Ouya

Perhaps it's different abroad, but here a physical copy is a DVD case with a disc in it, a CD-key and a respective game cover, while all the guides, manuals and artwork are available online. All the CDs and DVDs I've obtained since 1994 are just sitting in a box collecting dust today.

I also don't see how corruption might be an issue with services like Steam which allow the user to check the integrity of the files and download replacements or an entire copy anywhere on the planet as long as he or she has an HDD with enough available space, a compatible OS and an internet connection.

And that's not even going into the whole P2P networking idea which eliminates all of the above problems.

You don't own a game, you only purchase a privilege to use it under certain conditions described in the license agreement. Most of the time you can't even modify the game in any way, like modding. The way I see it, all you own is a piece of plastic with ones and zeroes recorded on it. And a few bits of expensive paper. That you could possibly pawn for a fortune in a few decades.

 

There's that cheap and shortsighted "you only bought a license" argument again. I'm quite sure the licenses for my MegaDrive cartridges have pretty much expired so I own the games and can do with them however I please. The same will apply for current-gen games one day.