If you’re a fan of physical games media — actual discs and cartridges that can be placed into a console or PC, or displayed on a shelf — then the state of the industry may be disappointing. Sony recently revealed that it plans to transition PlayStation away from physical media entirely by 2028, and it’s certainly not alone in this desire to shift to digital-only.
Physical media has been slowly moving — if not being pushed — to the periphery of the industry. So what does one do if one prefers the physical, for aesthetic or other reasons? I decided to ask a company whose whole raison d’être is physical media: Limited Run Games.
Limited Run’s motto is “Forever Physical,” and it describes itself thus: “At Limited Run Games, we think your game library should be on a shelf, not just a page in a digital account. Our games are made for the people who love them by people who care deeply about the history of gaming.” This puts them in an interesting position compared with other companies, such as Sony.
Brendan Madigan, Limited Run’s CFO, told GamesBeat, “Limited Run exists because we wanted to put out product to fans that bigger publishers weren’t willing to take a financial risk on… The old model involved taking something to retail and hoping it sells; and if it doesn’t, you back it all out. In our model, we manufacture what we sell, so there’s no financial risk.”
The vanishing of gaming retail space
Nic Ashford, Limited Run’s COO, added, “A piece of paper with a code on it in a box on a shelf — not the most exciting thing. People have tried it before, and it has been squarely rejected. But it was easier to reject it back then because there was an alternative. If that’s being taken away, are people going to be forced to accept that and just be really unhappy about it? I hope that isn’t the view because that’s not very pleasant.”
One of the changes that Ashford and Madigan made me aware of was the fact that profit from retail may no longer offset the costs. Gamers are generally not going to stores to buy physical editions, or at least stores aren’t anticipating that they will. This means that retailers are shrinking the spaces dedicated to actual games.
Ashford said, “I don’t necessarily think the actual cost increase is on the product itself. It’s more about the declining traffic to buy that product has increase the overall manufacturing. You lose the economies of scale… Back in the day, you would have rows upon rows of video games. Those sections within retailers have gone from rows to half-rows; from three four-foot sections to one section.”
Physical media: A luxury or a right?
While speaking with Ashford and Madigan, one of the things I wanted to know about was what players want, specifically. Limited Run Games is a good example of, if consumers really want something, someone will make it. Physical media is something gamers can own — and the conversation about what gamers “own” has become increasingly fraught as physical media vanishes.
In the absence of a tangible copy of a video game, publishers and console makers can revoke access to that game at any time. The PlayStation terms of service, for example, specify that games are licensed by the purchaser, not owned. Madigan noted that providing that physical copy was one of the backbones of LRG’s founding mandate.
Madigan noted, “From our perspective, everybody in the industry knew physical media was eventually going to go away, right? Was the Sony announcement shocking in terms of timing? It was probably earlier than we expected. But where we can play a role is to provide value to fans. There are certain things that we can do within our realm to provide that value and experience to fans of physical, regardless of what the first-parties do.”
Ashford added, “The fans themselves are ultimately going to be the deciders of what is and isn’t going to be acceptable from our side. There needs to be a collaboration between the publishing base and the first-parties and the fans. We’ve streamlined our business to move in the direction the demand requires, and we believe we’re in a very strong position to move to that next level once it’s been universally created and accepted.”