The Game Disc May Be Dying and I Think I'm Okay with It

"This will make life harder for GameStop. Good, fuck ’em."

Really? I can only assume this was written by a disgruntled game dev, because almost every actual gamer loved the secondary market where a 5-year-old game could be picked up for $10. That exact same game on the PlayStation Store is often still listed at $60. Wanting to say "fuck 'em" to GameStop is actively saying "fuck 'em" to the entire secondary market.

The secondary market exists explicitly because Sony and Microsoft refuse to lower digital game prices as titles age. When console manufacturers eliminate the disc drive, they eliminate the only price competition to their walled-garden storefronts.

If there were a reality where excluding $12 in hardware manufacturing costs and $25 in decoding royalties meant Sony would say, "Wow, we are making so much money now, let's cut the price of the console in half," then great. But I am highly dubious. Everyone knows the days of heavily subsidized console hardware are over. With the secondary market dead and buried, there is zero market incentive or financial reality in which Sony or Microsoft will ever pass those massive digital profit margins down to the consumer.