsoft's cloud gaming service to play some games on my Mac without having to buy a gaming PC. I had some lag issues, which I assume will get better with time, and also could have been due to some local network issues that my ISP fixed several months after I dropped the service. I know it can be a decent experience, as I had OnLive back when that was a thing and it worked pretty well a decade earlier.

Ultimately my issue was the lack of ownership, and much like with video streaming services, the seemingly random licensing agreements. Due to the lag, GTA V was one of the only games that I could play decently well. I had it years ago for PS4, but never finished it, so figured I'd jump back in. One week into playing, sorry, the game is gone, it might come back later. I find this unacceptable. For long games, or games I love and want to come back to again and again, I'm not willing to put up with that nonsense. I cancelled the service the same day that happened.

I've mostly been playing the Switch over the last 2 years due to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, but have about a dozen games. All of them were bought with physical media. I can trust the physical media will stick around, because I control it. When Nintendo shuts down an old eShop, people's favorite games could die with the hardware they happen to have it installed on. Those 2 Zelda games ended up ranking #1 and #2 as my favorite games of all time. I figure I will be able to buy a Switch in some form for a long time, but who knows how long they'll keep the servers up to download a new copy for a new (or new to me) console. If I was playing Zelda on a streaming service and had the rug pulled out from under me 200 hours in... nothing about that is good. The possibility of that would make me not want to start playing in the first place.

I don't like the trend away from physical media. As the article suggests, using game size, due to ever increasing realism, doesn't seem like it's going to be a great pitch for why it needs to go away. When we can fit 1TB on a microSD card, it seems like physical media can and should still exist, maybe just not on optical media. I also typically like playing single player games, so there is no practical reason to connect to the internet. With portable systems, like the Switch, internet requirements become a problem.

Fundamentally, I agree with you. I pay a premium to game on PC because I care about digital persistence and refuse to accept a world where Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo ultimately draw the line on my usage of their software. That being said, I would comfortably wager that the majority of console owners aren't concerned with whether they will be able to play Star Wars: Outlaws and Far Cry 6 in 2035. Most of them aren't even thinking as far ahead as next month, if Game Pass and Playstation+ subscriptions are anything to go off of. Hell, the PS5 Pro just got announced with no disc drive - the Xbox Series S has shipped without physical media for years now. Millions of console gamers have accepted their fate as digital-only households, for better or worse.

Betting on the frugality and apathy of console owners is an incredibly smart bet on Microsoft's behalf, and I say that as someone that considers the Xbox a failed product. Microsoft spent the past 10 years trying to promote a vertical integration of Windows and Xbox services, something which almost nobody cares about. Betting against next-gen demand for new console hardware is a move that only seems smarter as the economy gets worse.

I’d be curious to know what percentage of PS5 Pro buyers end up installing an optical drive. I would assume the Pro buyers are less price sensitive and more demanding customers, who would be more likely to opt for the drive, even if they need to install it themselves.

Frankly, I think it’s insane they can release something called the “Pro” with fewer features than a version of the normal console.

It’s clear the consoles are pushing to remove physical media (at least Microsoft and Sony). But I don’t think we should pretend for a second it’s anything more than a way to increase profits. A digital only console effectively kills the second hand market. Like you said, I don’t think these people are thinking ahead, and they just take what they can afford. Sony can price the optical drive version at a premium and put up additional barrier, then report how customers prefer the digital only version, when the price is all they like.

If by “eventually” you mean in a few decades then maybe I’m with you. The state of internet connections worldwide is still way behind what you need in order to make that kind of streaming an option. And for some players the input lag will always be an issue.

I don’t see hardware to game getting away anytime soon. Especially because with the current setup Sony gets to earn twice so I don’t see why they’d stop doing that.

I'm fine with cloud gaming being an option for those that don't care about the compromises, but I hope it never becomes the only option.

Ownership and preservation has already effectively vanished for gaming given the steady move away from physical media (and the fact that what often ships on the disc is severely compromised without a day-one patch); streaming only would be the final nail in that coffin.

All the Stadia users who I spoke with were generally happy with the service while it lasted. Their main concern - latency - turned out to be a non-issue.

To me there's a great niche for it to be explored: cheat prevention in e-sports. Of course aimhacks will always be a thing, but the top players were always indistinguishable from cheaters in this regard.

That's the one area where the people involved would notice the latency.

> Their main concern - latency - turned out to be a non-issue.

I'm not fortunate enough to live near a Google (or Microsoft) datacenter. So latency in cloud gaming is a very real issue. I'm glad for those who could use it lag free. I never could (and probably never can short of moving).

The middle of Montana isn't exactly a hotspot for datacenters. For good reason.

Yes. stadia basically worked well and latency wasn't an issue. But if you care about image quality (artifacts, colors, etc) it was only OK. I found it pretty distracting, moreso for faster paced (lots of motion on the screen) games.