Op-Ed: The cost of convenience and our digital future
I, like many others, have dived headfirst into the digital-only world of media that we live in today.
The days of waiting for the DVD logo to hit the corner of the screen are long gone. Can we really be blamed? Most televisions on the market come with their own user interface and the pre-downloaded streaming apps that we’ve all come to love and hate. As consumers, we’re incentivized to make streaming and digital purchases over buying physical versions of movies, games and music.
Let’s take the newly released Toy Story 5 as an example. You could purchase its brand-new Blu-ray for $24.99 at your local retail store, which would include the movie disc and a digital code to be able to watch the movie on the go. Or, you could pay half that amount to get access to Disney+’s library of thousands of titles for one month.
One movie versus thousands.
In fact, to purchase all of Disney’s library physically, you’d need to spend tens of thousands of dollars.
The situation is even worse for the music industry, where one membership to Spotify or Apple Music gets you access to an endless catalog. For most consumers, it’s a no-brainer to choose a subscription over purchasing an individual product.
The Digital Entertainment Group’s research into the matter has shown that approximately 92.4% of revenue going into the home entertainment market goes to streaming services. The remaining percentage is split between digital purchases and physical discs. That split provides a very bleak look for the future of physical with approximately 82% of sales being digital and just 18% being physical.
With streaming, you’re not being sold on the ownership of all titles on the platforms. You’re paying into access, not ownership.
This is not the case when it comes to the sale of media via digital storefronts like Amazon Prime, Fandango at Home or the PlayStation store. Movies and video games get sold on these platforms, but the reality is that you don’t truly own these copies the same way that you would own a disc.
While it’s extremely convenient to just press play through your controller instead of having to stand up and slide in a disc, it may end up not being worth that extra convenience. For one, these copies are confined to your personal account. They cannot be lent to friends or resold for a quick buck. Perhaps the worst part is that all you buy is a digital license. Movie distributors are striking deals with the digital storefronts for their movies and games to be sold on specific platforms. Consumers are confined to the specifics of these deals. Unfortunately for us, these deals can expire.
The worst example of this is a recent one.
On September 1, 2026, Sony removed 551 Studio Canal movies and television shows from users’ PlayStation libraries. Sony, who owns PlayStation, stopped the sale of digital movies and shows through the PlayStation store in 2021. Their exit from the market meant that when the deal between Sony and Studio Canal expired, no effort was made to renew. This deal included movies like Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Paddington and Hot Fuzz. These titles were not removed from digital storefronts, they were straight up taken from users’ digital collections. Customers paid for these movies and got no refunds or store credit once they were removed from their accounts.
With these digital purchases, things are completely out of our hands.
Like with streaming, there’s real incentive to “purchase” movies digitally. Movies release digitally significantly earlier than they are released on disc. For example, Spider-Man: Brand New Day just got its release through digital storefronts on October 6. Those who want to own the movie as a disc will have to wait until December for its physical release. For impatient fans, those two months could be a long wait.
There’s the added benefit of being able to access your movie anywhere you go. The same cannot be said for a disc, which is unusable unless a portable player is purchased. Even then, imagine having to pull out a separate bulky device to play a movie instead of just having an app on your phone. Far from convenient. Nowhere is this convenience felt more than with digitally purchased video games.
People usually have various games downloaded on their systems, so having to remove a disc and put in a new one every time someone wants to play a new game can become a nuisance. It’s evident that people prefer to purchase games digitally. Sony’s final quarterly report of 2025 showed that 85% of game sales were digital, with a measly 15% being physical disc sales. The traditional three console brands — PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo — still provide the option to either buy physically or digitally.
For now.
In June of 2026 Sony announced their intention of ending all physical game production by January 2028. Yes, the same Sony that removed movies from digital libraries is pushing consumers towards an all-digital future confined to licensing agreements. One could argue that this could potentially create worse situations for consumers when video games are significantly more expensive than movies. Flagship titles are retailing for $80 now, compared to movies which typically cost around $20.
While Sony is the only one of the three to announce a disc-free future, the other two don’t seem to be so far behind. Microsoft’s, Xbox team recently released a disc to digital feature for their consoles. Users can put in discs to their consoles and claim a temporary digital license for their game. As long as that same game disc isn’t inserted into a different console, the game will digitally remain in the user’s account. This would serve as a perfect transition for Xbox’s next console, currently rumored to release in 2027 with no disc drive.
The most damming recent development for the future of physical games, though, is the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto VI, which will not get a physical release despite being expected to be one of the biggest game releases of all time. Boxes will be sold in store, but those boxes will only come with a code for digital access instead of a disc. GTA VI will undoubtedly be a massive financial success, one that will encourage other developers to move in similar directions.
While movies and games are floundering, the physical music industry seems to be in a very good spot. The revival of vinyl records created a massive boom that movies and games have not seen in years. The Recording Industry of America reported growth in physical sales in their end of year report for 2025. At the same time, digital music sales have gone down. This growth in physical music seems to be in part due to the resurgence of the vinyl record, which saw a 9.3% growth in sales from 2024.
We seem to be heading into a mostly digital world.
Physical movies will continue to survive through niche collectors’ editions as regular consumers buy less and less. Games seem to inevitably be heading into a digital-only future. Meanwhile, music seems to be enjoying growth.
The reality for movies and games is that in years’ time, consumers will not be able to just walk into a store and purchase them like they used to. Retailers like Best Buy don’t sell movies in-store anymore. Physical game production will likely end for both the PlayStation and Xbox once the next generation of consoles kicks off, slated for the holiday season of 2027.
For now, though, there’s still a chance to go build up a physical collection. You can go out to purchase your favorite movies, shows and games. Even better, you can walk into a resale store like McKay’s in Nashville and buy your favorite media second-hand for very low prices. Now is the time to appreciate true ownership, before it’s too late.
Feature image courtesy of Canva
